Tether Executives Quietly Bought Northern Data’s Mining Arm for Up to $200M
Who Really Bought Peak Mining?
Northern Data disclosed in November that it had sold its BTC mining subsidiary, Peak Mining, for up to $200 million. What it did not disclose at the time was the identity of the purchaviewrs. U.S. and Canadian filings reviewed by the Financial Times show the purchasers are companies controlled by senior executives at Tether, Northern Data’s largest shareholder.
The purchaviewrs—Highland Group Mining Inc., Appalachian Energy LLC, and 2750418 Alberta ULC—are tied to Giancarlo Devasini, Tether’s co-founder and chairman, and CEO Paolo Ardoino. Corporate records in the British Virgin Islands list Devasini and Ardoino as controllers of Highland Group Mining, while Canadian filings identify Devasini as the sole director of Alberta ULC. Ownership details for Appalachian Energy, registered in Delaware, are not publicly disclosed.
The transaction qualifies as a related-party deal, but Northern Data was not required to label it as such. The company trades on a secondary, lightly regulated German market segment that does not mandate disclosure of related-party transactions.
Investor Takeaway
Why the Timing Matters
The sale took place just days before Rumble, a video platform in which Tether owns roughly 48%, agreed to acquire Northern Data in a transaction valued at about $767 million. The sequence links three entities—Tether, Northern Data, and Rumble—through a tight web of equity stakes, loans, and commercial agreements.
Under the Rumble deal, Tether committed to purchase $150 million in GPU services and signed a separate $100 million advertising agreement. Tether has also extended a €610 million loan to Northern Data. Half of that loan is set to convert into Rumble equity once the acquisition closes, with the remaining balance rolling into a new loan to Rumble secured by Northern Data’s assets.
The Peak Mining divestment simplifies Northern Data’s structure ahead of the takeover, shedding a BTC mining unit at a moment when Tether has been publicly expanding its own mining ambitions.
A Second Attempt at the identical purchaviewr
This was not the first effort to trade Peak Mining to an entity linked to Devasini. In August, Northern Data announced a nonbinding agreement to trade the unit to Elektron Energy for $235 million. That deal never closed. Elektron, according to British Virgin Islands records, is also controlled by Devasini.
Instead, Peak Mining was sold later at a lower valuation to the three companies now identified in the filings. The shift in price and structure suggests a negotiated outcome rather than a failed market process, especially given the proximity to the Rumble transaction.
Regulatory Pressure on Northern Data
The sale unfolded against a backdrop of . In September, authorities in Germany and Sweden raided Northern Data’s offices as part of an investigation into alleged VAT fraud that could exceed €100 million. The company denied wrongdoing, describing the probe as a misunderstanding tied to tax treatment of GPU cloud services and legacy mining operations.
Earlier legal pressure also lingered. In April 2024, former executives Joshua Porter and Gulsen Kama sued Northern Data, alleging liquidity stress and tax violations. The complaint claimed the company faced a $30 million German tax liability with limited cash and a high monthly burn rate. Northern Data rejected the allegations. The plaintiffs later withdrew all claims in October, stating they had misunderstood key facts. No settlement details were disclosed.
Investor Takeaway
How This Fits Tether’s Broader Strategy
Tether, which owns about 54% of Northern Data, has been building a large BTC mining footprint across Latin America. Ardoino has said the company plans to become the world’s largest BTC miner by the end of 2025, citing the need to protect more than $10 . Tether says it has invested over $2 billion in mining and energy infrastructure across 15 sites in Uruguay, Paraguay, and El Salvador.
At the identical time, the stablecoin issuer faces renewed scrutiny of its balance sheet. S&P Global Ratings recently cut its stability assessment of USDT to the lowest level on its scale, warning that exposure now exceeds reserve buffers and could leave the stablecoin vulnerable in a sharp downturn.
Against that backdrop, acquiring Peak Mining through affiliated entities consolidates control over mining assets while keeping them off Northern Data’s balance sheet ahead of the Rumble transaction. The result is a tighter alignment between Tether’s mining ambitions and its broader media and data-center strategy.
The Peak Mining deal, though technically compliant with listing rules, highlights how ownership structures and disclosure standards can shape investor understanding. As Tether deepens its reach across mining, infrastructure, and media, those connections are drawing closer attention from both markets and regulators.
