Bitcoin mining firm Iris Energy files to go public via direct listing on Nasdaq
Australia-headquartered bitcoin mining firm Iris Energy has submitted a draft proposal in the U.S. seeking a direct listing on Nasdaq.
The firm said in an announcement on Wednesday that it has submitted a confidential draft F-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and expects the direct listing to happen in Q4 2021.
The plan comes amid recent reports from Bloomberg that Iris Energy had weighed on a SPAC deal to go public but shifted away from that plan and was seeking to raise as much as $200 million before filing for a direct listing.
Per Iris Energy's website, it has an operational mining capacity of 9 megawatts (MW) in British Columbia, Canada, with an ongoing plan to scale it to 30 MW this year. Iris Energy raised $50 million in May to finance its equipment expansion.
It also joins a list of private bitcoin mining firms that are seeking to go public in the U.S.
The parent entity of New York-based bitcoin miner Greenidge has previously filed for a merger deal with Nasdaq-listed Support.com. At the time, Greenidge said it had allocated 19 MW out of its proprietary 106 MW capacity for bitcoin mining.
Texas-based Core Scientific, which operates self-mining business and hosting services, has also entered a deal last month to be acquired by Nasdaq-listed Power & Digital Infrastructure Acquisition Corp.
Pennsylvania-based Stronghold Digital Mining, on the other hand, filed for an initial public offering last month seeking to raise $100 million to expand its mining fleet. The firm has recently acquired a second power plant to double its capacity to up to 165 MW.
