- Ethiopia wants to mine Bitcoin state-run and is looking for a partner.
- The project is part of a broader sovereignty agenda. Ethiopia wants to bundle strategic infrastructure more closely with the state.
Ethiopia’s government is signaling that it not only wants to tolerate Bitcoin mining, but also wants to operate it at the state level. Kal Kassa, founder of the Ethiopian education initiative BitcoinBirr, drew attention to this development on January 19th. In a shared video, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali says state-owned Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH) is looking for a partner to mine Bitcoin “directly on behalf of the country.”
Kassa wrote on
In the shared video, Abiy Ahmed Ali says: “Crypto mining with large companies is starting to work and is expected to prove highly profitable. Through Ethiopian Investment Holdings, a state-owned company, we are looking for experienced partners who can bring capital, technology and expertise in mining. Through this, Ethiopia aims to generate revenue directly for the country instead of relying solely on private companies.”
JUST IN:
Prime Minister of Ethiopia says they are looking for an investment partner to mine #Bitcoin
The race is on
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) January 19, 2026
Ethiopia has grown as a Bitcoin mining location in recent years, primarily due to cheap hydropower. A central building block is the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which, according to Reuters, was officially inaugurated in 2025 and has reached a capacity of 5,150 megawatts.
Global hashrate distribution estimates vary depending on the source. Hashrate Index puts Ethiopia’s share of the global Bitcoin hashrate at 2.58% or around 27.5 EH/s. This puts Ethiopia behind the USA (37.523% or 200 EH/s), Russia (16.417% or 175 EH/s), China (11.726% or 125 EH/s), Paraguay (4.034% or 43 EH/s), Oman (3.002% or 32 EH/s) and Canada (2.627% or 28 EH/s), but ahead of Kazakhstan (2.064% or 22 EH/s).
Bitcoin mining as part of a larger agenda
The EIH should not only handle mining. It is part of a larger plan to bundle key infrastructure more closely with the state. According to one Message by BirrMetrics on the “Finance Forward Ethiopia 2026” conference, the EIH is expected to accelerate the development of domestic banknote production capacity – a project that would reduce Ethiopia’s dependence on foreign printers.
In this context, Abiy said about the role of the holding company: “The institution will establish many central, previously unspoken strategic arms.” By 2030, the holding company is expected to cover around 20% of economic output. “If this goal is achieved, Ethiopia will have created a structure that can be passed on to the next generation,” Abiy said.
According to BirrMetrics, EIH manages around 40 state-owned companies and is also working on a gold refinery in addition to the Bitcoin mining project.
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