Mike Alfred’s Alpine Fox Adds Soluna, Trims Cipher in Second Quarter

Alpine Fox Capital established a position in renewable-powered data center operator Soluna (NASDAQ: SLNH) Holdings Inc. and sharply increased its Bakkt Inc. stake during the second quarter, while trimming its exposure to Cipher Digital (NASDAQ: CIFR).

The investment firm led by Mike Alfred reported owning 750,882 Soluna shares worth about $1 million as of June 30, according to a Form 13F filed Friday. Soluna, which trades under the ticker SLNH, hadn’t appeared in Alpine Fox’s filings for the previous two quarters.

The position gives Alpine Fox exposure to a smaller operator seeking to turn renewable energy that might otherwise be curtailed into computing capacity for Bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence. Soluna said in June that it had formed a joint venture with Metrobloks to develop Project Kati 2 in Texas. Plans call for a 100-megawatt first phase and an additional 250 MW in the second phase, according to a company filing.

Alfred is the founder and managing partner of Alpine Fox, an investment partnership focused on value equities and Bitcoin. He previously co-founded digital-asset data provider Digital Assets Data, which was sold to NYDIG in 2020, and currently serves on the boards of IREN and Bakkt.

Alpine Fox’s reported US long portfolio rose to $211.2 million at the end of June from $154 million three months earlier, a 37% increase. Much of that gain reflected rising quarter-end valuations rather than disclosed share purchases: Form 13F reports show holdings at a single date and don’t identify when securities were bought or sold.

Cipher remained the fund’s largest individual equity holding even after Alpine Fox reduced its common-share position for a second consecutive quarter. The firm held 3.37 million Cipher shares at June 30, down 390,000, or about 10%, from 3.76 million in March and 3.92 million at the end of 2025.

Alpine Fox also reduced its Cipher call-option position to the equivalent of 40,000 shares from 100,000. The filing valued the common shares and calls at a combined $83.6 million, or almost 40% of the reported portfolio. That was up from $49.7 million in March despite the reduction in exposure because Cipher’s share price increased during the quarter.

Alpine Fox left its IREN holding unchanged at 750,461 shares for a third consecutive quarter. The position was worth $34.3 million at June 30, up from $25.7 million in March because of the change in IREN’s market price.

The fund’s largest addition by share count was Bakkt. Alpine Fox reported 905,000 shares worth $7.1 million, up from 40,000 shares worth $294,400 in March. The increase of 865,000 shares made Bakkt about 3.3% of the portfolio at quarter-end. Alfred joined Bakkt’s board in September 2025 and was elected in June to a term running through the company’s 2029 annual meeting.

Elsewhere in digital assets, Alpine Fox increased its BitMine Immersion Technologies Inc. position to 100,000 shares from 92,000. BitMine has shifted away from proprietary mining and toward an Ether-focused digital-asset treasury strategy, while retaining ancillary mining and related operations, according to its latest quarterly filing.

The fund increased its common-share position in BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF to 560,000 shares from 467,000, but removed a call position tied to 90,000 shares. It also reduced its iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF call exposure by about 4.5%, to 1.12 million underlying shares from 1.17 million. Form 13F doesn’t disclose the strike prices or expiration dates of reported options.

Alpine Fox reduced its Strive Inc. position by about 7.6%, to 560,000 shares. CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) Inc. and TeraWulf (NASDAQ: WULF) Inc., which appeared in the firm’s December filing, remained absent after Alpine Fox exited those positions during the first quarter.

Together, Cipher common shares and calls, IREN and Soluna represented about 56% of Alpine Fox’s reported portfolio value at June 30, underscoring the fund’s continued concentration in power-intensive computing infrastructure.

Those quarter-end valuations have since come under pressure. Through the latest completed US session on Aug. 13, Cipher had fallen 32% from its June 30 close, to $16.62 from $24.50. IREN was down about 2%, at $44.76, while Soluna had declined almost 4%, to $1.30.