GRIID INFRASTRUCTURE INC.

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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

ThisAs used in this Annual Report on Form 10-K including, without(the "Annual Report"), the terms “we”, “us”, “our”, the “Company”, “GRIID Infrastructure Inc.” and “GRIID” mean GRIID Infrastructure Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries, unless otherwise indicated.

RISK FACTOR SUMMARY

Our business involves significant risks and uncertainties that make an investment in us speculative and risky. The following is a summary list of the principal risk factors that could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations. These are not the only risks and uncertainties we face, and you should carefully review and consider the full discussion of our risk factors in Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors”, in this Annual Report, together with the other information in this Annual Report.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

Risks Related to Third Parties

Risks Related to Regulations and Regulatory Frameworks

Risks Related to Intellectual Property

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Securities

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”"Exchange Act"). OurThese forward-looking statements include butall matters that are not limited to,historical facts. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “believe,” “may,” “will,” “potentially,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “would,” “project,” “target,” “plan,” “expect,” or the negatives of these terms or variations of them or similar terminology. Such forward-looking statements include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things, our management team’sresults of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies and the markets in which we operate. Such forward-looking statements are based on available current market material and management’s expectations, hopes, beliefs intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections,and forecasts or other characterizations ofconcerning future events or circumstances,impacting us.

Factors that may impact such forward-looking statements include:

This list is not an exhaustive list of the factors that may affect any underlying assumptions, areof our forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intends,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would”These and similar expressions may identifyother factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K may include, for example, statements about:

statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments on the date the statements are made and their potential effects on us.we undertake no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as may be required under applicable law. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting us will be those that we have anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those factors described under the caption “ItemPart I, Item 1A - Risk Factors” in"Risk Factors" of this Annual Report, on Form 10-K. Should oneand other filings that have been made or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or shouldwill be made with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) by us. The Company will not undertake any of our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.

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MARKET AND INDUSTRY DATA

Our business is subjectThis Annual Report contains estimates and other statistical data made by independent parties relating to numerous risksour industry and uncertainties,the markets in which we operate, including those highlightedestimates and statistical data about our market position, market opportunity, the incidence of certain market conditions and other industry data. These data, to the extent they contain estimates or projections, involve a number of assumptions and limitations, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to such estimates or projections. Although we have not independently verified the accuracy or completeness of the data contained in these industry publications and reports, based on our industry experience we believe that the publications are reliable, the conclusions contained in the section captioned “Item 1B. - Risk Factors,” elsewherepublications and reports are reasonable and the third-party information included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K that represent challenges thatand in our estimates is accurate and complete. While we face in connection with the successful implementation of our strategy. The occurrence of one or more of the events or circumstances described in such section  alone or in combination with other events or circumstances, may adversely affect our ability to effect a business combination, and may have an adverse effect on our business, cash flows, financial condition and results of operations. Such risks include, but are not limited to:aware of any misstatements regarding any industry data presented in this Annual Report, such data involves risks and uncertainties and is subject to change based on various factors, including those discussed under Part I, Item 1A “Risk Factors” of this Annual Report.

TRADEMARKS

This document contains references to trademarks and service marks belonging to other entities. Solely for convenience, trademarks and trade names referred to in this Annual Report may appear without the ® or ™ symbols, but such references are not intended to indicate, in any way, that the applicable licensor will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, its rights to these trademarks and trade names. We do not intend the use or display of other companies’ trade names, trademarks or service marks to imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of it by, any other companies.

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PART I

Item 1. Business.

Business Overview

Adit EdTech Acquisition Corp.We are an emerging American infrastructure company in the bitcoin mining sector. We employ a vertically integrated self-mining strategy (which is supported at times by unique collaborative partnerships in support of the broader approach) to develop and operate U.S. based mining facilities that generate bitcoin by performing computing associated with Proof of Work (“we”, “us”, “our”PoW”). Our current business plan does not include the expansion of our mining operations to include digital assets other than bitcoin, or any other activities with, or the “Company”) is a blank check company incorporated in Delawareholding of, any other cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin, and we do not anticipate any changes to our business plan for the purposeforeseeable future. As of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses, which we refer to throughoutthe date of this Annual Report, we have 68MW of available electrical capacity in our New York facility and our three Tennessee facilities (48MW of which are at dedicated self-mining sites and 20MW of which are subject to the Mining Services Agreement). Our mining operations currently utilize application specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”) manufactured primarily, by two leading companies, Bitmain and MicroBT. We have also purchased ASICs manufactured by Intel, which we anticipate further integrating into our operations. We have begun the process of developing a carbon-free focused power pipeline including 1000MW of power capacity, subject to memoranda of understanding (“MOUs”) and letters of intent (“LOIs”), land acquisition and infrastructure procurement. Our existing, developed power capacity utilizes approximately 67% carbon-free power. These carbon-free levels are based solely on Form 10-Kgeneration type and not from offsets or carbon credits and can therefore be materially improved.

We have assembled an experienced management team that has an established track record deploying our vertically integrated self-mining strategy across four enterprise scale facilities and has solved supply chain challenges that position us to achieve rapid scale and accelerated business performance in the years to come. We aim to generate revenue through the self-mining of bitcoin and to accumulate, sell and hold bitcoin on an ongoing basis based on expansion objectives determined from time to time by our management team and board of directors.

As we produce bitcoin through our mining operations, we intend from time to time to exchange our bitcoin for fiat currency to fund our operations on an as-needed basis, based on a variety of market conditions and operational factors. We intend to hold enough fiat currency or hedge enough of our bitcoin exposure to cover our projected near-term fiat currency needs, including liabilities and anticipated expenses and capital expenditures over the course of six to 18 months. Although we currently do not use any hedging products or synthetic financial instruments, we recognize the possibility that in the future such products or instruments may be useful tools in support of our broad commercial efforts. Managing short-term bitcoin exposure is a function of cash management as we accrue bitcoin from mining and accrue fiat liabilities in the course of doing business. In identifying our fiat currency needs, we assess market conditions and review our financial forecast on a daily basis. We safeguard and keep private our bitcoin by utilizing offline storage solutions, which require multi-factor authentication and third-party custody solutions. While we are confident in the security of our bitcoin, we continue to evaluate additional protective measures. In addition to our core bitcoin mining business, we are also exploring adjacent market opportunities to add revenue streams and technical innovations to enhance mining performance.

In addition to holding bitcoin available for liquidation on an as-needed basis to fund business activities, we intend to look to realize value through the direct appreciation of bitcoin held on our balance sheet and explore treasury management monetization opportunities. The primary use of our free cash flow is to fund and support the growth of the business. Holding bitcoin on the balance sheet is a core piece of this strategy and we intend to look to grow this balance over time. Once these have been retained on the balance sheet, the merits of various monetization strategies can be considered.

We utilize three platforms that interact with our bitcoin:

Coinbase Prime: This is an institutional-grade brokerage platform featuring in-house custody solutions that we rely upon and controls around account access controls, permissions, and whitelisted withdrawal addresses. All users interacting with balances have a two-factor authentication and all trading and transfer activities are sent to all administrative emails in order to flag any potentially bad behavior.

Foundry: Foundry is a pool account that holds our bitcoin for only approximately 24 hours as we accrue revenue before the bitcoin gets paid out to our Coinbase Prime brokerage account. A two-factor authentication is required for all accounts and there is a robust whitelisting process for any new withdrawal addresses to be added to the platform. Additionally, activity in Foundry initiates emails to the other accounts to flag any potential bad behavior or vulnerability.

Blockchain.com: We utilize Blockchain.com’s in-house custody product as an “initial business combination”. Our Sponsor is an affiliate of Adit, an investment adviser whose principals have combined investment experience of over 150 yearsadditional custody solution. As with Coinbase Prime, Blockchain.com includes access controls and a track recordrobust whitelisting around the withdrawal process.

As part of value creation in portfolio companies operatingthe Blockchain.com custody relationship we may benefit from the principal loan balance being netted down in the public markets.case of a loss in their custody product. We do not self-custody bitcoin and leverage our service providers and their product offerings to support our custody needs.

On January 14, 2021,While we completeddo not hold any bitcoin for third parties, our IPObusiness, financial condition and results of 24,000,000 units. Each unit consistsoperations could be adversely affected by industry-wide developments beyond our control, including the fallout from the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings of one share of common stock, par value $0.0001 per share (our “common stock”)cryptocurrency exchanges FTX Trading Ltd., et al. (including its affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research LLC), crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and crypto lenders Celsius Network LLC, et al., Voyager Digital Ltd., et al., BlockFi Inc., et al., and one-halfGenesis Global Holdco, LLC, et al. In January 2023, Genesis filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Genesis is owned by Digital Currency Group Inc., who also owns Foundry, one of one redeemable IPO warrant, each whole warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase one share of common stock at an exercise price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment, pursuantour custodians. At this time, we believe that there are no material risks to our registration statements on Form S-1 (File Nos. 333-251641business arising from our indirect exposure to Genesis. Although (i) we have no direct exposure to any of the cryptocurrency market participants that recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; (ii) we have no assets, material or otherwise, that may not be recovered due to these bankruptcies; and 333-252021)(iii) we have no exposure to any other counterparties, customers, custodians or other crypto asset market participants known to have (x) experienced excessive redemptions or suspended redemptions or withdrawal of crypto assets, (y) the crypto assets of their customers unaccounted for, or (z) experienced material compliance failures, our business, financial condition and results of operations may not be immune to unfavorable investor sentiment resulting from these recent developments in the broader cryptocurrency industry.

Key Strengths

We believe that we have a number of strengths that will give us a competitive advantage in the bitcoin mining business, including:

Vertically integrated business model. The units were sold at an offering pricelarge bitcoin mining businesses have historically had two key business strategies: providing hosting through data center development and leasing and hosting customers through the acquisition of $10.00 per unit, generating gross proceeds of $240,000,000.

On January 14, 2021, simultaneously withmanaged rack space. A third, more comprehensive business model leverages both strategies as a vertically integrated self-miner. Over time, we have seen more businesses pivot towards this model, because it can offer more profitable performance, a model that GRIID has leveraged since its inception. Taking a vertically integrated approach requires considerable management and operational expertise. It also requires the consummationmost access to capital of the IPO, we completed a private placement (the “private placement”) of an aggregate of 6,550,000 warrants (such warrants,three business models since the “private placement warrants”) at a price of $1.00 per private placement warrant, generating gross proceeds of $6,550,000.

A total of $240,000,000operator is responsible for both the development of the net proceeds fromfacility and acquisition of ASICs. We believe a vertically integrated bitcoin self-miner has several key operating model attributes that are positively differentiated relative to hosting models. The vertically integrated self-miner sources power, manages or performs site development, manages ASIC procurement and deployment, and is responsible for ongoing operations. In the IPO and the private placement was deposited in a trust account (the “trust account”) established for the benefitcase of our public stockholders.

On January 19, 2021, pursuantGRIID, this has translated to an exercise in fullmany of the underwriters’ over-allotment option, the underwriters purchased an additional 3,600,000 unitskey mining deployment and operations activities migrating in-house, including:

On December 23, 2022, we held a special meeting of our stockholders (the “extension meeting”), at which our stockholders approved a proposal to extend the extension date up to six times at the election of the board of directorsStrategic power relationships with significant room for an additional one month each time for a maximum of six one-month extensions. We provided holders of IPO Shares with the ability to redeem such IPO Sharesboth near-term and long-term growth in connection with the extension meeting. Stockholders holding 25,132,578 IPO Shares exercised their right to redeem such shares for a pro rata portion of the funds then on deposit in the trust account for approximately $253.6 million (approximately $10.09 per share). As of December 31, 2022 there is currently approximately $25 million heldthe date of this Annual Report, we operate bitcoin mining sites in the trust account and $0.1 million in cash held outsideTennessee Valley Authority (“TVA”) service territory, representing approximately 55MWof available electrical capacity. Two of our Tennessee sites have announced for a combined 80MW of expansion as the first of

many additional TVA sites being considered. As of the trust accountdate of this Annual Report, we operate our New York bitcoin mining site with Eagle Creek Renewable Energy (“Eagle Creek”), representing approximately 13MW of available for working capital.electrical capacity. We believe the power landscape of these two strategic partners provides us access to large-scale, cost-effective, environmentally responsible power, while also allowing us the opportunity to stabilize the performance of regional power grids.

