Bitcoin Mining Start-Up To Make Nasdaq Debut

Bitcoin mining and infrastructure start-up Prime Blockchain is to make its debut on the Nasdaq in a merger with a so-called blank-cheque firm later this year, the company has said.

The merger with 10X Capital Venture Acquisition, a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), would value Prime Blockchain at $1.25 billion (£950m) including debt, according to the companies.

Prime, which does business as PrimeBlock and operates both data centres and crypto mining operations in North America, secured $300m in equity financing for the deal from an affiliate of Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.

Crypto mining

The merger is expected to be concluded by the second half of this year, with current Prime Block chief executive Gaurav Budhrani, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker, remaining in is current role.

“We believe the transaction will provide tremendous momentum for our next phase of growth,” Budhrani said in a statement.

The United States has seen increased Bitcoin mining activity since China launched a crackdown on the industry last year.

A study last year found that the US, Kazakhstan and Russia topped the list of Bitcoin-mining countries.

A more recent analysis estimated that the share of renewable energies used by cryptocurrency miners had also fallen, as Chinese hydropower was replaced by coal and natural gas.

SPAC mergers

Mergers with blank-cheque firms have become a popular way for companies to carry out a stock-market listing, as they are perceived as bypassing regulatory red tape.

But the use of SPACs has slowed recently following a regulatory crackdown, which was in turn spurred by concerns that investors were being misled.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission recently proposed a draft rule that would require SPACs to disclose more details about their sponsors, compensation, conflicts of interest and share dilution to restrain them from issuing overly optimistic earnings projections.