Key Takeaways:
- Canaan secured a follow-on order from Tether for custom hash board modules deploying to South America in 2026.
- The modular system, co-designed with ACME Swisstech, cuts operational complexity and boosts compute density for large-scale immersion-cooled mining.
- Tether holds an option to purchase additional module volume, signaling potential multi-phase expansion of the partnership.
Canaan Targets Big Miners With Avalon Modules in Tether Deal
The agreement builds on a proof-of-concept R&D project completed in 2025, in which Canaan (Nasdaq: CAN) and Tether worked alongside ACME Swisstech, a Swiss-based firm focused on industrial mining system design. That earlier collaboration produced the modular architecture now moving into production.
Under the 2025 framework, Canaan developed the hash board modules and supported Tether in building custom control boards and mining management systems. Together, those components form self-contained mining units with direct system-level integration.
The modular design separates the compute layer from the power supply and enclosure components. That split reduces infrastructure complexity, enables dynamic hash rate control, and supports optimized thermal management in immersion-cooled environments.
Canaan CEO Nangeng Zhang said demand is shifting toward hardware built for direct integration into customer-designed systems. “Leveraging our strong ASIC design expertise and flexible development platform, we are delivering customized hash board solutions that enable partners to optimize system architecture at the component level,” Zhang said. He added that the Avalon hash board enables on-demand deployment while cutting operational complexity, particularly in immersion cooling setups.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino pointed to the limits of traditional mining infrastructure. “Most mining infrastructure is still built as sealed, fixed units, which makes it expensive to scale and inefficient to run,” Ardoino said. Tether‘s approach, he explained, centers on modular compute that can be tuned, upgraded, and cooled independently so the company can control cost and performance at scale.
ACME Swisstech President Giv Zanganeh said the three-way collaboration allowed the team to take a holistic, industrial co-design approach aimed at large-scale operations, diverging from the plug-and-play, retail-oriented products common in today’s market.
The Modules are built around Canaan’s advanced ASIC chips and form part of the company’s next-generation modular mining and compute hardware platform. Canaan positions the platform for flexible integration into partner-designed systems, with immersion-cooled deployments as a primary use case.
The deal also includes an option for Tether to purchase additional module volume in future phases, which could support expanded deployments as operations scale.
Canaan has been listed on the Nasdaq Global Market since its IPO in 2019. The company traces its history in ASIC mining hardware back to 2013, when its founding team shipped the first batch of machines under the Avalon brand.
Tether is best known as the issuer of USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin by market capitalization. The company has extended its operations into bitcoin mining infrastructure in recent years, including open-source mining software development.
The Canaan-Tether collaboration reflects growing operator demand for component-level control over mining infrastructure, a shift away from standardized, fixed hardware toward systems built around high-performance compute building blocks.