This paper explores how bitcoin mining data centres are increasingly becoming sites of political struggle in Upstate New York. Amidst increasing financialization and environmental crisis, the proliferation of cryptocurrency infrastructure and operations has been met with both support and opposition in local communities. For some, bitcoin mining is seen as an avenue for regional economic development and revitalization in predominantly rural or suburban areas. For others, the industry’s high energy consumption and environmental impacts pose significant threats. Drawing on fieldwork that includes interviews and archival work, this paper tries to understand the role of cryptocurrency production in local and regional placemaking. Four case studies – Dresden, North Tonawanda, Plattsburgh, and Massena – shed light on how peripheral spaces in Upstate New York have been transformed by bitcoin mining. Labour, business, state, and community actors shape these emerging crypto-landscapes, but they offer competing approaches and visions for the future. Ultimately these perspectives demonstrate that crypto mining’s expansion is uneven and contested in an age of economic and ecological insecurity.