CleanSpark (CLSK) has announced its acquisition of GRIID Infrastructure (GRDI) in an all-stock transaction valued at $155 million, marking another significant move in the increasingly competitive bitcoin mining industry.
As part of the deal, CleanSpark will assume all of GRIID’s debt and obligations, and provide a $5 million bridge loan to help pay down approximately $50.9 million of debt. “This acquisition would give us a clear and steady path over the next three years to accomplish in Tennessee what we proudly achieved in Georgia over the past three years,” said CleanSpark CEO Zach Bradford. “That achievement was to build out over 400 MW of infrastructure backed by valuable, long-term power contracts.”
The market reacted sharply to the news, with GRIID’s shares plummeting over 50%, while CleanSpark’s shares rose nearly 4%, suggesting that traders view the deal as a distressed asset sale.
The announcement comes amid a wave of bitcoin mining mergers and acquisitions (M&A) following a recent halving event that has intensified competition in the sector. Notably, Riot Platforms (RIOT) and Bitfarms (BITF) are embroiled in a hostile takeover attempt, and Core Scientific (CORZ) is a potential acquisition target for a cloud computing company.
CleanSpark expects the acquisition to close in the third quarter of this year. By year-end, the company anticipates exceeding 100MW of capacity in Tennessee, with plans to expand to 200MW next year and surpass 400MW by 2026.
Additionally, CleanSpark and GRIID have entered into a hosting agreement that will allocate 20 megawatts (MW) of power capacity to CleanSpark.
Founded in 2018, GRIID went public on the Nasdaq earlier this year after several delays due to the harsh “crypto winter.” The company’s mining facilities are located in Watertown, New York; Limestone, Maynardville, and Lenoir City, Tennessee.
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