Hut8 Mining operates as U.S.-domiciled entity following USBTC merger

By akohad Dec1,2023

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Crypto mining companies Hut 8 Mining Corp. and US Bitcoin Corp (USBTC) have combined operations in an all-stock merger of equals to form a new United States-domiciled entity named Hut 8 Corp (New Hut).

On Nov. 30, Canadian Bitcoin (BTC) mining facility Hut 8 Mining Corp announced an all-stock merger with USBTC, which has been dubbed as the “largest mergers and acquisitions transaction” in crypto by New Hut CEO Jaime Leverton. Before the merger, Leverton served as Hut 8 Mining CEO in Toronto for over three years.

The merger will result in the delisting of Hut 8 common stocks from the Toronto Stock Exchange and Nasdaq by or before Dec. 4, 2023. Instead, it will be replaced by New Hut common stocks under the ticker symbol “HUT.”

Amid the delisting and relisting process, Hut8 shareholders received 1 New Hut common stock for every Hut 8 share held. Asher Genoot, President of New Hut, revealed the company’s plan to ready itself for the upcoming Bitcoin halving. By combining resources, “New Hut has access to approximately 825 megawatts (MW) of gross energy across six sites with self-mining, hosting, and managed service operations,” the announcement read.

Hut8 received final clearance from the Supreme Court of British Columbia to complete a merger with USBTC in September 2023. However, the planning process for the merger commenced in February of 2023.

At the time, the merger was subject to court and regulatory approval by U.S. and Canadian authorities. Adding to the legal complexity, USBTC was undergoing “a legal dispute” with the City of Niagara Falls in New York against residents reportedly criticizing the mining operations for noise pollution.

Related: Bitcoin mining firm Phoenix Group delays share listing

While two major crypto miners joined hands to harness combined resources, X (formerly Twitter) and Block co-founder Jack Dorsey have taken steps to decentralize the Bitcoin mining operation.

Dorsey recently led a $6.2 million seed round for Mummolin, the parent company of the new decentralization Bitcoin mining pool called Ocean, which is designed to provide more mining process transparency and enable miners to receive block rewards directly from Bitcoin rather than from BTC mining pools.

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