CleanSpark (CLSK) 10-K2024 FY Annual report

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

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The aggregate market value of the common stock held by non-affiliates as of March 28, 2024 (the last business day of the registrant's most recently completed second fiscal quarter), was approximately $4,883,000,000 based on the per share closing price as of March 28, 2024 quoted on the Nasdaq Capital Market for the registrant’s common stock, which was $21.21.

As of December 3, 2024, there were 292,561,667 shares of common stock outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

CLEANSPARK, INC.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Form 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended

September 30, 2024

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains certain statements that are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). These forward-looking statements may include terminology such as “aim,” “anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “due,” “estimate,” “expect,” “goal,” “intend,” “may,” “objective,” “plan,” “predict,” “potential,” “positioned,” “seek,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would,” and other similar expressions that are predictions of or indicate future events and future trends, or the negative of these terms or comparable terminations. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding future operating results, potential risks pertaining to these future operating results, future plans or prospects, anticipated benefits of proposed (or future) acquisitions, dispositions and new facilities, growth, the capabilities and capacities of business operations, the remediation of the material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, any financial or other guidance, expected capital expenditures and all statements that are not based on historical fact, but rather reflect our current expectations concerning future results and events. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about our business and the industry in which we operate, as well as the economy, trends and other future conditions, are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, and are subject to changes based on various factors, some of which are beyond our control. Therefore, we can give no assurance that the results implied by these forward-looking statements will be realized. Furthermore, the inclusion of forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation by the Company or any other person that future events, plans or expectations contemplated by the Company will be achieved. The following important factors, among others, could affect future results and events, causing those results and events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements:

For a further list and description of various risks, factors and uncertainties that could cause future results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements, see the Risk Factors and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations sections contained in this document, and any subsequent reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K, and other filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Given these risks and uncertainties, the reader should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

You should read this document completely and with the understanding that our actual future results or events may be materially different from what we expect. All forward-looking statements attributable to us are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements.

Information regarding market and industry statistics contained in this report is included based on information available to us that we believe is accurate, but that is not produced for purposes of securities filings or economic analysis. We have not independently verified any market, industry or similar data presented in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and cannot assure you of its accuracy or completeness. Forecasts and other forward-looking statements obtained from these sources are subject to the same qualifications and the additional uncertainties accompanying any estimates of future market size, revenue and market acceptance of products and services.

All forward-looking statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are made only as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and we do not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that subsequently occur, or of which we hereafter become aware. As a result, investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

PART I

Item 1. Business

As used in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the terms “we,” “us,” “our,” the “Company,” “CleanSpark, Inc.” and “CleanSpark” mean CleanSpark, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries, unless otherwise indicated. Dollar amounts presented in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are presented in thousands, except per share amounts, bitcoin price, and information set forth under the heading “Bitcoin Mining Operations”.

Overview

CleanSpark is a bitcoin mining company. We independently own and operate a large portfolio of data centers across the United States with locations in Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Wyoming. As of October 31, 2024, we have with 676 megawatts (“MW”) of developed capacity and has 50 MWs of hosted machines in New York, which supports approximately 31.5 exahash per second (“EH/s”) of bitcoin mining computational power. We are currently developing an additional 211.5 MW across the portfolio, which is expected to support approximately 50 EH/s of mining capacity. We do not host miners for any other companies. A partner in Massena, NY, hosts 1.5 EH/s for us. However, following a non-renewal, the agreement governing such hosting of our miners is scheduled do expire on January 1, 2025 and we plan to move all operational capacity to wholly owned sites to maximize operational efficiency. We design our proprietary data center infrastructure to operate at high uptime and efficiency in support of bitcoin, the world’s most important digital commodity and an essential tool for financial independence and inclusion.

Through CleanSpark and our wholly owned subsidiaries, we have operated in the bitcoin mining sector since December 2020.

Business Activity

Bitcoin mining is our principal revenue generating business activity. As of September 30, 2024, we operated approximately 188,500 bitcoin mining machines, with a hashrate capacity of approximately 27.6 EH/s and a fleetwide efficiency of 21.94 joules per terahash (“J/TH”). In fiscal year 2024, we mined 7,092 bitcoins, net of mining pool fees, a 3% increase over the 6,903 bitcoins we mined in fiscal year 2023. We expect to continue increasing our computing power through 2024 and beyond as we expand our infrastructure at our portfolio of data centers across the United States with locations in Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Wyoming. We intend to continue growing our capacity and plan to pursue additional capacity through both organic growth and strategic acquisitions.

Bitcoin was introduced in 2008 with the goal of serving as a digital means of exchanging and storing value. Bitcoin depends on a consensus-based network and a public ledger called a “blockchain,” which contains a record of every bitcoin transaction ever processed. The bitcoin network is the first decentralized peer-to-peer payment network powered by users participating in the consensus protocol, with no central authority or intermediaries, that has wide network participation. The authenticity of each bitcoin transaction is protected through digital signatures that correspond with addresses of users that send and receive bitcoin. Users have full control over remitting bitcoin from their own sending addresses. All transactions on the bitcoin blockchain are transparent, allowing those running the appropriate software to confirm the validity of each transaction. To be recorded on the blockchain, each bitcoin transaction is broadcast across the network and validated by nodes. Miners then compete, using a proof-of-work consensus method, to find a target hash value, or output of a cryptographic function, and thereby add a new block and its transactions to the blockchain. This process is called mining. Miners are rewarded with bitcoins, in the form of newly-created bitcoins from the block subsidy and transaction fees included in that block.

Factors such as access to computer processing capacity, interconnectivity, electricity cost, environmental factors (such as cooling capacity) and location play important roles in mining. In bitcoin mining, “hashrate” is a measure of the computing and processing power and speed by which a mining computer mines and processes transactions on the bitcoin network. A company’s hashrate when compared to global hashrate determines its market share and is therefore generally considered one of the most important metrics for evaluating bitcoin mining companies.

We obtain bitcoin as a result of our mining operations by contributing all of our computing power (both owned locations and hosted locations) to one mining pool operator who is our sole customer. The contract with our mining pool operator is terminable at any time by either party. In exchange for providing computing power to the mining pool, we are entitled to bitcoin rewards from the mining pool operator, which is a variable consideration calculated based on a predetermined formula agreed to by us and the mining pool operator as a part of the arrangement. The variable consideration is constrained until we can reasonably estimate the amount of mining rewards by the end of a given day based on the actual amount of computing power provided to the mining pool operator. By then, we consider it a high probability that a significant reversal in the amount of revenue will not occur and include such variable consideration in the transaction price. Providing computing power is an output of our ordinary activities and the only performance obligation in our contracts with our mining pool operator. We recognize the revenue when the variable consideration is no longer constrained and the performance obligation of providing computing power has been satisfied. As a result, we do not present disaggregated revenue information on block rewards and transaction verification fees.

We have historically and may in the future sell bitcoin from time to time, to support our operations and strategic growth. Our decisions to engage in hedging, lending, borrowing activities, to hold or sell bitcoin at any given time may be impacted by the bitcoin market, which has been historically subject to significant volatility. Decisions to hedge, lend, borrow, hold or sell bitcoins are determined by management by analyzing forecasts and monitoring the market in real time.

Through our wholly owned subsidiaries CSRE Properties, LLC, CSRE Property Management Company, LLC, CSRE Properties Norcross, LLC, CSRE Properties Washington, LLC, CSRE Properties Sandersville, LLC, CSRE Properties Dalton, LLC, CSRE Properties Mississippi, LLC, CSRE Properties Wyoming, LLC, CSRE Properties Tennessee, LLC, and CleanSpark HQ, LLC, we maintain real property holdings.

Markets, Geography and Major Customers

Bitcoin is a global store of value and a medium of exchange used by people across the world as an asset and to conduct daily transactions. Mining bitcoin supports the global bitcoin blockchain and the millions of people that depend on it for economic security and other benefits. Strictly speaking, there is no customer market for mining bitcoin but we consider our mining pool operator a customer because it compensates us for providing processing power to the mining pool (see Part I, Item 1A., “Risk Factors”—“Our reliance on a third-party mining pool service provider for our mining revenue payouts may adversely affect an investment in us.”). We own and operate our own facilities and do not lease mining space to other mining companies or private individuals that mine. Our wholly-owned mining operations are located in the State of Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Wyoming in the United States. We also have a relationship with a facility located in New York State that hosts a portion of our miners. However, on October 1, 2024, we and our hosting partner, Coinmint, LLC, agreed to a non-renewal of the agreement governing the hosting of our miners, which is scheduled to expire January 1, 2025. See Note 19 - Subsequent Events.

Georgia Operations

As of September 30, 2024, our Georgia facilities have a developed data center infrastructure backed by approximately 483 MW, which supports an operational hashrate of 20.6 EH/s. Our Georgia operations are geographically spread across eight cities.

Mississippi Operations

As of September 30, 2024, our Mississippi facilities have a developed data center infrastructure backed by approximately 44 MW, which supports an operational hashrate of 2.0 EH/s. Our Mississippi operations are located in three cities and a fourth location is currently under construction.

Tennessee Operations

As of September 30, 2024, our Tennessee facilities have a developed data center infrastructure backed by 79 MW, which supports an operational hashrate of 3.5 EH/s. We have five owned locations, two of which were operational as of September 30, 2024. Our Tennessee operations are located in six cities. Additionally, we had three locations operating through a co-location hosting agreement with GRIID. Effective October 30, 2024, each of these co-locations became fully owned after completing the acquisition of GRIID (see Note 5 - Acquisitions). The Company also closed on the acquisition two of additional Tennessee locations in October 2024.

Wyoming Operations

As of September 30, 2024, we have two separate mining locations in Wyoming that are under construction and are expected to be operational between the first and second quarter of fiscal year 2025. These locations will include miners that are cooled through immersion technology, a method of submerging mining hardware in a non-conductive fluid to cool the equipment and improve its efficiency, and are expected to have approximately 75 MW of data center infrastructure power under contract.

The table below summarizes our portfolio of operating locations as of September 30, 2024.

Distribution, Marketing and Strategic Relationships

We have developed strategic relationships with well-established companies in key areas, including utilities, traditional and renewable energy, infrastructure, construction, and bitcoin mining equipment procurement. In addition to operating our own mining facilities, we may engage with third-parties to host and operate mining equipment on our behalf.

Coinmint

On July 8, 2021, our subsidiary CleanBlok, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, entered into a services agreement with Coinmint, LLC (“Coinmint”). Pursuant to the agreement, Coinmint has agreed to house and power certain of our bitcoin mining equipment in its facilities, and to use commercially reasonable efforts to mine bitcoin on our behalf. All bitcoin mining services performed by Coinmint are conducted using our own mining equipment. All computing power generated by our ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits) is contributed to our mining pool operator, Foundry Digital. As of the date of this filing, we have deployed approximately 16,400 total miners pursuant to the co-location mining services agreement at Coinmint’s facility in New York.

Pursuant to the agreement, as consideration for its services, we pay Coinmint certain services fees, which are based on the operating costs incurred by Coinmint in performing its services, and a variable fee calculated based on the profitability of the bitcoin mined during the relevant payment period, subject to uptime performance commitments. The agreement had an initial term of one year, after which it renews automatically for three-month periods until terminated in accordance with its terms. On October 1, 2024, we agreed to a non-renewal of the agreement, which is scheduled to expire January 1, 2025.

Materials and Suppliers

We engage in high efficiency bitcoin mining by using ASICs. These specialized computers, often called miners, have few manufacturers. Most of the machines we purchased this year were manufactured by Bitmain Technologies Delaware Limited (“Bitmain”), one of the top three preeminent manufacturers of bitcoin miners. Bitmain manufactures ASICs throughout Asia with subsidiaries in the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Kazakhstan and other locations.

In addition to ASICs, mining equipment includes networking equipment, power cords, racking, other specialized equipment, transformers and energy equipment. We rely on utility providers for our power needs. These utilities buy into local energy mixes to source power. We make every effort to establish our facilities in locations serviced by utilities that source a substantial portion of their energy from clean and renewable sources.

We have exposure to market fluctuations in energy prices through our power providers. We actively manage these risks through activities such as the deployment of advanced software solutions to increase unit efficiency and energy curtailment when appropriate. These energy market prices may be significantly impacted by market conditions and geopolitical events. Historically, our methodology and operations have been efficient and resilient enough to withstand market pressures and global events, but there can be no certainty that we will not be negatively affected in the future.

Inflationary pressures impact virtually all aspects of our materials and suppliers, including power prices, and could impact our fiscal year ending September 30, 2025.

Environmental Issues

No significant pollution or other types of hazardous emission result from our direct operations and it is not anticipated that our operations will be materially affected by federal, state or local provisions concerning environmental controls. Our costs of complying with environmental, health and safety requirements have not historically been material.

Some local, state and federal policymakers have expressed concerns over the high energy consumption of data centers, including bitcoin miners, and the ancillary effects on the environment from that energy consumption. Many media reports focus exclusively on the energy requirements of bitcoin mining and cite it as an environmental concern. We carefully monitor existing and pending climate change legislation, regulation, and international treaties or accords for any material effect on our business or markets that we serve, our operational results, our capital expenditures or our financial position.

We purchase energy from the electrical grid, and as a result our energy mix will vary from period to period based on a variety of factors including weather, temperature, demand, and how the grid operator ultimately procures and utilizes energy resources. Historically, one of our strategies had been to prioritize sustainable and environmentally friendly sources of energy, including nuclear energy sources. However, as we have accelerated our expansion efforts, including through multiple acquisitions of companies and assets, where we have focused on reliability and cost of the power, our overall energy source mix has changed, subject to the factors mentioned above. As a result, our current sources of energy include a significant portion of both non-carbon sources (including hydro, nuclear, wind and solar) and carbon sources (including coal and natural gas). We do not, however, currently have sufficient data to quantify the current energy mix at each of our sites, and any such data we receive is subject to the timing and details of the energy source mix information disclosed by our energy providers, including portions of the energy mix which is not disclosed by the energy providers.

Competition

Bitcoin mining is a global activity. During fiscal year 2021, a majority of bitcoin mining occurred in China. After China banned bitcoin mining in May 2021, the center of mining moved to North America. Bitcoin mining by its nature is a competitive business; all miners compete for the same number of bitcoin rewards. Our competitors include large, publicly listed mining companies, large private mining companies, and, in some cases, independent, individual miners who pool resources. We define our principal competitors as other publicly traded bitcoin miners because there is widely available information about their operations. We believe our principal competitive advantages include our energy background, and the efficiency of our mining fleet and our operational expertise in managing uptime of our owned and operated facilities. We strategically use bitcoin we mine as a store of value, to fund operational growth and the use of bitcoin as collateral for borrowing activities. We are dedicated to working with communities to help stabilize energy usage to capture stranded power that can assist with reducing power rates for residential purchasers of power. Within North America, our major competitors include:

In addition to the foregoing, we compete with other companies that focus all or a portion of their activities on mining activities at scale. We face significant competition in certain operational aspects of our business, including, but not limited to, the acquisition of new miners, obtaining low-cost electricity, obtaining access to energy sites with reliable sources of power and evaluating new technology developments in the industry.

Intellectual Property

We do not currently own any patents in connection with our existing and planned bitcoin mining-related operations. We do rely, and expect to continue relying, upon trade secrets, trademarks, service marks, trade names, copyrights and other intellectual property rights.

Government Regulation

Bitcoin mining is largely an unregulated activity at both the state and federal level. We anticipate that bitcoin mining will be a focus for increased regulation in the near- and long-term, and we cannot predict how future regulations may affect our business or operations.

State regulation of bitcoin mining is important with respect to where we conduct our mining operations. The majority of our mining facilities are located in Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee, which have favorable regulatory environments for bitcoin miners. However, we also have co-location operations in New York, which has generally been more aggressive in its regulation of bitcoin mining. We have terminated our agreement with our hosting facility in New York and effective after January 1, 2025, we will no longer have co-location activities in the state.

In addition, federal regulators have increased their enforcement activity in the digital asset industry. Federal agencies such as the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) have brought a number of enforcement actions, including actions against significant players in the industry. In fiscal year 2023, for example, the CFTC brought 47 actions involving conduct related to digital asset commodities, representing more than 49 percent of all actions filed by the CFTC during that time period. Increased enforcement by agencies like the SEC and CFTC has resulted in part from the failure of FTX Trading Ltd. (“FTX”) in November 2022 and the resulting market turmoil that such failure caused.

While these statements tend to focus more on digital asset exchanges and other players in the digital asset space and less on bitcoin miners, the failure of large exchanges may impact the adoption and value of bitcoin. Additionally, because we sell our bitcoin on exchanges, we may also be impacted by exchange failures in that respect. For those reasons, we carefully vet the exchanges we use for adequate compliance with U.S. laws as well as liquidity, using the information available to us, but we cannot be certain that we will be able to avoid the negative effects of a large exchange failure.

As the regulatory and legal environment evolves, we may become subject to new laws and regulations, including by the SEC, CFTC and other agencies, which may affect our mining and other activities. For additional discussion regarding our belief about the potential risks existing and future regulation pose to our business, see Part I, Item 1A. “Risk Factors” beginning on page 13 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Protection of Bitcoin Assets

Our share of bitcoins mined from our pool is initially received by us in wallets we control, which are maintained by Coinbase Inc. (“Coinbase”), a U.S.-based digital assets exchange. We sell portions of the bitcoin we mine and utilize hot wallets to hold this bitcoin immediately prior to selling for working capital purposes. We hold any remainder of our bitcoin in cold storage. Bitcoin held in cold storage is reconciled monthly and associated with unique blockchain addresses, with their activity recorded on the blockchain. For security reasons, Coinbase does not disclose the geographic location of its cold storage wallets to its customers. Our custody agreement with Coinbase provides that Coinbase will obtain and maintain at its sole expense insurance coverage in such types and amounts as are commercially reasonable for the custodial services provided under the custody agreement. We do not carry additional insurance coverage on our bitcoin holdings. Further we are not aware of any insurance providers or other third parties (e.g. auditors) having inspection or other verification rights associated with digital assets held in storage.

Bitcoins we mine or hold for our own account may be subject to loss, theft or restriction on access. Hackers or malicious actors may launch attacks to steal, compromise or secure bitcoins, such as by attacking the bitcoin network source code, exchange miners, third-party platforms (including Coinbase), cold and hot storage locations or software, or by other means. We may be in control and possession of substantial holdings of bitcoin, and as we increase in size, we may become a more appealing target of hackers, malware, cyberattacks or other security threats.

