Owner of Bitstream Mining to List on Nasdaq

The latest crypto miner to go public is U.S.-based Bitstream Mining, as its owner, Agora Digital Holdings, plans an initial public offering on the Nasdaq, according to a Wednesday IPO prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Agora will list under the ticker DEFY, with a pro forma total stockholders' equity of $53 million but has not announced the share price, the prospectus said. Agora booked a $3.3 million loss the nine months ended Dec. 31, 2021, according to the prospectus.

The listing and ticker is still pending regulatory approval.

Agora has invested $7.2 million to set up operations for Bitstream, including buying 5,000 used Canaan AvalonMiner 841 mining rigs for $1.35 million, according to today's filing. About $2.4 million of that was a payment to a power management firm, including a downpayment to an energy supplier, said a September 2021 SEC filing. The firm has agreed to spend another $6 million to buy energy, order miners, and develop mining infrastructure, the prospectus said.

Starting November 2021, 550 of the AvalonMiners are in operation, the prospectus said. The firm expects to deploy Bitmain s19 Pro miners, currently one of the best on the market, through a third-party hosting service provider, Elite Mining, by the end of of Q2 2022, it said in the prospectus.

Ecoark Holdings (ZEST), which owns 90.1% of Agora shares, will hold on to 74% of Agora's equity after the listing, said the prospectus. Approximately three months following this public offering, Ecoark is expected to spin off 80% of its Agora stock it holds, 33,336,997 shares, to Ecoark’s security-holders as a stock dividend. After the stock dividend, 77% of Agora stock will be held by public shareholders, and the firm will act independently from Ecoark, according to the IPO prospectus.

Bitstream has signed a letter of intent with a power broker to obtain 12 megawatts (MW) of electricity in west Texas, and is expecting to buy another 48 MW in the next six to 12 months, according to the IPO prospectus. The firm has also signed a letter of intent for a 30 MW second site at an undisclosed location, and is negotiating definitive agreements for energy, the prospectus said.

Under its September 2021 hosting agreement, Elite Mining will supply the Bitmain s19 Pro miners, host the data centers, and operate the machines. Bitstream will replace the Bitmain s19 Pros with its own as soon as it can fund them, including possibly buying Elite Mining's rigs, said the agreement. Through the agreement, Bitstream would take advantage of 6MW of energy worth during a beta testing phase, set to last until mid-January 2022, said the September filing.