Crypto Currents: MicroStrategy buys more bitcoin

As bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies get increasing attention from investors, Wall Street and its traditional banks continue to adjust to the shift. Catch up on this week’s top stories highlighting the intersection of these old guard and new school areas of finance with this recap compiled by The Fly.

MICROSTRATEGY BUYS MORE BITCOIN: In a Monday regulatory filing, MicroStrategy (MSTR) disclosed that on December 23, the company announced that, during the period between December 16 and December 22, the company acquired approximately 5,262 bitcoins for approximately $561M in cash, at an average price of approximately $106,662 per bitcoin. The bitcoin purchases were made using proceeds from the issuance and sale of shares under the company’s previously announced sales agreement. As of December 22, the company, together with its subsidiaries, held an aggregate of approximately 444,262 bitcoins, which were acquired at an aggregate purchase price of approximately $27.7B and an average purchase price of approximately $62,257 per bitcoin, the filing noted.

IREN ACHIEVES 31 EH/S YEAR-END TARGET: IREN (IREN) announced Monday that it has reached its year-end target of 31 EH/s installed self-mining capacity, surpassing its original goal of 20 EH/s. Following completion of Childress Phase 3, IREN has increased its installed self-mining capacity from 28 EH/s to 31 EH/s, achieving 15 J/TH efficiency with 510MW of operating data centers. Childress now supports 350MW of operating capacity, with an additional 400MW of available power at the 750MW project, enabling further expansion in 2025.

Daniel Roberts, co-CEO, commented: “We’re proud to achieve 31 EH/s ahead of schedule, far exceeding the initial year-end target. This year began with just 20MW of operating data centers at Childress, and we successfully expanded that footprint more than 17-fold to 350MW. This remarkable progress is a testament to our 500+ on-site team, whose disciplined approach to procurement, construction, safety and innovation has been instrumental in achieving our ambitious growth targets. Their efforts provide a strong foundation as we progress toward our next milestone of 50 EH/s in H1 2025. With industry-leading efficiency, low electricity costs, and unmatched execution capabilities, IREN is positioned as one of the fastest growing and lowest-cost Bitcoin miners globally.”

CLEANSPARK EXCEEDS YEAR-END GUIDANCE OF 37 EH/S: CleanSpark (CLSK) announced Monday it has achieved and exceeded the previously announced year-end target of 37 EH/s of operating hashrate. The company’s newest data centers in Tennessee and Wyoming were energized last week, which is a part of a multistage energization process that will continue into the next quarter. The added hashrate from these sites paired with site expansion, and ongoing fleet upgrades, has allowed the company to exceed guidance and deliver 37.5 EH/s of operating hashrate. Fleet efficiency has reached 17.7 J/Th and is expected to continue to improve as the company continues its strategic growth plans.

“Our teams have been hard at work throughout the entirety of this past year. We have delivered on our ambitious targets and expanded our hashrate nearly 300% since the beginning of 2024,” said Zach Bradford, CEO and President. “Achieving 37.5 EH/s with a fleet efficiency of 17.7 J/Th is a significant milestone, and we intend to continue adding highly efficient hashrate through the end of the year and into 2025. With the closing of our $650M zero-coupon convertible bond offering, exceeding guidance, and delivering on our fleet efficiency goals, December has been one of CleanSpark’s strongest strategic months to date. The capital raised is expected to more than fully fund our expansion to 50 EH/s. As a result, we are pleased to announce accelerated expected timing of 50 EH/s to the first half of calendar year 2025. This is the result of discipline and focus on our core operating business; bitcoin mining. Our growth and efficiency have resulted in a bitcoin treasury balance quickly approaching 10,000 bitcoin, all of which we have mined. As we look to 2025, we intend to remain focused on bitcoin and mining efficiently utilizing operational excellence at scale.”

TERAWULF SIGNS DATA CENTER LEASE AGREEMENTS: TeraWulf (WULF) announced Monday the signing of long-term data center lease agreements with Core42. Under the agreements, TeraWulf will deliver over 70 megawatts of turn-key data center infrastructure to host Core42’s deployment at the Lake Mariner facility in Upstate New York. The infrastructure will be released for production in phases between Q1 and Q3 2025 and TeraWulf will customize the data halls to support Core42’s GPU clusters. The data center leases include two five-year renewal options, providing a long-term, stable, high-margin revenue stream for TeraWulf. Additionally, the data center lease agreements include provisions for expanding near-term hosting capacity for Core42 by an additional 135 MW gross, which is equivalent to 108 MW of critical IT load, underscoring the potential for future scalability and revenue growth.

“Our strategic relationship with G42, and most specifically with Core42, positions TeraWulf at the intersection of two of today’s most transformative computational networks: AI compute and bitcoin mining,” said Paul Prager, CEO. “The surging demand for scalable, energy-efficient infrastructure presents a tremendous opportunity. Our ability to rapidly deliver customized, predominantly zero-carbon-powered solutions solidifies our position as a leader in the digital infrastructure space. This agreement not only diversifies our revenue streams but also significantly enhances our long-term earnings potential.”

Following the report, Cantor Fitzgerald said the firm believes the company’s “AI/HPC story is just getting started” and this deal is likely to be the “first of many.” The firm reiterated an Overweight rating and $11 price target on TeraWulf shares.

LM FUNDING ORDERS BITMAIN S21+: LM Funding America (LMFA) announced Friday a new order with Bitmain for 270 Bitmain S21+ mining machines.

Bruce Rodgers, Chairman and CEO, commented, “These new miners will be received in March 2025 and will be placed at our new 15MW Oklahoma Mining site. We anticipate that this will increase our total mining capacity by approximately 58 petahash. After we move our existing machines from storage into open slots at the Oklahoma mining site, we expect that our total active hashrate in January 2025 will increase to 562 petahash between our mining capacity at our owned site in Oklahoma and our mining capacity hosted with Core.”

CRYPTO STOCK PLAYS: Publicly traded companies in the space include Bit Digital (BTBT), Coinbase (COIN), Core Scientific (CORZ), Greenidge Generation (GREE), Mara Holdings (MARA), MicroStrategy, Riot Platforms (RIOT), Stronghold Digital Mining (SDIG) and TeraWulf.

PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin dropped about 2% this week to $95,349 in U.S. dollars, according to CoinDesk.