Equipment-based financing is becoming an increasingly popular option for mining firms to fund their growth.Read MoreFeedzy
Bitcoin miner CleanSpark (CLSK) has raised $35 million in equipment financing, backed by 3,336 new S19j Pro bitcoin miners from Trinity Capital (TRIN), a provider of venture debt financing.
The Henderson, Nevada-based sustainable miner will use the proceeds from the financing for growth capital. “As we mentioned in our Q1 earnings call, debt capital is currently the lowest cost of capital available to the Company,” said Gary Vecchiarelli, chief financial officer of CleanSpark, in a statement. “We intend to continue our efforts of obtaining non-dilutive capital to finance our growth [capital expenditure] needs,” he added.
On CleanSpark’s earnings call in February, the company said that it prefers to raise capital by issuing rig-backed debt and that the company is in active talks with lenders. Other options include monetizing some of the company’s bitcoin (BTC) holdings via sales and/or yield.
The financing comes at a time when miners are looking to get creative with their financing as capital markets remain somewhat constrained after bitcoin prices came down from their peak last year. Using specialized bitcoin mining computers, called ASICs, as collateral for loans has become popular among miners to fund their growth plans.
“All the options available for the miners in terms of financing have fundamentally changed over the last year,” Mas Nakachi, head of crypto finance firm XBTO’s mining operations, told CoinDesk in a recent interview. “I think miners are starting to get more comfortable with equipment-based financing,” he added. Among other lending products, XBTO provides financing to miners through asset-backed loans, as well as using bitcoin as collateral.
Most recently, Australian bitcoin miner Iris Energy (IREN) said that it has secured $71 million in equipment financing from institutional bitcoin broker NYDIG with a 25-month term and 11% interest and backed by 19,800 Bitmain S19j Pro miners. Meanwhile, in March, NYDIG also provided about $81.4 million in S19 J Pro-backed loans to miner Greenidge Generation (GREE).
CleanSpark’s loan has a three-year term and carries an annual interest rate of 9.9%. The terms are similar to loan financing done by Trinity Capital last year, where it lent another crypto miner, Hut 8 (HUT), a $30 million equipment-backed loan, with a three-year term and 9.5% interest.
“We are excited to partner with the team at CleanSpark, which is on a mission to mine bitcoin responsibly, using a mix of sustainable energy including nuclear, hydroelectric, solar, and wind,” said Ryan Little, managing director of equipment financing at Trinity Capital, in a statement.
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