ProposedOperational excellence achieved through vertical integration. We selected the vertically integrated self-mining business model (which is supported at times by unique collaborative partnerships in support of the broader approach) because it fully aligns incentives and offers one of the best volatility buffers against bitcoin prices. The vertical integration includes comprehensive site design, fabrication, deployment, and ongoing operations. Control over these activities allows us to innovate and then deploy best practices that differentiate performance. Controlling site design and fabrication allows us to best manage site budgets and development timelines. Self-mining allows us to optimize the ASIC blend to best monetize available power at all levels of scale. The business model and team of operators are keys to growth and sector leadership.

Access to low-cost, environmentally friendly power. We are dedicated to helping support environmentally friendly bitcoin mining. We firmly believe that this will be critical to the long-term adoption and success of bitcoin. We have prioritized a power pipeline that is predominantly made up of carbon-free generation sources. Carbon-free generation supplied by our strategic partners is priced at globally competitive rates. Carbon-free generation and renewables carry a lower fixed cost to operate and therefore there have been opportunities for us to structure mutually beneficial power agreements at scale.

Management’s track record, relevant expertise, and capabilities. We have assembled an experienced management team with an overarching vision to scale to be the largest bitcoin mining operator. This is only achievable with the right talent across all executive leadership roles, led by James D. Kelly III, our Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Gerard F. King II, our Chief Operating Officer, Allan J. Wallander, our Chief Financial Officer, Dwaine Alleyne, our Chief Technology Officer, Michael W. Hamilton, our Chief Research Officer, Harry E. Sudock, our Chief Strategy Officer, and Alexander Fraser, our General Counsel and Secretary. Our management team is positioned to deliver market leading mining at operational scale, and continuously improve the vertically integrated self-mining business model.

Our Strategy

Our strategy is to become a leading bitcoin mining operator in the United States. Our goal is to achieve this by rapidly developing our power pipeline and leveraging operational excellence. We will engage in these efforts along with potential strategic M&A, continued environmental stewardship and other strategic initiatives to achieve market leading scale and performance:

Scale potential to become a leading bitcoin mining company in the United States. Bitcoin miners who are rapidly growing and achieving large scale operations have competitive advantages. Critical activities in the bitcoin mining business include achieving economies of scale in the acquisition of electrical infrastructure, acquisition of ASICs, development of mining facilities and execution of power contracts. These advantages result in improved business performance, serving as an additional buffer against price volatility in bitcoin. We have invested in a diverse set of energy relationships and intend to scale by developing mining sites served by these partners. Our plan is to scale our electrical capacity with sites already named in MOUs and LOIs and may be supplemented by additional opportunities. We believe our growth will be realized by a predominantly carbon free energy blend delivered at globally competitive prices.

Develop our power pipeline. Power is one of the key inputs of all bitcoin mining operations. Through our existing energy relationships, we expect to rapidly grow mining capacity with existing providers at new locations. Additionally, the operating model we deploy has significant benefits for local energy grids, which we believe will make us an attractive customer in other regions.

Expand power pipeline and continue prioritizing carbon-free development. As bitcoin mining grows and GRIID expands its operations, we believe there will be opportunities to acquire favorable power arrangements. This will grow our pipeline and allow us to prioritize development based on a comprehensive business case assessment. As we assess opportunities, GRIID will continue to prioritize carbon-free energy sources.

Considering strategic acquisitions. We may strategically assess acquisition opportunities where such transactions can accelerate our strategic roadmap through horizontal or vertical integration, expanding capacity, or gaining intellectual property that strengthens our competitive advantage.

Continue prioritizing carbon-free generation. We believe that as bitcoin continues to develop as an emerging value storage asset and medium of exchange, it is increasingly important that this asset class remains compatible with environmental objectives. To this end, we have sourced, and intend to continue sourcing, an overwhelmingly carbon-free pipeline that will fuel our growth without compromising on power price.

The Merger with

On December 29, 2023, GRIID

On Infrastructure Inc., formerly known as "Adit EdTech Acquisition Corp." ("Adit") consummated the previously announced merger contemplated by that certain Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of November 29, 2021 we entered into an agreement(the “Initial Merger Agreement”), as amended by the first amendment to the Initial Merger Agreement, dated December 23, 2021 (the “First Amendment”), the second amendment to the Initial Merger Agreement, dated October 17, 2022 (the “Second Amendment”), and plan of mergerthe third amendment to the Initial Merger Agreement, dated February 8, 2023 (the “Third Amendment,” together with the Initial Merger Agreement as amended by the First Amendment, the Second Amendment and the Third Amendment, the “Merger Agreement”). Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, (i) ADEX Merger Sub, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and oura wholly owned direct subsidiary of Adit (“Merger Sub”), and GRIID, which was amended by the first amendment to the Merger Agreement, dated December 23, 2021, the second amendment to the Merger Agreement, dated October 17, 2022 and the third amendment to the Merger Agreement, dated February 8, 2023 (such agreement, as amended, the “Merger Agreement”). The Merger Agreement provides, among other things, that on the terms and subject to the conditions set forth therein, Merger Sub will mergemerged with and into GRIID, the separate limited liability company existence of Merger Sub will cease and GRIID,Griid Holdco LLC, with Griid Holdco LLC as the surviving company ofin the Merger, will continue its existence under the Limited Liability Company Act of the State of Delawaremerger and, after giving effect to such merger, continuing as a wholly owned subsidiary of ADEX.the Company (the “Merger”) and (ii) the Company’s name was changed from Adit EdTech Acquisition Corp. to GRIID Infrastructure Inc. The Merger was accounted for as a reverse merger and recapitalization and Adit was considered the acquired company for financial statement reporting purposes.

Bitcoin Industry Overview

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the oldest and most widely used cryptocurrency today. Cryptocurrencies are currencies that are not backed by a central bank or a national, supra-national or quasi-national organization and are not typically backed by hard assets or other credit. Cryptocurrencies are typically used as a medium of exchange—similar to fiat currencies like the U.S. Dollar—that is transacted through and recorded on a blockchain.

Bitcoin was invented in 2008 by an unknown person under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto and launched in 2009 as a medium of exchange. As of the date of this Annual Report, bitcoin is the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency measured by market capitalization.

As described in the original white paper by Nakamoto, bitcoin is a decentralized, peer-to-peer version of electronic cash that allows online payments to be sent from one party to another without using a financial institution as an intermediary. Upon verification by computers (“miners”) serving the bitcoin network, authenticated transactions are permanently recorded on a public ledger (“chain”) for all to view. Without the need for a third party to determine which transactions are authentic, the bitcoin network allows any two willing market participants to transact, thereby minimizing transaction costs, reducing the minimum practical transaction size, and enabling non-reversible payments for non-reversible services.

Sending Bitcoin

When bitcoins are sent, the transactions are broadcasted to all nodes in the bitcoin network. Each node bundles a collection of transactions into an encrypted block and applies computation power to decipher the code (“hash”) to the encrypted block, which requires verification that all transactions within the block are valid. Once the node cracks the code, that code is sent to all other miners who can easily verify that the hash is indeed correct. When enough nodes agree that the hash is correct, the block is added to the existing chain and miners move on to work on the next block by utilizing the hash of the accepted block as the previous hash.

The verification is necessary because, unlike physical cash that can only be held by one party at a time, cryptocurrency is a digital file that could be fraudulently copied and sent to multiple recipients if there are no safeguards in place. To address this double-spending problem, the public ledger in the bitcoin network keeps track of user balances and a complete history of every transaction executed among bitcoin network participants, all the while keeping participants anonymous.

Bitcoin Parameters

When bitcoin was created, the inventor limited its supply to 21 million coins. One bitcoin is equal to 100 million satoshi, which is the smallest unit of bitcoin. This supply limitation ensures that bitcoin remains scarce, and the divisibility enables small-sized transactions even in a rising bitcoin price environment.

Bitcoin Distribution

As of the date of this Annual Report, there are approximately 19 million bitcoins in circulation. To distribute bitcoins into circulation and incentivize miners for expending time and computation power to find solutions to encrypted blocks, the bitcoin network rewards the miner who finds the right hash with bitcoins.

The number of bitcoin rewards is reduced by 50% for every 210,000 blocks mined, and given that a block is added to the ledger approximately every 10 minutes (time for the bitcoin network to mine a new block), the “halving event” takes place roughly once every four years until all 21 million bitcoins have been “unearthed”. Currently, each block mined rewards 6.25 bitcoins and the next halving is expected to occur in April 2024, at which point each block mined would only reward 3.125 bitcoins.

Transaction Fees

When a user sends bitcoin to a recipient, the transaction is first broadcasted to a memory pool before being included in a block. Because each block can only contain up to one megabyte of transaction information, it is in this memory pool that miners can pick and choose which transactions to bundle into the next block and verify. During periods of heavy network usage, there can oftentimes be more transactions awaiting confirmation than there is space in a block. Consequently, not all attempted transactions will be verified immediately and some transactions can take up to a day or longer to verify.

In situations where there are more transactions in the memory pool than there is space on the next block, users compete for miners’ computation power by adding fees (“tips”) onto their transactions in the hope that miners will prioritize their transactions. Due to the one megabyte limitation, miners tend to favor smaller transactions that are easier to validate. Larger “tips” are required to incentivize miners to mine larger transactions. When the network congestion eases, the miners then turn their focus upon the remaining transactions.

Wallet

Bitcoins are held in bitcoin wallets, which is a software program for storing bitcoins. Each wallet is assigned a unique address. When users transact directly, using wallets, or indirectly, through exchanges, bitcoins are moved from one wallet address to another after the transaction has been verified by miners.

Bitcoin Mining and Mining Pools

Bitcoin mining is the process of using specialized and high-powered miners to solve advanced cryptographic math computations, verifying the authenticity of bitcoin transactions for the blockchain transaction public ledger. These solved math problems or authenticated transactions are then combined into blocks, with these blocks having specific requirements in terms of size and proof-of-work, and later published to the blockchain. A miner that verifies and solves a new block is awarded a portion of newly generated digital coins, which can then be sold on the market to generate transaction fees and profits for the mining company or retained by the miner for future use.

The bitcoin network goes through “halving events” during which the number of bitcoins that miners are awarded for processing a block are reduced by 50%. On the bitcoin network, these events occur every 210,000 blocks (roughly every four years). There have been three halving events to date on the bitcoin network. The initial award on the bitcoin network was 50 bitcoins per block. The current award is 6.25 bitcoins per block. The most recent halving event occurred on May 11, 2020 and the next halving event is expected to occur in April 2024. The halving mechanism results in an ever-decreasing issuance rate of bitcoin.

Due to the decreasing probability of being awarded bitcoins for solving blocks, miners have recently explored methods to increase their cumulative computing power and probability of being awarded bitcoins by pooling their processing resources into a “mining pool.” A mining pool combines miners’ computational power to solve blocks and eventually shares the awarded bitcoins to the pool participants in an amount proportional to the amount of hashing power contributed by each participant to the overall chance of earning the reward. The mining pool operator and the pool software arrange the pool in terms of miners’ hashing capacity, work conducted and rewards earned.

Miners

Bitcoin is mined on specialized computers that utilize an algorithm to guarantee the integrity of blocks in the blockchain using a specific hash function to solve the algorithm. The hash function can be efficiently computed on a special mining device called ASIC using the SHA-256 cryptography algorithm, which is the block hashing algorithm used by the bitcoin network to hash new blocks on the blockchain. SHA stands for Secret Hash Algorithm, and it converts any input into a 32-byte output, creating output data hashes

that always have 256 digits. The main suppliers of bitcoin mining equipment are Bitmain and MicroBT, each of which controls a significant amount of the miner market.

Miners are rewarded in bitcoin and transaction fees in proportion to their processing contribution to the network. Miners are relatively energy intensive and produce a high amount of heat. To operate miners efficiently at a low cost, mining companies endeavor to procure low-cost energy sources and implement efficient cooling methods.

Hashing

To mine bitcoin, computers solve difficult mathematical problems to verify transactions in support of the blockchain. As an incentive to expend time, power and other resources to mine bitcoin, miners are rewarded in bitcoin and transaction fees. Each computation is a hash, and the speed at which these problems can be solved at is measured in hash rate. Initially, miners used general purpose chips such as central processing units and graphics processing units (“GPUs”) to complete calculations.