See Part I, Item 1C. “Cybersecurity” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Insurance

We have property insurance coverage for our bitcoin miners under a multi-tiered insurance program with 21 different underwriters for a total of $200,000 in limits. This insurance coverage covers all of our bitcoin miners and includes earthquake and flood insurance with a $5,000 limit. Storm, wind, and hail coverage is also included within the $200,000 policy limit. We do not maintain Business Interruption Coverage, which is currently not commercially available for bitcoin mining companies. The policies also exclude coverage of our bitcoin holdings and cybersecurity coverage. We engage our insurance broker annually to solicit underwriters to provide proposals to renew our current coverage or update our policies to meet our needs, prior to the policies’ expiration on November 1st of each year.

Human Resources

We believe that our future success depends, in no small part, on our ability to continue to attract, hire, and retain qualified personnel. As of September 30, 2024, we had 270 staff members, all located in the United States, of which 256 were full time. We believe that we have adequate personnel and resources with the specialized skills required to carry out our operations successfully. Employees participate in equity incentive plans and receive generous compensation in the form of salary and benefits. We continually seek to hire and retain talented professionals, although the competition for such personnel in our segments is significant. None of our employees are represented by a labor union, and we have never experienced a work stoppage. We believe we have a strong and engaging relationship with our employees.

We cultivate trust and transparency among our employees, the communities we operate in, and the people around the world who depend on bitcoin as we jointly strive to build the infrastructure of the future.

Discontinued Operations

As of June 30, 2022, we deemed our energy operations to be discontinued operations due to our strategic decision to strictly focus on bitcoin mining operations and to divest or dispose of the remaining energy assets. Through our discontinued operations segment, we previously provided energy solutions and we have since sold or disposed of the related assets.

Other Business Activities

Through our wholly owned subsidiary ATL Data Centers LLC (“ATL”), we previously provided traditional data center services to a small number of remaining clients, such as providing customers with rack space, power and equipment, and offered several cloud services including virtual services, virtual storage, and data backup services. As of September 30, 2023, ATL no longer provided data center services to external customers and all capacity of the location is now dedicated to bitcoin mining activities.

Company Information

CleanSpark, Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Henderson, Nevada. It is incorporated in Nevada. The Company was formerly known as Stratean Inc. and changed its name to CleanSpark, Inc. in November 2016. We maintain a corporate website at: www.cleanspark.com.

The contents of our website are not incorporated in, or otherwise to be regarded as part of, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We file reports with the SEC. These reports include annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, Section 16 filings on Form 3, Form 4, and Form 5, and other related filings and exhibits, each of which is provided on our website free of charge as soon as reasonably practical after we electronically file such materials with or furnish them to the SEC. In addition, the SEC maintains a website (www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC, including the Company.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

We are subject to various risks that may materially harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. An investment in our common stock is speculative and involves risk. In evaluating an investment in shares of our common stock, you should carefully consider the risks described below, together with the other information included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

The risks described below are not the only risks we face. If any of the events described in the following risk factors actually occurs, or if additional risks and uncertainties later materialize that are not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial, then our business, prospects, results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment in our shares. The risks discussed below include forward-looking statements, and our actual results may differ substantially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements.

Risk Factors Summary

Below is a summary of the principal factors that make an investment in our common stock speculative or risky. This summary does not address all of the risks we face. Additional discussion of the risks summarized in this risk factor summary, and other risks that we face, can be found below and should be carefully considered, together with other information included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Risks Related to Our Business

Risks Related to Governmental Regulation and Enforcement Operations

Risks Related to Our Securities

Risks Related to Our Business

Our ability to achieve profitability is dependent on the price of bitcoin, which has historically been volatile.

Our primary focus on our bitcoin mining operations and our associated expansion efforts is largely based on our assumptions regarding the future value of bitcoin, which has been subject to significant historical volatility and may be subject to influence from malicious actors, real or perceived scarcity, political, economic, and regulatory conditions, and speculation making its price more volatile.

It is difficult to accurately predict the future market price of bitcoin, which may inhibit consumer trust in and market acceptance of bitcoin as a means of exchange, thereby potentially limiting the future adoption of bitcoin and resulting in our assumptions proving to be incorrect. If our assumptions prove incorrect and the future price of bitcoin is not sufficiently high, our income from our bitcoin mining operations may not exceed our costs, and our operations may never achieve profitability.

We have a limited operating history and a history of operating losses and negative cash flow, and we may never achieve consistent profitability.

Our limited operating history, in particular our recent entry into the bitcoin mining business, makes it difficult to evaluate our business and predict our future results of operations. Although we have achieved profitable quarters in the past, to date, we have not maintained consistent profitability from period to period, and no assurances can be made that we will achieve consistent profitability in the near future, if ever. From the Company’s inception through September 30, 2024, we sustained $479,218 in cumulative net losses, and we had a net loss from our continuing operations for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2024 of $145,777. We have generated these losses as we execute our business plan and expand on our bitcoin mining activities as bitcoin prices have at times been in a bear market. The extent to which we will continue to recognize losses in our continuing operations is dependent on bitcoin prices, among other factors.

Our future success is difficult to predict because we operate in emerging and evolving industries that are subject to volatile and unpredictable cycles.

The bitcoin mining and related industries are emerging and evolving, which may lead to period-to-period variability in our operating results and may make it difficult to evaluate our future prospects. If we are not able to timely and appropriately adapt to changes in our business environment or to accurately assess where we are positioned within a business cycle, our business, financial condition or results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

The markets in which we participate are highly competitive, and we may be unable to successfully compete.

We compete in the highly competitive market for certain operational aspects of our bitcoin mining business, including, but not limited to, the acquisition of new miners, obtaining the lowest cost of electricity, obtaining clean energy sources, obtaining access to energy sites with reliable sources of power and evaluating new technology developments in the industry. Evolving industry standards, rapid price changes and product obsolescence impact the market and its various participants, including us. Our competitors include many domestic and foreign companies, many of which have substantially greater financial, marketing, personnel and other resources than we do, which may cause us to be at a competitive disadvantage. The success of our bitcoin mining business will be dependent upon our ability to purchase additional miners, adapt to changes in technology in the industry, and to obtain sufficient energy at reasonable prices, amongst other things.

A significant part of our success will depend on our reliance on and ability to manage our construction contractors and suppliers, including mining equipment suppliers, in order to meet our expansion efforts in keeping with planned timelines and cost estimates, and any failure to do so could materially and adversely affect our results of operations and relations with our customers.

We rely on a limited number of suppliers for the purchase and delivery of our miners to support our bitcoin mining operations. There can be no assurance that such key suppliers and manufacturers will provide components, products or miners in a timely and cost-efficient manner or otherwise meet our needs and expectations. Any disruption in the operations of such key suppliers or manufacturers could delay our ability to expand our bitcoin mining operations. Our ability to manage such relationships and timely replace suppliers and manufacturers, if necessary, is critical to our success. Our failure to timely replace our manufacturers and suppliers, should that become necessary, could materially and adversely affect our results of operations. For example, we depend on Bitmain, MicroBT, Canaan Crypt Solutions and Sunnyside Digital for our miners and any change in their ability to manufacture or distribute and deliver these products could have a significant impact on our results of operations. Supply chain disruptions resulting from factors such as inflation, labor supply and shipping container shortages and the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted, and may continue to impact, us and our third-party manufacturers and suppliers. We are reliant on third parties for our expansion efforts, including construction contractors and suppliers of infrastructure, to provide accurate estimates and timelines. If those parties experience delays, cannot access adequate capital, or are exposed to inflation pressures or supply chain disruptions, our expansion efforts will be similarly impacted.

We rely heavily on our management team, whose continued service and performance is critical to our future success. Any failure by management to properly manage growth, including hiring and retaining competent and skilled management and other personnel, could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.

We currently have six executive officers — our Chief Executive Officer and President, Zachary Bradford, our Chief Financial Officer, Gary Vecchiarelli, our Executive Chairman, S. Matthew Schultz, our Chief Operating Officer, Scott Garrison, our Chief Technology Officer, Taylor Monnig, and our Chief Accounting Officer, Brian Carson — who are responsible for our management functions and are responsible for strategic development, financing and other critical functions. Our future success depends significantly on the continued service and performance of our existing management team. The departure, death, disability or other extended loss of services of any member of our management team, particularly with little or no notice, could cause delays on projects, frustrate our growth prospects and could have an adverse impact on our industry relationships, our project exploration and development programs, other aspects of our business and our financial condition, results of operations, cash flow and prospects.

Our success, growth prospects and ability to capitalize on market opportunities also depend to a significant extent on our ability to identify, hire, motivate and retain qualified managerial personnel, including additional senior members of management. Our growth may be constrained by resource limitations as competitors and customers compete for increasingly scarce human capital resources. The demand for professionals familiar with bitcoin mining and other skilled workers is currently high. Our competitors may be able to offer a work environment with higher compensation or more opportunities than we can. Any new personnel we hire may not be or become as productive as we expect, as we may face challenges in adequately or appropriately integrating them into our workforce and culture. If we are unable to attract and retain a sufficient number of skilled personnel, our ability to successfully implement our business plan, grow our company and maintain or expand our mining operations may be adversely affected, and the costs of doing so may increase, which may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our planned expansion could also place significant demands on our management, operations, systems, accounting, internal controls and financial resources. If we experience difficulties in any of these areas, we may not be able to expand our business successfully or effectively manage our growth. Any failure by management to manage growth and to respond to changes in our business could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We have engaged in, and in the future may engage in, strategic acquisitions and other arrangements that could disrupt our business, cause dilution to our stockholders, reduce our financial resources and harm our operating results.

We have regularly engaged in strategic transactions, including acquisitions of companies, technologies and personnel, such as our recent asset and business acquisitions related to our Georgia, Mississippi, Wyoming and Tennessee properties, and, as part of our growth strategy, in the future, we expect to seek additional opportunities to grow our mining operations, including through purchases of miners and facilities from other operating companies, including companies in financial distress. Our ability to grow through future acquisitions will depend on the availability of, and our ability to identify, suitable acquisition and investment opportunities at an acceptable cost, our ability to compete effectively to attract those opportunities and the availability of financing to complete acquisitions. Previous acquisitions have required, and future acquisitions will likely require, us to issue common stock that would dilute our current stockholders’ percentage ownership, assume or otherwise be subject to liabilities of an acquired company, record goodwill and non-amortizable intangible assets that will be subject to impairment testing on a regular basis and potential periodic impairment charges, incur amortization expenses related to certain intangible assets, incur large acquisition and integration costs, immediate write-offs, and restructuring and other related expenses and/or become subject to litigation.

The benefits of an acquisition may also take considerable time to develop, and we cannot be certain that any particular acquisition will produce the intended benefits in a timely manner or to the extent anticipated or at all. We may experience difficulties integrating the operations, technologies and personnel of an acquired company or be subjected to liability for the target’s pre-acquisition activities or operations as a successor in interest. Such integration may divert management’s attention from normal daily operations of our business. Future acquisitions may also expose us to potential risks, including risks associated with entering markets in which we have no or limited prior experience, especially when competitors in such markets have stronger market positions, the possibility of insufficient revenues to offset the expenses we incur in connection with an acquisition and the potential loss of, or harm to, our relationships with employees and suppliers as a result of integration of new businesses.

We may not be able to timely complete our future strategic growth initiatives or within our anticipated cost estimates, if at all.

As part of our efforts to grow our hashrate and remain competitive in the market, we have acquired facilities, entered into new and re-negotiated purchased power agreements and invested in additional new and used mining equipment. We are also reliant on third parties for our expansion efforts, including construction contractors and providers of infrastructure equipment, who may be burdened by delays in manufacturing, supply chain problems, less access to capital due to macro-economic conditions, or inflation. This could increase our costs and/or delay our expansion and acquisition efforts. If we are unable to complete our planned expansions or acquisitions on schedule and within our anticipated cost estimates, our deployment of newly purchased miners may be delayed, which could affect our competitiveness and our results of operation, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and the market price for our securities.

We may experience increased compliance costs as a result of future strategic acquisitions.

Future strategic acquisitions could carry substantial compliance burdens, which may limit our ability to realize the anticipated benefits of such acquisitions, and which may require our management and personnel to shift their focus to such compliance burdens and away from their other functions. Such increased costs and compliance burdens could affect our ability to realize the anticipated benefits of such strategic acquisitions, and our business, results of operations and financial condition may suffer as a result.

In the future, we may require additional financing to sustain and expand our operations, and we may not be able to obtain financing on acceptable terms, or at all, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flow and prospects.

Our ability to operate profitably and to grow our business is dependent upon, among other things, generating sufficient revenue from our operations and, when and if needed, obtaining financing. If we are unable to generate sufficient revenues to operate and/or expand our business, we will be required to raise additional capital to fund operating deficits (if applicable) and the growth of our business, pursue our business plans and to finance our operating activities, including through equity or debt financings, which may not be available to us on favorable terms, or at all. Our ability to obtain capital through sales of bitcoin may also be impacted by the volatility in the price of bitcoin.

We have previously raised capital to finance our strategic growth of our business through public offerings of our common stock, including through our at-the-market offering program, and we expect to need to raise additional capital through similar public offerings to finance the completion of current and future expansion initiatives. Utilizing those sources may be more challenging in the current financial market conditions, in particular where trading volume is diminished. We may not be able to obtain additional debt or equity financing on favorable terms, if at all, which could impair our growth and adversely impact our existing operations.

To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, stockholder ownership interest in the Company may be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect rights as a stockholder. Debt and equity financings, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as redeeming our shares of common stock, making investments, incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends.

We maintain our cash at financial institutions, often in balances that exceed federally insured limits.

We maintain our cash at financial institutions, often in balances that exceed federally insured limits. We maintain the majority of our cash and cash equivalents in accounts at banking institutions in the United States that we believe are of high quality. Cash held in these accounts often exceed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) insurance limits. If such banking institutions were to fail, we could lose all or a portion of the amounts held in excess of such insurance limitations. The FDIC took control of three such banking institutions, Silicon Valley Bank on March 10, 2023, Signature Bank on March 12, 2023 and First Republic Bank on May 1, 2023. While we did not have an account at any of these three banks, in the event of the failure of any of the financial institutions where we maintain our cash and cash equivalents, there can be no assurance that we would be able to access uninsured funds in a timely manner or at all. Any inability to access or delay in accessing these funds could adversely affect our business and financial position. Our ability to open accounts at certain financial institutions is limited by the policies of such financial institutions to not accept clients that are in the digital asset industry.

The impact of geopolitical and economic events on the demand for bitcoin is uncertain.

Geopolitical crises may trigger large-scale purchases of bitcoin, which could rapidly increase the price of bitcoin. This may, however, also increase the likelihood of a subsequent price swing in the opposite direction as crisis-driven purchasing behavior dissipates, ultimately decreasing the value of bitcoin or any other digital asset in our possession. Such risks are similar to the risks of purchasing commodities in generally uncertain times, such as the risk of purchasing, holding or selling gold.

Alternatively, global crises and economic downturns may discourage investment in bitcoin and digital assets in general as investors shift their investments towards less volatile asset classes. Such events could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of bitcoin we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account.

The value of bitcoin has historically been subject to wide swings. Because we do not currently hedge our investment in bitcoin and do not intend to for the foreseeable future, we are directly exposed to bitcoin’s price volatility and surrounding risks.

The market price of one bitcoin in our principal market ranged from approximately $26,500 to $73,800 during the fiscal year ended September 30, 2024, $15,500 to $31,900 during the fiscal year ended September 30, 2023 and ranged from approximately $17,600 to $69,000 during the fiscal year ended September 30, 2022. While bitcoin prices are determined primarily using data from various exchanges, over-the-counter markets and derivative platforms, they have historically been volatile and are impacted by a variety of factors. Such factors include, but are not limited to, the worldwide growth in the adoption and use of bitcoin, the maintenance and development of the software protocol of the bitcoin network, changes in consumer demographics and public tastes, fraudulent or illegitimate actors, real or perceived scarcity, and political, economic, regulatory or other conditions. Furthermore, pricing may be the result of, and may continue to result in, speculation regarding future appreciation in the value of bitcoin, or our share price, making prices more volatile.

Currently, we do not use a formula or specific methodology to determine whether or when we will sell bitcoin that we hold, or the number of bitcoins we will sell. Rather, decisions to hold or sell bitcoins are currently determined by management by analyzing forecasts and monitoring the market in real time. Such decisions, however well-informed, may result in untimely sales and even losses, adversely affecting an investment in us. At this time, we do not anticipate engaging in any hedging activities related to our holding of bitcoin; this would expose us to substantial decreases in the price of bitcoin.

The development and acceptance of competing blockchain platforms or technologies may cause consumers to use alternative distributed ledgers or other alternatives.

The development and acceptance of competing blockchain platforms or technologies may cause consumers to abandon bitcoin. As we exclusively mine bitcoin, and expect to exclusively mine bitcoin in the future, we could face difficulty adapting to emergent digital ledgers, blockchains or alternatives thereto. This could prevent us from realizing the anticipated profits from our investments. Such circumstances could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account and therefore harm investors.

Bitcoin is subject to halving; the reward for successfully solving a block will halve several times in the future and its value may not adjust to compensate us for the reduction in the rewards we receive from our mining efforts.

Halving is a process designed to control the overall supply and reduce the risk of inflation in cryptocurrencies using a Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm. In an event referred to as bitcoin “halving,” the bitcoin reward for mining any block is cut in half. For example, the mining reward for bitcoin declined from 6.25 to 3.125 bitcoin on April 19, 2024. This process is scheduled to occur once every 210,000 blocks. It is estimated that bitcoin will next halve in April 2028 and then approximately every four years thereafter until the total amount of bitcoin rewards issued reaches 21 million, which is expected to occur around 2140. Once 21 million bitcoin are generated, the network will stop producing more. Currently, there are more than 19 million bitcoin in circulation. While bitcoin prices have had a history of price fluctuations around halving events, there is no guarantee that any such price change will be favorable or would compensate for the reduction in mining reward. If a corresponding and proportionate increase in the price of bitcoin does not follow these anticipated halving events, the revenue from our mining operations would decrease, and we may not have an adequate incentive to continue mining and may cease mining operations altogether, which may adversely affect an investment in us.

Furthermore, such reductions in bitcoin rewards for uncovering blocks may result in a reduction in the aggregate hashrate of the bitcoin network as the incentive for miners decreases. Miners ceasing operations would reduce the collective processing power on the network, which would adversely affect the confirmation process for transactions and make the bitcoin network more vulnerable to malicious actors or botnets obtaining control in excess of 50% of the processing power active on the blockchain. Such events may adversely affect our activities and an investment in us.

Our reliance on a third-party mining pool service provider for our mining revenue payouts may adversely affect an investment in us.

