Crypto’s Cryptic Texas Takeover

In Corpus Christi, as Sierra Club Coastal Bend volunteers and allies fight proposed plastics, ammonia, and lithium plants and a controversial desalination project, city leaders have quietly advanced two massive Bitcoin mines.

In the middle of a multiyear drought and dwindling reservoirs, Corpus’ council approved de-annexing 75 acres for the mines, granting a tax windfall to the company while staff downplayed impacts on city services and infrastructure.

Only one mine has ultimately been built, but it is designed for up to 300 megawatts of load (comparable to tens of thousands of homes) and relies on power-hungry cooling systems that can also drive up water use. Billing records obtained by the Texas Observer show the Corpus mine consumed more than 11.5 million gallons of city water from May to August 2025, with about 127,500 gallons a day in July alone.

Despite projections of significant annual public revenue, the mine’s owners have paid only a few thousand dollars in “payment in lieu of taxes” fees, and at least one council member who backed the deal now admits he did not realize it would qualify as a high-volume water user.

Read the full story by Candice Bernd in the Texas Observer.