How Bitcoin Mining Helps Protect Virunga’s Newborn Gorilla Twins

In a rare occurrence, a wild mountain gorilla has given birth to twins in the Virunga National Park.

The remarkable birth of twins in the Bageni family of mountain gorillas occurred on January 3rd, increasing the family’s total to 59 gorillas, the largest in the park.

Twin births are actually pretty rare and believed to account for about 1% of all mountain gorilla births. The last time mountain gorilla twins were born in Virunga National Park was in September 2020.

Interestingly, the 22-year-old Mafuko, who gave birth to two baby sons this time, also gave birth to twins back in 2016, but both died within a week.

Mountain gorillas are actually an endangered species, successfully moving from “critically endangered” to ” endangered ” thanks to intensive conservation efforts, making them the only great ape with a growing population.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), they are found only in limited habitats across Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Situated in eastern DR Congo, Virunga is Africa’s oldest and largest national park. It was set up a century ago to protect the species, with only about 1,000 mountain gorillas left in the wild.

Now, to ensure the survival of the newly born gorillas, who in the early months are completely dependent on their mothers for care, the Virunga National Park authorities have put in additional measures in place.

The twins are extremely vulnerable in the dangerous environment of Virunga, as it is located in the conflict-prone part of DR Congo, where poachers as well as armed groups operate. Mafuko herself lost her mother to armed attackers when she was four years old.

The European Union and UNESCO have been funding efforts such as community programmes and anti-poaching patrols to help save endangered species, whose numbers have grown slowly over the past decade, with Virunga being home to more than one-third of their global population.

Africa’s Oldest Sanctuary in Need of Protection

Nestled in the Albertine Rift Valley, bordering Rwanda and Uganda, Virunga National Park was created in 1925 by royal decree from its then-colonizing nation, Belgium, as the first national park in Africa to protect wildlife and the environment from human encroachment.

It spans 7,800 sq km (3,000 sq miles) and comprises an astonishingly diverse landscape, ranging from active volcanoes and mountains to vast lakes and rainforests.

The Virunga massif, the result of tectonic extension of the East African Rift, comprises eight volcanoes, several of which are located completely or partially within the park.

Two of those volcanoes, Nyamuragira and Nyiragongo, are the most active ones in Africa.

This volcanic chain lies in the southern sector of the park, while the northern side involves part of the Rwenzori Mountains, which contain Africa’s largest remaining glacial area.

Its wide diversity of habitats produces exceptional biodiversity. Besides mountain gorillas, the park is also home to chimpanzees, eastern lowland gorillas, hippos, lions, okapi, elephants, monkeys, reptiles, amphibians, and numerous bird species.

Owing to its exceptional biodiversity and diverse habitats, the Virunga National Park was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

The designation has played a crucial role in protecting endangered species like the mountain gorilla, which are constantly threatened by rebel groups that use the park’s massive wilderness to hide and sustain themselves. Moreover, the park is a point of interest for the oil under its forests.

While plans to drill for oil have existed for many years, in 2021, DRC’s president, Felix Tshisekedi, struck an agreement with former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson at COP26 to prevent those plans and protect the park. But the very next year, the government auctioned oil exploration blocks inside the park to improve the country’s economic situation.

The oil licensing effort, however, was cancelled due to a lack of buyers before being relaunched. Last year, the DRC opened a new round of oil exploration blocks under revised terms that excluded Virunga itself, although concerns remain over overlap with other important ecosystems.

For now, the park has no active oil drilling, and environmental groups continue to monitor and challenge attempts to open it for fossil fuel extraction.

As for its management, Virunga is under the authority of the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN), which works in partnership with the Virunga Foundation to protect the park. The UK-registered charity was founded in 2005 to support the conservation of the park and its surrounding communities.

Moreover, the Foundation has built three hydroelectric power stations, with a fourth currently under construction, to provide clean energy to people and foster economic growth. They also create jobs and offer a sustainable alternative to harmful activities while generating revenue to fund the park’s conservation efforts and protect endangered wildlife.

A prominent source of funding for Virunga National Park, however, has been tourism. It has been a major tourist attraction in the region, especially due to its population of endangered mountain gorillas.

Historically, tourism accounted for a significant share of the park’s income, but was severely affected by first Ebola, then COVID-19, along with a series of kidnappings. With tourism largely suspended due to regional instability, Virunga National Park has turned to Bitcoin (BTC +0.21%) mining to protect wildlife, maintain infrastructure, and keep rangers on the ground.

