Bitcoin mining entrepreneur pitches 450-foot, $450 million Prometheus statue for Alcatraz Island
Quick Take
- Ross Calvin, CEO of Bitcoin mining firm Parhelion, is looking to build a 450-foot tall statue of Prometheus on San Francisco’s Alcatraz Island, and will soon present a pitch to President Trump, according to a Bloomberg report.
- The statue would dwarf the Statue of Liberty, and would be made of a nickel-bronze alloy.
A Bitcoin mining entrepreneur plans to pitch the President of the United States on a massive 450-foot tall statue of Prometheus, a project that could cost $450 million, as first reported by Bloomberg.
Ross Calvin, head of Bitcoin mining firm Parhelion, is working to build the statue on San Francisco's Alcatraz Island, the site of the infamous prison that was decommissioned in 1963. Currently a national park, the site would have to be re-classified as a national monument by President Trump in order for the statue to be built.
The statue, which would be made from a nickel-bronze alloy, would dwarf the Statue of Liberty, which stands 305 feet tall, compared to the proposed Prometheus' 450 feet. The statue would be more than half as tall as the tallest points of the Golden Gate Bridge, which stand 746 feet above the water.
Calvin is leading the project through his American Colossus nonprofit, which calls the proposed statue "a lightning rod for the noble destiny of the West" and "America's monument to beauty, heroism, ingenuity, and manifest destiny." Calvin told Bloomberg the nonprofit is aiming to submit a detailed pitch, with renderings of the monument and plans for an on-site museum, to President Trump by the end of January.
Calvin launched a Prometheus memecoin through launchpad Believe in mid-July 2025, though the token failed to gain traction, with a current market capitalization of only around $12,000. The American Colossus website explains, "We casually experimented with a digital token on BelieveApp ... We had no expectations for it and quickly moved on."
Alt-right philosopher Jason Jorjani once announced his involvement in the project, but is currently no longer listed as a team member on the nonprofit's website.
Calvin's Parhelion, based in Denver, boasts 25 MW of compute capacity operating in Kurdish Iraq, according to the mining firm's website, with additional compute capacity currently under development in Syria, Egypt, Libya, and Algeria. Calvin began mining Bitcoin in 2013, according to the website.
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