Crypto company hopes to break ground for Clinton operations in spring

By Randy Bell

Robert Whitaker, Makerstar Capital

The CEO of a cryptocurrency mining company which plans to locate two facilities in the Clinton Industrial Park says recent publicity surrounding the bankruptcy of FTX Trading Ltd. has been a temporary setback for the crypto industry. But Robert Whitaker says his company, Makerstar Capital, Inc., is moving ahead with its expansion after Clinton’s Board of Aldermen approved the Clinton sites January 3.

Whitaker told the Board that FTX was a crypto exchange, while Makerstar is involved in a different aspect of the industry—using an enormous amount of computer power to solve extremely complex mathematical problems related to encrypted Bitcoin transactions.

He admits that the collapse of FTX, the third-largest crypto exchange by volume, created a “scared market,” driving down the price of Bitcoin, which cut into his company’s profit margin. But Whitaker says it hasn’t taken long for the price to recover.

“We’re not too concerned about FTX and what happened over there. Every nascent industry has its beginning problems. Crypto is only about ten, eleven, twelve years old, so we’re getting there. We have these problems, and we’re working our way out. And I think you’ll see a much cleaner and much more prosperous crypto market in ’23 and ’24.”

Makerstar, which runs crypto mining operations in Vicksburg and Wiggins, is currently focusing on getting its Meridian facility up and running. As for the Clinton sites: “We’ll start some small improvements to the property now,” Whitaker says. “We hope around March to be breaking ground and getting started.”

The company will hire a small work force in Clinton.

“We won’t need any local folks other than construction help until around April or May. I’m expecting for each site to have about seven people.”

And they don’t have to be computer experts.

“You don’t actually need that kind of skill to get in here,” Whitaker says. “If you can check your email and monitor a computer for basic things going on in front of you, that’s good.”