NYDIG is angling to buy the land beneath a shuttered aluminum smelter in Massena, New York — a move that would deepen its foothold in Bitcoin mining infrastructure.
The firm already has “skin in the game” at the site as a stakeholder in Coinmint, which operates mining rigs at the former Alcoa Massena East facility under a long-term lease. Now, according to Alcoa CEO Bill Oplinger speaking to Bloomberg, NYDIG and Alcoa are “deep in talks,” and a deal could close around the middle of 2026. Financial terms have not been disclosed.
Why the interest? Old smelters like Massena are turnkey power hubs. Built for relentless, heavy industrial loads, they come with substations, transmission lines and grid connections that typically take years — and millions — for data centers or crypto miners to establish from scratch. Massena also benefits from hydropower supplied by the New York Power Authority, which can lower energy costs and reduce the carbon intensity of whatever operation moves in next.
The Massena story fits a broader trend: decommissioned industrial sites are being repurposed by data and crypto firms that need large, reliable power footprints quickly. Earlier this year, Century Aluminum sold its Hawesville, Kentucky smelter to TeraWulf for $200 million; TeraWulf plans to convert the site into a high-performance computing and AI campus, and its shares have jumped roughly 80% year-to-date, per Yahoo Finance.
Strategic bets are diverging across the sector. Many miners are pivoting toward AI and cloud services to diversify income as mining margins compress, but NYDIG is doubling down on Bitcoin. Last year the Stone Ridge–owned firm bought Crusoe Energy’s Bitcoin mining operations, including its natural-gas flare mitigation business, signaling a continued commitment to scaling mining operations that pair profitability with emissions-reducing approaches.
Other industry moves underscore the bifurcation: MARA Holdings purchased a 64% stake in French infrastructure provider Exaion to enter AI services, while Hive, Hut 8, TeraWulf and Iren have been converting mining properties into data centers. NYDIG’s effort to acquire the Massena land, if completed, would be another example of miners betting that repurposed heavy-industry real estate offers a faster, cheaper path to large-scale, low-carbon power for digital infrastructure.
If the deal goes through, it will be a clear bellwether of how legacy industrial footprints are being transformed into the backbone for next-generation computing and Bitcoin mining.
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