Core Scientific, which says it is the biggest bitcoin mining company in the US, says it will go public via SPAC at a valuation of around $4.3B
- Cryptocurrency mining operator Core Scientific is listing on the Nasdaq through a merger with Power & Digital Infrastructure Acquisition Corp.
Context & Ripple Effects
Core Scientific is the second major US bitcoin miner this year to choose the SPAC route, following Bitfury's March 2021 merger that created Cipher Mining at a $2B valuation — Core Scientific is pricing its Nasdaq debut at more than double that. The company enters public markets from a position of strength: it would go on to lead all publicly traded miners with $545M in 2021 revenue, ahead of Riot Blockchain and Hive Blockchain.
The $4.3B valuation reflects a bet on scale — Core Scientific controls nearly 10% of the network's hash rate, and the SPAC structure hands it listed equity it can use as currency for expansion before bitcoin prices turn.
First-order effects
- Core Scientific gains access to public-market capital and an acquisition currency at a moment when it is the largest US miner by revenue, while Power & Digital Infrastructure Acquisition Corp.'s shareholders absorb direct exposure to bitcoin mining economics.
Second-order effects
- Rival miners face pressure to match the route: with Cipher Mining and Core Scientific both going public via blank-check mergers, privately held peers must either list, raise debt, or concede scale in a race where hash-rate share tracks balance-sheet size.
Third-order effects
- The pattern holds a warning and a template: Core Scientific's Chapter 11 filing a year later showed how quickly leveraged, publicly listed mining balance sheets unwind when coin prices fall — yet the same power-hungry sites were ultimately worth more to CoreWeave as AI data centers than to any miner, pointing toward mining real estate being repriced by AI demand rather than bitcoin alone.
The trend: The 2021 SPAC wave industrialized bitcoin mining on public balance sheets, but those same power assets are being converted into AI data-center capacity as compute demand outlasts mining margins.