In more recent years, however, ASICs have replaced GPUs in order to improve speeds. As miners across the world compete to solve these computations at the fastest hash rate, miners are rewarded in proportion to their processing contribution to the overall network. Due to this dynamic, low-cost energy sources and the most powerful ASICs are in high demand and can be difficult to obtain, requiring miners to become more sophisticated and better capitalized to compete in the future.

Energy Price

As computers continuously compute and verify each block of transactions, they require a reliable and large amount of electricity. Given how electricity costs account for a significant proportion of a miner’s operating expenses, having the lowest possible electricity price may provide a company with a significant advantage over its peers.

Cooling

Bitcoin is mined by chips housed in data centers. Due to the amount of energy that computers expend in order to generate complex computations, advanced cooling systems are needed to prevent the computers from overheating. Some miners achieve this by placing their hardware in cold climate locations or underground. Others resort to traditional fan cooling systems. Yet another solution is to submerse computers in non-conductive, cooling liquid.

Our Products and Services

We are primarily engaged in the business of bitcoin mining. We also conduct related or adjacent activities including, but not limited to, construction management, infrastructure fabrication, land and power acquisition, software development, computer repair and maintenance, and logistics management. These activities are performed for the internal benefit of our mining operations, and generally not on behalf of third parties or sold into the market, except that we may in the future conduct these activities in connection with strategic relationships.

With the limited exceptions of the services performed under the HDP Agreement and the transactions contemplated thereby were unanimously approvedMining Services Agreement as described elsewhere in this Annual Report, we do not have customers in the traditional sense, but rather generate revenue in the form of bitcoin formulaically based on our pro rata share of the total network’s computation. Given this unusual lack of customers, we have had the opportunity to deploy a vertically integrated self-mining business model. Our efforts are concentrated on identifying additional power opportunities, achieving growth within existing opportunities, investing in strategic supply relationships, and improving deployment methods, operating models, technology, and adjacent market opportunities.

We believe that our lack of customers is a business model advantage. Rather than investing in sales, marketing, customer relationship management and associated time and costs, we can innovate and improve the operating model and potentially create a leaner business structure.

Mining Equipment

GRIID has relationships with two large ASIC hardware market leaders, Bitmain and MicroBT, and has deployed thousands of their respective products. GRIID has sourced these units directly from the manufactures, from other miners, and through third party relationships. GRIID has also purchased ASICs manufactured by Intel, which it has packaged into several production quality sample miners, validating performance and efficiency, and anticipates integrating into its operations.

GRIID runs a blend of predominantly MicroBT and Bitmain manufactured ASICs alongside a minority of units from alternative producers.

Mining Facilities

Our corporate headquarters is located at 2577 Duck Creek Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45212. We operate four industrial scale facilities across two states totaling 68 megawatts (MW) of aggregate contracted power availability (48MW of which are at dedicated self-mining sites and 20MW of which are subject to the Mining Services Agreement). Three facilities are in Tennessee and the fourth facility is in New York. These locations consume a blended power mix that is approximately 67% carbon-free at a globally competitive blended cost. The price and carbon-free percentage of this energy mix position us as a market leader and offers access to significant expansion through our existing relationships.

The facilities in Tennessee are served by three of the 156 utilities that deliver the power generated by the boardTVA. These facilities leverage our deep relationships with power providers and our expertise in regulated power markets to deliver strong performance. The scale of directorsTVA’s operations and GRIID’s relationships in the region have enabled significant growth opportunities and several of ADEXthese are already in various stages of negotiation, contracting or development.

In addition to the TVA, we have a strategic relationship with Eagle Creek. The New York facility is co-located with one of Eagle Creek’s hydroelectric dams and we believe will serve as the model for significant expansion of the relationship across Eagle Creek’s portfolio of more than 80 dams.

We believe that our facilities are suitable to meet our current and anticipated near term needs. We continually explore the acquisition and development of additional facilities to support our anticipated future growth.

Material Agreements

We have entered into several key agreements that we expect will be material to our operations:

The GEM Agreement

In order to better manage working capital and liquidity needs post-merger, on September 9, 2022, Adit, Griid Holdco LLC, GEM Global Yield LLC (“GEM Global”), and GEM Yield Bahamas Limited (“GYBL”) entered into a Share Purchase Agreement (the “GEM Agreement”), which we expect to allow us to fund general corporate purposes and working capital needs. Pursuant to the GEM Agreement, we may issue and sell to GEM Global, and GEM Global may purchase from us, until December 29, 2026, up to the number of shares of our common stock having an aggregate value of $200,000,000 (the “Aggregate Limit”), pursuant to draw down notices (each, a “Draw Down Notice” and each transaction under a Draw Down Notice, a “Draw Down”), which we may deliver to GEM Global in our sole discretion. Upon the valid exercise of a Draw Down, pursuant to delivery of a notice and in accordance with other conditions, GEM Global will be required to pay, in cash, a per-share amount equal to 92% of the average closing bid price of the shares of our common stock as reported on the principal market on which shares of our common stock are traded during the 30 consecutive trading days commencing on the first trading day that is designated on the Draw Down notice. In no event may the Draw Down amount (other than the Committed Draw Down Amount (as defined in the GEM Agreement) specified in a Draw Down Notice exceed 400% of the average daily trading volume of our common stock for the 30 trading days immediately preceding the date of such Draw Down notice. To date, we have drawn down $5,250,466 under the GEM Agreement and issued a total of 3,702,703 shares of our common stock to GEM Global. There can be no guarantee that the Company will have access to the full amount available to the Company under the GEM Agreement, or that if we do have access, we will elect to draw down the full amount available to the Company under the GEM Agreement.

We also agreed to pay GEM Global a commitment fee equal to two percent (2%) of the Aggregate Limit (the “Commitment Fee”). The Commitment Fee due upon each Draw Down may be paid in cash from the proceeds of such Draw Down or in freely tradeable shares of our common stock valued at the closing price of the shares of our common stock at the time of such Draw Down, at the option of the Company. The amount of the Commitment Fee due in each such installment shall be the product obtained by multiplying (i) the total amount of the Commitment Fee by (ii) the quotient derived by dividing (y) the value of shares of our common stock purchased pursuant to the applicable Draw Down by (z) the Aggregate Limit. To the extent that any amount of the Commitment Fee remains unpaid to GEM Global following the date that is the one-year anniversary of the day the shares of our common stock were publicly traded, the remaining amount shall become immediately due.

On the closing date of the Merger, we also issued to GYBL a warrant (the “GEM Warrant”) to purchase our shares of common stock equal to 2% of the total number of shares of our common stock outstanding immediately after the completion of the Merger on December 29, 2023 (the “Public Listing Date”), calculated on a fully diluted basis, which amount equaled 1,733,726 shares. The GEM

Warrant is exercisable at an exercise price per share equal to 90% of the closing bid price our shares of common stock on the Public Listing Date, or $4.84, and expires on the third anniversary of the Public Listing Date, or December 29, 2026. On the first anniversary following the Public Listing Date (the “Adjustment Date”), if all or any portion of the GEM Warrant remains unexercised and the boardaverage closing bid price of managersour common stock for the 10 trading days following the Adjustment Date (the “Current Trading Price”) is less than 90% of GRIID.

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Considerationthe then-current exercise price of the GEM Warrant, then the exercise price of the GEM Warrant will adjust to 115% of the Current Trading Price (the “Warrant Price”). If the closing bid price of our common stock is greater than the Warrant Price, then in lieu of exercising the GEM Warrant by payment of cash, GYBL may exercise the GEM Warrant by a cashless exercise and Structurewill receive the number of shares of our common stock equal to an amount determined by multiplying the Warrant Price by the number of shares of our common stock purchasable upon exercise of all of the GEM Warrant or, if only a portion of the GEM Warrant is being exercised, the portion of the GEM Warrant being exercised, divided by the closing bid price of our common stock. The GEM Warrant is exercisable for a number of common shares that is equal to 2% of the total equity interest outstanding immediately after the completion of the public listing. Since the public listing date was not until January 2024 and due to the unknown nature of what the GEM Warrant outstanding would have been in 2022, the GEM Warrant was not included in the computation of diluted EPS in 2022.

AtThe EarlyBird Note

On December 6, 2022, Adit and EarlyBird Capital, Inc. (“EarlyBird”), the underwriters of Adit’s initial public offering, entered into an amendment to the underwriting agreement dated as of January 11, 2021 (as so amended, the "Underwriting Agreement Amendment"), relating to our initial public offering. Pursuant to the Underwriting Agreement, the amount of the deferred underwriting commission payable to EarlyBird was reduced to $6,762,000 (together with reimbursement of EarlyBird’s legal expenses in an amount not to exceed $150,000 (the “Expense Reimbursement”)), which was paid at the Closing as follows: (i) $2,225,361 in cash and (ii) the issuance of a convertible promissory note (the “EarlyBird Note”) in the principal amount of $4,686,639 that is convertible into shares of our common stock pursuant to the terms of the EarlyBird Note (the “EarlyBird Shares”).

The EarlyBird Note bears interest at a rate of 8% per annum and is expected to mature upon the one-year anniversary of the closing of the Merger (the “Closing”“Maturity Date”),. The EarlyBird Note provides that the limited liability company membership interestsfull amount of Merger Sub willthe such note may be converted into an equivalent limited liability company membership interest in GRIID and each limited liability company membership unit of GRIID that is issued and outstanding immediately priorat EarlyBird’s election on the Maturity Date or any date on which the we elect to the effective timevoluntarily prepay any or all of the merger will automatically be convertedoutstanding principal and accrued interest into and become the right to receive such unit’s proportionate share, as determined in accordance with the Merger Agreement, of 58,500,000 shares of our common stock.

Representations, Warranties and Covenants

The parties to the Merger Agreement have agreed to customary representations and warranties for transactions of this type. In addition, the parties to the Merger Agreement agreed to be bound by certain customary covenants for transactions of this type, including, among others, covenants with respect to our conduct and the conduct of GRIID and each of our respective subsidiaries during the period between execution of the Merger Agreement and Closing, and restrictions on GRIID’s and our ability to solicit or enter into agreements with respect to any alternative transactions to the Merger. The representations, warranties, agreements and covenants of the parties set forth in the Merger Agreement will terminate at Closing, except for those covenants and agreements that, by their terms, contemplate performance after Closing. Each of the parties to the Merger Agreement has agreed to use its commercially reasonable efforts to take or cause to be taken all actions and things reasonably necessary or advisable to consummate and make effective, as promptly as reasonably practicable, the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement.

Conditions to Closing

Under the Merger Agreement, the obligations of the parties to consummate the Merger are subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain customary closing conditions, including, without limitation: (i) the approval and adoption of the Merger Agreement and transactions contemplated thereby by requisite vote of our stockholders (the “ADEX Stockholder Approval”); (ii) the approval of the Merger Agreement and transactions contemplated thereby by the written consent of GRIID members that hold at least the requisite number of issued and outstanding units of GRIID (the “GRIID Written Consent”); (iii) the expiration or termination of the applicable waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended; (iv) the absence of any law or order prohibiting the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement; (v) in the case of GRIID, the absence of an Acquiror Material Adverse Effect or Acquiror Impairment Effect (each, as defined in the Merger Agreement), and in our case, the absence of a Company Material Adverse Effect or Company Impairment Effect (each, as defined in the Merger Agreement) since the date of the Merger Agreement that, in the case of an Acquiror Impairment Effect or Company Impairment Effect, is continuing; (vi) after giving effect to the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement, we have net tangible assets (“NTA”) of at least $5,000,001 upon consummation of the Merger; (vii) our listing application with the NYSE American (or such other stock exchange on which our shares are listed as of such time) in connection with the Merger has been approved and, immediately following the effective time of the Merger, we will satisfy any applicable initial and continuing listing requirements of NYSE American (or such other stock exchange on which our shares are listed as of such time), and we have not received any notice of non-compliance therewith that has not been cured or would not be cured at or immediately following the effective time, and the shares of common stock have been approved for listing on NYSE American; (viii) the accuracy of the other party’s representations and warranties in the Merger Agreement, subject to customary materiality and material adverse effect standards; (ix) the other party’s compliance in all material respects with its covenants set forth in the Merger Agreement; and (x) the Registration Statement on Form S-4 related to the shares of our common stock, at a per share conversion price equal to be issued in connection with90% of the Merger (the “S-4 Registration Statement”) has become effective, no stop order has been issued by the SEC and remains in effect with respecttrailing five trading day volume weighted average price of a share of our common stock. The EarlyBird Note also contains a provision precluding conversion to the S-4 Registration Statement, and no proceeding seekingextent such a stop order has been threatened or initiated byconversion would result in an issuance exceeding the SEC and remains pending. We intend to solicit at a special meetingmaximum number of stockholders votes to approve a proposal to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to remove the requirement in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that we have at least $5,000,001 of NTA to effect any redemptions. The parties to the Merger Agreement intend to amend the Merger Agreement prior to Closing to remove the condition that we have at least $5,000,001 of NTA remaining after our stockholders have exercised their right to redeem their shares in connection with the Closing.

