Merger Sees First Bitcoin Mining Company Traded on The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange

Canadian cryptocurrency mining firm Backbone Hosting Solutions Inc., also known as Bitfarms, has completed its merger with the Tel Aviv-listed shelf company turned crypto mining company Blockchain Mining Ltd. (formerly Natural Resources Holdings), the latter announced in a filing to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Sunday.

Blockchain Mining stocks were up 49% by Sunday market close on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, trading at $8.5 (NIS 29.9) per share for a market capitalization value of $141.6 million (NIS 497 million).

Roy Sebag, CEO of Blockchain Mining, and Emiliano Grodzki, Chief Strategy Officer at Bitfarms. Photo: Orel Cohen

The merged company is the first company with cryptocurrency as its core business to list on the exchange.

The two companies first announced the merger deal—and the plan to list on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange as a crypto-focused company—in December 2017, but faced scrutiny from the Israeli regulator. In March, the companies announced that the Israeli Securities Authority had completed its investigation into the merger.

Bitfarms earns crypto tokens by lending computing power to blockchain networks like bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, litecoin, and dash. The company operates four facilities in the Québec province and is currently building a fifth computing center. Emiliano Grodzki, Chief Strategy Officer at Bitfarms, said in a March statement that the company intends to open three to four new computing facilities in 2018.

Québec’s low temperatures and low cost of electricity cost make it an attractive region for crypto-mining.