Since the start of the week, crypto exchange Figure Markets has been mobilizing shareholders of Ionic Digital to push for changes in the Bitcoin mining firm’s board of directors.
Owned by creditors of the collapsed crypto lending company, Celsius, Ionic Digital has been in business since February 2024. It runs over 125,000 mining machines installed in five sites across the United States.
Figure Markets’ CEO Mike Cagney now says the exchange has garnered enough shareholder support to force Ionic Digital to schedule a board meeting. Speaking to media house Decrypt on Friday, Cagney said Celsius’ creditors were unhappy with the decisions made by the current directors and wanted some changes.
The creditors believe that Ionic Digital’s board of directors is self-centered and doesn’t act on behalf of the firm’s shareholders.
Figure Markets Wants Ionic Digital Listed on ATS
Meanwhile, Cagney says Figure Markets will seek to list Ionic Digital’s shares on the exchange’s ATS (Alternative Trading System) to allow shareholders, who have been illiquid since Celsius collapsed, to cash out their shareholdings.
On Thursday, Figure Markets sent a demand letter to the Ionic Digital CEO calling for the release of corporate records to enable shareholders to “investigate possible mismanagement, wrongdoing, corporate waste, and conflicts of interest.”
In the letter, Figure Markets demanded an explanation of why the Bitcoin miner delayed its IPO plans.
Ionic Digital’s Leadership Changes
The calls for a change in Ionic Digital’s board of directors come when the mining firm witnesses changes in its leadership. In August, the company’s former CEO, Matt Prusak, quit, forcing Ionic Digital to appoint John Penver as the Interim CEO.
The mining firm also announced that Hut 8 boss Asher Genoot and NYU professor Max Holmes had left their roles as directors. The two were replaced by the chairman of Spirit Airlines’ board of directors, Mac Gardner, and Playboy Enterprises’ former CEO Scott Flanders.
A few days after his appointment, Penver took to X to acknowledge that Ionic Digital had a broken communication channel with its shareholders. He announced that the Bitcoin miner was working on establishing a new platform to facilitate smooth company-shareholder communications.
Penver Explains Delays in Ionic Digital’s IPO Plans
Regarding IPO plans, Penver said they had stalled due to the sudden resignation of the firm’s auditor, RSM U.S. He argued that Ionic Digital was unable to update its SEC filings or continue the process of converting into a publicly traded company without an auditor. However, Penver told his followers that the Bitcoin Miner was evaluating several auditing firms to fill the role in the coming days.
The Interim CEO reiterated Ionic Digital’s commitment to being registered as a publicly traded company to enable shareholders to access liquidity whenever they wish. He claimed that he understood the frustration of Celsius’ creditors, who didn’t even choose to become Ionic Digital’s shareholders as it was only a result of the lender’s bankruptcy proceedings.
Meanwhile, Penver has refuted misconduct allegations, calling them baseless. Moreover, he blames Cagney for spreading inaccurate infomation that Ionic Digital would have become a publicly traded firm by June. He argues that the Bitcoin mining company hadn’t fulfilled MSA requirements at the time.
“We Have the Support of 86,000 Shareholders,” Figure Markets Says
Mike Abatte, the CIO at Figure Markets, says the exchange has mobilized 86,000 Iconic Digital Shareholders to champion a change in the mining firm’s board of directors. Like Cagney, Abatte claims that the shareholders are growing impatient and want Ionic Digital to be converted to a public entity as soon as possible.
It is worth mentioning that before his current role, Abatte was an executive of NovaWulf Digital Management, the investment company that was initially selected by Celsius debtors to distribute the lender’s assets. However, that did not happen as another investment firm, Fahrenheit, was given the green light to purchase Celsius’ assets. This deal also collapsed, forcing Celsius’ Committee of Unsecured Creditors to establish the Ionic Digital mining firm.
