According to Cointelegraph, Canadian Bitcoin mining firm Hut 8 is nearing the completion of its planned merger with US Bitcoin (USBTC) after receiving final approval from the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The merger, which was announced in February 2023, will result in the formation of Hut 8 Corporation, or 'New Hut', a publicly traded United States-based business. The merger is expected to provide 825 megawatts of capacity across six different Bitcoin mining and data center facilities.
Although the Supreme Court of British Columbia has issued a final order approving the merger, the deal's closing is still subject to several outstanding requirements, including the approval of USBTC shareholders. The final transaction confirming the merger and creation of New Hut is expected to occur before the end of 2023. New Hut also plans to list its shares on both the Nasdaq and Toronto stock exchanges under the ticker $HUT.
Hut 8 recently relocated 6,400 ASIC mining rigs from its inactive North Bay facility in Ontario to Texas to meet increased demand for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. The move was largely prompted by an ongoing legal dispute between Hut 8 and third-party energy supplier Validus Power over alleged failure to meet contractual obligations. Operations at the mining facility have been suspended since November 2022. In August 2023, Digital Currency Group's institutional mining and staking subsidiary Foundry Digital announced a formal partnership with Hut 8, which will see Hut 8 support various business offerings for Foundry using its Ontario-based data center.
