Iris Energy, an Australian-based Bitcoin mining company, has reached an agreement to sell $100 million worth of shares over the next two years to investment bank B. Riley Principal Capital.

According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing shown on Friday, Iris explained how she plans to use the capital raised: “We intend to use proceeds from the Facility to fund our growth initiatives.” (including hardware purchases and acquisitions and site development and data center facilities), and for working capital and general corporate purposes.

The deal has a 24-month time frame, during which time B. Riley can buy up to 25 million shares in the Bitcoin mining company. B. Riley can buy up to 25 million shares of IREN common stock over the next 24 months beginning Friday. If the bank chooses to buy all those shares for about $100 million, it would have a 31% stake in the miner, according to the document.

To comply with the agreement, the miner B. Riley issued 198,174 common shares of capital stock for its commitment to the equity financing facility. Shares of Iris Energy fell nearly 12% in early trading on Friday.

The Australia-based Bitcoin miner’s move comes at a time when major market turbulence has negatively affected miners’ balance sheets. During the recent bear market, many miners took out large loans to finance their operations, including deals to acquire efficient ASIC mining machines.

In July, Bitcoin miner Core Scientific signed a similar stock-focused deal with B. Riley to improve its liquidity and expand its strategic optionality amid current adverse market conditions.

Many miners have been forced to sell a large portion of their mined Bitcoins as falling prices, increased competition, and rising energy costs have reduced their profitability. With mining profitability declining, most Bitcoin mining stocks have fallen 60% or more during the current market downturn.

Image Source: Shutterstock