A Chinese crypto entrepreneur lost millions of dollars after nearly 200 cats took up residence on his mining farm and damaged equipment.
According to local media, stray cats appeared near a mining facility in Inner Mongolia in early October, seeking warmth from the miners. Within a few weeks, the number of animals had increased to 200, and Bitcoin- the farm has been turned into a «cat sanctuary».
Every time the animals slept on the equipment, the graphics cards’ performance dropped due to overheating. This led to a drop in hashrate and required costly repairs.
It’s sweet and touching, but these «beds» literally cost us millions of dollars, said one of the farm’s employees.
Luckily for the cats, the owner of the business turned out to be a kind person.
He bought over 200 heating mats and we were told to put them in a separate room for the cats,» one of the workers said.
Despite the damage, the cats have become an integral part of the facility.
Interestingly, the mining farm favored by the animals was operating illegally, as cryptocurrency mining has been banned in China since 2021. Yet Inner Mongolia was once the world’s center of Bitcoin mining. According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Mining Energy Consumption Index, it accounted for nearly 8% of the world’s hash power at the time.