Tether used the Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano to announce that 15 Bitcoin mining companies, ASIC manufacturers, and mining pools have committed to building and maintaining integrations with its open-source Mining Development Kit, version 0.11. The coalition includes BITMAIN, Bitdeer, Canaan, MicroBT, Foundry Digital, F2Pool, Luxor Technology, OCEAN, SpiderPool, EMCD, ACME Swisstech, Elektron Energy, Heatbit, Proto (Block, Inc.), and Stratum V2.
The MDK framework, first introduced in April, is designed to create a common interface for Bitcoin mining hardware, software, pools, and energy systems. Each participating company will build an MDK Worker, a translation layer that exposes selected functions from its own systems to applications built on the kit. Tether says companies do not have to replace existing technology or surrender control; they simply connect through a shared open interface.
CEO Paolo Ardoino said software will increasingly operate physical infrastructure, and that 'that does not work at scale if every machine speaks a different language.' Tether's QVAC mining agent is already operating directly on MDK, serving as the first reference application. The company expects the interface to support AI agents that monitor equipment, identify faults, and adjust mining operations.
Despite the broad list, Tether did not disclose deployment figures, hashrate represented by participating pools, cost savings, or performance comparisons. The announcement describes the 15 commitments as an early step and notes that a stable 1.0 release is targeted before the end of 2026, while the current version remains pre-1.0 software. Major mining pools including AntPool, ViaBTC, and Braiins are absent, and the centralization question remains: whether the standard remains neutral or becomes closely tied to Tether's own mining stack.
Background includes Tether's earlier $610 million debt financing to Northern Data and its attempted Latin American mining expansion, including a Uruguay energy dispute. Tether has also participated in Tenstorrent's $1.5 billion funding round at a $6.2 billion valuation, underscoring its broader AI infrastructure ambitions.
