Bitcoin miner Core Scientific to exit bankruptcy in January 2024

The company's stock price collapsed by nearly 90% after its SPAC deal.
The company's stock price collapsed by nearly 90% after its SPAC deal.

Core Scientific, one of the largest Bitcoin (BTC) miners in the United States, will emerge from bankruptcy proceedings next month.

According to the Dec. 21 announcement, the firm has reached an in-principal agreement with shareholders for the distribution of convertible notes and stock by mid-January 2024 and relisting on the NASDAQ exchange thereafter. Adam Sullivan, the firm's CEO, expressed his enthusiasm for the company's comeback, citing "a post-emergence pathway to de-lever our balance sheet and a plan for continued growth in 2024 and beyond."

Under the agreement, Core Scientific shareholders will receive new shares exchanged at a ratio of 25:1 to provide them with $1.08 per pre-exchange share. Meanwhile, noteholders will receive $1.628 on every $1 of face value for convertible notes due in April and $1.201 per $1 face value for notes with an August due date.

In July 2021, Core Scientific went public with a $4.3 billion special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal. At the time, Core Scientific stock was valued at $10. Shortly thereafter, a combination of the crypto winter, rising energy prices, increased mining difficulty, and bad debt lent to crypto firm Celsius led Core Scientific to file bankruptcy by December 2022. 

Cointelegraph previously reported that Core Scientific would inherit $709 million in net debt and $791 million in shareholder's equity after the plan takes effect in January. Through 2025, only $46 million in debt will mature. As the company was undergoing bankruptcy, it signed a $77 million cash and stock deal with Bitcoin application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) manufacturer Bitmain for 27,000 mining rigs. The firm currently owns over 199,000 ASICs and self-mines around 32 Bitcoins per day. 

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