According to a press announcement on Monday, Hut 8 Mining (HUT) has obtained up to $50 million in loans from Coinbase Credit to finance its operations, which at the moment involve finalizing a highly anticipated merger with rival US Bitcoin Corp (USBTC). In particular, with its plans to serve as the custodian for BlackRock’s well-publicized bitcoin exchange-traded fund, subject to regulatory approval, Coinbase (COIN) has been making inroads into the institutional market. Coinbase purchased institutional digital asset manager One River in March.
The press release stated that Hut 8’s new credit facility is made up of a $15 million term loan “which is expected to be funded at or shortly following closing,” an option to draw an additional $20 million between one and two months later, and an additional $15 million within 15 business days after concluding the merger with USBTC.Hut 8 shares did not change appreciably in early Monday trade. In one of two recent high-profile cases, the other one being launched against Binance, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Coinbase with running an unregistered securities exchange.
A subsidiary of the cryptocurrency exchange is Coinbase Credit, according to the company’s annual financial report for 2022. It was identified as a “finance subsidiary” in a prior filing.