NYDIG in Talks to Acquire Alcoa's Idle Smelter in New York State

Alcoa, the largest aluminum producer in the United States, is in negotiations to sell its idle Massena East smelting facility in New York State to crypto mining firm New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), according to Bloomberg.

Alcoa CEO Bill Oplinger indicated the transaction for the riverside plant on the St. Lawrence River is expected to close by mid-year. The facility previously received hydroelectric power from the New York Power Authority.

Why This Matters

The potential acquisition underscores a broader trend sweeping across the U.S. energy landscape: decommissioned industrial sites with access to cheap electricity are becoming prime targets for crypto miners, AI operators, and cloud computing providers. Demand for such facilities has surged as these sectors require massive amounts of power.

Alcoa shut down the Massena East plant in 2014 due to unprofitability. The company is now attempting to capitalize on the booming demand for energy infrastructure by putting 10 former industrial sites up for sale across the country. While the domestic aluminum industry stagnates, data center operators and miners are aggressively competing for legacy power assets.

A Growing Trend in Industrial Repurposing

NYDIG is not the first mining company to target a former smelter. In February 2026, Century Aluminum sold its metallurgical plant in Hawesville, Kentucky, to TeraWulf for $200 million plus a 6.8% minority stake.

NYDIG's Bitcoin-First Strategy

For NYDIG, the Massena East deal would represent the latest move in an aggressive infrastructure expansion focused squarely on Bitcoin mining. Unlike many competitors pivoting toward high-performance computing (HPC) workloads, NYDIG has remained committed to cryptocurrency mining.

The company has completed a string of significant acquisitions over the past 18 months:

• October 2024 — Acquired a strategic stake in Coinmint, a colocation and equipment management provider with 435 MW of capacity.
• December 2024 — Purchased 120 MW of mining capacity from Consensus Technology Group across North Dakota, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Missouri.
• March 2025 — Signed a definitive agreement to acquire Crusoe Energy's mining business, adding 270 MW.

Combined, these deals have given NYDIG access to over 825 MW of capacity. The Massena East facility, with its hydroelectric power connection, could significantly bolster the company's portfolio.

Broader Mining Market Context

The negotiations come amid a period of record Bitcoin sell-offs by publicly traded miners, who offloaded 32,000 BTC in Q1 2026. The mining industry is undergoing a structural shift, with some players reorienting toward servicing AI demands. NYDIG, however, is making a deliberate bet on traditional Bitcoin mining, backing it with an aggressive push to expand its physical infrastructure footprint across the United States.