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Termination

The Merger Agreement includes a remedy of specific performance for the parties. The Merger Agreement may be terminated under certain customary circumstances at any time prior to the Closing, including, (i) by mutual written consent of GRIID and us; (ii) by us or GRIID, if (a) the other party has breached any of its representations, warranties, covenants or agreements in the Merger Agreement and such breach has caused the failure of the closing condition related to the accuracy of such other party’s representations and warranties or such other party’s compliance with its covenants (subject to a cure period), (b) any governmental entity has issued a final, non-appealable order or taken any other action permanently enjoining, restraining or otherwise prohibiting the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement, (c) our stockholder meeting to vote on the Merger has been held and the ADEX Stockholder Approval has not been obtained or (d) the GRIID Written Consent has not been obtained in the time period set forth in the Merger Agreement; or (iii) by us if the Closing has not occurred on or before January 14, 2023 (the “termination date”); provided, that the right to terminate the Merger Agreement under this section will not be available to us, if any breach by us of our covenants or obligations under the Merger Agreement proximately caused the failure to consummate the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement on or before the termination date, or if any proceeding for specific performance to compel the closing is pending as of the termination date; provided, that the termination date may be extended for successive 90 day periods by us in our sole discretion;.

If the Merger Agreement is validly terminated, none of the parties to the Merger Agreement will have any liability or any further obligation under the Merger Agreement other than customary confidentiality obligations, except in the case of Willful Breach or Fraud (each, as defined in the Merger Agreement).

Other Agreements

The Merger Agreement contemplates the execution of various additional agreements and instruments, on or before the Closing, including, among others, the following:

Voting Agreement

In connection with the execution of the Merger Agreement, we entered into a Voting Agreement with Griid Holdings LLC (the “Voting Agreement”) covering approximately 64.0% of GRIID’s membership units. The Voting Agreement requires, among other things, that Griid Holdings LLC vote all of its membership units of GRIID in favor of, or execute written consents to approve, upon effectiveness of the S-4 Registration Statement, the Merger and the other transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement, and against alternative transactions.

Investor Rights Agreement

In connection with the Closing, we, our initial stockholders and certain GRIID members will enter into an investor rights agreement (the “Investor Rights Agreement”) to provide for certain registration rights related to shares of our common stock and private placement warrants held by such parties. We have agreedpermitted to among other things, file within 30 daysbe issued without a vote of Closing a resale shelf registration statement covering the resale of all securities registrable under the Investor Rights Agreement.our stockholders.

CopiesThe EarlyBird Note provides for mandatory prepayments from time to time in amounts equal to 15% of the Merger Agreement; the first, second and third amendmentsgross proceeds received by us from any equity lines, forward purchase agreements or other equity financings consummated by us prior to the Merger Agreement; the Voting Agreement and the form of Investor Rights Agreement are filed with this Annual Report on Form 10-K as Exhibits 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 10.1 and 10.2, respectively, and are incorporated herein by reference, and the foregoing descriptions of such agreements and the Merger do not purport to be complete and are qualifiedMaturity Date. The note also provides for penalty-free prepayments in their entirety by reference thereto.whole or in part, at our election.

The Merger Agreement contains representations, warranties and covenantsEarlyBird Note provides that the parties madeMaturity Date may be accelerated upon the occurrence of certain customary Events of Default (as defined therein). Upon the occurrence an Event of Default, the Note would bear interest at a rate of 15% per annum from, and including, the Maturity Date (or such earlier date if the obligation to each other as ofrepay the EarlyBird Note is accelerated) to, but excluding, the date of the Mergerrepayment.

Union Data Power Supply Agreement or other specific dates.

On October 1, 2019, GRIID, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Union Data LLC, entered into a power supply agreement with Knoxville Utility Board (“KUB”) for KUB to provide power to GRIID’s bitcoin mining facility located in Maynardville, TN. The assertions embodied in those representations, warrantiespower supply agreement, as amended, and covenants were made for purposesan MOU between GRIID and KUB, provide GRIID’s Maynardville facility with access of up to approximately 10MW of power. The term of the contract amongpower supply agreement is for five years effective from January 1, 2020 and thereafter the parties and are subject to important qualifications and limitations agreed topower supply agreement will renew automatically for one-year periods unless terminated by the parties in connection with negotiating the Merger Agreement. The Merger Agreement is being filed to provide investors with information regarding its terms. It is not intended to provide any other factual information about the parties to the Merger Agreement and neither the copy of the Merger

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Agreement filed as an exhibit to this Annual Report nor the description of the Merger Agreement above is intended to modify or supplement any factual disclosures about us contained in our other public reports filed with the SEC. In particular, the representations, warranties, covenants and agreements contained in the Merger Agreement, which were made only for purposes of the Merger Agreement and as of specific dates, were solely for the benefit of the parties to the Merger Agreement, may be subject to limitations agreed upon by the parties (including being qualified by confidential disclosures made for the purposes of allocating contractual risk between the parties to the Merger Agreement instead of establishing these matters as facts) and may be subject to standards of materiality applicable to the contracting parties that differ from those applicable to investors, security holders and reports and documents filed with the SEC. Investors and security holders are not third-party beneficiaries under the Merger Agreement and should not rely on the representations, warranties, covenants and agreements, or any descriptions thereof, as characterizations of the actual state of facts or condition of anyeither party to the Merger Agreement. In addition, the representations, warranties, covenants and agreements and other terms of the Merger Agreement may be subject to subsequent waiver or modification.

Acquisition Criteria

Consistent with our business strategy, we have identified the following general criteria and guidelines which we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses. We intend to use these criteria and guidelines in evaluating acquisition opportunities, but we may decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet these criteria and guidelines. We intend to acquire one or more businesses that we believe:

These criteria are not intended to be exhaustive. Any evaluation relating to the merits of a particular initial business combination may be based, to the extent relevant, on these general guidelines as well as other considerations, factors and criteria that our management may deem relevant. In the event that we decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet the above criteria and guidelines, we will disclose that the target business does not meet the above criteria in our stockholder communications related to our initial business combination, which, as discussed in this annual report on Form 10-K, would be in the form of tender offer documents or proxy solicitation materials that we would file with the SEC.

Initial Business Combination

The NYSE American rules require that our initial business combination must be with one or more target businesses that together have a fair market value equal to at least 80% of the value of the trust account (less any deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable on income earned on the trust account) at the time of our signing a

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definitive agreement in connection with our initial business combination. If our board of directors is not able to determine the fair market value of the target business or businesses, we will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions, with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if we are not then listed on the NYSE American, these rules will not be applicable to us.

We anticipate structuring our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public stockholders own shares will own or acquire 100% of the outstanding equity interests or assets of the target business or businesses. We may, however, structure our initial business combination such that the post-transaction company owns or acquires less than 100% of such interests or assets of the target business in order to meet certain objectives of the target management team or stockholders or for other reasons, but we expect to only complete such business combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our stockholders prior to our initial business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-transaction company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination transaction. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new shares in exchange for all of the outstanding capital stock of a target. In this case, we would acquire a 100% controlling interest in the target. However, as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new shares, our stockholders immediately prior to our initial business combination could own less than a majority of our outstanding shares subsequent to our initial business combination. If less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business or businesses are owned or acquired by the post-transaction company, the portion of such business or businesses that is owned or acquired is what will be valued for purposes of the NYSE American’s 80% fair market value test. If our initial business combination involves more than one target business, the 80% fair market value test will be based on the aggregate value of all of the target businesses.

Our Sponsor

Our Sponsor is a special purpose vehicle affiliated with Adit. Our Sponsor is majority-owned by an affiliate of Adit and our management team. Adit, which was founded in 2014, is a New York-based investment adviser with a fundamental approach to investing primarily in late-stage growth capital investments in top performing pre-IPO companies. Adit seeks to produce superior risk-adjusted returns by employing a disciplined, fundamentally based, value-driven, thematic portfolio construction. Adit’s management team invests in every deal on the same terms as its investors.

The following characteristics summarize Adit’s investment portfolio:

Adit’s investment team conducts substantial business, financial and legal due diligence on every investment opportunity. We believe Adit’s platform will provide us with key advantages, including (i) extensive research capabilities and industry expertise, (ii) deal flow from institutional client relationships, banks, brokers and other intermediaries, (iii) a strong network of proven operators, executives, board members and industry advisors with expertise across various industries, (iv) an ability to attract talented investment professionals and advisors, and (v) significant experience in positioning companies for success in the public equity markets through a focus on operational value creation implemented according to specific, executable plans, along with enhanced corporate governance. Additionally, we believe that Adit’s reputation with institutional equity investors will ensure that investors consider the pro-forma impact of a business combination and the value creation plan that we intend to implement.

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Other Interests

Our management team are not required to commit any specific amount of time to our affairs, but they intend to devote as much of their time as they deem necessary to our affairs until we have completed our initial business combination. The amount of time that any member of our management team will devote in any time period will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our initial business combination and the current stage of the business combination process. Accordingly, our founders and management team may have conflicts of interest in allocating management time among various business activities, including identifying potential business combinations and monitoring the related due diligence.

We believe our Sponsor’s, management team’s and their affiliates’ operating and transaction experience and relationships with companies will provide us with a substantial number of potential business combination targets. Our Sponsor and management team have developed a broad network of contacts and corporate relationships around the world. This network has grown through the activities of our management team sourcing, acquiring and financing businesses, our Sponsor’s and management team’s relationships with sellers, financing sources and target management teams and the experience of our Sponsor in executing transactions under varying economic and financial market conditions.

We also may engage Adit, or another affiliate of our Sponsor, as our lead financial advisor in connection with our initial business combination and may pay such affiliate a customary financial advisory fee in an amount that constitutes a market standard financial advisory fee for comparable transactions.

Lack of Business Diversification

For an indefinite period of time after the completion of our initial business combination, the prospects for our success may depend entirely on the future performance of a single business. Unlike other entities that have the resources to complete business combinations with multiple entities in one or several industries, it is probable that we will not have the resources to diversify our operations and mitigate the risks of being in a single line of business. By completing our business combination with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may:

Limited Ability to Evaluate the Target’s Management Team

Although we intend to closely scrutinize the management of a prospective target business when evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with that business, our assessment of the target business’ management may not prove to be correct. In addition, the future management may not have the necessary skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company. Furthermore, the future role of members of our management team, if any, in the target business cannot presently be stated with any certainty. While it is possible that one or more of our directors or industry advisors will remain associated in some capacity with us following our business combination, it is unlikely that any of them will devote their full efforts to our affairs subsequent to our business combination. Moreover, we cannot assure you that members of our management team will have significant experience or knowledge relating to the operations of the particular target business.

We cannot assure you that any of our key personnel will remain in senior management or advisory positions with the combined company. The determination as to whether any of our key personnel will remain with the combined company will be made at the time of our initial business combination.

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Following a business combination, we may seek to recruit additional managers to supplement the incumbent management of the target business. We cannot assure you that we will have the ability to recruit additional managers, or that additional managers will have the requisite skills, knowledge or experience necessary to enhance the incumbent management.

Redemption Rights for Public Stockholders upon Completion of our Initial Business Combination

We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their shares of common stock upon the completion of our initial business combination at a per share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account as of two business days prior to the consummation of the initial business combination, including interest (which interest will be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then outstanding IPO Shares, subject to the limitations described herein. The per share amount we will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the representative of the underwriters. Our Sponsor, directors and officers have entered into letter agreements with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to the founder shares and any IPO Shares they may acquire after the IPO in connection with the completion of our initial business combination.

