Small Texas Community Takes On Crypto Giant, Loses Bid for Peace

Danny Lakey and his neighbors didn’t know what that sound was when they first heard it in 2023. It was insistent, a droning sound in the distance, louder than a soft whir, but constant and unchanging. It didn’t take long to discover that the sound was coming from the newest site of industrialization in rural Hood County, southwest of Fort Worth, and now, Lakey and a grassroots team of residents who settled far from a city center for a quieter way of life, are feuding with a multi-billion-dollar cryptomining company that just won’t quiet down. 

Lakey and his neighbors have exhausted almost every resource to silence, or at least quiet, the mining facility, and their most creative effort just failed in Tuesday’s election. 

The noise generated by the cryptocurrency mining facility in the unincorporated community is the result of the hundreds of fans required to cool the supersized computer systems that operate day and night. By state law, any noise exceeding 85 decibels is considered a public nuisance.

Lakey regularly measures the noise from the mining facility between 65 and 85 decibels. Despite a dozen noise violations issued to the plant manager in 2024, which were all dismissed by a jury in July of the same year, counties do not have the authority to impose noise regulations. This means that those outside the Granbury city limits have limited options to restore the peace to their once-sleepy homes. 

So, the residents, led by Cheryl Shadden, whom Lakey heralds as the powerful leader of the effort, decided to form their own municipality, an official town named after the largest road running through the area, Mitchell Bend Court. However, voters must approve this measure, and after a contentious legal battle to even get it on the ballot, it ultimately failed to pass in Tuesday’s election. 

“We tried,” Shadden said in a text to the Observer. “It was hard for a community group to fight big oil and gas and the crypto mine… Even if we couldn’t help the community here, hopefully the rest of Hood County can be helped by our loss.”

Of the 138 total voters, 62% voted against incorporation. Shadden credits a large-scale mail campaign against the incorporation that alleged higher taxes if the new city were formed.

“Texas gives Municipalities the ability to do a lot of things; however, you don’t have to. Those statutes are voted on in an incorporated area by the voters,” she said. “You don’t have to add additional property taxes, you don’t have to pay for additional services like EMS and police, the county continues to provide that. The community here believes what [they] said.”

In the meantime, another power plant, the fifth such operation, is proposed for Hood County. The plant will generate energy for an incoming data center, which will require additional fans, increasing noise production and overall pollution in the area.

“We will not stop fighting for this community,” Shadden said in a press release. “We have witnessed how far the crypto industry will go to protect their own pocketbooks, no matter the harm to local communities. As disappointed as we are, Texans will need to keep organizing if we want to defend ourselves.”

City of Mitchell Bend: Less Than 500, Plus a Crypto Mine

The city of Mitchell Bend would have had one stoplight and a few regulations, aside from noise ordinances. 

“The only thing I can guarantee you is that we are planning on having noise regulations,” Lakey said before the vote on Tuesday. “But please find me a city in the state of Texas that does not have noise regulations. The problem is that they know that the noise regulations we’re going to put in are going to be devastating for them.”

The people of Hood County didn’t want to incorporate; it was their last option. They met with representatives of MARA Holdings, the tech giant that owns the crypto mine in question, and they waited for the promised noise mitigation attempts. MARA Holdings built a barrier and changed the hardware they use, but the constant whirring still creates great displeasure for the residents, who never expected their neighbors to be supercomputers. 

After the noise citations were dismissed, an effort to get incorporation on the ballot began via petition. They got enough signatures, and the measure was added. However, a letter addressed directly to Hood County Judge Ron Massingill, requesting that he vacate the measure, was then sent, and he did.

“[MARA Holdings has] absolutely no standing in the state of Texas,” said Lakey. “No business does when it comes to incorporation… The judge had no reason to vacate it… Even if he thinks it’s a terrible idea, he does not get a say. He only gets to sign it. It’s his duty to do it. It’s his pleasure.”

The community petitioned again, this time securing even more signatures, so it went back on the ballot. A week before the election, MARA Holdings requested a temporary restraining order to prevent the incorporation election, but a federal judge denied their request, citing a lack of proof of “substantial threat of irreparable harm.”

Lakey, Shadden and a handful of other supporters camped outside the polling place on a rotational schedule, urging county residents to vote in favor of incorporation. However, in the end, the multi-billion-dollar organizations behind the facilities ultimately prevailed in a long war. 

Life Unincorporated

The massive power plants and industrial complexes in the community are a new wave of boom, but without a significant number of jobs and direct economic impact. Requiring little maintenance and supervision, the facilities can produce anywhere from 30 to 100 jobs; however, some, such as massive battery energy storage systems, create no jobs and can occupy hundreds of acres. Still, Lakey and the conservative community in which he lives are not opposed to capitalistic endeavors. 

“I am pro-business, and most everybody here is very pro-business, with a focus on protection,” said Lakey. “But there comes a point where your right to business does not exceed my right to a peaceful life.”

Outside of general inconvenience, the noise produced also leaves nearby residents susceptible to health concerns, particularly cardiovascular diseases triggered by natural stress responses. Hood County has failed ozone emissions testing for the last three consecutive years. Lakey knows there are solutions. The cryptomining facility could be enclosed, rather than an open-air facility. They could change hardware systems again or downsize. 

“It’s not that they can’t [reduce their noise], it’s that they don’t want to do it,” he said. “That’s what it boils down to. They want to pollute our area as much as they can, as long as they can, and they want to take advantage of us and steal our health and our resources. That’s all they care about.” 

Hood County residents will have to return to the drawing board and find new, creative ways to combat industry. 

“If we win, then we will finally have the law on our side, because everywhere we’ve turned, the law has not been in our favor,” said Lakey. “I don’t blame anybody for that. That’s just how the laws are. When all these laws were written, I don’t think anyone ever thought that there would be an industry that could operate at 70 to 80 decibels, 24 hours a day. Now that they can, we need to make some alterations in the laws.”