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Stronghold Digital Mining, a crypto mining company that converts coal waste into energy to mine bitcoin, began trading after its initial public offering (IPO) launched on the Nasdaq Global Market Wednesday.
The company’s IPO priced in 55.8% higher than the anticipated range between $16 and $18 price per share with an opening price of $26.50 under the ticker $SDIG. The bitcoin-friendly mining company’s stock price rose as much as 67.8% following its IPO launch at Nasdaq on Wednesday. The stock was up $10.89, or 57.32%, to $29.89 as of 2:40 pm ET.
Although this is an IPO, it comes at a time when the US Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), marking a milestone for the crypto community as it receives the first government-approved Bitcoin ETF in the US.
As crypto regulation remains a hot topic, Stronghold isn’t worried about regulators, but actually worked with them to launch their IPO, Gregory Beard, co-chairman and CEO of Stronghold said in an interview with Blockworks after the IPO launch.
“Crypto mining has not been the focus of the regulators from our perspective. I don’t feel like we have regulatory risk, given that we are not acting with a financial capacity with the general public,” Beard said.
Beard believes that it’s still early for adoption of bitcoin as a transaction, but it has already been well established as a store of value. The company has about 3,000 crypto miners and plans to gain an additional 26,150 miners from three suppliers by the end of 2022.
“Regulation has some appeal to us because we do a professional business in a legitimate manner and if anything I feel like we’re helping to legitimize this infant industry,” William Spence, co-chairman at Stronghold, said during the interview with Blockworks.
The bitcoin-focused mining company is better known for its environmentally-friendly tactics of using waste coal material to power crypto mining equipment through specialized technology at the company’s power generation facility, Blockworks previously reported.
“We think that the future of (crypto) mining is integration with power,” Beard said.
The company is anticipating expansion to two more plants with its acquisition of the Panther Creek Energy Facility back in August, as well as recent plans to acquire another plant.
“Unlike traditional Bitcoin or crypto miners that seek out cheap power, what we really looked for was a way to enhance and sustain the power business by utilizing cryptocurrency,” William Spence, co-chairman at Stronghold, said during the interview with Blockworks.
Stronghold will use proceeds from the IPO for general purposes, including acquisitions of miners and power generating assets to mine more bitcoin, a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing from October 13 stated.
Casey Wagner contributed to the reporting on this story.