Bitcoin as a New Economic Primitive

Seventeen years ago, at the height of the global financial crisis, Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, offering a decentralized alternative to centralized legacy systems.

With trust in banks and financial institutions collapsing, Bitcoin emerged as a form of money that works without intermediaries.

In January 2009, the Bitcoin network went live with the mining of the “genesis block.” For years, BTC had little value, but as it gained traction among the broader public, who recognized its potential as a censorship-resistant form of money, Bitcoin evolved from a fringe asset to a mainstream investment vehicle.

Today, Bitcoin has grown into a global financial network securing trillions of dollars in value.

As of writing, Bitcoin’s ~$1.8 trillion market cap puts its price at ~$90,000 per coin, approximately 29% off its all-time high (ATH) of ~$127,000 hit in October 2025.

This increase in Bitcoin’s value is driven by the key features that set it apart from traditional money. For starters, no single entity controls Bitcoin; it runs on a global network of computers that independently verify transactions, making it resilient to censorship, corruption, and shutdown.

Then there’s Bitcoin’s scarcity. Unlike fiat currencies, which can be printed at the central bank’s will, Bitcoin has a fixed supply of 21 million coins.

Furthermore, Bitcoin is open, secure, and borderless. It allows anyone, anywhere in the world, to move value without relying on banks, payment processors, or borders, in minutes, regardless of the time of day or day of the month.

Being permissionless, anyone with an internet connection can participate in the network, making it powerful for those who are unbanked, underbanked, or living under unstable political or economic systems.

For instance, in countries like Venezuela or Argentina, which are dealing with high inflation or currency collapse, Bitcoin is being used to store value and preserve wealth.

Meanwhile, in regions with limited access to banking, Bitcoin is enabling financial inclusion.

But that’s not all. Some nations, like El Salvador, have gone even further. This Central American country has made Bitcoin legal tender and is utilizing geothermal energy harnessed from its volcanoes to mine Bitcoin.

So far, El Salvador has accumulated 7,474 BTC through mining and direct market purchases, despite the IMF’s opposition. Recently, the IMF praised the nation’s stronger-than-expected economic growth, with real GDP growth projected at around 4%.

Elsewhere, entrepreneurs and communities are using Bitcoin to power local economies, energy projects, and digital services.

For instance, Crusoe Energy Systems has deployed mobile mining units directly at oil wells to use otherwise wasted natural gas to power Bitcoin mining, turning waste into revenue and reducing emissions. In Kenya and Malawi, Bitcoin miners are partnering with rural mini-grids powered by small hydro or solar generation that aren’t connected to national grids, monetizing excess power and helping subsidize access to electricity.

Then there is Virunga National Park, which has been using Bitcoin to create a new revenue stream to fund its operations, support conservation efforts, reinvest in renewable energy infrastructure, and provide economic opportunities to local communities.

The park also accepts crypto donations through the Giving Block, a charity that automatically converts crypto gifts to dollars upon receipt. Thanks to Giving Block’s technology, Virunga is able to accept close to 100 cryptocurrencies as donations, with transactions processed securely and compliantly.

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Conservation Funded by Computation

The world’s second-largest tropical rainforest, home to half of Africa’s terrestrial animals, first ventured into Bitcoin several years ago, when the industry lacked proper infrastructure and regulations.

Back in 2019, while exploring alternative income sources because of declining tourism and funding, park director Emmanuel de Merode and conservation partners came upon Bitcoin mining powered by excess hydroelectric energy.

In a report for MIT Technology Review, de Merode noted that the collapse of tourism led to a 40% decline in park revenue. And with the Congolese government contributing a mere 1% of the budget the park needed, they had to find a solution.

Utilizing Virunga’s river-run hydro plant, de Merode and his teammates decided to power $200K worth of BTC mining machines. The idea has been to earn some profits to make up the shortfall in revenue and have a viable way to utilize its hydropower resources that benefits both the park and its local population.

They used surplus hydroelectric energy from the Matebe, Mutwanga, and Luviro plants to mine Bitcoin. Equipment was deployed near the park, particularly at Luviro, to harness clean, renewable energy for the mining operation.

Mining rigs were deployed at Luviro with the help of crypto investor Sébastien Gouspillou, whose company, Big Block Green Services, also advised El Salvador on its Bitcoin City and a hydro-powered bitcoin mining project in the Central African Republic.

“People say it’s bad for the environment, but here it’s clean energy. It’s a formula that could be replicated.”

– Gouspillou said at the time

In September 2020, Virunga officially started mining, becoming the world’s first Bitcoin mine operated by a national park.

