Gwyneth Paltrow-Backed Bitcoin Miner TeraWulf Plunges in Trading Debut

Shares of TeraWulf (WULF), an environmentally minded bitcoin miner, plunged almost 30% in their first day of trading on Tuesday.

TeraWulf went public after it agreed in June to merge with Ikonics, an imaging technology company whose stock traded on Nasdaq. The ticker changed to “WULF” from “IKNX” on Tuesday.

“Completing the business combination takes us one step closer to achieving our mission of generating environmentally sustainable bitcoin at industrial scale in the United States while using over 90% zero-carbon energy,” said Paul Prager, CEO of TeraWulf, in a statement.

The shares of crypto miners, which are highly correlated to the price of the digital assets they mine, have declined sharply recently after the price of bitcoin fell to near $47,000 after reaching an all-time high in November. On Tuesday, TeraWulf shares fell 29.8% to $20.30.

TeraWulf, which expects to mine bitcoin powered by nuclear, hydro and solar energy, recently raised $200 million in debt and equity financing, which it will use to reach mining power of 6 exahash per second by the second half of 2022.

In the financing round, several high-profile investors, including actress Gwyneth Paltrow, actress and comedian Mindy Kaling and Canadian comedian Lilly Singh collectively made an eight-digit equity investment in the company, according to an emailed statement.

“TeraWulf is positioned to mine zero-carbon bitcoin domestically at an industrial scale. And, equally crucial, the highly experienced management team is passionate about diversity and inclusion, reflected in their executive team and the fact that they welcomed us with open arms not simply as an investor, but as a true partner,” Paltrow said in a statement announcing the funding.

The group that invested with Paltrow also includes entrepreneurs Moj Mahdara, Kimberly Blackwell and Sara Foster; KITH CEO Ronnie Fieg; FIGS co-CEO Trina Spear; tech executive Pegah Ebrahimi; NFT and streetwear entrepreneur Bobby Kim; and TikTok Head of Global Marketing Nick Tran.

TeraWulf said it expects to have 800 megawatts of mining capacity deployed by 2025, enabling over 23 exahash per second of expected hashrate, or computing power, making the company one of the largest publicly traded mining firms.

UPDATE (Dec. 14, 21:40 UTC): Updated with closing price information.