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• Northern Data sold its bitcoin mining subsidiary Peak Mining for up to $200 million in November, but U.S. filings reveal the buyers are companies controlled by Tether co-founder Giancarlo Devasini and CEO Paolo Ardoino, according to the Financial Times.
• The transaction represents a related-party deal that wasn’t disclosed as such, as Northern Data’s listing on a secondary German exchange doesn’t require such disclosures.
• The sale came just days before Tether-backed Rumble announced its $767 million agreement to acquire Northern Data.

Northern Data, the German AI and data center company majority-owned by Tether, sold its bitcoin mining subsidiary Peak Mining for up to $200 million to a group of companies controlled by the stablecoin giant's top executives, the Financial Times first reported Friday.

Corporate filings reviewed by the FT show that the buyers of Peak Mining—Highland Group Mining Inc., Appalachian Energy LLC, and 2750418 Alberta ULC—are tied directly to Tether's leadership. British Virgin Islands records indicate that Highland Group Mining is controlled by Giancarlo Devasini, Tether's co-founder and chairman, and Paolo Ardoino, the company's CEO. Canadian documents list Devasini as the sole director of Alberta ULC. The ownership of Delaware-registered Appalachian Energy LLC remains opaque, with no directors publicly listed.

Northern Data announced the Peak Mining divestment in November but did not initially identify the buyers. The company is listed on a regulated but unofficial German market segment that requires certain corporate disclosures but does not mandate reporting of related-party transactions, meaning there was no obligation to reveal that Tether executives were on both sides of the deal.

...read more at theblock.co