Bitfury plans IPO with backing from Mike Novogratz

Amsterdam-based mining company Bitfury is set to go public.

The firm, which had a valuation of more than $1 billion during its last fundraising round, has brought in Deloitte over a potential public listing in the next 12 months. It is understood its main backers are Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital and Australian investment bank Macquarie.

Novogratz, who recently said Bitcoin has intrinsic value, first became involved in Bitfury three years ago when he ploughed $80 million into the organisation.

“We see a lot of demand from companies and public institutions to put their services or products in the blockchain — especially in emerging markets, where administrative systems can be very inefficient,” Bitfury Chief Executive Officer Valery Vavilov said at the time.

The private placement was led by Korelya Capital – a European investor backed by Korea’s Naver Group, according to a statement from Bitfury. Other participants include Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital and Europe-based firms Jabre, Lian Group and Armat Group.

Bitfury’s IPO – biggest crypto listing ever

An IPO of Bitfury stock would be the biggest ever listing for a European cryptocurrency company. It comes after the float of US cryptocurrency trading app Coinbase, which is currently valued above $50 billion.

Bitfury also created a spin-off a division, Cipher Mining, through a special purpose acquisition (Spac) deal over the summer.

Cipher is now listed on the US Nasdaq exchange with a value of $2bn, and Bitfury is a minority shareholder. Experts say that its listing will probably happen on Euronext.

The mining company was founded in 2011 by Latvian entrepreneur Valery Vavilov and it deploys cryptocurrency mining hardware used to crunch the sums needed to mint new Bitcoin.

It also has cryptocurrency mining operations in Canada, Norway, Iceland and Central Asia.