"First-Generation Miner" Vavilov Says "Now Is an Opportunity to Buy Bitcoin"

Did Not Reveal Exact Purchase Amount
"One Component of Our Portfolio"

Valery Vavilov, founder and chairman of Bitfury and a pioneer in the Bitcoin mining business, has drawn attention by claiming that it is "once again an opportunity to buy Bitcoin."

On February 11 (local time), Vavilov stated this via a message on his social networking service (SNS) messenger WhatsApp, saying, "For us, a decline in Bitcoin is an opportunity to rebalance our portfolio."

He added that it is "a chance to buy a certain amount of Bitcoin at a low price." However, Vavilov did not disclose exactly how much Bitcoin he had purchased.

Bitcoin. Yonhap News

Vavilov, an entrepreneur from Latvia, entered the cryptocurrency market in 2011. In particular, by directly designing computing equipment for Bitcoin mining, he grew Bitfury into one of the largest mining companies in the industry.

However, in recent years he has shifted the company’s business focus from cryptocurrency mining to artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. As the cryptocurrency market has entered a downturn, some mining companies have been attempting to pivot their business to data center construction and operation. U.S.-based CoreWeave, Australia’s Iris Energy, and the U.K.’s Enscale are representative examples.

Meanwhile, the virtual asset market has repeatedly plunged since the second half of last year, falling to nearly 50% below its all-time high in October last year. The price of Bitcoin has dropped about 47%, from around 126,000 dollars in October last year to 66,000 dollars as of 6 a.m. on February 13.

Valery Vavilov, founder and chairman of Bitfury. Bitfury

Vavilov said, "We believe in Bitcoin and its growth potential," but also stressed, "We hold Bitcoin as part of ourselves, yet Bitcoin is only one component of our investment portfolio." He added that Bitfury has long been pursuing business diversification into other fields such as AI.

Thanks to this diversification strategy, Bitfury has been able to minimize damage even during the downturn. According to U.S. financial media outlet Bloomberg, Vavilov’s wealth is estimated at 1.1 billion dollars (about 1.6 trillion won).