Bitcoin Miner Stronghold Digital Completes Debt Restructuring

Stonghold Digital (SDIG) closed on the seventh and final tranche of bitcoin miner deliveries to NYDIG that had served as collateral for financing agreements with NYDIG, the miner said in a Tuesday press release.

This final tranche allowed for the cancellation of $2.1 million in debt. In all, since mid-August Stronghold has returned about 26,200 miners to NYDIG in return for the extinguishment of $67.4 million in debt.

Bitcoin mining firms have been struggling to keep their balance sheets afloat amid soaring energy prices and a bear market that has seen bitcoin lose more than half its value since its peak last year. One of the largest hosting firms, Compute North, filed for bankruptcy in September, while miners Core Scientific (CORZ) and Argo Blockchain (ARBK) are both facing severe liquidity issues.

Stronghold also closed on a debt restructuring deal with WhiteHawk Finance, moving the weighted-average maturity to 36 months from 13 months, trimming monthly payments and adding $21 million in cash to the balance sheet.

The restructuring has also freed up room in Stronghold’s facilities at a time when space for hosting mining rigs at an economical rate has been dramatically short in recent months across the U.S. In addition to the 26,200 miners returned to NYDIG, Stronghold has another 14,200 slots for miners available after it ended a deal with the German firm Northern Data (NB2X:GER).

As of Tuesday, Stronghold has currently liquidity of about $30 million, including $29 million in unrestricted cash and bitcoin.

“We are executing on the strategy we outlined during our second-quarter earnings announcement in August – to rapidly delever our balance sheet and enhance liquidity, and we are actively pursuing acquisitions of bitcoin miners at attractive prices to take advantage of the current distressed market while continuing to manage liquidity carefully,” said Stronghold CEO Greg Beard.

Read more: A Huge Glut of Bitcoin Mining Rigs Is Sitting Unused in Boxes