IREN Limited agrees to pay $20 million settlement to NYDIG over dispute on defaulted Bitcoin mining equipment loans

IREN Limited (formerly Iris Energy), a Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining company, has finally resolved its multi-year legal dispute with NYDIG over $107.8 million in defaulted loans linked to about 35,000 Antminer S19 Bitcoin mining equipment. 

According to IREN Limited’s annual report from Thursday, the company has agreed to pay $20 million to NYDIG to settle the years-long dispute.

The loans, which were arranged in 2021, financed two of IREN’s special-purpose vehicles, IE CA3 and IE CA4. But unfortunately, they defaulted in late 2022 due to unprofitable fixed-rate hosting and hashrate lease agreements amid a Bitcoin market downturn.

Details of IREN’s resolution with NYDIG

The settlement was initially drafted in August but was tagged confidential. It resolves litigation in Canada and Australia tied to the two non-recourse special purpose vehicles. About $18.2 million of the $20 million payout exceeds amounts previously reserved, the company has said.

According to IREN, the settlement concludes all related proceedings and protects its affiliates, executives, and shareholders from further claims, while they await court approvals to formally close the cases.

IREN’s debt settlement stands out in the cryptocurrency industry as similar disputes typically end in reorganizations or asset liquidation.

IREN posted its best quarterly earnings to date

The resolution of IREN’s legal dispute with NYDIG could not have come at a more auspicious time. The company just posted its best quarterly earnings to date, in which it raked in $187.3 million in revenue last quarter, which contributed to a record $501 million revenue for the fiscal year, sending its stock up in after-hours trading.

IREN stock. Source: Google Finance

Quarterly revenue for the period ended June 30 was up 226% year-on-year, which has put the company back into profitability with $176.9 million in net income, according to a report posted on Thursday.

The surge has been attributed to the growth of its Bitcoin mining business, but the company has also taken critical steps to deepen its footprint in the AI industry as a new “Preferred Partner” to the sought-after Nvidia.

According to reports, IREN has purchased an additional 1,200 air-cooled NVIDIA B300 GPUs and 1,200 liquid-cooled NVIDIA GB300s for about $168 million, a move that expands its arsenal to 10,900 NVIDIA GPUs, including H100s, H200s, B200s, B300s, and GB300s.

The new GB300 systems are to be installed at IREN’s Prince George campus in British Columbia, where construction is underway on a 10MW liquid-cooled installation capable of supporting more than 4,500 GPUs. The $96 million GB300 purchase is fully financed through a 24-month lease at a high single-digit interest rate, while the B300s are being funded from cash reserves.

This expansion and the resolution of the legal overhang with NYDIG show that IREN is positioning itself as not only a large-scale Bitcoin miner but also a growing player in AI infrastructure. The combination seems to have galvanized investor confidence, which is what translated into the stock hitting record highs on Friday.

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