We currently rely on Foundry Digital’s open access mining pool (“pool”) that supports bitcoin to receive our mining rewards and fees from the network. Our pool has the sole discretion to modify the terms of our agreement at any time, and, therefore, our future rights and relationship with our pool may change. In general, mining pools allow miners to combine their computing and processing power, increasing their chances of solving a block and getting rewarded by the bitcoin network. The rewards, distributed proportionally to our contribution to the pool’s overall mining power, are distributed by the pool operator. Should our pool’s operator systems suffer downtime due to a cyber-attack, software malfunction or other similar issues, our ability to mine and receive revenue will be negatively impacted. Furthermore, while we receive daily reports from our pool detailing the total processing power provided to the pool and the proportion of that total processing power we provided to determine the distribution of rewards to us, we are dependent on the accuracy of our pool’s record keeping. Therefore, we have little means of recourse against our pool's operator if we determine the proportion of the reward paid out to us by the mining pool operator is incorrect, other than leaving the pools. If we are unable to consistently obtain accurate proportionate rewards from our pool, we may experience reduced rewards for our efforts, which would have an adverse effect on our business and operations.

Forks in the bitcoin network may occur in the future, which may affect the value of bitcoins held by us.

A small group of contributors can propose refinements or improvements to the bitcoin network’s source code that alter the protocols and software that govern the bitcoin network and the properties of bitcoin, including the irreversibility of transactions and limitations on the mining of new bitcoin. This is known as a “fork.” In the event a developer or group of developers proposes modifications to the bitcoin network that are not accepted by a majority of miners and users, but that are nonetheless accepted by a substantial plurality of miners and users, two or more competing and incompatible blockchain implementations could result. This is known as a “hard fork.”

The value of bitcoin after the creation of a fork is subject to many factors, including, but not limited to, the value of the fork product, market reaction to the creation of the fork product and the occurrence of forks in the future. As such, existing forks, such as Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold, and future forks may have a negative effect on bitcoin’s value and may adversely affect an investment in us.

The open-source structure of the bitcoin network protocol means that the contributors to the protocol are generally not directly compensated for their contributions in maintaining and developing the protocol. A failure to properly monitor and upgrade the protocol could damage the bitcoin network and an investment in us.

As an open-source project, bitcoin does not generate revenues for its contributors, and contributors are generally not compensated for maintaining and updating the bitcoin network protocol. The lack of guaranteed financial incentives for contributors to maintain or develop the bitcoin network and the lack of guaranteed resources to adequately address emerging issues with the bitcoin network may reduce incentives to address the issues adequately or in a timely manner. To the extent that contributors may fail to adequately update and maintain the bitcoin network protocol, there may be a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account.

Banks and financial institutions may not provide banking services, or may cut off services, to businesses that engage in cryptocurrency-related activities.

A number of companies that engage in bitcoin and/or other cryptocurrency-related activities have been unable to find banks or financial institutions that are willing to provide them with bank accounts and other services. Similarly, a number of companies and individuals or businesses associated with cryptocurrencies may have had and may continue to have their existing bank accounts closed or services discontinued with financial institutions. To the extent that such events may happen to us, they could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account.

Bitcoins held by us are not subject to FDIC or SIPC protections.

We do not hold our bitcoins with a banking institution or a member of the FDIC or the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (“SIPC”), and, therefore, our bitcoins are not subject to the protections enjoyed by depositors with FDIC or SIPC member institutions. As a result, we may suffer a loss with respect to our bitcoins that are not covered by insurance, and we may not be able to recover any of our carried value in these bitcoins if they are lost or stolen or suffer significant and sustained reduction in conversion spot price. If we are not otherwise able to recover damages in connection with these losses, our business and results of operations may suffer, which may have a material negative impact on our stock price.

Bitcoins we mine or hold for our own account may be subject to loss, theft or restriction on access.

There is a risk that some or all of our bitcoins could be lost or stolen. Bitcoins are stored in and accessed by cryptocurrency sites commonly referred to as “wallets.” A hot wallet refers to any cryptocurrency wallet that is connected to the Internet. Generally, hot wallets are easier to set up and access than wallets in cold storage, but they are also more susceptible to hackers and other technical vulnerabilities. Cold storage refers to any cryptocurrency wallet that is not connected to the Internet. Cold storage is generally more secure than hot storage, but is not ideal for quick or regular transactions. As of September 30, 2024, we held approximately 99% of our bitcoin in cold storage and 1% in hot wallets. Due to our usage of in cold storage, we may experience lag time in our ability to respond to market fluctuations in the price of our cryptocurrency assets.

We currently mine bitcoin by contributing to and benefiting from our pool’s processing power. Our share of bitcoins mined from our pool is initially received by us in wallets we control, which are maintained by Coinbase. We currently sell the majority of the bitcoin we mine and utilize hot wallets to hold this bitcoin immediately prior to selling for working capital purposes. We hold any remainder of our bitcoin in cold storage. Bitcoins we mine or hold for our own account may be subject to loss, theft or restriction on access. Hackers or malicious actors may launch attacks to steal, compromise or secure bitcoins, such as by attacking the bitcoin network source code, exchange miners, third-party platforms (including Coinbase), cold and hot storage locations or software, or by other means. We may be in control and possession of substantial holdings of bitcoin, and as we increase in size, we may become a more appealing target of hackers, malware, cyber-attacks or other security threats.

In addition, our borrowings under the Master Loan (as defined below) are collateralized by approximately $78,125 of bitcoin as of September 30, 2024. Pursuant to the terms of the Master Loan and related security agreement, Coinbase has the right to sell, pledge, rehypothecate, assign, use or otherwise dispose of the bitcoin collateralizing our borrowings under the Master Loan. This could increase our exposure to the risk of a counterparty default since, under such circumstances, we may be unable to recover the posted collateral promptly or may be unable to recover all of the posted collateral Any of these events may adversely affect our operations and, consequently, our investments and profitability.

If a malicious actor or botnet obtains control of more than 50% of the processing power on the bitcoin network, such actor or botnet could manipulate the network to adversely affect us, which would adversely affect an investment in us.

If a malicious actor or botnet, a collection of computers controlled by networked software coordinating the actions of the computers, obtains over 50% of the processing power dedicated to mining bitcoin, such actor or botnet may be able to construct fraudulent blocks or prevent certain transactions from completing in a timely manner, or at all. The malicious actor or botnet could control, exclude or modify the order of transactions, though it could not generate new units or transactions using such control. The malicious actor or botnet could also “double-spend,” or spend the same bitcoin in more than one transaction, or it could prevent transactions from being validated. In certain instances, reversing any fraudulent or malicious changes made to the bitcoin blockchain may not be possible.

Although there are no known reports of malicious activity or control of blockchains achieved through controlling over 50% of the processing power on the bitcoin network, it is believed that certain mining pools may have exceeded, and could exceed, the 50% threshold on the bitcoin network. This possibility creates a greater risk that a single mining pool could exert authority over the validation of bitcoin transactions. To the extent that the bitcoin ecosystem, and the administrators of mining pools, do not have adequate controls and responses in place, the risk of a malicious actor obtaining control of the processing power may increase. If such an event were to occur, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account and harm investors.

The loss or destruction of private keys required to access our bitcoins may be irreversible. Our loss of access to our private keys or our experience of a data loss relating to our bitcoins could adversely affect an investment in us.

Bitcoins may only be controlled by the possessor of both the unique public and private keys relating to the local or online digital wallet in which they are held. We publish the public key relating to digital wallets in use when we verify the receipt or transfers of bitcoins to and from our wallets and disseminate such information into the network on an anonymous basis, but we safeguard the private keys relating to such digital wallets. Digital asset exchanges, such as Coinbase, where we hold our bitcoin, engage in similar practices. To the extent such private keys are lost, destroyed or otherwise compromised, we will be unable to access our bitcoins and such private keys may not be capable of being restored by any network. Any loss of private keys relating to digital wallets used to store our bitcoins whether by us or digital asset exchanges where we hold our bitcoin, could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account.

The digital asset exchanges on which cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, trade are relatively new and largely unregulated, and thus may be exposed to fraud and failure. Such failures may result in a reduction in the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and can adversely affect an investment in us.

Digital asset exchanges on which cryptocurrencies trade are relatively new and, in most cases, largely unregulated. Many digital exchanges do not provide the public with significant information regarding their ownership structure, management teams, corporate practices or regulatory compliance. As a result, the marketplace may lose confidence in, or may experience problems relating to, cryptocurrency exchanges, including prominent exchanges handling a significant portion of the volume of digital asset trading.

A perceived lack of stability in the digital asset exchange market and the closure or temporary shutdown of digital asset exchanges due to business failure, hackers or malware, government-mandated regulation, or fraud, may reduce confidence in digital asset networks and result in greater volatility in cryptocurrency values. These potential consequences of a digital asset exchange’s failure could adversely affect an investment in us.

We may face several risks due to disruptions in the digital asset markets, including but not limited to the risk from depreciation in our stock price, financing risk, risk of increased losses or impairments in our investments or other assets, risks of legal proceedings and government investigations, and risks from price declines or price volatility of digital assets.

In the second half of 2022 and beginning of 2023, some of the well-known digital asset market participants, including Celsius Network, Voyager Digital Ltd., Three Arrows Capital and Genesis Global Holdco LLC, declared bankruptcy, resulting in a loss of confidence in participants of the digital asset ecosystem and negative publicity surrounding digital assets more broadly. In November 2022, FTX, the third-largest digital asset exchange by volume at the time, halted customer withdrawals, and shortly thereafter, FTX and its subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy.

In response to these and other similar events (including significant activity by various regulators regarding digital asset activities, such as enforcement actions, against a variety of digital asset entities, including Coinbase, Kraken and Binance), the digital asset markets, including the market for bitcoin specifically, have experienced extreme price volatility and several other entities in the digital asset industry have been, and may continue to be, negatively affected, further undermining confidence in the digital asset markets and in bitcoin. These events have also negatively impacted the liquidity of the digital asset markets as certain entities affiliated with FTX and platforms such as Coinbase, Kraken and Binance have engaged, or may continue to engage, in significant trading activity. If the liquidity of the digital asset markets continues to be negatively impacted by these events, digital asset prices (including the price of bitcoin) may continue to experience significant volatility and confidence in the digital asset markets may be further undermined. These events are continuing to develop and it is not possible to predict at this time all of the risks that they may pose to us, our service providers or on the digital asset industry as a whole.

Although we had no direct exposure to FTX or any of the above-mentioned cryptocurrency companies (with the exception of Coinbase, which is discussed in “—Potential that, in the event of a bankruptcy filing by a custodian, bitcoin held in custody could be determined to be property of a bankruptcy estate and we could be considered a general unsecured creditor thereof”), nor any material assets that may not be recovered or may otherwise be lost or misappropriated due to the above-mentioned bankruptcies, the failure or insolvency of large exchanges like FTX or other significant players in the digital asset space may cause the price of bitcoin to fall and decrease confidence in the ecosystem, which could adversely affect an investment in us. Such market volatility has had a material and adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition, and we expect our results of operations to continue to be affected by bitcoin’s price as the results of our operations are significantly tied to the price of bitcoin. If we do not continue adjusting our short-term strategy to optimize our operating efficiency in the current dynamic market conditions, such market conditions could have a further negative result on our business, prospects or operations.

We may not have adequate sources of recovery if our bitcoin holdings are lost, stolen or destroyed.

We rely on Coinbase to facilitate the custody of our bitcoins. If our bitcoin holdings are lost, stolen or destroyed under circumstances rendering a party, including Coinbase, liable to us, the responsible party may not have the financial resources sufficient to satisfy our claim. For example, as to a particular event of loss, the only source of recovery for us might be limited, to the extent identifiable, to other responsible third parties (e.g., a thief or terrorist), any of which may not have the financial resources (including liability insurance coverage) to satisfy a valid claim of ours. While Coinbase maintains insurance coverage of such types and amounts as Coinbase asserts to be commercially reasonable for its custodial services provided under the Company’s custody agreement with Coinbase, including certain commercial crime insurance of limited aggregate principal amount which covers losses stemming from fraud, security breach, hack and asset theft, such insurance coverage may be insufficient to protect the Company against all losses of its bitcoin holdings held in custody with Coinbase, whether or not stemming from security breaches, cyberattacks or other types of unlawful activity. See “–Our limited insurance protection exposes us and our stockholders to the risk of loss of our bitcoin for which no person is liable.”

Our ability to adopt technology in response to changing security needs or trends and reliance on a third party, Coinbase, for custody pose a challenge to the safekeeping of our bitcoin holdings.

The history of digital asset exchanges has shown that exchanges and large holders of digital assets must adapt to technological change in order to secure and safeguard their digital assets. All of the bitcoin we hold is held in either cold or hot storage by Coinbase. We rely on Coinbase’s security systems, derived from established, industry-best practices, to safeguard our bitcoin holdings from theft, loss, destruction or other issues relating to hackers and technological attack. We believe that we may become a more appealing target of security threats as the size of our bitcoin holdings grow. To the extent that either Coinbase or we are unable to identify and mitigate or stop new security threats, our bitcoin holdings may be subject to theft, loss, destruction or other attack, which could adversely affect an investment in us. To the extent that Coinbase is no longer able to safeguard our assets, we would be at risk of loss if safeguarding protocols fail.

Any potential use of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning and generative artificial intelligence could lead to unintended consequences and result in reputational harm and litigation.

We continue to evaluate emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning and generative artificial intelligence for incorporation into our business. State and federal regulations relating to these emerging technologies are quickly evolving, and, should we adopt such technologies, we may require significant resources to maintain our business practices while seeking to comply with U.S. laws. Any failure to accurately identify and address our responsibilities and liabilities in this new environment could negatively affect any solutions we develop incorporating such technologies and could subject us to reputational harm, regulatory action or litigation, any of which may harm our financial condition and operating results. These same risks apply to our use of third-party service providers who are implementing these tools into the products or services they provide to us.

Security threats to us could result in a loss of our bitcoin holdings or damage to our reputation and brand, each of which could adversely affect an investment in us.

Security breaches, computer malware and computer hacking attacks have been a prevalent concern in the digital asset exchange markets, for example since the launch of the bitcoin network. Any security breach caused by hacking, which involves efforts to gain unauthorized access to information or systems, or to cause intentional malfunctions or loss or corruption of data, software, hardware or other computer equipment, and the inadvertent transmission of computer viruses, could harm our business operations or result in loss of our bitcoin holdings. Any breach of our infrastructure could result in damage to our reputation, which could adversely affect an investment in us. Furthermore, we believe that, as our assets grow, we may become a more appealing target for security threats such as hackers and malware.

We rely on Coinbase’s security systems, derived from established, industry-best practices, to safeguard our bitcoin holdings from theft, loss, destruction or other issues relating to hackers and technological attack. Nevertheless, Coinbase’s security systems may not be impenetrable and may not be free from defect or immune to acts of God, and any loss due to a security breach, software defect or act of God may be borne by us.

Our security system and operational infrastructure may be breached due to the actions of outside parties, error or malfeasance of an employee of ours, or otherwise, and, as a result, an unauthorized party may obtain access to our private keys, data or bitcoin. Additionally, outside parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees of ours to disclose sensitive information in order to gain access to our infrastructure. As the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems change frequently, or may be designed to remain dormant until a predetermined event and often are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate preventative measures. If an actual or perceived breach of our security systems occurs, the market perception of the effectiveness of our security systems could be harmed, which could adversely affect an investment in us.

In the event of a security breach, we may be forced to cease operations, or suffer a reduction in assets, the occurrence of each of which could adversely affect an investment in us.

A loss of confidence in our security systems, or a breach of our security systems, may adversely affect us and the value of an investment in us.

We will take measures to protect us and our bitcoin from unauthorized access, damage or theft; however, it is possible that our security systems may not prevent the improper access to, or damage or theft of, our bitcoin holdings. A security breach could harm our reputation or result in the loss of some or all of our bitcoin. A resulting perception that our measures do not adequately protect our bitcoin holdings could result in a loss of current or potential stockholders, reducing demand for our common stock and causing our shares to decrease in value.

Bitcoin transactions are irrevocable and stolen or incorrectly transferred bitcoin may be irretrievable. As a result, any incorrectly executed digital asset transactions could adversely affect an investment in us.

Bitcoin transactions are not, from an administrative perspective, reversible without the consent and active participation of the recipient of the transaction or, in theory, control or consent of a majority of the processing power on the bitcoin network. Once a transaction has been verified and recorded in a block that is added to the blockchain, an incorrect transfer of bitcoin or a theft of bitcoin generally will not be reversible, and we may not be capable of seeking compensation for any such transfer or theft. While we exchange our bitcoin directly for U.S. dollars on Coinbase and do not presently use, or expect to use, our bitcoin for any other transactions other than limited payroll-related payments, it is possible that, through computer or human error, or through theft or criminal action, our bitcoin could be transferred from us in incorrect amounts or to unauthorized third parties. To the extent that we are unable to seek a corrective transaction with such third party or are incapable of identifying the third party which has received our bitcoin through error or theft, we will be unable to revert or otherwise recover incorrectly transferred bitcoin. To the extent that we are unable to seek redress for such error or theft, such loss could adversely affect an investment in us.

We may face risks of Internet disruptions, which could have an adverse effect on not only the price of bitcoin but also our ability to mine bitcoin.

A disruption of the Internet may adversely affect the mining and use of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin. Generally, cryptocurrencies and our business of mining bitcoin are dependent upon the Internet. A significant disruption in Internet connectivity could disrupt bitcoin’s network operations until the disruption is resolved and have an adverse effect on the price of bitcoin and our ability to mine bitcoin.

The limited rights of legal recourse available to us expose us and our investors to the risk of loss of our bitcoins for which no person is liable.

At this time, there is no specifically enumerated U.S. or foreign governmental, regulatory, investigative or prosecutorial authority or mechanism through which to bring an action or complaint regarding missing or stolen cryptocurrency; though law enforcement agencies like the FBI have recovered stolen bitcoin, that recovery has required significant amounts of time. To the extent that we are unable to recover our losses from such action, error or theft, such events could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account.

The sale of our bitcoins to pay for expenses at a time of low bitcoin prices could adversely affect an investment in us.

We sell our bitcoins to pay for operating expenses and growth on an as-needed basis. Consequently, we may sell our bitcoins at a time when bitcoin prices are low, which could adversely affect an investment in us. At this time, we do not engage in contractual or financial hedging activities related to our bitcoin holdings to mitigate potential decreases in the price of bitcoin. See the above risk factor entitled, “The value of bitcoin has historically been subject to wide swings. Because we do not currently hedge our investment in bitcoin and do not intend to for the foreseeable future, we are directly exposed to bitcoin’s price volatility and surrounding risks.”

Demand for bitcoin is driven, in part, by its status as a prominent and secure cryptocurrency. It is possible that a cryptocurrency other than bitcoin could have features that make it more desirable to a material portion of the digital asset user base, resulting in a reduction in demand for bitcoin.

