Global investment firm BlackRock has given Core Scientific a $17 million loan.
According to a recent SEC filing, BlackRock’s loan to the bankrupt crypto miner is part of a $75 million credit facility from Core Scientific’s convertible note holders.
The filing shows that BlackRock already holds $37.9 million of the miner’s secured convertible notes.
BlackRock invested in Core Scientific during the bull run and is the firm’s largest shareholder. Core’s shares are down 99% over the last one-year and traded at $0.075 at the end of trading hours on Friday.
Core Scientific filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Dec. 21 after reporting a $650 million loss in just three months. The firm first warned in October that it would likely be rendered insolvent in the near future, citing high energy costs and a weakened crypto market as factors that took a toll on operations.
At the time of the bankruptcy filing, Core estimated its liabilities as between $1 billion and $10 billion and listed that it had between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors with unsecured claims. BlackRock’s loan is part of a prepackaged bankruptcy agreement with Core, where the firm debt holders will equitize their debt into a “significant majority” of the reorganized firm’s common stock.
Core Scientific accounts for 10% of hash rate, or computing power, on the Bitcoin network. It operates 143,000 mining rigs and hosts an additional 100,000, and is one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin miners in North America.
One of the consequences of this bankruptcy, and the liquidation process that follows, could affect the price of mining rigs itself, according to co-founder of Luxor Technologies Nick Hansen.
Speaking on the Unchained Podcast in November, Hansen said that Core’s lenders are likely to liquidate the machines that they take as collateral.
“I would bet that if they do start to liquidate those machines, we could see a cascading event where the value of the machines drop significantly over the next three to six months as those liquidations occur,” he said.
