Cloud mining firm BitFuFu postpones merger with SPAC until May

Cloud mining firm Bitfufu, one of Bitmain's crypto firms, is delaying for the second time its plans to go public via a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), according to a statement on Feb. 7. 

The company announced its plans to go public in January 2022 through a merger with the SPAC company Arisz Acquisition Corp, anticipating to be publicly listed in the third quarter of that year and a pro forma enterprise value of nearly $1.5 billion. The new decision will postpone the public listing to May, helping the companies to consummate the business combination.

"The Extension provides Arisz with additional time to complete its proposed business combination with Finfront Holding Company (“BitFuFu”)," said the statement.

The extension is the second of two three-month extensions permitted under Arisz's governing documents. In other words, unless its shareholders approve a revision in its governing documents, the crypto cloud company is unable to delay the merger again. Alongside the new deadline, the move will provide an additional $690,000 to Arisz operations.

Related: How to mine Bitcoin at home

BitFuFu was founded with early investment from crypto hardware firm Bitmain and its core founding team members. In Feb 2022, Bitmain and BitFuFu announced a strategic partnership to offer standardized crypto mining services.

Market conditions and the crypto winter have impacted many crypto firm's public listing plans. On Dec. 5, the company issuer of USD Coin (USDC) Circle disclosed the mutual termination of its merger with the SPAC company Concord Acquisition. Circle was valued at $4.5 billion when the deal was announced in July 2021.

Crypto firm Bullish also announced in December 2022 that a deal to go public had been terminated after reaching an agreement with Far Peak Acquisition. The company cited market conditions and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission's work to introduce new frameworks for digital assets as reasons for not moving forward.

The IPOX SPAC index benchmark performance, which tracks aftermarket performance of SPAC companies, fell by 9.04% over the past 12 months.