Bitcoin holds a “first-to-market” advantage over other cryptocurrencies. This first-to-market advantage is driven in large part by having the largest user base and, more importantly, the largest combined mining power in use. Nonetheless, another form of cryptocurrency could become materially popular due to either a perceived or exposed shortcoming of the bitcoin network or a perceived advantage of another form of digital currency. If another form of digital currency obtains significant market share, this could reduce the interest in, and value of, bitcoin and the profitability of our bitcoin operations.

Our mining costs may be in excess of our mining revenues, which could seriously harm our business and adversely impact an investment in us.

Mining operations are costly and our expenses may increase in the future. Increases in mining expenses may not be offset by corresponding increases in revenue (i.e., the value of bitcoin mined). Our expenses may become greater than we anticipate, and our investments to make our business more cost-efficient may not succeed. Further, even if our expenses remain the same or decline, our revenues may not exceed our expenses to the extent the price of bitcoin decreases without a corresponding decrease in bitcoin network difficulty. Increases in our costs without corresponding increases in our revenue would adversely affect our profitability and could seriously harm our business and an investment in us.

The properties included in our mining operations may experience damages, including damages that may not be covered by insurance.

Our current mining locations and any future sites we establish will be subject to a variety of risks relating to physical condition and operation, including but not limited to:

Although our mining sites are equipped with standard security measures normally associated with a traditional data center, and insured by tier one insurance providers, our mining sites could still be rendered inoperable, temporarily or permanently, as a result of a fire or other natural disaster or by a terrorist or other events outside of our control. For a summary of our insurance coverage, see “Business—Insurance.” The measures we have taken, and may take in the future, to prevent and insure against these risks may prove to not be sufficient or effective.

We are subject to risks associated with our need for significant electrical power.

The operation of a bitcoin mining facility requires significant amounts of electrical power. Any mining site we currently operate or establish in the future can only be successful if we can continue to obtain sufficient electrical power for that site on a cost-effective basis. Our mining operations are conducted across a mix of fully-owned campuses, leased properties, and active hosting agreements, each of which have unique power agreements. Geopolitical events including the war in Ukraine and inflationary impacts have caused power prices to increase worldwide; if power prices continue to increase while bitcoin prices decrease, our ability to profitability mine bitcoin would be negatively impacted.

We may curtail the energy used by our mining operations in times of heightened energy prices or in the case of a grid-wide electricity shortage either voluntarily or by agreement with utility providers. We may also encounter other situations where utilities or government entities restrict or prohibit the provision of electricity to mining operations. In these cases, our ability to produce bitcoin may be negatively affected.

Because we also expect to expand to additional sites, there may be significant competition for suitable locations with access to affordable power.

Additionally, our facilities could be adversely affected by a power outage. Although we maintain limited backup power at certain sites, it would not be feasible to run miners on back-up power generators in the event of a government restriction on electricity or a power outage. To the extent we are unable to receive adequate power supply and are forced to reduce or cease our operations due to the availability or cost of electrical power, our business would be adversely affected.

Increased scrutiny and changing expectations from stakeholders with respect to our ESG practices and the impacts of climate change may result in additional costs or risks.

Companies across many industries are facing increasing scrutiny related to their environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) practices. Investor advocacy groups, certain institutional investors, investment funds and other influential investors are also increasingly focused on ESG practices and in recent years have placed increasing importance on the non-financial impacts of their investments. In May 2021, the SEC proposed rule changes that would require public companies to include certain climate-related disclosures in their periodic reports, including information about climate-related risks that are reasonably likely to have a material impact on their business, results of operations, or financial condition, and certain climate-related financial statement metrics in a note to their audited financial statements noting that such rule changes were proposed in response to investor demands for consistent and comparable data on climate change. Furthermore, increased public awareness and concern regarding environmental risks, including global climate change, may result in increased public scrutiny of our business and our industry, and our management team may divert significant time and energy away from our operations and towards responding to such scrutiny and reassuring our employees. The implementation of the SEC’s proposed rule changes was stayed in April 2024 in response to consolidated legal challenges. However, should the rule changes ultimately become effective, in either their current or a revised form, we, as a public company, may also face increased oversight from the SEC with respect to our climate-related disclosures.

The physical risks of climate change may also impact the availability and cost of materials and natural resources, sources and supplies of energy, and demand for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and could increase our insurance and other operating costs, including, potentially, to repair damage incurred as a result of extreme weather events or to renovate or retrofit facilities to better withstand extreme weather events. If environmental laws or regulations or industry standards are either changed or adopted and impose significant operational restrictions and compliance requirements on our operations, or if our operations are disrupted due to physical impacts of climate change, our business, capital expenditures, results of operations, financial condition and competitive position could be negatively impacted.

Our operations and profitability may be adversely affected by competition from other methods of investing in cryptocurrencies.

We compete with other users and/or companies that are mining bitcoin and other potential financial vehicles, including securities backed by or linked to bitcoin. Market and financial conditions, and other conditions beyond our control, may make it more attractive to invest in other financial vehicles, or to invest in cryptocurrencies directly, which could limit the market for our shares and reduce their liquidity. The emergence of other financial vehicles and exchange-traded funds have increased scrutiny on cryptocurrencies, and such scrutiny could be applicable to us and impact our ability to successfully establish or maintain a public market for our securities. Such circumstances could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account, and harm investors.

From time to time, as market conditions change, large holders of bitcoin may sell large amounts all at once into the market, thereby constraining the growth of the price of bitcoin.

There are very large holders of bitcoin, including other miners, that may choose or be forced to sell large quantities of bitcoin all at once or over a short period of time. Such an increase in selling volume could create downward pressure on the market price of bitcoin.

Potential that, in the event of a bankruptcy filing by a custodian, bitcoin held in custody could be determined to be property of a bankruptcy estate and we could be considered a general unsecured creditor thereof.

All of the bitcoin we hold is held in either cold or hot storage by Coinbase. The treatment of bitcoins held by custodians that file for bankruptcy protection is uncharted territory in U.S. Bankruptcy law. We cannot say with certainty whether our bitcoin held in custody by Coinbase, should it declare bankruptcy, would be treated as property of the bankruptcy estate and, accordingly, whether we would be treated as a general unsecured creditor with respect of our bitcoin held in custody by Coinbase. If we are treated as a general unsecured creditor, we may not be able to recover our bitcoin in the event of a Coinbase bankruptcy or a bankruptcy of any other custodian we may use in the future.

There are risks related to technological obsolescence, the vulnerability of the global supply chain for cryptocurrency hardware disruption and difficulty in obtaining new hardware which may have a negative effect on our business.

As our mining facilities operate, our miners experience ordinary wear and tear and may face more significant malfunctions caused by a number of extraneous factors beyond our control. The degradation of our miners will also require us, over time, to repair or replace miners which are no longer functional. Additionally, as technology evolves, we may be required to acquire newer models of miners to remain competitive in the market. This upgrading process requires substantial capital investment, and we may face challenges in doing so on a timely and cost-effective basis.

Further, the global supply of miners is unpredictable and presently heavily dependent on manufacturers headquartered in China, with manufacturing in Asia, which was severely affected by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. We currently utilize several types of ASIC miners as part of our mining operation, including Bitmain Antminers, Canaan Avalon miners and MicroBT WhatsMiners, all of which are produced in China, Malaysia, Indonesia or Thailand. Geopolitical matters, including the relationship of the U.S. with China, may impact our ability to import ASIC miners. As a result, we may not be able to obtain adequate replacement parts for our existing miners or obtain additional miners from manufacturers on a timely basis. Such events could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account, and harm investors.

Since there has been limited precedent set for financial accounting of digital assets, including bitcoin, it is unclear how we will be required to account for transactions involving digital assets.

Because there has been limited precedent set for the financial accounting of cryptocurrencies and related revenue recognition and no official guidance has yet been provided by the Financial Accounting Standards Board or the SEC as to bitcoin miners, it is unclear how bitcoin miners may in the future be required to account for cryptocurrency transactions and assets and related revenue recognition. A change in regulatory or financial accounting standards or interpretations by the SEC, particularly as they relate to the Company and the financial accounting of our bitcoin-related operations, could result in changes in our accounting treatment and the necessity to restate our financial statements. In addition, the accounting policies of many companies are being subjected to heightened scrutiny by regulators and the public, and we have received comments from the staff of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance Office of Crypto Assets (the “Staff”) during fiscal year 2023 related to the accounting of our bitcoin-related operations, which have been resolved. Such continued uncertainty with regard to financial accounting matters, particularly as they relate to the Company, the financial accounting of our bitcoin-related operations and the SEC comments we have received in respect of such matters, could negatively impact our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations and our ability to raise capital.

If we fail to grow our hashrate, we may be unable to compete, and our results of operations could suffer.

Generally, a bitcoin miner’s chance of solving a block on the bitcoin blockchain and earning a bitcoin reward is a function of the miner’s hashrate (i.e., the amount of computing power devoted to supporting the bitcoin blockchain), relative to the global network hashrate. As demand for bitcoin has increased, the global network hashrate has increased, and to the extent more adoption of bitcoin occurs, we would expect the demand for bitcoin would increase, drawing more mining companies into the industry and further increasing the global network hashrate. As new and more powerful and energy-efficient mining servers are deployed, the global network hashrate will continue to increase, meaning a miner’s respective percentage of the total daily rewards will decline unless it deploys additional hashrate at pace with the growth of global hashrate. Accordingly, to compete in this highly competitive industry, we believe we will need to continue to acquire new miners, both to replace those lost to ordinary wear and tear and other damage, and to increase our hashrate to keep up with a growing global network hashrate.

During the fiscal year ended September 30, 2024, we grew our hashrate, in part, by acquiring newer, more powerful and energy-efficient miners through sales and purchase agreements with suppliers, and we plan to continue to acquire new miners to compete effectively in the market. These new miners are highly specialized servers that are very difficult to produce at scale. As a result, there are limited producers capable of producing large numbers of sufficiently effective miners. The cost of these miners is directly correlated to bitcoin prices and the profitability of bitcoin mining. Demand for new miners increased in response to increased bitcoin prices in 2021 followed by a decreased in demand due to falling bitcoin prices in 2022. We observed the price of these new miners followed changes in demand, resulting in elevated machine prices when bitcoin mining economics are high and significantly lower prices when these economics are strained. As a result, positive bitcoin economics may negatively impact our future equipment costs and increase the competition to secure mining equipment. If we are unable to acquire sufficient numbers of new miners or access sufficient capital to fund our acquisitions, our results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected, which could adversely affect investments in our securities.

Global economic conditions, including continuing or worsening inflationary issues and associated changes in monetary policy and potential economic recession, and geopolitical events such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the subsequent imposition of sanctions as a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

General economic and political conditions such as economic recessions, interest rates, rising inflation, commodity prices, foreign currency fluctuations, international tariffs, social, political and economic risks, hostilities or the perception that hostilities may be imminent, military conflict and acts of war, including further escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the related response, including sanctions or other restrictive actions, by the United States and/or other countries, as well as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, could adversely impact our business, supply chain or partners. The U.S. inflation rate steadily increased since 2021 and into 2022 and 2023. These inflationary pressures, as well as disruptions in our supply chain, have increased the costs of most other goods, services and personnel, which have in turn caused our capital expenditures and operating costs to rise. Sustained levels of high inflation caused the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks to increase interest rates, which have raised the cost of acquiring capital and reduced economic growth, either of which—or the combination thereof—could hurt the financial and operating results of our business. In addition, the extent and duration of the situation in Ukraine, resulting sanctions and resulting future market disruptions are impossible to predict, but could be significant.

The effects of such global economic conditions, including continuing or worsening inflationary issues and associated changes in monetary policy or potential economic recession, and geopolitical events could adversely affect our ability to access the capital and other financial markets, and if so, we may need to consider alternative sources of funding for some of our growth and operations and for working capital, which may increase our cost of, as well as adversely impact our access to, capital.

Divestitures and discontinued operations could negatively impact our business, and retained liabilities from businesses that we have sold could adversely affect our financial results.

In connection with the execution of our strategy to focus entirely on bitcoin mining, we have completed several divestitures, including the divestiture of a part of our former energy business. We intend to make further dispositions in connection with our non-bitcoin mining related businesses, which we may not be able to complete on favorable terms or at all. If we do not realize the expected benefits of these divestitures or our post-completion liabilities and continuing obligations are substantial and exceed our expectations, our financial position, results of operations and cash flows could be negatively impacted.

As a result of such dispositions, bitcoin mining is now the sole driver of our business and revenues and is expected to continue to be the source of substantially all of our revenues for the foreseeable future, which has the effect of increasing our exposure to the risks described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Further, in the course of our discontinued operations, we may become subject to legal actions based on a claim that our legacy energy products are or were defective in workmanship or have caused personal or other injuries. We may also be subject to lawsuits and other claims in the future if our legacy products or installed systems malfunction, including, for example, if any of our energy system offerings (such as installed racking systems, photovoltaic modules, batteries, inverters, or other products) causes injuries. Because energy systems and many of our other products are electricity-producing devices, it is possible that customers or their property could be injured or damaged by our products, whether due to product malfunctions, defects, improper installation or other causes. Further, since our products are used in systems that are made up of components sourced from third-party manufacturers, we may be subject to product liability claims even if our products do not malfunction. Additionally, any of our products could be subject to recalls due to product malfunctions or defects.

The successful assertion of product liability claims against us could result in potentially significant monetary damages that could require us to make significant payments, as well as subject us to adverse publicity, thereby damaging our reputation and competitive position. We rely on third-party manufacturing warranties provided by our manufacturing partners and our general liability insurance to cover product liability claims and have not obtained separate product liability insurance. Such warranties and insurance coverage may not be adequate to cover all potential claims. Moreover, even if such warranties and insurance coverage are sufficient, any successful claim could significantly harm our business, reputation, financial condition and results of operations.

Our limited insurance protection exposes us and our stockholders to the risk of loss of our bitcoin for which no person is liable.

We do not currently maintain our own insurance coverage for our bitcoin holdings, which are held in custody by Coinbase. In addition, while Coinbase maintains insurance coverage of such types and amounts as Coinbase asserts to be commercially reasonable for its custodial services provided under the Company’s custody agreement with Coinbase, including certain commercial crime insurance of limited aggregate principal amount which covers losses stemming from fraud, security breach, hack and asset theft, such insurance coverage may be insufficient to protect the Company against all losses of its bitcoin holdings held in custody with Coinbase, whether or not stemming from security breaches, cyberattacks or other types of unlawful activity. Therefore, a loss may be suffered with respect to our bitcoin that is not covered by insurance and for which no person is liable in damages, which could adversely affect our operations and, consequently, an investment in us.

Noise Pollution and Community Opposition

The Company’s Mining operations involve the use of a large numbers of high-powered Miners and cooling systems that generate significant noise. This noise can pose several risks to the Company’s business including community complaints, reputational damage, litigation risk, regulatory risk, operational constraints, increased costs and opposition to expansion. These risks could lead to fines or penalties imposed by local governments, requirements to implement costly noise mitigation measures, restrictions on the Company’s operating hours, reduction of scale of the Company’s operations, stricter noise controls regulations on the Company’s operations, potential shutdown of data centers that cannot meet local noise regulations, damages resulting from lawsuits and difficulty obtaining necessary permits and approvals for expanding existing data centers or establishing new site operations. While the Company strives to be a good corporate citizen and mitigate noise impacts where possible, the inherently noisy nature of large-scale cryptocurrency Mining operations presents ongoing risks to the Company’s business that may negatively affect its financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Related to Governmental Regulation and Enforcement Operations

If regulatory changes or interpretations of our activities require our registration as an MSB under the regulations promulgated by FinCEN under the authority of the BSA, or otherwise under state laws, we may incur significant compliance costs, which could be substantial or cost-prohibitive. If we become subject to these regulations, our costs in complying with them may have a material adverse effect on our business and the results of our operations.

To the extent our bitcoin mining activities cause us to be deemed a money services business (an “MSB”) under the regulations promulgated by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) under the authority of the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act (the “BSA”), we may be required to comply with FinCEN regulations, including those that would mandate us to implement anti-money laundering programs, make certain reports to FinCEN and maintain certain records.

To the extent that our cryptocurrency activities cause us to be deemed a “money transmitter” ​(an “MT”) or be given an equivalent designation under state law in any state in which we operate, we may be required to seek a license or otherwise register with a state regulator and comply with state regulations that may include the implementation of anti-money laundering programs, maintenance of certain records and other operational requirements. Currently, the New York State Department of Financial Services maintains a comprehensive “BitLicense” framework for businesses that conduct “virtual currency business activity.” Effective August 2020, Louisiana enacted the Virtual Currency Businesses Act. The implementing regulations were formally adopted in late 2022. In October 2023, California enacted the Digital Financial Assets Law, which requires registration for certain digital financial asset business activities. We will continue to monitor for developments in state-level legislation, guidance or regulations applicable to us.

Such additional federal or state regulatory obligations in the United States or obligations that could arise under the regulatory frameworks of other countries may cause us to incur significant expenses, possibly affecting our business and financial condition in a material and adverse manner. Furthermore, we and our service providers may not be capable of complying with certain federal or state regulatory obligations applicable to MSBs and MTs or similar obligations in other countries. If we are deemed to be subject to such additional regulatory oversight and registration or licensing requirements, we may be required to substantially alter our bitcoin mining activities and possibly cease engaging in such activities. Any such action may adversely affect our business operations and financial condition and an investment in our company.

Current regulation regarding the exchange of bitcoins under the CEA by the CFTC is unclear; to the extent we become subject to regulation by the CFTC in connection with our exchange of bitcoin, we may incur additional compliance costs, which may be significant.

The Commodity Exchange Act, as amended (the “CEA”), does not currently impose any direct obligations on us related to the mining or exchange of bitcoins. Generally, the CFTC, the federal agency that administers the CEA, regards bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as commodities. This position has been supported by decisions of federal courts.

However, the CEA imposes requirements relative to certain transactions involving bitcoin and other digital assets that constitute a contract of sale of a commodity for future delivery (or an option on such a contract), a swap or a transaction involving margin, financing or leverage that does not result in actual delivery of the commodity within 28 days to persons not defined as “eligible contract participants” or “eligible commercial entities” under the CEA (e.g., retail persons). Changes in the CEA or the regulations promulgated by the CFTC thereunder, as well as interpretations thereof and official promulgations by the CFTC, may impact the classification of bitcoin and, therefore, may subject bitcoin to additional regulatory oversight by the agency. Although to date the CFTC has not enacted regulations governing non-derivative or non-financed, margined or leveraged transactions in bitcoin, it has authority to commence enforcement actions against persons who violate certain prohibitions under the CEA related to transactions in any contract of sale of any commodity, including bitcoin, in interstate commerce (e.g., manipulation and engaging in certain deceptive practices).

