Hut 8 agrees to merge with US Bitcoin Corp in all-stock merger

Hut 8 Mining ( NASDAQ: HUT ) shares have jumped 5.5% in Tuesday premarket trading after the cryptocurrency-mining company agreed to merge with US Bitcoin Corp . in an all-stock merger of equals that's expected to give the combined company a market capitalization of ~US$990M. The combined company will be named Hut 8 Corp., referred to as New Hut, and will be a publicly traded bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) miner focus on economical mining, diversified revenue streams, and best practices in ESG. Bill Tai will remain board chair, and Jaime Leverton will continue as CEO, and Asher Genoot will continue as president. "Bringing together Hut 8's ( HUT ) operational track record and diversified revenue streams with US Bitcoin's scalable mining sites, sizeable hosting business, and industry-leading managed infrastructure operations not only accelerates our diversified strategy and positions us for near-term growth, but also establishes us as a strong, U.S.-based player that is ready and able to seize additional opportunities as they arise," said Hut 8 CEO Leverton. Shareholders of Hut 8 ( HUT ) will receive for each share they hold 0.2 share of New Hut common stock, which will effectively result in a consolidation of Hut 8 shares on a 5-to-1 basis. USBTC shareholders will get for each share of USBTC capital stock 0.6716 of a share of New Hut common stock. Once the transaction is closed, existing Hut 8 ( HUT ) shareholders and existing USBTC stockholders will each collectively hold, on a fully diluted in-the-money basis, 50% of the combined company. The agreement includes the requirement for Hut 8 ( HUT ) to pay USBTC a termination fee of US$10.0M in certain circumstances. Officers and directors of Hut 8 have agreed to vote their shares in favor of the transaction. Certain stockholders of USBTC have also agreed to vote for the merger. The combined company will have 5.6 EH/s of installed self-mining capacity and 244 MW of total energy available at five sites with current self-mining capacity. New Hut will manage 220 MW of hosting infrastructure at its King Mountain, TX, site, powered by a mix of sources including wind and nuclear, supporting multiple clients, with hosting owned by the King Mountain joint venture. The New Hut will trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market, subject to the approval and acceptance of each exchange. Conference call at 8:30 AM ET. Last month, Hut 8 Mining's ( HUT ) bitcoin reserves grew by 65% in 2022