Bitcoin Miner Arkon Energy Plans Backdoor Listing in Europe
U.S. Bitcoin mining and colocation firm Arkon Energy plans a public listing in Europe by merging with a shell company dubbed BM3EAC.
Arkon said in an announcement on Tuesday that it entered into a non-binding term sheet on Feb. 21 regarding a potential business combination with BM3EAC, which is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam securities exchange – one of the local markets under the pan-European Euronext bourse.
Arkon said while the agreement is non-binding in general, it includes certain binding terms such as a 90-day mutual exclusivity period, during which the two parties will work towards executing definitive agreements based on satisfactory due diligence and respective board approvals.
Arkon operates a proprietary hashrate fleet and offers hosting capacity for third-party customers across two sites in Ohio: a 95-megawatt (MW) facility in Hannibal and a 22-MW site in Hopedale.
Arkon added that it has binding agreements to secure and develop more sites in the U.S. to potentially increase its power capacity by another 190 MW if it can secure sufficient funding.
“Having now achieved significant economies of scale, we firmly believe that it is the right time to list our US portfolio and use that public platform to continue scaling the company’s existing pipeline in Texas and Ohio,” Arkon’s founder and chairman Josh Payne said in the statement.
The firm was previously reported to have raised $110 million in a private funding round led by Bluesky Capital Management.
Arkon’s business combination plan is the latest move by bitcoin mining companies seeking to leverage the public market to fund their growth post-halving.
Earlier this month, Cathedra Bitcoin announced a binding agreement to merge with Kungsleden, previously known as Standard Bitcoin.
Bitmain’s cloud mining spinoff BitFuFu completed the business combination with a special purpose acquisition corporation in March to list on the Nasdaq exchange two years after filing the proposal.