We cannot be certain as to how future regulatory developments will impact the treatment of bitcoin under the law. Any requirements imposed by the CFTC related to our mining activities or our transactions in bitcoin could cause us to incur additional extraordinary, non-recurring expenses, thereby potentially materially and adversely impacting an investment in the Company.

Moreover, if our mining activities or transactions in bitcoin were deemed by the CFTC to constitute a collective investment in derivatives for our stockholders, we may be required to register as a commodity pool operator with the CFTC through the National Futures Association. Such additional registrations may result in extraordinary, non-recurring expenses, thereby potentially materially and adversely impacting an investment in the Company. If we determine not to comply with such additional regulatory and registration requirements, we may seek to cease certain of our operations. Any such action may adversely affect an investment in the Company.

While no provision of the CEA or CFTC rules, orders or rulings (except as noted herein) appear to be currently applicable to our business, this is subject to change.

If the SEC or another regulatory body considers bitcoin to be a security under U.S. securities laws, we may be required to comply with significant SEC registration and/or other requirements.

In general, novel or unique assets such as bitcoin and other digital assets may be classified as securities if they meet the definition of investment contracts under U.S. law. In recent years, the offer and sale of digital assets other than bitcoin, most notably Kik Interactive Inc.’s Kin tokens and Telegram Group Inc.’s TON tokens, have been deemed to be investment contracts by the SEC. While we believe that bitcoin is unlikely to be considered an investment contract, and thus a security under the investment contract definition, we cannot provide any assurances that digital assets that we may mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account, including bitcoin, will never be classified as securities under U.S. law. This would obligate us to comply with registration and other requirements by the SEC and, therefore, cause us to incur significant, non-recurring expenses, thereby potentially materially and adversely impacting an investment in the Company.

It may be illegal now, or in the future, to mine, acquire, own, hold, sell or use bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, participate in blockchains or utilize similar cryptocurrency assets in one or more countries, the ruling of which could adversely affect us.

Although currently cryptocurrencies generally are not regulated or are lightly regulated in most countries, several countries, such as China, India and Russia, may continue taking regulatory actions in the future that could severely restrict the right to mine, acquire, own, hold, sell or use cryptocurrency assets or to exchange any such cryptocurrency assets for local currency. For example, in China and Russia (India is currently proposing new legislation), it is illegal to accept payment in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for consumer transactions and banking institutions are barred from accepting deposits of cryptocurrencies. In addition, in March 2021, the governmental authorities for the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia banned bitcoin mining in the province due to the industry’s intense electrical power demands and its negative environmental impacts. If other countries, including the U.S., implement similar restrictions, such restrictions may adversely affect us. For example, in New York State, a moratorium on certain bitcoin mining operations that run on carbon-based power sources was signed into law on November 22, 2022. Such circumstances could have a material adverse effect on us, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account, and thus harm investors.

Changing environmental regulation and public energy policy may expose our business to new risks.

Our bitcoin mining operations require a substantial amount of power and can only be successful, and ultimately profitable, if the costs we incur, including for electricity, are lower than the revenue we generate from our operations. As a result, any mine we establish can only be successful if we can obtain sufficient electrical power for that mine on a cost-effective basis, and our establishment of new mines requires us to find locations where that is the case. For instance, our plans and strategic initiatives for expansion are based, in part, on our understanding of current environmental and energy regulations, policies and initiatives enacted by federal and state regulators. If new regulations are imposed, or if existing regulations are modified, the assumptions we made underlying our plans and strategic initiatives may be inaccurate, and we may incur additional costs to adapt our planned business, if we are able to adapt at all, to such regulations.

In addition, there continues to be a lack of consistent climate legislation, which creates economic and regulatory uncertainty for our business because the bitcoin mining industry, with its high energy demand, may become a target for future environmental and energy regulation. New legislation and increased regulation regarding climate change could impose significant costs on us and our suppliers, including costs related to increased renewable energy requirements, capital equipment, environmental monitoring and reporting, and other costs to comply with such regulations. Further, any future climate change regulations could also negatively impact our ability to compete with companies situated in areas not subject to such limitations. For example, the recently passed legislation in the state of New York imposing a moratorium on certain bitcoin mining operations that run carbon-based power.

Given the political significance and uncertainty around the impact of climate change and how it should be addressed, we cannot predict how legislation and regulation will affect our financial condition and results of operations. Further, even without such regulation, increased awareness and any adverse publicity in the global marketplace about potential impacts on climate change by us or other companies in our industry could harm our reputation. Any of the foregoing could result in a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

If we fail to qualify for certain state government tax incentives or to comply with local tax regulations, we may suffer financial losses.

We expect to negotiate for certain sale and use tax incentives from U.S. state governments in exchange for encouraging investment and employment. Our interpretations and conclusions regarding these potential tax incentives are not binding on any taxing authority. If our assumptions about, or interpretation or implementation of, tax and other laws are incorrect; if tax laws or regulations are substantially modified or rescinded; if the tax incentives from which we benefit in the jurisdictions in which we operate are substantially modified or rescinded; if we fail to meet the conditions of any of the tax incentives; or if we do not prevail in disputes with tax authorities, we could suffer material adverse tax and other financial consequences, including owing significant amounts of taxes and penalties that would increase our expenses, reduce our profitability and adversely affect our cash flows, results of operations and financial condition.

Future developments regarding the treatment of digital assets for U.S. federal income and applicable state, local and non-U.S. tax purposes could adversely impact our business.

Due to the new and evolving nature of digital assets and the absence of comprehensive legal guidance with respect to digital assets and related transactions, many significant aspects of the U.S. federal income and applicable state, local and non-U.S. tax treatment of transactions involving digital assets, such as the purchase and sale of bitcoin and the receipt of staking rewards and other digital asset incentives and rewards products, are uncertain, and it is unclear what guidance may be issued in the future with respect to the tax treatment of digital assets and related transactions.

Current Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") guidance indicates that for U.S. federal income tax purposes digital assets such as bitcoins should be treated and taxed as property, and that transactions involving the payment of bitcoins for goods and services should be treated in effect as barter transactions. The IRS has also released guidance to the effect that, under certain circumstances, hard forks of digital currencies are taxable events giving rise to taxable income and guidance with respect to the determination of the tax basis of digital currency. However, current IRS guidance does not address other significant aspects of the U.S. federal income tax treatment of digital assets and related transactions. Moreover, although current IRS guidance addresses the treatment of certain forks, there continues to be uncertainty with respect to the timing and amount of income inclusions for various digital asset transactions, including, but not limited to, staking rewards and other digital asset incentives and rewards products. While current IRS guidance creates a potential tax reporting requirement for any circumstance where the ownership of a bitcoin passes from one person to another, it preserves the right to apply capital gains treatment to those transactions, which is generally favorable for investors in bitcoin.

There can be no assurance that the IRS will not alter its existing position with respect to digital assets in the future or that other state, local and non-U.S. taxing authorities or courts will follow the approach of the IRS with respect to the treatment of digital assets such as bitcoin for income tax and sales tax purposes. Any such alteration of existing guidance or issuance of new or different guidance may have negative consequences including the imposition of a greater tax burden on investors in bitcoin or imposing a greater cost on the acquisition and disposition of bitcoin, generally, and potentially have a negative effect on the trading price of bitcoin or otherwise negatively impact our business. In addition, future technological and operational developments that may arise with respect to digital currencies may increase the uncertainty with respect to the treatment of digital currencies for U.S. federal income and applicable state, local and non-U.S. tax purposes.

Our interactions with the bitcoin network may expose us to SDN or blocked persons or cause us to violate provisions of law that did not contemplate distributed ledger technology.

The Office of Financial Assets Control (“OFAC”) of the Treasury requires us to comply with its sanction program and not conduct business with persons named on its specially designated nationals (“SDN”) list. However, because of the pseudonymous nature of blockchain transactions, we may inadvertently and without our knowledge engage in transactions with persons named on OFAC’s SDN list. We also may not be adequately capable of determining the ultimate identity of the persons with whom we transact.

Risks Related to Our Securities

The price of our common stock may be volatile and could fluctuate widely, which could result in substantial losses for investors.

The market price of our common stock is likely to be highly volatile and could fluctuate widely in response to various factors, many of which are beyond our control, including, without limitation:

In addition, the securities markets have from time to time experienced significant price and volume fluctuations that are unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. These market fluctuations may also materially and adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

Specifically, the trading price of our common stock has already been correlated, and, in the future, as we continue to expand our bitcoin mining business, may be increasingly correlated, to the trading prices of bitcoin. The stocks of bitcoin mining companies have shown volatility relative to bitcoin. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency market prices, which have historically been volatile and are impacted by a variety of factors (including those discussed herein), are determined primarily by using data from various exchanges, over-the-counter markets and derivative platforms. As noted elsewhere herein, while we had no direct exposure to FTX, the failure or insolvency of large exchanges like FTX may cause the price of bitcoin to fall and decrease confidence in the ecosystem, which could negatively impact our stock price. Furthermore, such prices may be subject to factors such as those that impact commodities, more so than business activities, which could be subjected to additional influence from fraudulent or illegitimate actors, real or perceived scarcity, and political, economic, regulatory or other conditions. Pricing may be the result of, and may continue to result in, speculation regarding future appreciation in the value of bitcoin, or our share price, inflating and making their market prices more. For example, the closing sales price of our common stock on September 30, 2023 was $3.81 and the closing price of bitcoin was $26,961 and, as of September 30, 2024, the closing sales price of our common stock was $9.34, and the closing price (per Coinbase) of bitcoin was $63,301.

In addition, the stock markets in general have often experienced volatility, including in the wake of COVID-19, that has sometimes been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of particular companies. These broad market fluctuations have caused, and may continue to cause, the trading price of our common stock to decline. A continuation or worsening of the levels of market disruption and volatility seen in the recent past could have an adverse effect on our ability to access capital, on our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flow and prospects, and on the market price of our common stock. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been brought against that company. We may become involved in this type of litigation in the future. Litigation of this type may be expensive to defend and may divert our management’s attention and resources from the operation of our business.

We have the right to designate and issue additional shares of preferred stock. If we were to designate and/or issue additional preferred stock, it is likely to have rights, preferences and privileges that may adversely affect the common stock.

We are authorized to issue 10,000,000 shares of blank-check preferred stock, with such rights, preferences and privileges as may be determined from time to time by our Board of Directors. Our Board of Directors is empowered, without stockholder approval, to issue preferred stock in one or more series, and to fix for any series the dividend rights, dissolution or liquidation preferences, redemption prices, conversion rights, voting rights and other rights, preferences and privileges for the preferred stock. For example, on August 30, 2024, we filed a certificate of designation (the “Certificate of Designation”) with the Nevada Secretary of State, effective as of the time of filing, designating the rights, preferences, privileges and restrictions of our Series X Preferred Stock, par value $0.001 per share (the “Series X Preferred Stock”), in connection with a vote to increase the number of shares of our common stock authorized for issuance from 300,000,000 shares to 600,000,000 shares (the “Authorized Share Increase”) at our special meeting of stockholders held on October 25, 2024. The Certificate of Designation provided that each share of Series X Preferred Stock would have 1,000 votes and vote together with the outstanding shares of our common stock and Series A Preferred Stock on the Authorized Share Increase. Each outstanding share of Series X Preferred Stock was redeemed automatically and effective immediately after we published the final results of the stockholder vote on the Authorized Share Increase.

Currently, 2,000,000 shares are designated as Series A Preferred Stock, of which 1,750,000 shares are outstanding. The holders of our Series A Preferred Stock are entitled to have the Company redeem each share of Series A Preferred Stock for three shares of our common stock only if a change of control event (as defined in the certificate of designation) occurs, and they are entitled to vote together with the holders of our common stock on all matters submitted to stockholders at a rate of forty-five (45) votes for each share of Series A Preferred Stock held.

The issuance of shares of preferred stock, depending on the rights, preferences and privileges attributable to the preferred stock, could reduce the voting rights and powers of our common stock and the portion of our assets allocated for distribution to common stockholders in a liquidation event, and could also result in dilution in the book value per share of our common stock. The preferred stock could also be utilized, under certain circumstances, as a method for raising additional capital or discouraging, delaying or preventing a change in control of the Company, to the detriment of the investors in our common stock. We cannot assure that we will not, under certain circumstances, issue additional shares of our preferred stock.

We are currently the subject of a shareholder class action, and may be subject to shareholder litigation in the future; our costs of defending such litigation, arbitration and other proceedings and any adverse outcome of such litigation, arbitration or other proceeding may have a material adverse effect on our business and the results of our operations.

We are currently, and may from time to time in the future be, involved in and subject to material litigation and other legal proceedings. In particular, on January 20, 2021, a purported stockholder of the Company, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, filed a putative class action complaint (the “Class Complaint”) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against us and certain members of our executive management team. The Class Complaint alleges that, between December 31, 2020 and January 14, 2021, we and certain members of our executive management team failed to disclose certain material information to investors and that, as a result of the foregoing, our positive statements about our business, operations and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. The claims made in the Class Complaint appear to be derived from a short seller report that was published about us.

We have financed our strategic growth primarily by issuing new shares of our common stock in public offerings, which dilutes the ownership interests of our current stockholders, and which may adversely affect the market price of our securities.

We have raised capital to finance our strategic growth of our business through public offerings of our common stock, including through our current and former at-the-market offering programs, and we expect to need to raise additional capital through similar public offerings to finance the completion of our expansion initiatives and any expansion initiatives we may undertake in the future. Utilizing those sources may be more challenging in the current financial market conditions, in particular where trading volume is diminished. We may not be able to obtain additional debt or equity financing on favorable terms, if at all, which could impair our growth and adversely impact our existing operations. If we raise additional equity financing, our stockholders may experience significant dilution of their ownership interests, and the per share value of our common stock could decline. Furthermore, if we engage in debt financing, the holders of any debt we issue would likely have priority over the holders of shares of our common stock in terms of order of payment preference. We may be required to accept terms that restrict our ability to incur additional indebtedness or take other actions, including terms that require us to maintain specified liquidity or other ratios that could otherwise not be in the interests of our stockholders.

We have not paid dividends on shares of our common stock in the past and have no immediate plans to do so in the future.

We have not paid, and do not plan to pay in the immediate future, any cash dividends with respect to our common stock. We plan to reinvest all of our earnings, to the extent we have earnings, in order to cover operating costs and to otherwise become and remain competitive. We cannot assure stockholders that we will, at any time, generate sufficient surplus cash that would be available for distribution to the holders of our common stock as a dividend. Therefore, stockholders should not expect to receive cash dividends on our common stock.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish or do not continue to publish research or reports about our business, or if they issue an adverse or misleading opinion regarding our stock, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock is influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts publish about us or our business. If any of the analysts who cover us now or in the future issue an adverse opinion regarding our stock, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

Our indebtedness could adversely affect our financial health and prevent us from fulfilling our debt obligations.

In April 2022, we entered into a Master Equipment Financing Agreement with Trinity Capital Inc., as the lender (the “Financing Agreement”). The Financing Agreement provided for up to $35,000 of borrowings to finance our acquisition of blockchain computing equipment. We received a loan of $20,000 at close, with the remaining $15,000 not requested for funding and cancelled. As of September 30, 2024, $5,171 in principal was outstanding and due to Trinity Capital Inc.

The borrowings under the Financing Agreement are collateralized by 3,336 S19j Pro miners, which are located at our College Park, GA and Norcross, GA sites. The value of the miners collateralizing the borrowings under the Financing Agreement may be negatively impacted by adverse events affecting the digital asset markets and/or volatility in the price of bitcoin. Should we fail to satisfy our obligations with respect to our indebtedness, and should Trinity Capital Inc. foreclose on the miners collateralizing our indebtedness, we could potentially lose up to 0.33 EH/s of computing power, or 1% of our current computing power. In addition, to the extent the value of the miners securing our borrowings under the Financing Agreement decreases and falls the below the aggregate amount of our obligations under the Financing Agreement, the lender thereunder would be our unsecured creditor in respect of the difference in the value of the collateral and our obligations.

In August 2024, we entered into a Master Loan Agreement (the “Master Loan”) with Coinbase Credit, Inc., as the lender (the “Lender”). The Master Loan provides for a line of credit under which the Lender may lend us digital assets or cash. We received $50,000 in financing under the Master Loan during the year ended September 30, 2024, and, as of September 30, 2024, $50,000 in principal was outstanding and due to the Lender. The borrowings under the Master Loan are collateralized by approximately $78,125 of bitcoin as of September 30, 2024.

Our indebtedness could:

In addition, if the value of bitcoin declines precipitously, the value of our collateral under the Master Loan would also decline. In such case, we could be required to provide Coinbase with additional collateral in the form of bitcoin. If we are unable to do so, we could default under the Master Loan, which could have a material adverse effect on our operations, liquidity, financial condition, and results of operations.

We incur significant costs and demands upon management and accounting and finance resources as a result of complying with the laws and regulations affecting public companies; any failure to establish and maintain adequate internal controls and/or disclosure controls or to recruit, train and retain necessary accounting and finance personnel could have an adverse effect on our ability to accurately and timely prepare our financial statements and otherwise make timely and accurate public disclosure.

As a public company, we incur significant administrative, legal, accounting and other burdens and expenses beyond those of a private company, including public company reporting obligations and Nasdaq listing requirements. In particular, we have needed, and continue to need, to enhance and supplement our internal accounting resources with additional accounting and finance personnel with the requisite technical and public company experience and expertise to enable us to satisfy such reporting obligations. Any failure to maintain an effective system of internal controls (including internal control over financial reporting) could limit our ability to report our financial results accurately and on a timely basis, or to detect and prevent fraud and could expose us to regulatory enforcement action and stockholders claims.

Furthermore, under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the "Sarbanes-Oxley Act"), we are required to document and test our internal control procedures and prepare annual management assessments of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Our assessments must include disclosure of identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. Our independent registered public accounting firm also attests to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. The existence of one or more material weaknesses could affect the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting. Testing and maintaining internal control over financial reporting involves significant costs and could divert management’s attention from other matters that are important to our business. Additionally, we may not be successful in remediating any deficiencies that may be identified.

Our management has identified material weaknesses in its internal control over financial reporting and may identify additional material weaknesses in the future. If we fail to remediate the material weaknesses or if we otherwise fail to establish and maintain effective control over financial reporting, our ability to accurately and timely report our financial results may be affected, and such failure may adversely affect investor confidence and business operations.

In the course of preparing our fiscal year 2024 financial statements, we and our independent registered public accounting firm have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

To address our material weaknesses, we need to make changes to our program and controls as set forth in Part II, Item 9A “Controls and Procedures.” We will not be able to remediate these material weaknesses unless and until these steps have been completed and have been operating effectively for a sufficient period of time. We cannot assure you that the measures we plan to take will in fact be sufficient to remediate the control deficiencies that led to the material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting or that such measures will prevent or avoid potential future material weaknesses, and our current controls and any new controls that we develop may become inadequate because of changes in conditions in our business. Further, additional weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting may be discovered in the future.

