Canadian crypto miner Hut 8 buys 9 data centers from Bitfury

Canada-based Hut 8 Mining Corp announced the addition of nine Blockbox AC data centers to its mining farm in Drumheller, Alberta, making the facility fully operational. Hut 8 purchased the data centers from the Bitfury Group for US$7 million. The acquisition added nearly 16% of capacity to Hut 8’s existing operations.

“This upgrade allows Hut 8 to take 100% ownership of the Drumheller facility, which will bring further cost savings,” Andrew Kiguel, CEO of Hut 8, said in a statement. “This upgrade was funded from Hut 8’s balance sheet, which remains strong after this transaction and prior debt repayments.”

The nine data centers were upgraded to include 12.6 PH/s Bitfury Clarke ASIC chips. The additional PH/s brought Hut 8’s total maximum operating capacity, across all operations, to nearly 963 PH/s and 109.4 MW at full capacity.

The purchase comes just days after Hut 8 confirmed it successfully refinanced its current credit facility with a new loan with Genesis Global Capital. The new US$15 million credit facility with Genesis replaces an earlier US$14 million loan with Galaxy Digital Lending.

The terms of the new loan are a fixed 9.85% coupon per annum with an 18-month term with a bullet repayment.

“This refinancing is a major step in improving Hut 8’s cash flows and will reduce our interest costs by $426k (US$323k) per year,” said Jimmy Vaiopoulos, chief financial officer of Hut 8. “Our ability to refinance debt on better terms is a testament to our performance and ability to stand out as a low-cost bitcoin miner.”

“Utilizing lower interest rates as part of this refinancing, holding a significant bitcoin balance, and cash on hand, our balance sheet continues to be a distinct advantage for Hut 8,” Kiguel said.