Bitcoin miner CleanSpark announces second acquisition in a month

Bitcoin miner CleanSpark is buying a facility in Georgia from competitor Mawson Infrastructure Group, its second site acquisition in the span of a month.

The company will pay up to $33 million for the facility, and an additional $9.5 million for 6,468 ASIC miners, it said on Friday.

“The site is nothing but impressive,” said CleanSpark CEO Zachary Bradford. “We are enthusiastic about Georgia and believe that our expansion there will continue to build value for our shareholders and the communities we operate in throughout Georgia.”

Based in Australia, Mawson is a Nasdaq-listed company with other facilities in the U.S. and Australia. Nasdaq has threatened to delist the company for trading under $1, according to a recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 8-K filing.

“Per the 8-K, if we trade above $1 for 10 days the issue is cured, or we can simply do a reverse split to cure, so we’re not worried about that,” said Nick Hughes-Jones, chief commercial officer at Mawson. He added that the transaction with CleanSpark is a “win-win for both parties.”

“We now intend to focus our attention on the continued development of our Pennsylvania and Texas facilities where we see the opportunity for compelling returns on capital,” Mawson CEO James Manning said in a press release.

CleanSpark has now announced its second acquisition in a month, after buying a 36 megawatt mining facility in Georgia last month from bitcoin miner Waha Technologies for $16.2 million.

“The market has been preparing all summer for consolidation, and we are pleased to be on the acquiring side,” Bradford said last month. “Our focus on sustainability and maximizing value for our stakeholders have put us in a unique position to take advantage of the unprecedented opportunities that the current market has created.”

The company also has taken advantage of the declining prices of ASICs, buying 6,200 machines between June and August, and an additional 10,000 this week.

The miners purchased from Mawson at the Georgia facility will add 0.558 exahashes per second (EH/s) to CleanSpark’s current hashrate of 3.8 EH/s. The site can expand an extra 150 megawatts, which would be able to power 70,000 latest generation miners, producing over 7 EH/s, the company said.

CleanSpark agreed to provide Mawson with up to 30 megawatts of temporary hosting capacity for up to 180 days, while it transfers its miners to the Pennsylvania location. 

The deal breaks down to $26.5 million of cash consideration, $11 million in CleanSpark stock ($4.5 million of which is subject to reaching certain earn-out commitments), $3 million in seller financing in the form of promissory notes and $2 million in a seller-financed earn-out payable at least 60 days  after closing upon certain conditions being met, the company said.

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