Ionic Digital, a bitcoin miner backed by Celsius, has received SEC approval and is about to land on

Ionic Digital receives SEC approval to plan to list directly on Nasdaq on July 28.

Ionic Digital has received approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for its registration statement, clearing the last regulatory hurdle ahead of its planned direct listing on Nasdaq on July 28.

Summary

Ionic Digital has passed the last regulatory hurdle of the SEC before it plans to list directly on Nasdaq on July 28. Existing shareholders, including former Celsius creditors, will be able to sell Ionic's shares after it goes public under the ticker symbol IOND. While developing Bitcoin mining business, the company continues to develop its artificial intelligence and high-performance computing business.

According to a company statement released Monday, the digital infrastructure operator expects its Class A common stock to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol IOND, subject to meeting Nasdaq's final listing requirements.

The company entered the public market through a direct listing rather than a traditional initial public offering (IPO). Under this structure, Ionic will not issue new shares or raise new capital through transactions. Existing registered shareholders can sell their holdings on the open market after the transaction begins.

For many investors, the listing represents the first opportunity to trade shares acquired through the bankruptcy and reorganization of cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network. Ionic Digital was established in January 2024 to hold bitcoin mining assets transferred from Celsius assets after the U.S. bankruptcy court approved a restructuring plan for the lending platform.

Under the bankruptcy plan, former Celsius creditors acquired approximately 37 million Class A common shares and became shareholders. According to previous reports, Celsius continued to allocate funds through additional payment rounds, while some creditors were also eligible to obtain equity in Ionic Digital.

Unlike traditional IPOs, direct listings do not involve the underwriter setting the issue price. Instead, Nasdaq determines the opening price based on buy and sell orders collected before trading starts. Ionic also noted in an earlier SEC filing that a direct listing may experience higher price volatility because existing shareholders have access to public sales of shares and lack the price stabilization mechanism common in underwriting issues.

Ionic expands beyond Bitcoin mining

Although Ionic started as a Bitcoin mining company, it has increasingly positioned itself as a digital infrastructure provider that supports artificial intelligence and high-performance computing workloads.

Earlier this month, the company filed its S-1 registration statement with the SEC. Before seeking to go public, Ionic completed a round of approximately $400 million in private equity funding, which the company said will be used for general corporate purposes, including continued investment in digital infrastructure and data center construction.

According to earlier SEC filings, the pre-investment equity valuation for this round of financing is approximately US$2 billion. CEO Andy Stewart previously said the funding strengthens the company's capital base and allows it to continue building digital infrastructure platforms.

The company's strategy now goes far beyond cryptocurrency mining. Its Cedarvale campus in Ward County, Texas, has become the core of this transformation as parts of the campus have been realigned to support artificial intelligence and high-performance computing infrastructure.

Previous disclosures by the company showed that the Ward County property contained approximately 234 MW of installed capacity. Mining equipment at the site was retired at the end of 2025 as Ionic prepares to use the facility for artificial intelligence infrastructure under a long-term agreement with AI cloud service provider Nscale.

According to previous company documents, the lease period is 126 months and is expected to generate approximately US$1.95 billion in contract revenue, with possible expansion if further production capacity is approved by regulatory.

In the first quarter of 2026, Ionic reported digital infrastructure rental revenue of US$44 million, while Bitcoin mining revenue fell 82% year-on-year, from US$41.1 million to US$7.4 million.

The company also said revenue from artificial intelligence and other high-performance computing services is expected to eventually exceed revenue generated by Bitcoin mining.

Mining companies are turning to artificial intelligence

Ionic's transformation comes as several listed Bitcoin miners increase their investment in artificial intelligence data centers, and mining profitability is still under pressure.

It was previously reported that Bitcoin miners generated approximately US$1.086 billion in revenue in May, the best monthly performance since January. However, the subsequent decline in bitcoin prices led to a decline in mining profitability, a decline in hash prices, and a decline in network computing power, prompting some operators to scale back inefficient mining equipment.

Industry participants are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence infrastructure, as many mining companies already have large power supplies, cooling systems and data center facilities that can be transformed for high-performance computing workloads.

IREN has adopted a similar strategy. Earlier this year, the company completed its acquisition of Spain's Nostrum Group, adding approximately 490 MW of grid-connected power to support the expansion of its AI cloud business in Europe. IREN also reported that its AI cloud revenue increased in its latest quarter, while Bitcoin mining revenue fell.

HIVE Digital and Bitdeer have also announced projects to transform existing mining facilities into AI computing infrastructure, further indicating that miners are seeking additional sources of revenue beyond cryptocurrency production.

However, for Ionic, the upcoming Nasdaq listing does not just represent another mining company entering the open market. It also provides a long-awaited opportunity for former Celsius creditors to trade shares acquired through one of the largest bankruptcy restructurings in the cryptocurrency industry, while giving investors the opportunity to evaluate a business that is increasingly focused on artificial intelligence infrastructure rather than just Bitcoin mining.