If we are unable to remediate our material weaknesses and otherwise implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, our ability to record, process and report financial information accurately, and to prepare financial statements and satisfy our public reporting obligations within required time periods, could be adversely affected. We could also be required to restate financial statements for prior periods. If we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an unqualified opinion as to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, the market price of our common stock could be adversely affected and we could become subject to private litigation or to investigations or enforcement actions by the SEC or other regulatory authorities, all of which could require our expenditure of additional financial and management resources and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Those adverse consequences could be more severe if we are forced to effect any financial statement restatements.

Provisions in the Nevada Revised Statutes and our bylaws could make it very difficult for an investor to bring any legal actions against our directors or officers for violations of their fiduciary duties or could require us to pay any amounts incurred by our directors or officers in any such actions.

Members of our Board of Directors and our officers will have no liability for breaches of their fiduciary duty of care as a director or officer, except in limited circumstances, pursuant to provisions in the Nevada Revised Statutes and our bylaws as authorized by the Nevada Revised Statutes. Specifically, Section 78.138 of the Nevada Revised Statutes provides that a director or officer is not individually liable to the company or its stockholders or creditors for any damages as a result of any act or failure to act in his or her capacity as a director or officer unless it is proven that (1) the director's or officer's act or failure to act constituted a breach of his or her fiduciary duties as a director or officer and (2) his or her breach of those duties involved intentional misconduct, fraud or a knowing violation of law. This provision is intended to afford directors and officers protection against and to limit their potential liability for monetary damages resulting from suits alleging a breach of the duty of care by a director or officer.

Accordingly, stockholders may be unable to prevail in a legal action against our directors or officers even if they have breached their fiduciary duty of care. In addition, our bylaws allow us to indemnify our directors and officers from and against any and all costs, charges and expenses resulting from their acting in such capacities with us. This means that if one were able to enforce an action against our directors or officers, in all likelihood, we would be required to pay any expenses our directors or officers incur in defending the lawsuit and any judgment or settlement they otherwise would be required to pay. Accordingly, our indemnification obligations could divert needed financial resources and may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows and the prevailing market prices for our common stock.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

Item 1C. Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity risk may adversely impact our business. The impact could include weakened financial condition, litigation risk, degrading mining operations, loss of competitiveness, fraud, extortion, harm to employees, violation of applicable privacy or other regulations that could result in regulatory action and fines.

We have developed and implemented a cybersecurity program to manage the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our data and information systems that support our business. The program is aligned with the National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 and is integrated into our overall risk management program. It is designed to develop appropriate strategies for preserving the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our data and information systems that can evolve with the changing cybersecurity threat landscape. We have implemented policies, procedures and technological tools to prevent, detect and mitigate cybersecurity risks posed by third parties.

We use third party providers to help us consistently monitor and evaluate our cybersecurity program and performance through actions that include hiring a contract Chief Information Security Officer (“CISO”) with decades of cybersecurity experience to help manage our program. We also use industry standard technology tools including vulnerability scans, penetration tests, firewalls, endpoint detection and threat intelligence. A written cybersecurity incident response plan that we tabletop yearly and cybersecurity insurance are also important pillars in our approach to managing the risk of a cyber event. Our incident response plan contains a materiality analysis framework based on Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 199. This materiality framework allows us to identify and classify cybersecurity events based on their impact to our data or information systems. This framework will assist us in expediting review of cyber events for materiality purposes that could require disclosure to the SEC.

We have implemented a third party risk management policy that categorizes the cybersecurity risk posed by third party vendors along with the type of cybersecurity controls we may require of those vendors. These may include employee training, cybersecurity tools like multi-factor authentication, and contractual requirements that vendors maintain appropriate technical, administrative and physical cybersecurity controls. This is in addition to the policies and practices we maintain to monitor access of our information systems and data using our internal staff and third party vendors. As part of communicating the importance of cybersecurity at an enterprise wide level, we require that all company employees participate in annual cybersecurity training.

Governance

Our IT Steering and Risk Committee (“ITSRC”) has been delegated the responsibility for managing cybersecurity risk for the company. This committee is chaired by our Chief Technology Officer and includes a diverse cross section of company stakeholders including the Senior IT Manager, General Counsel, VP of Organizational Development and a member of our Third Party Audit team. As of July 1, 2024, we added an outsourced virtual CISO who is a key advisor to the ITSRC, specifically for his decades of expertise in managing and maturing a cybersecurity program that includes mitigation, incident prevention, detection and remediation disciplines. The ITSRC meets at least semi-annually to assess our approach to evolving cybersecurity threats and its impact on our cybersecurity program. The ITSRC is also responsible for maintaining and monitoring legal and regulatory requirements and compliance as well as oversight of the adequacy of company cyber insurance. Our third party security vendors, in collaboration with our Senior IT Manager, keep the ITSRC apprised of efforts surrounding the prevention, detection, mitigation and remediation of any cyber threats or cybersecurity incidents.

The Board of Directors (the “Board”) is entrusted with the oversight of the management of cybersecurity risk and our cybersecurity program. The Board administers this oversight through its audit committee and the ITSRC. The ITSRC committee chair is responsible for reporting to the Board’s audit committee with respect to cybersecurity at least twice per calendar year. The audit committee, as necessary, reports any findings and recommendations to the Board. As cyber threats evolve and as our cybersecurity program matures, the Board will consider further developing specific cybersecurity oversight functions and protocols.

For more information on our cybersecurity related risks, see Part I, Item 1A. “Risk Factors” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Item 2. Properties

Our corporate headquarters is located in Henderson, Nevada and is owned by us. In addition, we own and lease air-cooled bitcoin mining facilities in Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee. We own a property in College Park, Georgia that mines bitcoin through immersion technology and we own two parcels of land in Cheyenne, Wyoming that are currently under construction to develop immersion, bitcoin mining facilities. The leases have expiration dates between July 2026 through June 2039.

We believe our existing facilities and equipment are in good operating condition and are suitable for the conduct of our business. Please refer to the discussions contained in our Item 1. – “Business” for additional information.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

For a description of our material pending legal proceedings, refer to Note 18 - Commitments and Contingencies included in our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.

We are subject to other legal proceedings and claims that have not been fully resolved and that have arisen in the ordinary course of business. We routinely are subject to and resolve matters that do not individually or in the aggregate have a material impact on our financial condition or operating results. The outcome of litigation is inherently uncertain. If one or more legal matters were resolved against us in a reporting period for amounts above management’s expectations, our financial condition and operating results for that reporting period could be materially adversely affected.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Market Information

Our common stock, par value $0.001 per share, and redeemable warrants exercisable for shares of our common stock are listed on The Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbols “CLSK” and “CLSKW,” respectively.

Holders of Our Common Stock

As of December 3, 2024, we had 241 registered holders of record of our common stock, and 2 registered holder of record for our redeemable warrants.

The holders of our common stock are entitled to one vote for each share held of record on all matters submitted to a vote of stockholders. Holders of our common stock have no preemptive rights and no right to convert their common stock into any other securities. There are no redemption or sinking fund provisions applicable to our common stock.

Stock Performance Graph

This performance graph shall not be deemed "filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, or incorporated by reference into any filing of the Company under the Securities Act, or the Exchange Act, except as shall be expressly set forth by specific reference in such filing.

The following graph shows a comparison over a five-year period from September 30, 2019 through September 30, 2024, of the cumulative total return on our common stock (CLSK), the NASDAQ Composite Index ("NASDAQ Composite”), RUSSELL 2000, the price of bitcoin, and to equally-weighted average return of our self-constructed Peer Group assuming an aggregate initial investment in each of $100 on September 30, 2019.

Our self-constructed Peer Group Index consists of the members of our peer group with available publicly traded market data as of, and subsequent to, September 30, 2019, and consists of: Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. (MARA), Riot Platforms, Inc. (RIOT), HIVE Digital Technologies, Ltd. (HIVE), Bitfarms Ltd. (BITF), Terawulf Inc. (WULF), Cipher Mining Inc. (CIFR) , Iris Energy Limited (IREN) and Hut 8 Corp. (HUT), .

Such returns are based on closing stock price of each entity on September 30th or the last trading day prior to September 30th of each year. The results are not intended to suggest future performance. Historically, we have not declared or paid cash dividends on our common stock.

Dividends

There are no restrictions in our articles of incorporation and bylaws or agreements to which we are currently party that prevent us from declaring dividends. The Nevada Revised Statutes, however, do prohibit us from declaring dividends where after giving effect to the distribution of the dividend:

We have never declared any dividends on shares of our common stock, and we do not plan to declare any dividends in the foreseeable future.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities; Use of Proceeds from Registered Securities

During the quarter ended September 30, 2024, there were no unregistered sales of our securities that were not reported in a Current Report on Form 8-K or our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.

Repurchases

We have not made any repurchases of shares or other units of any class of our equity securities during the fourth quarter of the fiscal year covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Item 6. [Reserved]

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

Forward-Looking Statements

The following discussion of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the notes to those statements that are included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our discussion includes forward-looking statements based upon current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties, such as our plans, objectives, expectations and intentions. Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors. We use words such as anticipate, estimate, plan, project, continuing, ongoing, expect, believe, intend, may, will, should, could, and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. See "Forward-Looking Statements."

Business Overview

We are a bitcoin mining company. We have no intention to mine, purchase or hold any other cryptocurrency at this time or in the foreseeable future, and we did not hold any other cryptocurrency as of September 30, 2024. We independently own and operate a large portfolio of data centers across the United States with locations in Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee for a total developed power capacity of approximately 552 MW as of September 30, 2024. We are currently finalizing the developments of 75 MW in Wyoming and 16.5 MW in Mississippi. We have also had a hosting arrangement with GRIID Infrastructure, Inc. to host up to 54 MW of our bitcoin miners in Tennessee, which hosting arrangement terminated when we closed on our acquisition of GRIID Infrastructure, Inc. on October 30, 2024, and the 54 MW continued as our owned and operated facilities. We have an independent data center operation in Massena, NY that hosts 50 MW for us, which agreement will terminate on January 1, 2025.

We design our infrastructure to responsibly secure and support bitcoin, the world’s most recognized digital commodity. We cultivate trust and transparency among our employees, the communities we operate in and the people around the world who depend on bitcoin.

Bitcoin Mining

Bitcoin was introduced in 2008 with the goal of serving as a digital means of exchanging and storing value. Bitcoin is a form of digital currency that depends upon a consensus-based network and a public ledger called a “blockchain,” which contains a record of every bitcoin transaction ever processed. The bitcoin network is the first decentralized peer-to-peer payment network, powered by users participating in the consensus protocol, with no central authority or middlemen, that has wide network participation. The authenticity of each bitcoin transaction is protected through digital signatures that correspond with addresses of users that send and receive bitcoin. Users have full control over remitting bitcoin from their own sending addresses. All transactions on the bitcoin blockchain are transparent, allowing those running the appropriate software to confirm the validity of each transaction. To be recorded on the blockchain, each bitcoin transaction is validated through a proof-of-work consensus method, which entails solving cryptographic functions to validate transactions and post them on the blockchain. This process is called mining. Miners are rewarded with bitcoins, both in the form of newly created bitcoins and fees in bitcoin, for successfully solving for the cryptographic function and providing computing power to the network.

Factors such as access to computer processing capacity, interconnectivity, electricity cost, environmental factors (such as cooling capacity) and location play important roles in mining. As of September 30, 2024, our operating mining units were capable of producing over 27.6 EH/s of computing power. In bitcoin mining, “hashrate” is a measure of the computing and processing power and speed by which a computer processes transactions on the bitcoin network. We expect to continue increasing our computing power through the end of 2024 and beyond as we expand our infrastructure at our owned sites in Wyoming, Tennessee, and Mississippi, seek strategic acquisition targets, and through strategic co-location agreements. As of October 31, 2024, we are capable of producing 31.5 EH/s of computing power. A company’s computing power measured in hashrate is generally considered to be one of the most important metrics for evaluating bitcoin mining companies.

We owned approximately 235,000 miners as of September 30, 2024, of which approximately 189,000 were in service and the remainder mainly pertains to new machines ready to install in the expansion in Wyoming, Mississippi and Tennessee. These miners range in age from 1-45 months and have an average age of approximately 12 months. Effective, May 2024, we estimate the useful lives of our miners to be 3-years (see Note 2 - Summary of Significant Accounting Policies). We do not have scheduled downtime for our miners. We periodically perform unscheduled maintenance on our miners, but such downtime has not historically been significant. When performing unscheduled maintenance, we will typically replace the miner with a substitute miner to limit overall downtime. The miners owned as of September 30, 2024 have a range of energy efficiency (watts per terahash – “w/th”) of 15.0 to 34 w/th with an average energy efficiency of 21.9 w/th.

We obtain bitcoin as a result of our mining operations, and we sell bitcoin from time to time to support our operations and strategic growth. We also will utilize our bitcoin as collateral for lending arrangements. We do not currently plan to engage in regular trading of bitcoin (other than as necessary to convert our bitcoin into U.S. dollars) or to engage in hedging activities related to our holding of bitcoin; however, our decisions to hold or sell bitcoin at any given time may be impacted by the bitcoin market, which has been historically characterized by significant volatility. Currently, we do not use a formula or specific methodology to determine whether or when we will sell bitcoin that we hold, or the number of bitcoins we will sell. Rather, decisions to hold or sell bitcoins are currently determined by management by analyzing the need for working capital, forecasts and monitoring the market in real time.

The value of bitcoin has historically been subject to wide swings. The following table provides a range of intraday low and intraday high bitcoin prices between October 1, 2021 through September 30, 2024.

As of September 30, 2024, we held approximately 6,819 bitcoins and had a receivable for 1,229 bitcoin that was posted as collateral and recorded on our Consolidated Balance Sheets as “Receivable for bitcoin collateral”. The fair value of our bitcoin as of September 30, 2024 was $431,661 on our Consolidated Balance Sheets and the fair value of our Receivable for bitcoin collateral was $77,827. Effective October 1, 2023, we adopted Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 350-60 - Accounting for and Disclosure of Crypto Assets, which requires bitcoin to be measured at fair value. See Note 2 - Summary of Significant Accounting Policies for more details on the impact of implementation to the consolidated financial statements. As a result, the carrying value of each bitcoin we held at October 1, 2023 and each subsequent reporting period reflects the price of one bitcoin quoted on the active exchange, Coinbase, at the end of the reporting period. Therefore, decreases in the market price of bitcoin could have a material impact on our earnings and on the carrying value of our bitcoin.

As of September 30, 2023, we held $0.05 in USD Coin (“USDC”), which is a digital currency that is fully backed by U.S. dollar assets, with the value of one USDC coin pegged 1:1 to the value of one U.S. dollar. As of September 30, 2024, we did not hold any other cryptocurrency of value other than bitcoin.

We maintain real property holdings through our wholly owned and consolidated subsidiaries.

Results of Operations

($ presented in 000’s, except for per share amounts, bitcoin price and information set forth under the heading “Bitcoin Mining Operations”)

Bitcoin Mining Operations

Overview

We operate a fleet of servers commonly known as miners or ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits), which are computer chips customized for a specific use. In the case of bitcoin mining, ASICs calculate the SHA-256 algorithm as efficiently and quickly as possible in order to compete with other miners to solve blocks. Each calculation is a hash, and each machine’s computational power is measured in terahash processed per second (“th/s”). One terahash is equal to 1 trillion hashes. The more terahash we produce and contribute into the mining pool, the higher our percentage of the blockchain reward.

There are a variety of factors that influence our ability to mine bitcoin profitability. Our ability to mine profitability is dependent on successfully navigating these fluctuating variables, which include bitcoin’s value in USD (the volatility of which is described above), mining difficulty, block rewards and halving, global hashrate, power prices, fleet energy efficiency, data center energy efficiency and other factors.

The energy efficiency of a mining fleet helps drive profitability, because the most significant direct expense for bitcoin mining is power. We measure efficiency by the watts of energy required to produce each terahash of processing power. We believe we operate a highly efficient fleet of miners.

The table below describes our fleet as of September 30, 2024, 2023 and 2022 and our miner efficiency and computing power as compared to the global computing power.

As of September 30, 2024, our operating hashrate was approximately 4.40% of the total global hashrate, and we received approximately the same percentage of the global blockchain rewards, which as of that date equaled approximately 19-21 bitcoin per day, excluding the bitcoin earned from network transaction fees. Ultimately, in order to mine profitably, we work to ensure that these mining rewards cover our direct operating costs.

The table below describes the average cost of mining each bitcoin for the years ended September 30, 2024, 2023 and 2022 and the total energy usage and cost per each kilowatt hour ("KWH") utilized within our owned facilities.

(1) Average revenue of each bitcoin mined is calculated by dividing the sum of bitcoin mining revenue for our owned facilities by the total number of bitcoin mined by our owned facilities during the respective periods. We have determined that Coinbase is the principal market

for valuing bitcoin transactions and use the closing price of bitcoin at 23:59:59 UTC as the source of recording revenue. See the table "Range of intraday bitcoin prices" for information on the range of intraday bitcoin prices for quarterly periods between October 1, 2022 and September 30, 2024.

Power prices are the most significant cost driver for our wholly owned locations, and energy costs represented 39.7%, 51.5% and 19.6% as expressed as a percentage of bitcoin mining revenues for the years ended September 30, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively.

Energy prices can be highly volatile and global events (including the war in Ukraine and the resulting natural gas shortage) caused power prices to increase nationwide in 2022. All of our wholly owned and operated sites in Georgia and Mississippi and our hosted miners in New York State are currently subject to variable prices and market rate fluctuations with respect to wholesale power costs. Such prices are governed by power purchase agreements which vary by location, and said prices can change hour to hour. While this renders energy prices less predictable, it also gives us greater ability and flexibility to actively manage the energy we consume with a goal of increasing profitability and energy efficiency. Energy prices are also highly sensitive to weather events, such as winter storms, polar vortices and hurricanes, which increase the demand for power regionally. When such events occur, we may curtail our operations to avoid using power at increased rates. The average power prices we paid in our owned facilities for the years ended September 30, 2024, 2023 and 2022 were $0.046, $0.048 and $0.041 per KWH, respectively.

The management team makes real-time determinations on the need and timing during which we should curtail our operations. We curtail when power prices exceed the value we would receive for the corresponding fixed bitcoin reward. This means if bitcoin’s value decreases or energy prices increase, our curtailment will increase; likewise, when bitcoin’s value increases and energy prices decrease, our curtailment will decrease. The management team manages this decision on an hour-by-hour basis across all our sites, both wholly owned and hosted. The Company did not have significant curtailment greater than 20% during the years ended September 30, 2024, 2023 and 2022.

