Cryptocurrency mining operator Core Scientific said on Wednesday it was listed on Nasdaq through a merger with Power & Digital Infrastructure Acquisition Corp.

The deal with the ad hoc acquisition company values ​​Core Scientific at around $ 4.3 billion.

It is not known when trading will start. The name of the teleprinter was not announced.

Core, which operates in North Dakota, North Carolina, Georgia and Kentucky, is one of the largest providers of blockchain infrastructure and hosting, as well as one of the largest miners. of digital assets in North America.

Rival bitcoin miners Riot Blockchain and Marathon Digital have market caps of $ 2.18 billion and $ 2.25 billion, respectively.

“Core’s blockchain infrastructure business is unprecedented, supported by more than 70 blockchain and infrastructure related patents and applications,” said Darin Feinstein, co-founder and co-chair.

Bitcoin has had a wild year, peaking at over $ 63,000 before collapsing to a current value of around $ 31,500, but it is still up over 245% from a year ago. Bitcoin mining company SPACs are another way to bet on the crypto craze with a slightly longer time horizon than speculating in the currencies themselves.

Core, which primarily hits bitcoin, claims to have generated $ 60 million in revenue in 2020 and is forecasting $ 493 million this year. The company declined to disclose a net profit or a net loss.

So far in 2021, Core has minted more than 3,000 bitcoins, including 1,683 on its own, Co-Chairman and CEO Mike Levitt said in an interview. During the same period, the Marathon mining fleet produced around 846 bitcoins and Riot produced a total of 1,167.

Core is increasing the capacity of its existing sites and looking to build more facilities in potentially one or two other states. It operates around 80,000 rigs and, by the end of 2022, will operate well over 300,000 miners, according to Levitt.

“We’re all exhausted. Every piece of infrastructure we can build – and we’re the biggest – we have demand,” Levitt said. “We are almost out of capacity until 2022, and we are building more.”

Levitt, who invested in data centers in the 1990s during the private equity era, said Core’s business model goes far beyond building massive warehouses with a bunch of computers running. 24/7.

One project is called “What to Mine”. The AI-based program developed by Core optimizes mining on the various bitcoin derivatives in order to reap the greatest return at that time in the network.

Core plans to inject $ 300 million in net cash proceeds back into the company to fund its growth.

Critics say cryptocurrency has a negative impact on the environment due to its massive use of energy. This is a concern that Core has prioritized since its launch. The company runs a 100% carbon neutral business, with 56% of its electricity coming from sustainable sources, including solar, wind, hydro and nuclear power. The company buys carbon credits to offset the rest.