Bitcoin miner Argo Blockchain (ARBK) saw its shares rise as much as 14% on Monday, January 18th, after gaining compliance with Nasdaq listing requirements. The company had been in danger of bankruptcy due to a combination of rising energy costs and the crypto winter, which resulted in a dip in bitcoin prices and a drop in the company’s share price to as low as $0.38 on December 16th. However, a late December deal with Galaxy Digital helped the company avoid bankruptcy and regain compliance with Nasdaq.
The deal involved the sale of Argo’s Helios mining facility in Texas to Galaxy Digital for $65 million and a $35 million loan. This helped Argo to strengthen its balance sheet and avoid bankruptcy after a previously announced $27 million equity raise with a strategic partner fell through in October. The sale also allowed Argo to redirect capital expenses toward buying additional miners and increasing its hash rate more quickly.
As a result of the successful deal, Argo met the requirement to continue listing its shares on Nasdaq on January 13th, after bids for its shares remained above $1 for 10 consecutive days. The shares of the miner have risen more than 400% since December 16th, reaching $1.92 on Monday. Other mining stock peers such as Marathon Digital (MARA) and Hive Blockchain (HIVE) also saw increases of more than 9% while the price of bitcoin rose about 0.6%.