Manner of Conducting Redemptions

We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their shares of common stock upon the completion of our initial business combination either (i) in connection with a stockholder meeting called to approve the business combination or (ii) by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether we will seek stockholder approval of a proposed business combination or conduct a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on a variety of factors such as the timing of the transaction and whether the terms of the transaction would require us to seek stockholder approval under the law or stock exchange listing requirement. Asset acquisitions and stock purchases would not typically require stockholder approval while direct mergers with our company where we do not survive and any transactions where we issue more than 20% of our outstanding common stock or seek to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation would require stockholder approval. If we structure a business combination transaction with a target company in a manner that requires stockholder approval, we will not have discretion as to whether to seek a stockholder vote to approve the proposed business combination.

If a stockholder vote is not required and we do not decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other legal reasons, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation:

Upon the public announcement of our business combination, we or our initial stockholders will terminate any plan established in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 to purchase shares of our common stock in the open market if we elect to redeem our IPO Shares through a tender offer, to comply with Rule 14e-5 under the Exchange Act.

In the event we conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, our offer to redeem will remain open for at least 20 business days, in accordance with Rule 14e-1(a) under the Exchange Act, and we will not be permitted to complete our initial business combination until the expiration of the tender offer period. In addition, we will not redeem any IPO Shares unless our NTA will be at least $5,000,001 either immediately prior to or upon consummation of our initial business combination (so that we are not subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules). If public stockholders tender more shares than we have offered to purchase, we will withdraw the tender offer and not complete the initial business combination.

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If, however, stockholder approval of the transaction is required by law or stock exchange listing requirement, or we decide to obtain stockholder approval for business or other legal reasons, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation:

In the event that we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, we will distribute proxy materials and, in connection therewith, provide our public stockholders with the redemption rights described above upon completion of the initial business combination.

If we seek stockholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the then outstanding shares of common stock present and entitled to vote at the meeting to approve the initial business combination are voted in favor of the business combination. Each public stockholder may elect to redeem its IPO Shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction. In addition, our Sponsor, directors and officers have entered into letter agreements with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to the shares of common stock they hold in connection with the completion of a business combination.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that in no event will we redeem our IPO Shares unless our NTA are at least $5,000,001 either immediately prior to or upon consummation of our initial business combination. For example, the proposed business combination may require: (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash to be transferred to the target for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions in accordance with the terms of the proposed business combination. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all shares of common stock that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed business combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the business combination or redeem any shares, and all shares of common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof.

However, in connection with our proposed business combination with GRIID, we expect to seek stockholder approval to remove from our current amended and restated certificate of incorporationpower supply agreement by providing at least 60 days’ notice prior to the Closing (i)end of the limitation on our abilityinitial term or any renewal period.

Red Dog Power Supply Agreement

On September 28, 2020, GRIID, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Red Dog Technologies LLC (“Red Dog”), entered into a site location and development agreement with Johnson City Energy Authority (d/b/a BrightRidge) (“BrightRidge”) pursuant to redeem or repurchase IPO Shares inwhich the parties agreed to develop a three acre parcel of land for a high-density data center (referred to as the Barnes substation site) adjacent to BrightRidge’s Allen Phipps substation. In connection with the consummation of an initial business combinationsite location and development agreement, the parties entered in a ground lease agreement and a contract for lighting and power service.

Pursuant to the extent such redemption would resultground lease agreement, BrightRidge leased to Red Dog a three-acre parcel of real property for the data center. The term of the ground lease agreement began on September 28, 2020 and ends on March 28, 2026. The lease is automatically renewed for up to five additional terms of one year provided that Red Dog is not in ourdefault. Events of default include Red Dog’s insolvency or failure to have NTA in excess of $5 million after paymentcure a breach of the deferred underwriting commission (the “redemption limitation), and (ii) the limitation that we shall consummate an initial business combination following stockholder approval thereof only if the redemption limitation is not exceeded.

Limitation on Redemption Upon Completion of our Initial Business Combination if We Seek Stockholder Approval

Notwithstanding the foregoing, if we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any other person with whom such stockholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from seeking redemption rights with respect to any excess shares (such shares, “Excess Shares”). We believe this restriction will discourage stockholders from accumulating large blocks of shares, and subsequent attempts by such holders to use their ability to exercise their redemption rights against a proposed business combination as a means to force us or our Sponsor or its affiliates to purchase their shares at a significant premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. By limiting our stockholders’ ability to redeem no more than 15% of the shares issued in the IPO, we believe we will limit the ability of a small group of stockholders to unreasonably attempt to block our ability to complete our initial business

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combination, particularly in connection with a business combination with a target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum amount of cash. However, we would not be restricting our stockholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination.

Tendering Stock Certificates in Connection with Redemption Rights

In connection with any stockholder meeting to approve an initial business combination, we may require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to either tender their certificates to our transfer agent or to deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically using the Depository Trust Company’s DWAC (Deposit/Withdrawal At Custodian) System, at the holder’s option, prior to a date set forth in the proxy materials mailed to such holders. Accordingly, a public stockholder would have from the time we send out our proxy materials until the date set forth in such proxy materials to tender its shares if it wishes to seek to exercise its redemption rights. Given the relatively short exercise period, it is advisable for stockholders to use electronic delivery of their IPO Shares.

There is a nominal cost associated with the above-referenced tendering process and the act of certificating the shares or delivering them through the DWAC System. The transfer agent will typically charge the tendering broker such nominal amount and it would be up to the broker whether or not to pass this cost on to the redeeming holder. However, this fee would be incurred regardless of whether or not we require holders seeking to exercise redemption rights to tender their shares. The need to deliver shares is a requirement of exercising redemption rights regardless of the timing of when such delivery must be effectuated.

The foregoing is different from the procedures used historically by many blank check companies. In order to perfect redemption rights in connection with their business combinations, many blank check companies would distribute proxy materials for the stockholders’ vote on an initial business combination,agreement after 30 days’ notice and a holder could simply vote against a proposed initial business combination and check a box onrequest to remediate the proxy card indicating such holder was seeking to exercise his or her redemption rights.breach. The rent is $600.00 per acre per year. After the initial business combination was approved,term, the company would contact such stockholderrent may not increase by more than 5% of the rent from the prior term. Pursuant to arrangethe ground lease agreement, Red Dog has the option to purchase a parcel of real property of approximately 7.67 acres, which includes the real property that is subject to the ground lease agreement, after two years.

Pursuant to the contract for himlighting and service, BrightRidge serves power to GRIID’s bitcoin mining facility located in Johnson City, TN. The contract for lighting and service began on or heraround December 1, 2020. The contract for lighting and service provides GRIID’s Johnson City facility with access of up to deliver his or her certificateapproximately 25MW of power. The initial contract term is 5.5 years and will automatically renew annually unless either party terminates the renewal with at least three months’ notice.

Data Black River Development and Operation Agreement

On August 31, 2021, GRIID, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Data Black River LLC (“Data Black River”), entered into a development and operation agreement (the “HDP Agreement”) with Helix Digital Partners, LLC (“HDP”), an affiliate of Eagle Creek Renewable Energy (“Eagle Creek”). Pursuant to verify ownership. Asthe development and operation agreement, Data Black River provides services for the development and operation of a result,bitcoin mining facility located within the stockholder then hadpremises of HDP in Watertown, NY. HDP supplies up to 13MW of power through a subcontractor to the bitcoin mining facility located within the HDP premises. Data Black River receives a monthly fee for the performance of its services as well as a percentage of the bitcoin mined during each month. HDP receives a monthly fee for each MW of power supplied to the premises for bitcoin mining as well as a percentage of the bitcoin mined each month. The HDP Agreement has an “option window” afterinitial term of three years and thereafter automatically renews for successive one-year periods unless either party gives notice at least 60 days prior to the completionend of the initial business combination during which heterm or she could monitorany renewal term. The HDP Agreement also allows either party to terminate the price of the company’s stock in the market. If the price rose above the redemption price, he or she could sell his or her shares in the open market before actually delivering his or her sharesHDP Agreement upon notice to the companyother party if mining revenues drop below a certain amount over a consecutive 90-day period or if mining revenues are insufficient to cover management fees and electricity fees owed to HDP and Data Black River for cancellation. Asthree consecutive months. We have generated only nominal revenues at this facility since July 2022, pending resolution of certain issues between HDP and a result,New York State counterparty to them affecting the redemption rights, to which stockholders were aware they needed to commit before the stockholder meeting, would become “option” rights surviving past the completiongeneration of the initial business combination until the redeeming holder delivered its certificate. The requirement for physical or electronic delivery prior to the meeting ensures that a redeeming holder’s election to redeem is irrevocable once the initial business combination is approved.

Any request to redeem such shares, once made, may be withdrawn at any time up to the date set forth in the proxy materials. Furthermore, if a holder of an IPO Share delivered its certificate in connection with an election of redemption rights and subsequently decides prior to the applicable date not to elect to exercise such rights, such holder may simply request that the transfer agent return the certificate (physically or electronically). It is anticipated that the funds to be distributed to holders of our IPO Shares electing to redeem their shares will be distributed promptly after the completion of our initial business combination.

If our initial business combination is not approved or completed for any reason, then our public stockholders who elected to exercise their redemption rights would not be entitled to redeem their sharespower for the applicable pro rata share ofsite by HDP, and so either party may terminate the trust account. In such case, we will promptly return any certificates delivered by public holders who electedHDP Agreement. HDP and GRIID are working together to redeem their shares.

If our initial proposed initial business combination is not completed, we may continue to try to complete an initial business combination with a different target until the applicable extension deadline.

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Redemption of IPO Shares and Liquidation if No Initial Business Combination

On December 23, 2022, we held the extension meeting, at which our stockholders approved a proposal to extend the date by which we must complete an initial business combination up to six times at the election of our board of directors for an additional one month each time for a maximum of six one-month extensions. We provided holders of IPO Shares with the ability to redeem such IPO Shares in connection with the extension meeting. Stockholders holding 25,132,578 IPO Shares exercised their right to redeem such shares for a pro rata portion of the funds then on deposit in the trust account for approximately $253.6 million (approximately $10.09 per share), leaving approximately $25.0 million in the trust account as of December 31, 2022.

We will have until the applicable extension date, the latest of which is July 14, 2023 if our board of directors approves all six one-month extensions allowed under our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our business combination by the applicable extension date (and our stockholders have not amended our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to extend this time period), we will: (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the IPO Shares, at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our tax obligations (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding IPO Shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law, and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in the case of clauses (ii) and (iii) to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions with respect to our warrants, which will expire worthless if we fail to complete our business combination by the applicable extension date.

Our Sponsor, directors and officers have entered into letter agreements with us pursuant to which they have waived their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares held by them if we fail to complete our initial business combination by the applicable extension date. However, if they acquire IPO Shares after the IPO, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such IPO Shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination by the applicable extension date.

Our Sponsor, directors and officers have agreed, pursuant to written agreements with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (a) that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or certain amendments to our certificate of incorporation or to redeem 100% of our IPO Shares if we do not complete our initial business combination by the applicable extension date or (b) with respect to any other provision relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, unless we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their shares of common stock upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our tax obligations divided by the number of then outstanding IPO Shares. However, under our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, we may not redeem our IPO Shares unless our NTA are at least $5,000,001 either immediately prior to or upon consummation of a business combination.

We expect that all costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, as well as payments to any creditors, will be funded from amounts remaining out of the proceeds held outside the trust account, although we cannot assure you that there will be sufficient funds for such purpose.

However, if those funds are not sufficient to cover the costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, to the extent that there is any interest accrued in the trust account not required to pay our tax obligations, we may request the trustee to release to us an additional amount of up to $100,000 of such accrued interest to pay those costs and expenses.

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If we were to expend all of the net proceeds of the IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants, other than the proceeds deposited in the trust account, and without taking into account interest, if any, earned on the trust account, the per-share redemption amount received by stockholders upon our dissolution would be approximately $10.00. The proceeds deposited in the trust account could, however, become subject to the claims of our creditors which would have higher priority than the claims of our public stockholders. We cannot assure you that the actual per-share redemption amount received by stockholders will not be substantially less than $10.00. Under Section 281(b) of the DGCL, our plan of dissolution must provide for all claims against us to be paid in full or make provision for payments to be made in full, as applicable, if there are sufficient assets. These claims must be paid or provided for before we make any distribution of our remaining assets to our stockholders. While we intend to pay such amounts, if any, we cannot assure you that we will have funds sufficient to pay or provide for all creditors’ claims.

Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent auditors), prospective target businesses or other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public stockholders, there is no guarantee that they will execute such agreements or even if they execute such agreements that they would be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account including but not limited to fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each caseresolve these regulatory issues in order to gainallow GRIID to resume its mining operations at this site.

Amended and Restated Mining Services Agreement

On October 9, 2022, GRIID entered into an advantageAmended and Restated Mining Services Agreement (as so amended, the “Mining Services Agreement”) with respectBlockchain Capital Solutions (US), Inc. (“BCS”), an affiliate of GRIID’s lender under its credit agreement. During the term of the Mining Services Agreement, GRIID will receive, install, operate, manage and maintain servers and power supplies provided by BCS (“Customer Mining Equipment”) to perform mining services (the “Mining Services”) at a claim against our assets, includingGRIID facility located in Lenoir City, Tennessee (the “Premises”). All operation of the funds held inCustomer Mining Equipment by GRIID will be on BCS’s behalf. Beginning March 2022 and at monthly intervals thereafter for the trust account. If any third party refusesfollowing six months, BCS will provide GRIID with Customer Mining Equipment for installation at the Premises. GRIID is to execute an agreement waiving such claimsmake all necessary improvements and developments to the monies held inPremises to accommodate the trust account, our management will perform an analysis of the alternatives availableCustomer Mining Equipment to it and will only enter into an agreement with a third party that has not executed a waiver if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative. Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where management is unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver.

In addition, there is no guarantee that such entities will agree to waive any claims they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any negotiations, contracts or agreements with us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason. Our Sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a vendor for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a definitive agreement for a business combination, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below (i) $10.00 per IPO Share or (ii) such lesser amount per IPO Share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest which may be withdrawn to pay our tax obligations and up to $100,000 for liquidation expenses, except as to any claims by a third party who executed a waiver of any and all rights to seek access to the trust account (even if such waiver is deemed to be unenforceable) and except as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the IPO against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. We have not independently verified whether our Sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy this indemnity obligation nor have we askedenable it to reserve for such eventuality and believe that our Sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Therefore, we believe it is unlikely that our Sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. As a result, if any such claims were successfully made against the trust account, the funds available for our initial business combination and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.00 per IPO Share. In such event, we may not be able to complete our initial business combination, and you would receive such lesser amount per shareoperate in connection with any redemption of the shares of common stock held by our public stockholders. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.

In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below (i) $10.00 per IPO Share or (ii) such lesser amount per IPO Share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, due to reductions in value of the trust assets, in each case net of the amount of interest which may be withdrawn to pay our tax obligations and up to $100,000 for liquidation expenses, and our Sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its indemnification obligation or that it has no indemnification obligation related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our Sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligation. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our Sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligation to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment may choose not to do so if, for example, the cost of such legal action is deemed by the

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independent directors to be too high relative to the amount recoverable or if the independent directors determine that a favorable outcome is not likely. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that due to claims of creditors the actual value of the per-share redemption price will not be less than $10.00 per IPO Share.

We will seek to reduce the possibility that our Sponsor will have to indemnify the trust account due to claims of creditors by endeavoring to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent auditors and the underwriters in the IPO), prospective target businesses or other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to monies held in the trust account. Our Sponsor will also not be liable as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the IPO against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act.  In the event that we liquidate and it is subsequently determined that the reserve for claims and liabilities is insufficient, stockholders who received funds from our trust account could be liable for claims made by creditors.

Under the DGCL, stockholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against a corporation to the extent of distributions received by them in a dissolution. The pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our IPO Shares in the event we do not complete our business combination by the applicable extension date may be considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law. If the corporation complies with certain procedures set forth in Section 280 of the DGCL intended to ensure that it makes reasonable provision for all claims against it, including a 60-day notice period during which any third-party claims can be brought against the corporation, a 90-day period during which the corporation may reject any claims brought, and an additional 150-day waiting period before any liquidating distributions are made to stockholders, any liability of stockholders with respect to a liquidating distribution is limited to the lesser of such stockholder’s pro rata share of the claim or the amount distributed to the stockholder, and any liability of the stockholder would be barred after the third anniversary of the dissolution.

Furthermore, if the pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our IPO Shares in the event we do not complete our business combination by the applicable extension date, is not considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law and such redemption distribution is deemed to be unlawful, then pursuant to Section 174 of the DGCL, the statute of limitations for claims of creditors could then be six years after the unlawful redemption distribution, instead of three years, as in the case of a liquidating distribution. If we are unable to complete our business combination by the applicable extension date, we will: (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the IPO Shares, at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our franchise and income taxes (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding IPO Shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law, and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. Accordingly, it is our intention to redeem our IPO Shares as soon as reasonably possible after the applicable extension date, and therefore, we do not intend to comply with those procedures. As such, our stockholders could potentially be liable for any claims to the extent of distributions received by them (but no more) and any liability of our stockholders may extend well beyond the third anniversary of such date.

Because we will not be complying with Section 280, Section 281(b) of the DGCL requires us to adopt a plan, based on facts known to us at such time that will provide for our payment of all existing and pending claims or claims that may be potentially brought against us within the subsequent 10 years. However, because we are a blank check company, rather than an operating company, and our operations will be limited to searching for prospective target businesses to acquire, the only likely claims to arise would be from our vendors (such as lawyers, investment bankers, etc.) or prospective target businesses. As described above, pursuant to the obligation contained in our underwriting agreement, we will seek to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent auditors and the underwriters in the IPO), prospective target businesses or other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account. As a result of this obligation, the claims that could be made against us are significantly limited and the likelihood that any claim that would result in any liability extending to the trust account is remote. Further, our

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Sponsor may be liable only to the extent necessary to ensure that the amounts in the trust account are not reduced below (i) $10.00 per IPO Share or (ii) such lesser amount per IPO Share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, due to reductions in value of the trust assets, in each case net of the amount of interest withdrawn to pay our tax obligations and up to $100,000 for liquidation expenses, and will not be liable as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the IPO against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. In the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our Sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims.

If we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our stockholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, we cannot assure you we will be able to return $10.00 per share to our public stockholders. Additionally, if we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by stockholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover all amounts received by our stockholders. Furthermore, our board may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, and thereby exposing itself and our company to claims of punitive damages, by paying public stockholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. We cannot assure you that claims will not be brought against us for these reasons.

Our public stockholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only in the event of the redemption of our IPO Shares if we do not complete our business combination by the applicable extension date or if they redeem their respective shares for cash upon the completion of the initial business combination. In no other circumstances will a stockholder have any right or interest of any kind to or in the trust account. In the event we seek stockholder approval in connection with our initial business combination, a stockholder’s voting in connection with the business combination alone will not result in a stockholder’s redeeming its shares to us for an applicable pro rata share of the trust account. Such stockholder must have also exercised its redemption rights described above.

Additional Information Regarding Our Proposed Initial Business Combination

We have filed a registration statement on Form S-4 with the SEC, which includes a proxy statement and a prospectus, and we will file other documents regarding the Merger. The definitive proxy statement/prospectus will also be sent to our stockholders and GRIID’s members, seeking any required stockholder approvals. We urge you to carefully read the entire registration statement and proxy statement/prospectus and any other relevant documents filed with the SEC, including any amendments or supplements to these documents, because they contain important information about the proposed transactions, including detailed descriptions of the Merger and a discussion of historical information and risks relating to the Merger. The documents filed by us with the SEC may be obtained free of charge at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Other than as specifically discussed, this report does not assume the closing of the Merger described above.

Employees

We currently have three executive officers. Members of our management team are not obligated to devote any specific number of hours to our matters but they intend to devote as much of their time as they deem necessary to our affairs until we have completed our initial business combination. The amount of time that any such person will devote in any time period will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our initial business combination and the current stage of the business combination process.

Periodic Reporting and Financial Information

We registered our units, common stock and IPO Warrants under the Exchange Act and have reporting obligations, including the requirement that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with the SEC. In accordance with the requirements of the Exchange Act, our annual reportsMining Services Agreement, and to complete installation and commence full operation of such Customer Mining Equipment. If GRIID fails to complete the infrastructure development and equipment installation by the planned operational date, as defined in the agreement, or fails to commence full operation of Customer Mining Equipment at an alternative temporary facility, GRIID will contain financial statements auditedpay to Blockchain a late development fee which is intended to compensate BCS for the generated digital assets that would have been paid to BCS if GRIID had completed the infrastructure development and reported onequipment installation by our independent registered public accountants.

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We will provide stockholders with audited financial statementsthe planned operational date. Throughout the term of the prospective target business as partMining Services Agreement, GRIID will be responsible for the management and maintenance of the tender offer materialsCustomer Mining Equipment. Following the end of each twenty-four-hour period during the term of the Mining Services Agreement, GRIID will deposit 95% of the generated cryptocurrency from the Mining Services into BCS’s digital wallet and 5% of the generated cryptocurrency (representing GRIID’s fees for performance of the Mining Services) into GRIID’s digital wallet. Under the Mining Services Agreement, GRIID is to invoice BCS on a monthly basis for the electricity charges associated with the Mining Services related to the Customer Mining Equipment, without premium or proxy solicitation materials sentmarkup. GRIID is to stockholdersalso invoice BCS on a monthly basis for BCS’s operating expense charges as defined in the Mining Services Agreement. The Mining Services Agreement is scheduled to assist themexpire on February 28, 2027.

The Mining Services Agreement may be terminated by either party upon written notice to the other party if such other party breaches any material term or condition of this Agreement and fails to remedy the breach within sixty (60) days (or ten (10) business days in assessing the target business. case of a failure to make payment) after being given written notice thereof (a “Material Default”). A termination of the Mining Services Agreement by BCS for a Material Default by GRIID shall constitute a default under the credit agreement.

In all likelihood, these financial statements will needaddition, BCS may terminate the Mining Services Agreement for any reason or no reason upon not less than ninety (90) days prior written notice.

GRIID records its revenue under the Mining Services Agreement on a gross basis, as GRIID represents the principal in relation to the contract as it controls the promised service before transferring that service to BCS. GRIID has determined that no embedded lease exists in the Mining Services Agreement.

Ava Data Power Supply Agreement

On March 1, 2022, GRIID, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Ava Data LLC (“Ava Data”), entered into a power contract with the Lenoir City Utility Board (“LCUB”) to furnish power to GRIID’s site located in Lenoir City, Tennessee. On May 1, 2022, GRIID, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Ava Data LLC (“Ava Data”), entered into a second power contract to furnish power to the same location. These contracts each make approximately 11MW of capacity available and shall last for terms of five years with automatic one-year renewals unless either party notices the other at least 90 days prior to the current term.

Environmental Initiatives

GRIID is actively engaged in actions it considers to be preparedgood environmental stewardship of bitcoin by prioritizing carbon-free energy sources within our power pipeline. We believe the opportunity to mine bitcoin with these types of energy sources not only decreases environmental impact, but is also in accordancethe best interests of the long-term prospects of the business and the industry. Carbon-free generation sources carry a lower fixed cost to operate and therefore pass a lower power cost to the mining customer. Lower power costs translate to larger margins and greater protection against bitcoin volatility. We also enter into flexible power agreements pursuant to which the power we consume is curtailable by the local grids during times of stress or congestion. Finally, the direct power agreements we enter with hydroelectric providers serve as potential revenue enhancement opportunities, allowing for the flourishing of carbon-free power within broader power markets.

The decision to locate in the TVA service territory was driven both by the low cost of power and the majority carbon free energy blend that the TVA system utilizes. TVA generates approximately 59% of its power from carbon-free sources (hydro-electric, solar, wind, nuclear, biomass, and geothermal) and our calculation that our existing facilities utilize approximately 67% carbon free power is based on this percentage and the realized consumption during the disclosed period and includes our Data Black River facility.

TVA is a utility leader in decarbonizing its grid, and customers like us assist in supporting that mission. The Union Data power supply agreement and the Red Dog power supply agreement both benefit from the TVA power blend and therefore serve to further our carbon-free priority. The Watertown, New York site generates 100% of its power from carbon-free sources. The HDP Agreement governs the Watertown, New York site, which is co-located with a hydro-electric dam and is directly fed from 100% carbon-free power.

