Bitcoin
Stablecoin Giant Tether Now Owns 25% of Bitcoin Miner Bitdeer
Stablecoin issuer Tether now controls 25% of the shares in Bitcoin miner Bitdeer, according to a recent US Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
This causes the company to fall behind Tether (USDT) the second largest shareholder of BTC mining shares, behind Victory Courage Ltd., which is registered to Bitdeer CEO Jihan Wu. Before his appointment in March 2024, Wu was co-founder and former CEO of ASIC manufacturer Bitmain.
At the time of writing, Bitdeer shares were trading for $7.15, up 2% since US markets opened. And the Bitcoin mining company has seen its share price record an impressive 26% gain since the beginning of May.
On a Thursday morning SEC Filing, Tether Holdings Limited disclosed that it now controls 23,587,360 shares of BTDR. The huge increase in its holdings in Bitdeer is the result of a private placement deal reached with the mining company last week. Because of the deal, Bitdeer was able to raise $100 million in funding. The agreement also includes a warrant that allows Tether to purchase up to an additional 5,000,000 shares at $10.00 per share over the next year.
Bitdeer said it plans to use the proceeds to expand its data centers, develop ASIC-based mining rigs and for other general corporate purposes.
“With Tether’s support, we are poised to accelerate our growth and continue our leadership in sustainable and efficient Bitcoin mining,” said Linghui Kong, chief business officer at Bitdeer, in a statement. Press release last week. “This partnership represents a significant milestone for Bitdeer and we look forward to achieving great things together.”
Bitdeer has come a long way to being listed on the Nasdaq, where it has traded under the ticker BTDR since last year. Went public through a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) merger with Blue Safari Group last year after being postponed three times.
Bitdeer’s private sale isn’t Tether’s only deal lately.
On Wednesday, the USDT issuer announced that it invested US$ 19 million in XREX Group, a company that is also supported by the Taiwan Government’s National Development Fund. XREX said it plans to use the funding to develop USDT-based cross-border B2B payments and launch XAU1, its own US dollar-pegged stablecoin.
Singaporean startup entity XREX Singapore has just received a Master Payment Institution License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, which allows it to operate as a payments processor in the country.
Edited by Andrew Hayward