The parent firm of one of the biggest U.S. telecoms, T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, is a telecommunications powerhouse that may soon enter the Bitcoin mining market.

At the recent BTC Prague conference, Dirk Röder, Head of web3 infrastructure and solutions at T-Mobile’s Telekom MMS, declared, “We will engage in digital monetary photosynthesis soon.” In response to the conference host’s question on T-Mobile mining Bitcoin, he said, “We will.”

The statement coincides with a very turbulent period for the mining industry, including the bull market of 2021, the ensuing crypto winter, and the most recent halving that cut Bitcoin incentives in half.

Although Röder did not say where or how much his business will mine Bitcoin, the entry of a company of this size has the potential to have both positive and negative effects on the sector.

For many years, Deutsche Telekom has been a major player in the digital asset market. They have validators which have been operating on networks like Ethereum, Polygon, Q, Flow, Celo, and Chainlink. The world’s first public blockchain created just for the energy industry, Energy Web Chain was launched by the telecom behemoth last year with the goal of fostering a “more decentralised, digitalized, and decarbonised energy system.”

During the talk, Röder also mentioned that his company has been operating Lightning and Bitcoin nodes since 2023.

The fact that T-Mobile (TMUS), a company with a market capitalization of over $200 billion, is contributing to the safety of Bitcoin has improved the mood among Bitcoin miners. It also raises whether the entry of a major operator like this will make the incumbent miners, who already face more competition, more vulnerable.

T-Mobile’s Web3 journey has not been without controversy in the past. T-Mobile and its rival AT&T users were the targets of “SIM swapping” attacks, which led to multiple lawsuits against the companies.