CleanSpark agrees to acquire GRIID for $155 million amid mining struggles; Fenix Finance secures $300k seed investment

Bitcoin miner CleanSpark has agreed to acquire its rival GRIID Infrastructure for $155 million, according to a June 27 statement.

The companies also revealed that they entered an exclusive hosting agreement for all currently available power, of which 20 MW will be allocated to CleanSpark effective immediately.

This development arrives as BTC miners significantly struggle following the recent halving event that impacted their earnings. As a result, several miners have begun efforts to diversify their revenue streams by mining altcoins and pivoting towards AI.
Acquisition details

Under this deal, CleanSpark will take on all of GRIID’s existing debt and obligations. Additionally, the miner has provided GRIID with a $5 million working capital loan and a bridge loan of about $50.9 million to cover certain obligations at the time of signing.

CleanSpark CEO Zach Bradford stated that this acquisition would help the firm replicate its success in Georgia over the next three years in Tennessee. He commented:

“[This acquisition] will enable us to exceed 100 megawatts in Tennessee by the end of this year and grow to 200 megawatts in 2025, eventually surpassing 400 megawatts in 2026.”

Both companies’ Boards of Directors have unanimously approved the transaction, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2024. However, the acquisition still requires approval from GRIID shareholders and must meet other customary closing conditions.

When the deal is completed, GRIID shareholders will receive CleanSpark common stock. The exchange ratio will be calculated by dividing the total merger consideration by the number of GRIID common shares outstanding at the merger’s closing.

Fenix Finance secures $300k seed investment

Fenix Finance, a decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol on the Blast network, has secured a $300,000 seed investment round, according to an announcement.

Layer-3 protocol Orbs, which doubles as Fenix’s technology partner, led the seed funding round.
Fenix to deploy funds in platform development
Fenix’s decentralized exchange technology ensures users benefit from a more capital efficient marketplace on Blast, offering deeper liquidity and catalyzing overall economic growth.
The funds and technical support from Orbs will help Fenix Finance introduce new products and expand its ecosystem, the protocol said.

Among key developments, Fenix plans to use funds raised from the investment round to build out its new liquidity feature dubbed the Fenix Liquidity Hub. The Orbs L3-powered feature allows Blast users to access token swaps with optimized price execution that taps into both on-chain and off-chain liquidity.

The team also eyes improvement to the Fenix Nest. This is a protocol feature that incorporates key Curve ecosystem components such as vote delegator, vote optimizer, and rewards auto-compounder. These mechanisms help power the ecosystem’s voting incentives marketplace.