The Company records depreciation expense (a non-cash expense) on its miners on a straight-line basis over the miners' expected useful life. Such non-cash depreciation amounts are recorded within the Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss as "Depreciation and Amortization". Although the Company recognizes depreciation with respect to its mining assets, it does not consider depreciation in determining whether it is economical to operate its mining equipment since depreciation expense is not an avoidable operating cost, such as energy costs. The table above presents the non-cash miner depreciation expense on a "per bitcoin" basis, calculated by dividing miner depreciation expense in our owned facilities by the number of bitcoin mined in the owned facilities. On a "cost per bitcoin" ratio, miner depreciation expense was $17,156, $8,208 and $11,630 for the years ended September 30, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The Company recorded accelerated depreciation on certain of its miners based on the reduction of the estimated useful life from 5 years to 3 years, which equaled $1,170 on a cost per bitcoin ratio for the year ended September 30, 2024. In fiscal 2023, the accelerated depreciation was applicable to certain miners removed from service prior to the conclusion of their originally estimated useful life. The number of bitcoin received by the Company was reduced by approximately 50% effective April 19, 2024 when the bitcoin algorithm halved the rewards from 6.25 per block to 3.125 per block.

We have financing costs for a limited number of miners in our miner fleet and such costs are recorded within Interest Expense in our Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss. The table above presents financing costs per bitcoin calculated by dividing direct interest expense on our miner financing agreement by the number of bitcoin mined in our owned facilities. On a cost per bitcoin ratio, financing costs were $209, $411 and $508 for the years ended September 30, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively.

The table below describes the average cost of mining each bitcoin for the years ended September 30, 2024, 2023 and 2022 and the total energy usage and cost per each KWH utilized within our hosted facilities.

(1) Average revenue of each bitcoin mined is calculated by dividing the sum of bitcoin mining revenue for hosted facilities by the total number of bitcoin mined within the hosted facilities during the respective periods. We have determined that Coinbase is the principal market for valuing bitcoin transactions and use the closing prices as of 23:59:59 UTC as the source of recording revenue. See the table “Range of intraday bitcoin prices” for information on the range of intraday bitcoin prices for quarterly periods between October 1, 2022 and September 30, 2024.

For our hosted facilities, hosting fees (which comprise direct operating costs of the third-party operator with energy as the largest cost) and profit sharing were a combined 71.5%, 66.9% and 42.4% as a percentage of bitcoin mining revenues for the years ended September 30, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively.

At our hosted facilities, the hosting fee as compared to KWHs utilized in the hosted facilities was $0.067, $0.064 and $0.098 per KWH for the years ended September 30, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. We did not have significant curtailment greater than 20% during the years ended September 30, 2024, 2023 and 2022.

On a "cost per bitcoin" ratio, miner depreciation expense was $22,374, $14,872 and $8,958 for the years ended September 30, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The increase for the fiscal year 2024 period was mainly due to the decrease of bitcoin production as a result of the bitcoin halving on April 19, 2024 when the bitcoin algorithm halved rewards from 6.25 per block to 3.125 per block. The Company did not have any S19 XP or S21 miners at the hosted facilities during the periods presented and accordingly, there was no accelerated depreciation in the hosted facilities in fiscal 2024 following the reduction in the estimated useful life of our miners from 5 years to 3 years. In fiscal 2023, the accelerated depreciation was applicable to certain miners removed from service prior to the conclusion of their originally estimated useful life.

Results of Operations for the Fiscal Years Ended September 30, 2024 and 2023

Bitcoin mining revenue

We earned $378,968 in revenues during the year ended September 30, 2024, which was an increase of $210,847, or 125%, as compared with $168,121 in revenues for the year ended September 30, 2023. Bitcoin mining revenues are recorded net of bitcoin mining fees charged by our sole mining pool operator that equaled approximately 0.16% and 0.09% of gross bitcoin mining revenues for the year ended September 30, 2024 and 2023, respectively, and are determined by two main drivers: quantity of bitcoin mined and the price of bitcoin on the date the bitcoin is mined.

During the fiscal year ended September 30, 2024, we mined 7,092 bitcoins, net of mining pool fees, with an average bitcoin price of $53,435 as compared to 6,903 bitcoins with an average bitcoin price of $24,355 during the year ended September 30, 2023. The increase in bitcoin mining revenue was primarily due to increase in the average bitcoin price and the increase in bitcoin mined year over year. The increase in the quantity of bitcoin mined was primarily driven by the increased number of miners in operation which more than doubled to approximately 188,500 as of September 30, 2024 from 88,000 as of September 30, 2023. This increase in miners in operation increased our hashrate, which is our total computational power, and which when understood in the context of global hashrate, determines how much bitcoin we are able to mine.

Other services revenues

Other services revenues pertain to our data center operations which ceased operations as of September 30, 2023 due to management's decision to divert all capacity within its operations to bitcoin mining. The Company earned $287 from its data center operations during the year ended September 30, 2023.

Cost of revenues (exclusive of depreciation and amortization expense)

Our cost of revenues were $165,516 for the year ended September 30, 2024, an increase of $71,936, or 77%, as compared with cost of revenues of $93,580 for the year ended September 30, 2023. These costs were primarily related to energy costs to operate miners within our owned facilities, which was $132,192 for the year ended September 30, 2024, an increase of $69,763 as compared to $65,824 for the year ended September 30, 2023. The increases in energy costs was primarily due to the increase in the volume of miners operating in our owned locations partially offset by the reduction in the average cost per KWHs, which approximated $0.046/KWH for the year ended September 30, 2024 as compared to an average cost of $0.048/KWH for the year ended September 30, 2023. We continually evaluate energy and bitcoin prices and periodically will curtail our mining operations when it is advantageous to do so.

We also incurred hosting fees of $27,961 and profit sharing fees of $4,784 for the year ended September 30, 2024, an increase of $4,987 and $793, respectively, as compared to $22,974 and $3,991, respectively for the year ended September 30, 2023. The hosting fees and profit-sharing fees were primarily the result of our co-location agreements with Coinmint and GRIID. The hosting fees increased primarily due to increases in utility rates partially offset by a slight reduction in KWHs utilized.

Professional fees

Professional fees, which consists primarily of legal, accounting and consulting fees, were $13,806 for the year ended September 30, 2024, an increase of $2,937, or 27%, from $10,869 for the year ended September 30, 2023. Legal expenses were $5,707 for the year ended September 30, 2024, as compared to $7,676 in the prior year. This decrease was primarily attributable to no legal settlements during the year ended September 30, 2024, as compared to $3,800 of legal settlements in the prior year. Other professional fees, namely accounting, audit and consulting, were $8,099 for the year ended September 30, 2024 as compared to $3,193 for the year ended September 30, 2023, representing an increase of $4,906.

Payroll expenses

Payroll expenses increased to $74,095 for the year ended September 30, 2024 from $45,714 for the same period ended September 30, 2023. Our payroll expenses include all compensation related expenses for our employees, primarily consisting of salaries, wages, payroll-related taxes and benefits and non-cash stock-based compensation. Payroll expenses, excluding non-cash stock-based compensation, were $44,540 the year ended September 30, 2024, representing an increase of 106% from $21,572 in the prior year ended September 30, 2023. This increase was primarily due to the significant growth in locations, increase in employee headcount along with employee bonuses during the year.

We grant stock-based awards to certain employees as a significant portion of our payroll-related costs. Stock-based compensation, which is a non-cash expense, was $29,555 for the year ended September 30, 2024, an increase of $5,413, or 22%, from $24,142 the prior year ended September 30, 2023. Such increase was primarily due to the vesting of market-based restricted stock awards in March due to achieving the market-based targets.

General and administrative expenses

General and administrative fees increased to $30,185 for the year ended September 30, 2024 from $20,823 for the same period ended September 30, 2023, representing an increase of $9,362. This increase was primarily attributable to increases in corporate overhead, including, but not limited to, taxes and licenses, insurance premiums, travel expenses and rent expenses.

Gain (loss) on fair value of bitcoin, net

Gain on fair value of bitcoin, net for the year ended September 30, 2024 was $113,423. As discussed in Note 2 - Summary of Significant Accounting Policies and Note 6 - Bitcoin, the Company adopted the amendments per ASC 350-60 in the current period; accordingly, we measured crypto assets within the scope of ASC Topic 350-60 - Intangibles - Goodwill and Other - Crypto Assets at fair value in accordance with ASC Topic 820 - Fair Value Measurement and included the gains and losses from remeasurement in net income (loss). The gain pertains to the change in bitcoin’s fair value from $26,961 per bitcoin on October 1, 2023 to $63,301 per bitcoin on September 30, 2024.

Prior to the adoption of ASC 350-60 - Crypto Assets, bitcoin was classified as indefinite-lived intangible assets and was measured at cost less impairment. Additionally, in the previous guidance, subsequent increases in bitcoin prices are not allowed to be recorded (unrealized gains) unless the bitcoin is sold, at which point the gain is recognized. Accordingly, gains (losses) recognized on fair value of bitcoin in fiscal year 2024 are not comparable to fiscal year 2023.

Other impairment expense (related to bitcoin)

Impairment expense in the amount of $7,163 was recognized for the year ended September 30, 2023. There was no impairment expense related to bitcoin for the year ended September 30, 2024 due to the adoption of ASC 350-60 (as described in Note 2 - Summary of Significant Accounting Policies and Note 6 - Bitcoin) which resulted in measuring bitcoin at fair value and recognizing gains or losses from remeasurement of the assets rather than at cost less impairment. The prior year impairment expense consisted of bitcoin impairments due to the general decrease in bitcoin prices during the year. Decreases in bitcoin prices for periods subsequent to the mining date were recorded as impairment expense. Under ASC Topic 350 - Goodwill and Other (prior guidance), subsequent increases in bitcoin prices are not allowed to be recorded (unrealized gains) unless the bitcoin is sold, at which point the gain is recognized.

Realized gain on sale of bitcoin

Realized gain on sale of bitcoin was $1,357 for the year ended September 30, 2023. As described under the heading “Gain (loss) on fair value of bitcoin, net” above, gains (losses) recognized on bitcoin transactions in fiscal year 2024 are not comparable to fiscal year 2023.

Impairment Expense - Fixed Assets

Effective April 30, 2024, we concluded that various miner models (S19J, S19 J Pro and S19 J Pro+) would begin to be phased out and removed from service and replaced with newer, more efficient miner models. We began removing these miners in the periods subsequent to April 30,2024 and expect to have these miners removed from service by December 2024. Based on this operational change we recorded an impairment charge of $189,235 in the quarter ended June 30, 2024. The impairment charge was calculated by comparing the carrying amount as of April 30, 2024 to the fair value, which included the residual value of the miners. Due to subsequent reductions in salvage value between June 30, 2024 and September 30, 2024, we further reduced the estimated salvage value of these miners removed from service and recorded an additional impairment charge of approximately $7,806.

Depreciation and amortization

Depreciation and amortization expense increased to $154,609 for the year ended September 30, 2024 from $120,728 for the same period ended September 30, 2023, an increase of $33,881.

Depreciation expense increased by $33,854, or 29%, during the year ended September 30, 2024, to $152,469 from $118,615 for the year ended September 30, 2023, due to an increase in miners and mining-related equipment being placed in service during the comparative period and due to accelerated depreciation expense on miners beginning in the second half of fiscal year 2024. Additionally, the Company reduced the expected useful life for miners from 5 years for new miners to 3 years, effective May 1, 2024.

Amortization expense for the year ended September 30, 2024 was $2,140, an increase of $27, or 1%, from $2,113 for the prior year ended September 30, 2023.

Other Income (Expenses)

Other Income was $6,610 for the year ended September 30, 2024, compared with other expenses of $260 for the year ended September 30, 2023, which is a change of $6,870. The fluctuation was primarily related to the interest income earned in the year ended September 30, 2024 of $8,555 as compared to $481 in the prior year ended September 30, 2023 due to a higher balance of cash retained in short term interest bearing accounts and the interest earned on the note receivable from GRIID (See Note 7 - Note Receivable from GRIID).

Interest expense in the year ended September 30, 2024 was $2,455 a decrease of $523 from $2,977 in the prior year comparable period. This decrease was primarily related to overall reduction in loan balances. Additionally, we recognized a gain on the change in fair value of contingent consideration of $2,484 for the year ended September 30, 2023 relating to the Mawson acquisition. Unrealized loss on derivative security of $965 was recorded for the year ended September 30, 2024 as compared to loss for the same prior year period of $259, this change between the periods was the result of a change in fair value of the underlying instrument.

Net Loss from Continuing Operations

Net loss from continuing operations for the year ended September 30, 2024 was $145,777 as compared to net loss of $133,719 for the year ended September 30, 2023 for the reasons discussed above.

Net Loss

Net loss for the year ended September 30, 2024 was $145,777, an increase of $7,628 compared to a net loss of $138,148 for the year ended September 30, 2023.

Results of Operations for the Fiscal Years Ended September 30, 2023 and 2022

Bitcoin mining revenue

We earned $168,121 in revenues during the year ended September 30, 2023, which was an increase of $37,121, or 28%, as compared with $131,000 in revenues for the year ended September 30, 2022 primarily due to increase in revenues from our bitcoin mining operations. Bitcoin mining revenues are determined by two main drivers: quantity of bitcoin mined and the price of bitcoin on the date the bitcoin is mined. During the fiscal year ended September 30, 2023, we mined 6,903 bitcoins with an average bitcoin price of $24,355 as compared to 3,752 bitcoins with an average bitcoin price of $34,916 during the year ended September 30, 2022. The increase in the quantity of bitcoin mined was primarily driven by the increased number of miners in operation which almost doubled to approximately 88,000 as of September 30, 2023 from 47,000 as of September 30, 2022. This increase in miners in operation increased our hashrate, which is our total computational power, and which when understood in the context of global hashrate, determines how much bitcoin we are able to mine.

Other services revenues

Other services revenues pertain to our data center operations for which we earned $287 in revenue from our data center operation for the year ended September 30, 2023, which is a decrease of $238, or 45%, as compared to $525 for the year ended September 30, 2022. This decrease was due to management's decision to divert all capacity within its operations to bitcoin mining. As of September 30, 2023, we no longer recognize revenues from data center operations.

Cost of revenues (exclusive of depreciation and amortization expense)

Our cost of revenues were $93,580 for the year ended September 30, 2023, an increase of $52,346, or 127%, as compared with cost of revenues of $41,234 for the year ended September 30, 2022. These costs were primarily related to energy costs to operate the mining equipment within our owned facilities, which was $65,824 for the year ended September 30, 2023, an increase of $52,490 as compared to $13,334 for the year ended September 30, 2022. The increase in energy costs within our owned facilities relates to the full-year or approximate full-year, as applicable, of mining operations in fiscal year 2023 in our Washington and Sandersville locations which were acquired in August 2022 and October 2022, respectively.

We also incurred hosting fees of $22,974 and profit-sharing fees of $3,991 for the year ended September 30, 2023, an increase of $266 and a decrease of $37, respectively, as compared to $22,708 and $4,028, respectively, for the year ended September 30, 2022. The hosting fees and profit-sharing fees were primarily the result of our co-location agreement with Coinmint. The hosting fees remained consistent for both fiscal years since the increase in KWHs utilized was offset by the decrease in the rate charged per KWH.

Professional fees

Professional fees, which consists primarily of legal, accounting and consulting fees, were $10,869 for the year ended September 30, 2023, an increase of $4,400, or 68%, from $6,469 for the year ended September 30, 2022. Legal expenses were $7,676 for the year ended September 30, 2023, as compared to $2,714 in the prior year. This increase was primarily attributable to $3,800 in litigation settlement with Darfon America Corp. and additional activity in litigation and transactional costs. Other professional fees, namely accounting, audit and consulting, were $3,193 for the year ended September 30, 2023 as compared to $3,755 for the year ended September 30, 2022, a decrease of $562.

Payroll expenses

Payroll expenses increased to $45,714 for the year ended September 30, 2023 from $40,920 for the same period ended September 30, 2022. Our payroll expenses include all compensation related expenses for our employees, consisting primarily of salaries, wages, payroll-related taxes and benefits and non-cash stock-based compensation. Payroll expenses, excluding non-cash stock-based compensation, were $21,572 the year ended September 30, 2023, representing an increase of 127% from $9,493 in the prior year ended September 30, 2022. This increase was primarily due to the Company’s acquisition of both WAHA and Mawson in August 2022 and October 2022, respectively.

We grant stock-based awards to certain employees as a significant portion of our payroll-related costs. Stock-based compensation, which is a non-cash expense, was $24,142 for the year ended September 30, 2023, a decrease of $7,324, or 23%, from $31,466 the prior year ended September 30, 2022.

General and administrative expenses

General and administrative fees increased to $20,823 for the year ended September 30, 2023 from $10,423 for the same period ended September 30, 2022, representing an increase of $10,400. This increase was primarily attributable to increases in corporate overhead, including, but not limited to, taxes and licenses, insurance premiums, travel expenses and rent expenses.

Other impairment expense (related to bitcoin)

Impairment expense in the amount of $7,163 was recognized for the year ended September 30, 2023, a decrease of $5,047 as compared to $12,210 for the year ended September 30, 2022. The impairment expense consists of bitcoin impairments due to the general decrease in bitcoin prices during the year, for which there was a larger general decrease in bitcoin prices during fiscal year ended September 30, 2022 as compared to fiscal year ended September 30, 2023. Decreases in bitcoin prices for periods subsequent to the mining date are recorded as impairment expense. Impairment expense was measured utilizing the intraday low bitcoin price during the holding period of bitcoin. ASC Topic 350 -Goodwill and Other that requires subsequent increases in bitcoin prices are not allowed to be recorded (unrealized gains) unless the bitcoin is sold, at which point the gain is recognized. As described above, the Company adopted ASC 350-60 - Crypto Assets on October 1, 2023.

Realized gain on sale of bitcoin

Realized gain on sale of bitcoin decreased to $1,357 for the year ended September 30, 2023 from a realized gain of $2,567 for the year ended September 30, 2022. Realized gain on sale of bitcoin is the difference between the sales proceeds of bitcoin and the carrying amount. Typically, gains are higher when bitcoin prices are increasing over a holding period.

Depreciation and amortization

Depreciation and amortization expense increased to $120,728 for the year ended September 30, 2023 from $49,045 for the same period ended September 30, 2022, an increase of $71,683.

Depreciation expense increased by $71,533, or 152%, during the year ended September 30, 2023, to $118,615 from $47,082, due to an increase in miners and mining-related equipment being placed in service during the comparative period. Additionally, in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023, the Company purchased Antminer XPs (140 th/s with 21.5 J/TH), and replaced certain less efficient miners with these newly acquired miners. As a result, the Company recognized an additional $32,721 in accelerated depreciation expense on the replaced miners.