2021 marked the first full year of operations, which coincided with the crypto bull run, during which the BTC price went as high as $69,000. As a result, the park’s mining unit generated up to $150,000 per month, nearly matching past tourism revenues.

“We were lucky — for once,” said the park director. Bitcoin mining generated an estimated $500,000 for the national park in 2021.

But what about the bear market? Can Bitcoin mining help it sustain revenue when prices are down? In MIT’s 2023 report, which followed the 2022 bear market during which BTC’s price fell by over 76%, de Merode said that even if BTC dropped to 1% of its value, their containers would remain profitable.

It’s “an incredibly good investment for the park,” de Merode added. “We’re not speculating on its value; we’re generating it. We’re making Bitcoin out of surplus energy and monetizing something that otherwise has no value. That’s a big difference.”

Virunga has a total of 10 containers, each one holding 250 to 500 mining rigs, which are directly powered by the hydro plant’s turbines.

Besides Bitcoin mining, Virunga also cashed in on NFTs, partnering with CyberKongz to auction off gorilla NFTs at Christie’s. It raised about $1.2 million, which helped pay for two of the three containers owned by the park.

The remaining containers are owned by the mining partner, Gouspillou, who pays Virunga for the electricity used but keeps the mined Bitcoin.

“Before Virunga, we were mining. With Virunga, we implemented mining that was socially useful,” Gouspillou told Bitcoin Magazine last year.

In 2023, Gouspillou and his team extended the initiative beyond mining profits. They used the heat generated by mining to dry fruits and cocoa beans, which created more economic activity and jobs in the region.

Today, Bitcoin mining remains the park’s core revenue stream, helping it generate significant income by selling the BTC it mines in its own containers. The revenue is used to fund ranger salaries, maintain operations, and improve infrastructure, such as roads and water pumps.

“Bitcoin mining operation is not just about generating revenue; it’s about providing hope and stability in a region that desperately needs it,” noted Gouspillou in a report. Besides saving the Virunga National Park, “it brings economic and social benefits to the local population,” while highlighting the challenges of implementing high-tech solutions in regions fraught with political and economic instability, he added.

Click here to learn how biotech advances are helping conservation efforts.

Investing in Sustainable Bitcoin Mining

In the world of Bitcoin mining, CleanSpark  (CLSK +0.39%) stands out for its use of renewable, energy-efficient infrastructure to mine cryptocurrency. By focusing on leveraging underused power, CleanSpark shows how Bitcoin mining can integrate with energy systems rather than compete with them.

The company owns a portfolio of over 1.4 GW of power, land, and data centers across the US, which is powered by competitive energy prices.

Last year, the company moved beyond BTC mining and expanded strategically into the AI data centre market as global demand for AI continues to grow rapidly. In this regard, CleanSpark has already secured access to over 1.3 GW of power capacity and has partnered with Submer to accelerate deployment.

With this transition from a pure-play Bitcoin miner to operating an advanced AI data centre infrastructure, the company aims to diversify its revenue streams and strengthen cash flow.

“CleanSpark is at a critical moment in its journey.”

– Jeffrey Thomas, the newly appointed Senior Vice President (SVP) of AI Data Centers at CleanSpark

The goal, he noted, is to position “CleanSpark at the centre of the AI and intelligent computing revolution.”

With a market cap of $3 billion, CleanSpark shares are currently trading at $11.82, up 18.24% in the past year. It has an EPS (TTM) of 1.10 and a P/E (TTM) of 10.80.

In December, the company reported over 10% YoY growth in Bitcoin production, generating 622 BTC. With that, CleanSpark had a total of 13,099 BTC at the end of last year. Its operational hashrate during this period was 50 EH/s.

“Our operational strength and active monetization strategies are creating a durable foundation as we advance AI infrastructure plans in Georgia, Texas, and beyond. We are making strong progress with potential tenants and will continue pursuing strategic energy opportunities to support long-term portfolio growth.”

– CEO Matt Schultz

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Bitcoin Mining as a Tool for Conservation

Born out of a financial crisis, Bitcoin started as a fringe asset, primarily used for speculation. But today, its real-world usage and adoption extend far beyond just finance. It is actually being utilized to preserve purchasing power, growing wealth, move value seamlessly across borders, and even monetize stranded renewable energy, quietly reshaping how value is created, shared, and sustained.

Virunga National Park further shows Bitcoin’s utility as a tool for economic resilience, sustainability, and social good!

Click here to learn how drones & AI are rewriting wildlife survival & management.