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Australian Crypto Firm Iris Energy Files for U.S. Direct Listing

Australian Crypto Firm Iris Energy Files for U.S. Direct Listing

Green Bitcoin mining firm Iris Energy Pty has confidentially filed with U.S. regulators for a direct listing on the Nasdaq this year.

The Sydney-based company has lodged a draft registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a debut that it expects to take place in the fourth quarter of 2021, the company said in a press release Wednesday. The planned listing is subject to regulatory review as well as market and other conditions, the company said.

Iris, which uses renewable energy to produce the cryptocurrency, was planning a fresh $200 million private funding round to prepare for a U.S. direct listing, Bloomberg News reported in July. The company had earlier considered potentially going public via a merger with a blank-check company.

The company’s flagship project is a 50 megawatt data center in British Columbia, Canada, that runs Bitcoin mining equipment powered by renewable energy, according to its website. In British Columbia, the majority of electricity comes from hydroelectric power.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc. went public via a Nasdaq direct listing in April at $250 a share and rose to as much as $429.54 on its first day of trading. It closed at $250.80 each on Tuesday in New York.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.