Amortization expense for the year ended September 30, 2023 was $2,113, an increase of $150, or 8%, from $1,963 for the prior year ended September 30, 2022.

Other Income (Expenses)

Other expense was $260 for the year ended September 30, 2023, compared with other expense of $2,225 for the year ended September 30, 2022, which is a variance of $1,965. We recognized a gain on the change in fair value of contingent consideration of $2,484 for the year ended September 30, 2023 relating to the Mawson acquisition. Unrealized loss on derivative security of $259 was recorded for the year ended September 30, 2023 as compared to loss for the same prior year period of $1,950.

Interest expense in the fiscal year ended September 30, 2023 increased by $1,899 to $2,977 from $1,078 in the prior year comparable period. This increase was primarily related to the Financing Agreement, which was entered into in April 2022 and was outstanding for approximately five months in the fiscal year ended September 30, 2022 as compared to being outstanding during the entire fiscal year ended September 30, 2023.

Net Loss from Continuing Operations

Net loss from continuing operations for the year ended September 30, 2023 was $133,719 as compared to net loss of $40,089 for the year ended September 30, 2022 for the reasons discussed above.

Results of Discontinued Operations

Revenues from our former energy segment decreased year over year as expected to $158 for the year ended September 30, 2023 from $9,667 for the year ended September 30, 2022. The total costs and expenses for the year ended September 30, 2023 decreased to $6,071 from $26,901 for the year ended September 30, 2022 primarily due to impairment expenses related to the energy business and severance-related payroll expenses recognized in the prior year. As a result, the net loss from discontinued operations for the year ended September 30, 2023 decreased to $4,429 from $17,237 in the prior year ended September 30, 2022. The Company does not expect any substantial activity to be recorded to discontinued operations in subsequent periods.

Net Loss

Net loss for the year ended September 30, 2023 was $138,148, an increase of $80,822 compared to a net loss of $57,326 for the year ended September 30, 2022.

Non-GAAP Measure

We present adjusted EBITDA, which is not a measurement of financial performance under generally accepted accounting principles in the United States ("GAAP"). Our non-GAAP "Adjusted EBITDA" excludes (i) impacts of interest, taxes, and depreciation; (ii) our share-based compensation expense, unrealized gains/losses on securities, and changes in the fair value of contingent consideration with respect to previously completed acquisitions, all of which are non-cash items that we believe are not reflective of our general business performance, and for which the accounting requires management judgment, and the resulting expenses could vary significantly in comparison to other companies; (iii) non-cash impairment losses related to long-lived assets; (iv) realized gains and losses on sales of equity securities, the amounts of which are directly related to the unrealized gains and losses that are also excluded; (v) legal fees related to litigation and various transactions, which fees management does not believe are reflective of our ongoing operating activities; (vi) gains and losses on disposal of assets, the majority of which are related to obsolete or unrepairable machines that are no longer deployed; (vii) gains and losses related to discontinued operations that would not be applicable to our future business activities; and (viii) severance expenses.

We previously excluded non-cash impairment losses related to bitcoin and realized gains and losses on sales of bitcoin from our calculation of adjusted EBITDA but have determined such items are part of our normal ongoing operations and will no longer be excluding them from our calculation of adjusted EBITDA.

Management believes that providing this non-GAAP financial measure that excludes these items allows for meaningful comparisons between the Company's core business operating results and those of other companies, and provides the Company with an important tool for financial and operational decision making and for evaluating its own core business operating results over different periods of time. In addition to management's internal use of non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA, management believes that adjusted EBITDA is also useful to investors and analysts in comparing our performance across reporting periods on a consistent basis. Management believes the foregoing to be the case even though some of the excluded items involve cash outlays and some of them recur on a regular basis (although management does not believe any of such items are normal operating expenses necessary to generate our bitcoin related revenues). For example, we expect that share-based compensation expense, which is excluded from adjusted EBITDA, will continue to be a significant recurring expense over the coming years and is an important part of the compensation provided to certain employees, officers and directors. Additionally, management does not consider any of the excluded items to be expenses necessary to generate our bitcoin-related revenue.

The Company's adjusted EBITDA measure may not be directly comparable to similar measures provided by other companies in our industry, as other companies in our industry may calculate non-GAAP financial results differently. The Company's adjusted EBITDA is not a measurement of financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to operating (loss) income or any other measure of performance derived in accordance with GAAP. Although management utilizes internally and presents adjusted EBITDA, we only utilize that measure supplementally and do not consider it to be a substitute for, or superior to, the information provided by GAAP financial results.

Accordingly, adjusted EBITDA is not meant to be considered in isolation of, and should be read in conjunction with, the information contained in our Consolidated Financial Statements, which have been prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The following is a reconciliation of our non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA to its most directly comparable GAAP measure (i.e., net (loss) income) for the periods indicated:

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Our primary requirements for liquidity and capital are working capital, capital expenditures, loan payments, public company costs and general corporate needs. We expect these needs to continue as we further develop and grow our business. For the year ended September 30, 2024, our primary sources of liquidity came from existing cash and cash equivalents, bitcoin and proceeds from our at-the-market ("ATM") equity offering program.

Based on our current plans and business conditions, we believe that existing cash and cash equivalents and bitcoin, together with cash generated from operations, will be sufficient to satisfy our anticipated cash requirements for the next 12 months and for the reasonably foreseeable future until we reach profitability, and we are not aware of any trends or demands, commitments, events or uncertainties that are reasonably likely to result in a decrease in the liquidity of our assets. We may continue utilizing the ATM program to strategically issue shares of common stock to support our liquidity needs, and we may amend or replace the program as necessary to maintain this funding flexibility. We are likely to require additional capital to respond to technological advancements, competitive dynamics or technologies, business opportunities, challenges, acquisitions or unforeseen circumstances and in either the short-term or long-term may determine to engage in equity or debt financings or enter into credit facilities for other reasons. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us, when we require it, our ability to continue to grow or support our business and to respond to business challenges could be significantly limited. In particular, rising inflation and changes in interest rates, and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, have resulted in, and may continue to result in, significant disruption and volatility in the global financial markets, reducing our ability to access capital. If we are unable to raise additional funds when or on the terms desired, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

As of September 30, 2024, we had total current assets of $705,430, primarily consisting of cash and cash equivalents, bitcoin, receivable from bitcoin collateral, the note receivable from GRIID, and prepaid expenses and other current assets, and total assets in the amount of $1,962,662. Our total current liabilities and total liabilities as of September 30, 2024 were $187,887 and $201,821, respectively. We had a working capital of $517,543 as of September 30, 2024. The Company had issued all of the ATM’s remaining capacity through the date of these consolidated financial statements. Consistent with past activity, management maintains various sources of funding available for the Company’s future needs.

Material Cash Requirements

We are a party to many contractual obligations involving commitments to make payments to third parties. These obligations impact our short-term and long-term liquidity and capital resource needs. Certain contractual obligations are reflected on the consolidated balance sheet as of September 30, 2024, while others are considered future commitments. Our contractual obligations primarily consist of cancelable purchase commitments with various parties to purchase goods or services, primarily miners and equipment, entered into in the normal course of business, loans and both finance and operating leases.

We regularly evaluate opportunities to expand our business, including through potential acquisitions of businesses or assets. We will evaluate a variety of sources of capital in connection with financing any future possible acquisitions, including the incurrence of debt, sales of stock or bitcoin, or using cash on hand. We may also use the Company’s stock as transaction consideration, as we have done in the past.

For information regarding our contractual obligations, refer to Note 18 - Commitments and Contingencies included elsewhere in our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.

Operating Activities from Continuing Operations

The Company generates non-cash revenue through mining Bitcoin, which it retains based on its long-term value strategy, while funding all operating expenses with cash. As a result, net cash used in operating activities was $233,154 for the year ended September 30, 2024 primarily due to net loss of $145,777, adjusted by adding non-cash adjustment to reconcile net loss to net cash of impairment of goodwill, fixed assets and other of $197,757, depreciation and amortization of $154,609, stock based compensation of $29,555 and loss on disposal of assets of $5,466 and subtracting non-cash bitcoin mining revenues of $378,968, gain on fair value of bitcoin, net of $113,423 and gain on fair value of receivable for bitcoin collateral of $1,384. Changes in operating assets and liabilities generated a net total of $16,529 of cash.

Net cash used in operating activities was $18,573 for the year ended September 30, 2023 primarily due to net loss of $138,148, adjusted by adding non-cash adjustment to reconcile net loss to net cash of depreciation and amortization of $120,728, stock based compensation of $24,142, impairment of bitcoin of $7,163 and loss on disposal of assets of $1,931 and subtracting non-cash bitcoin mining revenues of $168,121. We also generated cash proceeds from selling bitcoin of $116,271. Changes in operating assets and liabilities generated a net total of $15,232 of cash.

Investing Activities from Continuing Operations

Cash flows used by investing activities during the year ended September 30, 2024 was $920,398 as compared with $334,179 for the year ended September 30, 2023. Our payments on miner equipment purchase and deposits of $740,296, purchase of fixed assets of $66,100, the combined asset purchases of land and locations of $97,647, and the note receivable from GRIID in the amount of $60,919 were the main cash outflows. The Company generated $43,126 of cash flows from the sales of bitcoin during the year ended September 30, 2024.

Our purchase of fixed assets of $61,460, payments on mining equipment (including deposits) of $239,416 and purchase of Mawson for $22,518, and the acquisition of Coinmaker LLC for $9,389 were the main components of our negative investing cash flow for the year ended September 30, 2023.

Financing Activities from Continuing Operations

Cash flows generated by financing activities during the year ended September 30, 2024 amounted to $1,249,123, as compared with $357,928 for the year ended September 30, 2023. Our cash flows from financing activities for the year ended September 30, 2024 consisted primarily of proceeds from our at-the-market offering facility of $1,231,834 (106,969,819 shares at a weighted average price of $11.43 per share and $9,590 collections from receivable from equity offerings) and borrowings under our credit facility with Coinbase of $50,000. Our cash flows from financing activities for the year ended September 30, 2023 consisted of $376,200 in proceeds from offerings (98,829,525 shares at a weighted average price of $3.88 per share less 7,576 net collections on receivable for equity offerings) partially offset by payments on loans of $14,466.

Cash Flows from Discontinued Operations

Cash used in discontinued operations of $508 for the year ended September 30, 2024 was primarily based on the winding down of operations, which includes payments on warranty service. In the year ended September 30, 2023, operating cash flows generated was $1,326 mainly due to payments received from accounts receivable, payments made on accounts payable and cash generated from the sale of assets during the fiscal year.

Compensation Recovery Analysis

As a result of our correction of errors in the prior year financial statements, the Compensation Committee of our Board of Directors, consisting entirely of independent directors, conducted a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by our executive officers during the relevant period, as contemplated by Rule 10D-1 under the Exchange Act and in accordance with our Executive Officer Incentive Compensation Recoupment (Clawback) Policy. Based on this analysis, no recovery of incentive-based compensation is required, as the financial statement adjustments did not impact the metrics used to determine incentive compensation during the relevant recovery period, and thus there was no erroneously awarded compensation.

Recently Issued and Proposed Accounting Pronouncements

For information on new accounting pronouncements and the impact of these pronouncements on our Consolidated Financial Statements, see Note 2 - Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” in the notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

We describe our most significant accounting policies in Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” in the notes to the consolidated financial statements. We have identified the following accounting policies as those that require significant judgments, assumptions and estimates and that have a significant impact on our financial condition and results of operations. These policies are considered critical because they may result in fluctuations in our reported results from period to period due to the significant judgments, estimates and assumptions about highly complex and inherently uncertain matters and because the use of different judgments, assumptions or estimates could have a material impact on our financial condition or results of operations. We evaluate our critical accounting estimates and judgments required by our policies on an ongoing basis and update them as appropriate based on changing conditions.

The most significant accounting policies in the preparation of our financial statements include revenue recognition and impairment of long-lived assets.

Revenue Recognition

We participate in a third-party operated mining pool. As a participant in this mining pool, we provide a service to perform hash calculations which is an output of our ordinary activities. The Company recognizes revenue in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 606 – Revenue from Contracts with Customers(ASC 606). The core principle of the revenue standard is that a company should recognize revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the company expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. We receive non-cash consideration in the form of bitcoin, fair value of which we measure at 23:59:59 UTC on the date of contract inception using our principal market for bitcoin. The contract renews continuously throughout the day, and thus the value of the consideration should be assessed continuously throughout the day. Our critical policy is that we have concluded to use the 23:59:59 UTC bitcoin price each day. The market price of bitcoin fluctuates throughout the day, and the revenue recognized on a daily basis could be impacted if we utilized a different point in time or average price to recognize revenue. The Company assesses whether measuring the fair value of bitcoin received at 23:59:59 on the date of contract inception materially differs from assessing the fair value of bitcoin received continuously throughout the day at contract inception.

Impairment of long-lived assets

We evaluate impairment of long-lived assets when events or circumstance indicates there is a potential for impairment. The evaluation of impairment involves the conclusion that an indicator of impairment has occurred, the determination of the recoverability of long-lived assets from the results of operations and, if necessary, the fair value of the potentially impaired long-lived assets. The determination of fair value, specifically for our miners, includes estimates such as future bitcoin prices, transaction fees, and the future global hashrate. Actual future outcomes could result in different conclusions that could materially affect the consolidated financial statements.

The most significant accounting estimates in the preparation of our financial statements include estimate of useful lives of our miners, and impairment of long-lived assets and the valuation allowance associated with our deferred tax assets.

Useful lives of miners

We establish the useful lives of miners based upon the period over which they provide economic benefit to the Company in the form of bitcoin mining revenue and the duration of miner technological capability. Changes in the profitability of mining operations or miner technological capability could affect the determination of useful lives and have a material effect on the consolidated financial statements.

Valuation allowances on deferred tax assets

Accounting for income taxes requires the use of an asset and liability approach in accounting for income taxes. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are recorded based on the differences between the financial statement and tax bases of assets and liabilities and the tax rates in effect currently. The guidance requires the reduction of deferred tax assets by a valuation allowance, if, based on the weight of available evidence, it is more likely than not that some or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. We have recorded a valuation allowance on our deferred tax assets. The ultimate realization of deferred tax assets depends on the generation of future taxable income during the periods in which those temporary differences are deductible. To fully utilize the net operating loss (“NOL”) carryforward, we will need to generate sufficient future taxable income in each respective jurisdiction. Due primarily to our history of losses, it is more likely than not that all or a portion of its deferred tax assets as of September 30, 2024 will not be realized. Future estimates of taxable income could have a material impact our utilization of our NOL’s.

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

The following discussion about the Company’s market risk exposures involves forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements.

Market Price Risk of Bitcoin. The Company holds a significant amount of bitcoin; therefore, we are exposed to the impact of market price changes in bitcoin on its bitcoin holdings. This exposure would generally manifest itself in the following areas:

At September 30, 2024, the Company held 6,819 bitcoins and the fair value of a single bitcoin was approximately $63,301, meaning that the fair value of its bitcoin holdings on that date was approximately $432,000. A 10% increase or decrease in the fair value of bitcoin as of September 30, 2024, would have increased or decreased the total cash value that could be realized if the Company were to sell its bitcoin for cash by approximately $43,200.

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

Index to Financial Statements

Audited Consolidated Financial Statements:

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

Shareholders and Board of Directors

CleanSpark, Inc.

Las Vegas, Nevada

Opinion on the Consolidated Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheet of CleanSpark, Inc. (the “Company”) as of September 30, 2024, the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for the year ended September 30, 2024, and the related notes and financial statement schedule listed in the accompanying index. (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at September 30, 2024, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year ended September 30, 2024, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”), the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”) and our report dated December 3, 2024 expressed an adverse opinion thereon.

Basis for Opinion

These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s consolidated financial statements based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud.

Our audit included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audit also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of the critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

Bitcoin Mining Revenue

As described in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company participates in a third-party operated mining pool (the “mining pool”) by providing hashrate to the mining pool operator. The Company recognizes bitcoin mining revenue as it fulfills its performance obligation over time by providing hashrate. Once the hashrate is provided, the Company earns non-cash consideration in the form of bitcoin based on the Full-Pay-Per-Share (“FPPS”) payout method set forth by the mining pool operator. Bitcoin mining revenue is comprised of the block reward and transaction fees earned by the Company net of the mining pool fees charged by the mining pool operator. For the year ended September 30, 2024, bitcoin mining revenue, net (“mining revenue”) was approximately $379 million.

We identified the auditing of mining revenue as a critical audit matter due to the nature and extent of audit effort required to perform audit procedures over the Company’s hashrate provided to the mining pool operator and the associated contractual payouts based on the blockchain contractual inputs.

The primary procedures we performed to address this critical audit matter included:

/s/ BDO USA, P.C.

We have served as the Company's auditor since 2024.

Las Vegas, Nevada

December 3, 2024

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

Shareholders and Board of Directors

CleanSpark, Inc.

Las Vegas, Nevada

Opinion on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

We have audited CleanSpark, Inc.’s (the “Company’s”) internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (the “COSO criteria”). In our opinion, the Company did not maintain, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2024, based on the COSO criteria.

We do not express an opinion or any other form of assurance on management’s statements referring to any corrective actions taken by the Company after the date of management’s assessment.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”), the consolidated balance sheet of the Company as of September 30, 2024, the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for the year ended September 30, 2024, and the related notes and financial statement schedule listed in the accompanying index (collectively referred to as “the financial statements”) and our report dated December 3, 2024 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

Basis for Opinion

The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying “Item 9A, Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting”. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audit of internal control over financial reporting in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audit also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.

A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Material weaknesses regarding management’s failure to design and maintain controls over (1) program change management, logical access and maintaining appropriate segregation of duties within the general ledger system, and as a result, the internal controls related to various assertions in certain financial statement line items were not effective, (2) the accounting for property plant and equipment, and deposits on miners, (3) controls over payroll, including controls over the use of information from its third-party payroll service provider, maintaining appropriate segregation of duties and processing of payroll, (4) the safeguarding of cash have been identified and described in management’s assessment. These material weaknesses were considered in determining the nature, timing, and extent of audit tests applied in our audit of the 2024 consolidated financial statements, and this report does not affect our report dated December 3, 2024 on those consolidated financial statements.

Definition and Limitations of Internal Control over Financial Reporting

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

/s/ BDO USA, P.C.

Las Vegas, Nevada

December 3, 2024

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Shareholders and Board of Directors of

CleanSpark, Inc.

Basis for Opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) ("PCAOB") and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

/s/ MaloneBailey, LLP

www.malonebailey.com

We have served as the Company's auditor since 2018. In 2024, we became the predecessor auditor.

Houston, Texas

December 1, 2023, except for the effects of the revision discussed in Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements, as to which the date is December 3, 2024.

CLEANSPARK, INC.

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(in thousands, except par value and share amounts)