Our 90% carbon-free objective is an extension of the current methodology. We have prioritized a pipeline that includes several other TVA locations and significant growth at 100% carbon-free sources such as additional hydro-electric sources in conjunction with Eagle Creek, nuclear plants, and wind opportunities combined with grid mix. The sites required to achieve this goal are in various stages of maturity.

The basis for our market leadership position is that we have achieved a leading power cost without relying on majority fossil fuels or reconciledother less socially responsible means of power generation. The power prices we reference are sourced from public filings, management presentations from companies, and quality industry research and consist of the following: including Riot Blockchain, Inc. (“Riot Blockchain”) at a price of $0.017 per kWH; Hut 8 Mining Corp. (“Hut 8”) at a price of $0.064 per kWH; Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. (“Marathon Digital”) at a price of $0.065 per kWH; Bitfarms Technologies Ltd (“Bitfarms”) at a price of $0.042 kWH; Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd (“Hive Blockchain”) at a price of $0.034 kWH; CleanSpark, Inc. (“CleanSpark”) at a price of $0.051 per kWH; Greenidge Generation Holdings Inc. (“Greenidge”) at a price of $0.067 per kWH; and Cipher Mining Inc. (“Cipher”) at a price of $0.027 per kWH. Our scaled blended power cost is lower than the average of these other industry participants and also achieves a competitive carbon free profile without the use of renewable energy credits or carbon offsets.

Competition

The competitive landscape in the bitcoin mining industry is complex and constantly evolving. There are participants of many different sizes with different capital structures, power relationships, supply agreements, and operational capabilities. As interest in bitcoin has grown along with the asset price, capital has similarly been shifting towards the mining sector. A number of public and private companies have made bitcoin mining their core business and purpose-built miners have shifted their strategies towards enterprise scale.

Across these market participants, the already limited disclosures regarding performance of operations, intended growth, and hardware pre-orders vary. The opaque nature of the industry makes it challenging to predict key metrics like total network hash reliably.

The industry is also still largely serviced by two leading ASIC manufacturers, MicroBT and Bitmain, thus introducing unusual supply dynamics when sourcing the ASICs that power the operations.

Several public companies (traded in the U.S. and internationally) and private companies may be considered to compete with us, including the following companies which we have identified as our competitors:Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“

The availability and reliability of published sources of information relating to cryptocurrency and bitcoin cannot be assured. However, we believe that through our current scaled operations and continued development of new sites, we are well positioned among these competitors.

Proof-of-stake networks also serve as competition to the bitcoin blockchain. As proof-of-stake algorithms create new blocks in a blockchain without resource intensive calculations to validate transactions, companies with significant advantages in terms of scale or low-cost power may be less competitive on a proof-of-stake network.

Intellectual Property Rights

Our ability to conduct our business relies in part on our proprietary methods and designs, which we protect as trade secrets. We rely upon trade secret laws, physical and technological security measures and contractual commitments to protect our trade secrets, including entering into non-disclosure agreements with employees, consultants and third parties with access to our trade secrets. However, such measures may not provide adequate protection and the value of our trade secrets could be lost through misappropriation or breach of our confidentiality agreements. Furthermore, third parties may claim that we are infringing upon their intellectual property rights, which may prevent or inhibit our operations and cause us to suffer significant litigation expense even if these claims have no merit.

Government Regulation

The laws and regulations applicable to digital assets are evolving and subject to interpretation and change. For example, the Cyber-Digital Task Force of the U.S. Department of Justice published a report entitled “Cryptocurrency: An Enforcement Framework” in October 2020 that detailed the Department of Justice’s view with respect to digital assets and the tools at theGAAP

Department of Justice’s disposal to deal with threats posed by digital assets. In March 2021, the then-nominee for Chair of the SEC expressed the need for investor protection along with promotion of innovation in the digital asset space. In February 2021, representatives of the government of Inner Mongolia, China announced plans to ban digital asset mining within the province due to the energy and rare Earth mineral demands of the industry.

Governments around the world have reacted differently to digital assets; certain governments have deemed them illegal, and others have allowed their use and trade without restriction, while in some jurisdictions, such as in the U.S., digital assets are subject to extensive, and in some cases overlapping, unclear and evolving regulatory requirements. As digital assets have grown in both popularity and market size, the U.S. Congress and a number of U.S. federal and state agencies, including FinCEN, the CFTC, the SEC, FINRA, the CFPB, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the IRS and state financial regulators, have been examining the operations of digital assets networks, digital assets users and digital assets exchange markets. Ongoing and future regulatory actions may alter, perhaps to a materially adverse extent, the nature of digital assets markets and our digital assets operations. Additionally, U.S. state and federal and foreign regulators and legislatures have taken responsive action against digital assets businesses or International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”), dependingenacted restrictive regimes in response to hacks, consumer harm, or criminal activity stemming from digital assets activity. There is also increasing attention being paid by U.S. federal and state energy regulatory authorities as the total electricity consumption of cryptocurrency-mining grows and potentially alters the supply and dispatch functionality of the wholesale grid and retail distribution systems. Many state legislative bodies are also actively reviewing the impact of cryptocurrency-mining in their respective states. For example, in November 2022, New York passed a law banning certain bitcoin mining operations that run on carbon-based power sources. For the circumstances. We cannot assure you that any particular target business identified by usnext two years, unless a company engaged in proof-of-work mining, such as ours, which requires sophisticated gear and large amounts of electricity, uses 100% renewable energy, it will not be allowed to expand or renew permits, and new entrants will not be allowed to come online.

Due to the relatively short history of bitcoin and digital assets, and their emergence as a potential acquisition candidate will havenew asset class, government regulation of blockchain and digital assets is constantly evolving, with increased interest expressed by U.S. and international regulators.

Government regulation of blockchain and digital assets is under active consideration by the necessary financial statements. To the extent that this requirement cannot be met,United States federal government via its agencies and regulatory bodies, as well as by similar entities in other countries and transnational organizations. State and local regulations also may impact our activities and other activities in which we may participate in the future. Other governmental or semi- governmental regulatory bodies have shown an interest in regulating or investigating companies engaged in blockchain or digital asset businesses. For instance, the SEC has taken an active role in regulating the use of public offerings of proprietary coins (so-called “initial coin offerings”) and has made statements and official promulgations as to the status of certain digital assets as “securities” subject to regulation by the SEC.

The effect of any regulatory change, either by the federal, state, local or foreign governments or any self-regulatory agencies on us is impossible to predict, but such change could be substantial and may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. While we are unaware of significant adverse governmental or regulatory action adverse to bitcoin mining in the United States, there is no guarantee that future regulation or adverse action will not be abletake place and interpretation of existing regulations in a manner adverse to acquireour business is possible.

In addition, various foreign jurisdictions either have adopted, or may adopt, laws, regulations or directives that affect digital assets, digital asset networks, and their users and participants. Such laws, regulations or directives may conflict with those of the proposed target business. While thisUnited States, may limitnegatively impact the poolacceptance of potential acquisition candidates,digital assets by users, merchants, and service providers outside of the United States, and may therefore impede the growth of digital assets. Several Eastern European and Asian countries have a more restrictive posture toward digital assets and, thereby, have reduced the rate of expansion of digital asset use, as well as mining, in each of those countries. Presently, we do not believe that this limitation will be material.any U.S. federal or state regulatory body has taken any action or position adverse to bitcoin, with respect to its production, sale, and use as a medium of exchange; however, future changes to existing regulations or entirely new regulations may affect our business in ways it is not presently possible for us to predict with any reasonable degree of reliability. As the regulatory and legal environment evolves, we may become subject to new laws and further regulation by the SEC and other agencies, which may affect our mining and other activities.

We are requiredunable to evaluatepredict the effect that any future regulatory change, or any overlapping or unclear regulations, may have on us, but such change, overlap or lack of clarity could be substantial and make it difficult for us to operate our internal control proceduresbusiness or materially impact the market for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2022 as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Onlydigital assets that we mine or may mine in the event wefuture. FinCEN has issued guidance stating its position that it does not differentiate between fiat currency (which FinCEN calls “real currency”) and digital assets that are deemedconvertible into fiat currency or other forms of convertible virtual currencies (which FinCEN calls “virtual currency”) for purposes of determining whether a person or entity is engaging in “money transmission services”. Persons and entities engaging in virtual currency activities that amount to “money transmission services,” or otherwise cause them to be deemed a large accelerated filer“money services business” under FinCEN’s regulations, must register with FinCEN as a money services business, implement an “effective” anti-money laundering program and comply with FinCEN’s reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

In May 2019, FinCEN issued guidance relating to how the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) and its implementing regulations relating to money services businesses apply to certain businesses that transact in convertible virtual currencies. Although the guidance generally indicates that certain mining and mining pool operations will not be treated as money transmission services, the guidance also addresses when certain activities, including certain services offered in connection with operating mining pools such as hosting convertible virtual currency wallets on behalf of pool members or an accelerated filer willpurchasers of computer mining power, may be subject to regulation. Although we believe that our mining activities do not presently trigger FinCEN registration requirements under the BSA, if our activities cause us to be deemed a “money transmitter,” “money services business” or equivalent designation, under federal law, we may be required to haveregister at the federal level and comply with laws that may include the implementation of anti-money laundering programs, reporting and recordkeeping regimes and other operational requirements. In such an event, to the extent we decide to proceed with some or all of our internal control procedures audited. A target companyoperations, the required registration and regulatory compliance steps may not beresult in extraordinary, non-recurring expenses to us, as well as on-going recurring compliance withcosts, possibly affecting an investment in the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of their internal controls. The development of the internal controls of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the timeshares, operating results or financial condition in a material and costs necessary to complete any such acquisition.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act, as modified by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the “JOBS Act”). As such, we are eligible to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being requiredadverse manner. Failure to comply with the auditor attestationthese requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensationmay expose us to fines, penalties and/or interruptions in our periodic reportsoperations that could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations and proxy statements,cash flows.

According to the CFTC, bitcoin falls within the definition of a “commodity” under the CEA. Under the CEA the CFTC has broad enforcement authority to police market manipulation and exemptions from the requirements of holding a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the prices of our securities may be more volatile.

In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an “emerging growth company” can take advantage of the extended transition period providedfraud in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an “emerging growth company” can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We intend to take advantage of the benefits of this extended transition period.

We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of: (i) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of the IPO, (b)spot digital assets markets in which we may transact. Beyond instances of fraud or manipulation, the CFTC generally does not oversee cash or spot market exchanges or transactions involving digital assets that do not utilize margin, leverage, or financing. The NFA is the self-regulatory agency for the U.S. futures industry, and as such has jurisdiction over bitcoin futures contracts and certain other digital assets derivatives. However, the NFA does not have regulatory oversight authority for the cash or spot market for digital assets trading or transactions. In addition, CFTC regulations and CFTC oversight and enforcement authority apply with respect to futures, swaps, other derivative products, and certain leveraged commodity transactions involving digital assets, including the markets on which these products trade.

Seasonality

Our business is not generally subject to seasonality. However, coin generation from our mining operations may vary depending on our total annual gross revenuehash rate at a given point in time relative to the total hash rate of the bitcoin network.

Human Capital

Our employees are a critical component of our success. As of December 31, 2023, we employed approximately 43 full-time employees, out of 45 total employees. We have seven locations with an employee presence and have a remote employee presence in 11 states. None of our employees are represented by a labor union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement. We believe our relationship with our employees is exemplary.

During the time between signing the definitive merger agreement with ADEX and consummation of the transaction, we have implemented a series of workforce reductions. These reductions in force were effected as cost savings measures undertaken in light of market conditions and liquidity needs.

We strive to create and maintain a special culture at least $1.235 billion, or (c)GRIID that focuses on our values of excellence, passion, integrity, respect, innovation, and positive attitude. Our strong emphasis on culture is intended to empower our employees to make decisions and develop themselves personally and professionally. One of our priorities is to maintain and enhance our culture as we grow and integrate new team members.

Attracting, developing, and retaining top talent is a priority at GRIID and we have a dedicated human resources team that focuses on these initiatives. To ensure we stay competitive in the talent market, we strive to make it clear to our employees that we value and appreciate them, and reward high performance. We foster a culture of rewards and recognition and incentivize our employees with opportunities for growth within the company.

