Third Time’s a Charm? Bitcoin Miner Bitdeer Delays $4B SPAC Deal Again

Blue Safari Group, the SPAC firm taking crypto miner Bitdeer public at a $4 billion valuation, has just filed for another extension—the third in less than six months, and this time for up to a year in length.

The firm was supposed to merge with Bitdeer by the end of December but said in the filing that it had “determined that there may not be sufficient time before December 14, 2022 (the Current Termination Date) to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting to obtain the requisite shareholder approval of, and to consummate,” the merger.

The news comes as Blue Safari Group filed for a similar extension just in September when it pushed back the deadline to merge with BitDeer to December this year. That three-month extension followed yet another one previously filed in June. The deal was originally announced in November 2021.

SPACs are blank-check companies set up to raise funds in order to take a company public by acquisition or merger. They have become popular in recent years as a faster way to list companies on the stock market than initial public offerings, or IPOs. 

However, investor appetite for crypto mining firms seems to have cooled significantly from last year’s heydays. 

A combination of soaring energy prices, all-time high hash rates, and falling token prices has also seen many once-mighty players file for bankruptcy or borrow money from the likes of Binance to stay afloat.

Previous delays of Bitdeer’s deal have cost the company $575,000 each time, according to a press release filed with the SEC. The miner has already loaned the SPAC entity almost $2 million so far for this purpose.

Crypto SPACs get the cold shoulder

Bitdeer isn’t the only company suffering through the most recent crypto winter. 

USD Coin issuer Circle, trading platform eToro, and Bullish Group have all delayed their plans to go public through SPACs.

In August, crypto miner PrimeBlock saw its CEO Gaurav Budhrani step down after canceling its plans to combine with 10X Capital Venture at a $1.3 billion valuation.

And in July, VCV Digital Technology, a crypto miner valued at $294 million, abandoned its plans to go public by merging with Fortune Rise Acquisition Corporation.