Ionic Digital, a bitcoin miner built from the wreckage of Celsius Network's bankruptcy, surged more than 20% in its Nasdaq direct listing on July 28, 2026, as investors bought into the company's pivot from mining toward AI infrastructure. Trading under the ticker IOND, the stock's debut valued the company at roughly $2.25 billion to $2.8 billion depending on the pricing point measured, following an implied pre-money valuation of about $2 billion set in a roughly $400 million private equity round ahead of the listing.
Ionic was created in January 2024 to take ownership of bitcoin mining assets carved out of the Celsius Network estate after a U.S. bankruptcy court approved the lender's restructuring plan. Under that plan, former Celsius creditors received approximately 37 million Class A shares, and Tuesday's direct listing marked the first opportunity for those creditors to trade their holdings publicly. Because it chose a direct listing rather than a traditional IPO, Ionic did not issue new shares or raise fresh capital in the market debut itself.
From Mining Rigs to AI Data Centers
The listing's momentum is being driven less by bitcoin mining than by Ionic's shift into leasing infrastructure to AI cloud providers. The company signed a 126-month lease agreement with AI cloud provider Nscale at its Ward County, Texas facility, a deal expected to generate about $1.95 billion in contracted revenue over its term, with room for further expansion if additional capacity clears regulatory approval.
Ionic has also been expanding its power footprint internationally, completing an acquisition of Spain-based Nostrum Group that added roughly 490 megawatts of secured grid-connected power to support European AI cloud expansion — a sign the company is building out capacity well beyond its original Bitcoin-mining footprint.
Related: Bitcoin Anjlok di Bawah $63K Saat Kejatuhan Saham Chip Asia Guncang Wall Street
Mining Revenue in Steep Decline
The scale of Ionic's business shift shows up clearly in its most recent financials. In the first quarter of 2026, digital infrastructure leasing generated $44 million in revenue, while bitcoin mining revenue fell 82% year-over-year to just $7.4 million, down from $41.1 million a year earlier. CEO Andy Stewart has said the company's recent financing "strengthened the company's capital base as it continued building its digital infrastructure platform," underscoring that AI leasing, not hashrate, is now the priority.
Part of a Broader Miner Pivot
Ionic's trajectory mirrors a wider trend among publicly traded bitcoin miners, many of which have redirected capital and power contracts toward AI and high-performance computing hosting as mining margins have tightened. With mining revenue now a small fraction of its total business, Ionic's Nasdaq debut serves as a market test of whether investors are willing to value former mining companies primarily as AI infrastructure plays.
