Celsius Announces Plans to Take Its Mining Business Public

Crypto lending platform Celsius Network is planning to IPO its Bitcoin mining subsidiary firm, Celsius Mining LLC.

Celsius Plans Mining Subsidiary IPO

Celsius appears to be the latest crypto startup gearing up to take part of its business public.

One of the world’s largest crypto lending companies, Celsius Network revealed in a press release Monday that its wholly-owned Bitcoin mining subsidiary, Celsius Mining LLC, has filed a Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, indicating that it wants to go public.

Form S-1 is a filing used by companies to register securities with the SEC ahead of an Initial Public Offering. Going public via an IPO can take companies between six and nine months from filing the S-1 form.

Celsius is a crypto lending platform that allows investors to earn interest on their crypto holdings. The company has invested at least $500 million into its subsidiary Bitcoin mining business so far and owns around 22,000 ASIC miners, mostly made up of Bitmain’s AntMiner S19 machines released in May 2020. It began expanding into Bitcoin mining in 2020 after encountering increasing regulatory pressure over its retail-facing high-interest lending products. In April, the firm eventually discontinued its Earn product for unaccredited investors from the U.S. following “ongoing discussions” with regulators. Lending, however, has remained Celsius’ primary business, with Bitcoin mining being only a diversifying investment strategy and a way of securing an alternative revenue source.

Interestingly, Celsius’ mining subsidiary isn’t the only crypto startup gearing up to go public amid fickle market conditions. In February, USDC stablecoin issuer Circle, last valued at $9 billion, announced plans to go public by this year through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger deal with Concord Acquisition Corp. Blockchain.com is also eyeing an IPO that could commence as soon as this year, according to an April Bloomberg report.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.