Cryptocurrency mining company Riot Blockchain Inc. said it will buy the largest Bitcoin hosting facility in North America, Whinstone U.S. Inc., for approximately $651 million in cash and stock.
Riot Blockchain will buy all of the assets and operations of Rockdale, Texas-based Whinstone for $80 million in cash plus 11.8 million fixed Riot common shares, according to a statement published Thursday. Whinstone will be the “base” of the company’s Bitcoin mining operations, Riot CEO Jason Les said in the statement. Riot anticipates the purchase will make it the largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining and hosting company in North America as measured by total capacity built.
The Whinstone facility has a power capacity of 750 MW, with 300 MW currently developed, a major asset for energy-intensive Bitcoin mining. The crypto miner said on Wednesday that it would buy 42,000 S19j Antminers for $138.5 million from Bitmain Technologies.
Northern Data AG, which acquired Whinstone in 2020, will own about 12% of Riot’s common shares upon closing of the transaction, which is expected by the end of June.