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Bondholders of Troubled Bitcoin Miner Core Scientific Said to Be Working With Lawyers: Report

The company last week warned it may have to explore bankruptcy as its financial condition worsens.

Core Scientific's Marble facility in North Carolina. (Core Scientific)
Core Scientific's Marble facility in North Carolina. (Core Scientific)

A group of convertible bond holders of Core Scientific (CORZ), the largest bitcoin miner by computing power, is in talks with restructuring attorneys at Paul Hastings, reported Bloomberg Law, citing people with knowledge of the situation.

Core said last week it was exploring strategic alternatives for raising capital, and warned that bankruptcy could be an option. The company also said it hired Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP as legal advisers and PJT Partners LP as financial advisers.

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The Bloomberg report Tuesday didn't specify which convertible bondholders have retained the lawyers, and said neither Core nor Paul Hastings had returned calls for comment.

Core Scientific's woes reflect the depressed state of the bitcoin mining industry, with firms facing the squeeze of a bitcoin bear market and higher energy costs. Most recently, bitcoin miner Argo Blockchain (ARBK), said a deal to raise 24 million British pounds (US$27 million) from a strategic investor had fallen through, sending that company's shares tumbling. Just prior to that, mining data center operator Compute North, filed for bankruptcy, owing as much as $500 million to at least 200 creditors.

Read more: Crypto Miners Face Margin Calls, Defaults as Debt Comes Due in Bear Market


Aoyon Ashraf

Aoyon Ashraf is CoinDesk's managing editor for Breaking News. He spent almost a decade at Bloomberg covering equities, commodities and tech. Prior to that, he spent several years on the sellside, financing small-cap companies. Aoyon graduated from University of Toronto with a degree in mining engineering. He holds ETH and BTC, as well as ALGO, ADA, SOL, OP and some other altcoins which are below CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1,000.

Aoyon Ashraf