Crypto mining companies Hut 8 and US Bitcoin Corp merge to form Hut 8 Corp

The merger

Crypto mining companies Hut 8 Mining Corp. and US Bitcoin Corp (USBTC) have announced an all-stock merger of equals to form a new United States-domiciled entity named Hut 8 Corp (New Hut). The merger, which has been dubbed as the "largest mergers and acquisitions transaction" in crypto, will result in the delisting of Hut 8 common stocks from the Toronto Stock Exchange and Nasdaq by or before Dec. 4, 2023.

Benefits of the merger

By combining resources, New Hut will have access to approximately 825 megawatts (MW) of gross energy across six sites with self-mining, hosting, and managed service operations. This will allow the company to better prepare for the upcoming Bitcoin halving.

Legal complexities

The merger between Hut 8 and USBTC received final clearance from the Supreme Court of British Columbia in September 2023. However, the planning process for the merger began back in February of 2023. The merger was subject to court and regulatory approval by U.S. and Canadian authorities. Additionally, USBTC was involved in a legal dispute with the City of Niagara Falls in New York, which added further complexity to the merger.

Decentralization efforts

While Hut 8 and USBTC join forces, Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and Square, has taken steps to decentralize the Bitcoin mining operation. Dorsey recently led a $6.2 million seed round for Mummolin, the parent company of Ocean, a new decentralization Bitcoin mining pool. This pool is designed to provide more mining process transparency and enable miners to receive block rewards directly from Bitcoin rather than from BTC mining pools.