Bitcoin Miner Gryphon to Go Public Via All-Stock Merger With Cannabis Firm Akerna

Non-public bitcoin miner Gryphon Digital plans to go public with a merger with publicly traded hashish firm Akerna (KERN) in an all-stock deal.

The brand new firm will assume Gryphon’s identify and be headquartered in Las Vegas Nevada, after the deal closes, based on an announcement. The miner’s present fairness holders are anticipated to personal about 92.5% of the brand new publicly traded entity, whereas Akerna’s shareholders will personal about 7.5%, the assertion added.

The CEO of Gryphon, Rob Chang, would be the new CEO of the publicly traded firm. The CEO of Akerna, Jessica Billingsley, will probably be on the board of the brand new firm, and 6 of the remaining seven members will probably be designated by Gryphon.

Akerna’s prime three traders embody Vanguard (2.6% possession as of Sept. 2022), Perkins Capital (2% as of Dec. 2022) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (1.2% as of Sept. 2022), based on FactSet information.

The deal comes after Gryphon terminated its drawn-out course of to go public by way of a reverse merger with publicly traded information administration agency, Sphere 3D (ANY). The proposed deal was introduced in 2021 and the closing of the deal was pushed again a number of occasions as a result of difficult regulatory approval course of, earlier than the deal was ultimately terminated.

Learn extra: Gryphon Digital Mining Ends Plans to Go Public Via Merger With Sphere 3D

Gryphon additionally discovered itself in the midst of controversy final 12 months after Sphere 3D signed a $1.7 billion cope with unknown mining rig producer NuMiner. The deal got here beneath severe scrutiny by the mining neighborhood, after a number of crimson flags have been raised in regards to the viability of NuMiner.

Gryphon, which began mining operations in September of 2021, has a possible income producing profile of 1.1 exahash per second (EH/s) on a value foundation of 0.75 EH/s, based on the assertion.

The shares of Akerna fell about 15% on Friday, buying and selling round $1.51 every. Akerna has a market capitalization of about $8 million, based on TradingView.

UPDATE (Jan. 27, 16:01 UTC): Added data on Akerna’s traders.