UK comedian and TV host Jimmy Carr suggested the British state should consider mining bitcoin using electricity that would otherwise go unused overnight, framing the idea as part of a broader push for more âradicalâ thinking about public finances.
Will The UK Mine Bitcoin With Excess Energy?
Carr made the comments in a Dec. 11 TRIGGERnometry interview recorded on âthe day of the budget,â where he questioned why the UK has never created a sovereign wealth fund and argued that some revenue-generating assets should be treated as collectively owned.â
There are certain things that should belong to everyone,â he said, pointing to âthe oil and gas that sit under the UKâ and âthe wind farms around the coast.â Carr claimed that âall of that money goes to the Crown,â and asked why it shouldnât accrue more directly to the public.
He extended the argument to infrastructure such as âmobile phone masts,â while stressing he wasnât making a socialist case. âIâm not a socialist. Iâm not even for state capitalism,â Carr said, before arguing that some assets âshould belong to everyone.â
From there, Carr offered bitcoin mining as a concrete example of a non-tax revenue lever the government could explore. âI would not mind it if our government said, yeah, weâre going to mine for Bitcoins,â he said. âOur power stations, they donât do anything at night, so weâre going to mine for Bitcoins.â He added: âGreat. New gold standard. Fine.â
Jimmy Carr is the United Kingdomâs most popular comedian and celebrity. Carr says, âI would not mind it if our government mines for bitcoins. Our power stations donât do anything at night, so weâre going to mine for bitcoins. Great. New gold standard. Fine.â pic.twitter.com/GZRvQT8mua
â Documenting âżitcoin
(@DocumentingBTC) December 17, 2025
Carr did not propose a formal policy design, cite figures on spare capacity, or address governance questions around state-run mining. The point, as he presented it, was directional: use underutilized national infrastructure more aggressively and stop treating taxation as the default answer to funding pressures. âDo something radical, something interesting with the finances of the country,â Carr said. âWhy does it all have to come from taxation?â
While the remarks come from an entertainer rather than a policymaker, the framing is notable for how it positions bitcoin in a nation-state register: not only as a tradable asset, but as something a government could plausibly produce using excess energy capacity, then hold as an alternative form of reserve value.
Carrâs âmine with spare powerâ idea has real-world analogs: Bhutan has quietly built a state-linked bitcoin mining operation powered largely by hydropower, a model often described as a way to monetize seasonal surplus generation.
El Salvador has also leaned into the âexcess energyâ narrative. The country mined nearly 474 BTC over roughly three years using 1.5 MW of geothermal energy from a state-owned plant tied to the Tecapa volcano. And in places like Iceland, miners have long been drawn by plentiful renewable supply (and the economics of cheap, clean power), making it one of the most mining-dense jurisdictions globally.
At press time, BTC traded at $87,113.
