Ionic Digital shares rose 25.8% from their opening price during the company’s Nasdaq debut on July 28, closing at $62.90 after beginning public trading at $50.
Summary
- Ionic Digital climbed 26% from its $50 opening price, closing its Nasdaq debut at $62.90.
- About 44.9 million outstanding shares valued Ionic Digital near $2.8 billion at Tuesday’s closing price.
- Celsius creditors previously received roughly 37 million Ionic shares through the lender’s court-approved restructuring plan.
The closing price gave the Celsius-linked Bitcoin miner and AI infrastructure operator an equity value of approximately $2.83 billion.
The calculation is based on 44,921,427 Class A shares outstanding after the conversion of Ionic’s Series A preferred stock. It does not include potential dilution from warrants, restricted stock units or future issuances.
Yahoo Finance showed the shares falling to $58.80 after hours, 6.5% below their regular-session close. Ionic has not issued a company statement about the first-day price move.
Ionic Digital rebounded from its $50 opening price
Nasdaq officially opened IOND at 11:58:52 a.m. Eastern Time through a cross involving 149,252 shares. The $50 opening price was 5.7% below Nasdaq’s $53 reference price, but the shares reversed course later in the session and finished 18.7% above that reference level.
Nasdaq had stressed that the $53 figure was not an offering price. It served only as a reference for the opening auction because Ionic had no sustained private-market trading history. The $53 level also matched the price paid by institutional investors for 7.55 million preferred shares in a $400 million private placement completed in June.
Renaissance Capital estimated that the reference price gave Ionic a $2.4 billion market value and made it the largest U.S. direct listing since 2021. Unlike a conventional initial public offering, the transaction did not involve newly issued shares or an underwritten sale. J.P. Morgan acted as Ionic’s designated financial adviser for Nasdaq’s opening process.
Celsius creditors now have a public market for Ionic shares
Ionic Digital was created in January 2024 to acquire Bitcoin mining assets and selected liabilities from Celsius Mining. The transfer formed part of the restructuring plan approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in November 2023 following Celsius Network’s Chapter 11 case.
Under that plan, Ionic issued approximately 37 million Class A shares to Celsius creditors. The listing therefore creates a public trading venue for an asset that many creditors received as part of their recovery rather than purchasing through a traditional investment round. As crypto.news previously reported, Ionic had about 82,000 shareholders of record before trading began.
Ionic registered up to 10.8 million shares for resale by named stockholders. The company will not receive proceeds when those holders sell. Its SEC filing warned that the absence of an underwriter, uncertainty over available supply and potential selling by existing shareholders could produce sharp price swings.
Ionic Digital is shifting from Bitcoin mining toward AI
The company’s public-market pitch now rests heavily on its transition toward high-performance computing and AI infrastructure. Its main asset is a 234-megawatt facility in Ward County, Texas, leased to AI infrastructure provider Nscale under a 126-month agreement.
Ionic expects the existing Nscale lease to produce approximately $1.95 billion in contracted revenue through January 2037. Monthly fixed lease payments are scheduled to begin in August 2026. An additional 89 MW could increase contracted revenue to about $2.6 billion, although the added power remains subject to utility and regulatory approvals.
The changing revenue mix was already visible in the first quarter. Ionic recorded $44 million in digital infrastructure leasing revenue while Bitcoin mining revenue fell 82% year over year to $7.4 million. The company mined 95.7 BTC and held 2,815.6 BTC in treasury as of March 31.
The strategy follows a wider industry move toward AI data centres as miners seek longer-term, dollar-based contracts. In related coverage, crypto.news examined why Bitcoin miners are becoming AI infrastructure operators as mining margins face pressure from energy costs and network competition.
What happens next for Ionic Digital?
Ionic expects full-year 2026 revenue of $190 million to $195 million. Its preliminary second-quarter estimates include a net loss of $34 million to $35 million and adjusted EBITDA of $36 million to $37 million. Adjusted EBITDA is a company-defined, non-GAAP measure that excludes items including changes in Bitcoin’s fair value and share-based compensation.
The company has not announced a date for its first earnings report as a Nasdaq-listed business. Its first periodic SEC filing will offer investors a clearer view of available cash, Bitcoin sales, Nscale lease payments and the costs of converting additional mining capacity for AI workloads.
Investors will also watch how many former Celsius creditors and other legacy holders sell shares after the listing. As previously reported, Celsius began a third creditor payout of $220.6 million in August 2025, bringing reported creditor recoveries to 64.9% before accounting for the future value of Ionic equity.
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