GRIID’s leadership empowers each team member to make a difference and stretch to their fullest potential. Our dedication to frequent, transparent communication is shown with company-wide meetings where our leaders share Company vision and encourage employees to ask questions. We continue to develop formal career-pathing, allowing us to create a roadmap for an individual’s career progression within the organization. Our compensation strategy gives us competitive advantages by offering competitive salaries, bonus potential and employee ownership opportunities for a meaningful portion of our employees through equity incentive grants.

We recognize the importance of giving back to the communities in which we are deemedlive. Participating in community outreach initiatives and volunteer opportunities is extremely important to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market valueour employees and has become an integral part of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as ofcorporate culture. Throughout the prior June 30th;year, we provide multiple ways for team members to volunteer and (ii)positively impact the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period. References herein to “emerging growth company” shall have the meaning associated with it in the JOBS Act.surrounding communities.

Additionally,We value diverse backgrounds, perspectives and experiences, and we are committed to providing an inclusive environment where all individuals are heard and respected. Our diversity and inclusion initiatives are periodically reviewed and discussed at the board level.

We offer a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Rule 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remaincomprehensive benefits package, which goes into effect on a smaller reporting company until the lastperson’s first day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market valueemployment, including 100% coverage of employee healthcare premiums and several benefits at no cost to our employees, including life insurance, telehealth, mental health and work-life balance resources. We perform a thorough review of our common stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $250 million asbenefits package annually. The financial future of our employees is important to us, which is why we prioritize performance-based bonuses when applicable. To promote personal and professional growth, we encourage our employees to pursue ongoing training and career development opportunities, and we provide tuition assistance and reimbursement for certain pre-approved continuing education programs and professional certifications.

Corporate Information

Our principal executive office is located at 2577 Duck Creek Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45212, which is where our records are kept and the prior June 30th andprincipal business address for our executive officers. Our telephone number is (513) 268-6185. We were incorporated in Delaware on October 15, 2020.

Available Information

You can access, free of charge, our annual revenues exceeds $100 million during such completed fiscal yearreports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports as filed with the SEC under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These documents may also be accessed on our website: www.griid.com. These documents are placed on our website as soon as is reasonably practicable after their filing with the SEC. The information contained in, or (2)that can be accessed through, the market valuewebsite is not part of our common stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as ofthis Annual Report. These documents may also be found at the prior June 30th.SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

19

Item 1A. Risk Factors.

Ownership ofInvesting in our securities involves a high degreerisks. You should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of risk.the other information in this Annual Report, including the section “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes, before deciding whether to purchase any of our securities. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition or results of operations would likely suffer. In such case, the trading price of our securities (including our common stock) could decline due to any of these risks, and you may lose all or part of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We have a limited operating history, with operating losses as the business has grown. If we are unable to achieve and sustain greater revenues than our operating costs, we will incur operating losses, which could negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Griid Holdco LLC began operating in May 2018. Accordingly, we have a limited operating history, which makes an evaluation of our future prospects difficult. As of December 31, 2023, we had an approximate unrestricted balance of cash of $2.851 million, and an accumulated deficit of approximately $132.607 million. Our operating results will likely fluctuate moving forward as we focus on increasing our capacity, and as the market price of bitcoin fluctuates. We may be subject to many risks common to new and growing businesses, including cash shortages, limitations with respect to personnel, financial and other resources and lack of revenues. Additionally, we will continue to be exposed to numerous risks and volatility associated with the bitcoin mining and power generation sectors, including fluctuating bitcoin to U.S. dollar prices, the costs of bitcoin miners, the number of market participants mining bitcoin, the availability of other power generation facilities to expand operations and regulatory changes. There is no assurance that we will be successful in achieving a return on your investment or meeting other metrics of success.

Our future business plan requires incurring substantial expenses in the establishment and operation of our business and there can be no assurance that subsequent operational objectives will be achieved. Our success will ultimately depend on our ability to generate cash from our business. If we do not achieve our operational objectives, and to the extent that we do not generate cash flow and

income, our financial performance and long-term viability may be materially and adversely affected. An investment in our securities must be considered in light of the risks, expenses and difficulties frequently encountered by companies in their early stage of development.

Our operating results may fluctuate due to the highly volatile nature of cryptocurrencies in general and, specifically, bitcoin.

All of our sources of revenue will be dependent on cryptocurrencies and, specifically, bitcoin and the broader blockchain and bitcoin mining ecosystem. Due to the highly volatile nature of the cryptocurrency markets and the prices of cryptocurrency assets, our operating results may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter in accordance with market sentiments and movements in the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem. Our operating results may fluctuate as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are unpredictable and in certain instances are outside of our control, including:

As a result of these factors, it may be difficult for us to forecast growth trends accurately and our business and future prospects are difficult to evaluate, particularly in the short term. In view of the rapidly evolving nature of our business and the bitcoin mining ecosystem, period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful, and you should not rely upon them as an indication of future performance. Quarterly and annual expenses reflected in our financial statements may be significantly different from historical or projected rates, and our operating results in one or more future quarters may fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors.

The market price of bitcoin has recently been volatile. The market price of bitcoin is impacted by a variety of factors, and is determined primarily using data from various exchanges, over-the-counter markets and derivative platforms. As further described herein, the crypto assets industry has been negatively impacted by bankruptcy filings of FTX Trading Ltd., et al. (“FTX”), and its affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research LLC, in addition to other bankruptcy filings of crypto companies throughout 2022 and 2023. Furthermore, such prices may be subject to factors such as those that impact commodities, more so than business activities, which could be subjected to additional influence from fraudulent or illegitimate actors, real or perceived scarcity, and political, economic, regulatory or other conditions. Pricing may be the result of speculation regarding future appreciation in the value of bitcoin, or our share price, inflating and making their market prices more volatile or creating “bubble” type risks for both bitcoin and shares of our securities. Further, volatility in crypto asset pricing could lead to other impacts such as increased risks of legal proceedings or governmental scrutiny of us and our affiliates, either in the United States or in other jurisdictions.

The terms of the credit agreement with Blockchain Access restrict our current and future operations, particularly our ability to take certain actions.

The Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement with Blockchain Access (the “credit agreement”) contains a number of restrictive covenants that impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us and may limit our ability to engage in acts that may be in our long-term best interest, including restrictions on our ability to:

In addition, the restrictive covenants in the credit agreement require us to maintain specified financial ratios and satisfy other financial condition tests. Our ability to meet those financial ratios and tests can be affected by events beyond its control, and we may be unable to meet them.

A breach of the covenants under the credit agreement could allow the lenders to accelerate the debt or exercise other remedies. In addition, if we are unable to repay the amounts due and payable under the credit agreement, the lenders could proceed against the collateral securing the debt.

GRIID has identified material weaknesses in its internal control over financial reporting. These material weaknesses could adversely affect our ability to report our results of operations and financial condition accurately and in a timely manner.

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with GAAP. Our management is likewise required, on a quarterly basis, to evaluate the effectiveness of its internal controls and to disclose any changes and material weaknesses identified through such evaluation in those internal controls. A material weakness is a significant deficiency, or a combination of significant deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, that results in more than a remote likelihood that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected.

In connection with the evaluation of internal controls and procedures for the period ended December 31, 2022, GRIID identified a material weakness in its internal control over financial reporting related to the improper accounting of warrants issued in connection with certain debt and equity transactions. As a result of this material weakness, GRIID’s management concluded that its internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2022.

Additionally, in connection with the evaluation of the internal controls and procedures for the period ended December 31, 2022, GRIID identified a material weakness in its internal controls over financial reporting related to the reclassification of realized gains and losses from the sale of cryptocurrencies from nonoperating income to operating in its statement of operations and the reclassification of cash proceeds related to the sale of cryptocurrencies from cash flows from investing activities to cash flows from operating activities in its statement of cash flows. As a result of this material weakness, GRIID management concluded that its internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2022.

In connection with the evaluation of internal controls and procedures for the period ended December 31, 2023, the Company identified material weaknesses in its internal controls over (i) financial reporting related to accounting for unique and/or technically complex transactions (including warrant accounting and long-lived asset impairment evaluation) and (ii) the accounting and financial reporting function (including segregation of duties and review process and financial statement reporting). As a result of this material weakness, GRIID management concluded that its internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2023.

Any failure to maintain such internal control could adversely impact our ability to report our financial position and results from operations on a timely and accurate basis. If our financial statements are not accurate, investors may not have or may not believe they have a complete understanding of our operations. Likewise, if our financial statements are not filed on a timely basis, we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by The Nasdaq Global Market, Cboe Canada or any other stock exchange on which our common stock is listed, the SEC or other regulatory authorities. In either case, there could result a material adverse effect on our business. Failure to timely file may also cause us to be ineligible to utilize short form registration statements on Form S-3, which may impair our ability to raise capital in a timely fashion to execute its business strategies. Ineffective internal controls could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a negative effect on the trading price of its stock.

We can give no assurance that the measures we have taken and plan to take in the future will remediate the material weakness identified or that any additional material weaknesses or restatements of financial results will not arise in the future due to a failure to

implement and maintain adequate internal control over financial reporting or circumvention of these controls. In addition, even if we are successful in strengthening its controls and procedures, those controls and procedures may not be adequate to prevent or identify irregularities or errors or to facilitate the fair presentation of our financial statements.

Any electricity outage, limitation of electricity in supply or increase in electricity costs could materially impact our operations and financial performance.

Our mining operations have historically required significant amounts of electrical power. The costs of electric power account for a significant portion of our cost of revenue. We require a significant electric power supply to conduct our mining activity, operating critical mining facilities and equipment infrastructure. We rely on third parties, including utility providers, for the reliable and sufficient supply of electrical power to our infrastructure. We cannot guarantee that these third parties will be able to consistently provide sufficient levels of electrical power or will have the necessary infrastructure to deliver any additional power that we may require, or that we will be able to procure power from or re-contract with them on commercially acceptable terms. Restrictions on the supply of, or our failure to procure, sufficient electricity could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our access to electricity, or to sufficient electricity, may be affected by climate change, acts of God, utility equipment failure or scheduled and unscheduled maintenance that result in electricity outages to the utility’s or the broader electrical network’s facilities. These electricity outages may occur with limited or no warning and be of an unpredictable duration. Further, our counterparties may be unable to deliver the required amount of power for a variety of technical or economic reasons. As bitcoin mining is power intensive and backup power generation may be expensive to procure, any backup electricity supplies may not be sufficient to power any or all of our bitcoin mining equipment in an affected location for the duration of the outage. The effects of any such events, including any significant nonperformance by counterparties, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results.

The price that we pay for electricity is dependent on numerous factors including sources of generation, commodity prices, regulatory environment, electricity market structure, instantaneous supply/demand balances, counterparty and procurement method. These factors may be subject to change over time and result in increasing power costs, which could have a material adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition.

Additionally, our mining operations could be materially adversely affected by prolonged power outages. Although our miners may be powered by backup generators on a temporary basis, it would not be feasible or cost-effective to run miners on back-up power generators for extended periods of time. We would likely need to reduce or cease our operations in the event of an extended power outage or as a result of the unavailability or increased cost of electrical power, which would materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We may face risks of internet disruptions, which could have an adverse effect on both the price of bitcoin and our ability to operate our business.

The bitcoin network, and our business of mining bitcoin, are dependent upon the internet. A disruption in internet connectivity could disrupt the bitcoin network’s operations, which could have an adverse effect on the price of bitcoin and our ability to mine bitcoin. A broadly accepted and widely adopted decentralized network is necessary for the bitcoin network to function as intended. Features of the bitcoin network, such as decentralization, open-source protocol and reliance on peer-to-peer connectivity, are essential to preserve the stability of the bitcoin network and decrease the risk of fraud or cyber-attacks. A disruption of the internet or the bitcoin network could affect the ability to transfer bitcoin, and consequently the value of bitcoin, as well as our ability to mine bitcoin. A significant disruption of internet connectivity could prevent the bitcoin network’s functionality and operations until the internet disruption is resolved. Additionally, our mining sites’ activities are dependent upon internet access. Any disruption to internet connectivity at any of our mining sites could have a negative impact on business performance.

Our business is highly dependent on a small number of bitcoin mining equipment suppliers. Failure of our suppliers to perform under the relevant supply contracts for equipment that has already been procured may delay our expansion plans. Failure of suppliers to make new machines available on an ongoing basis could delay our expansion plans.

Our business is highly dependent upon bitcoin mining equipment suppliers such as Bitmain, MicroBT, Intel and others providing an adequate supply of new generation bitcoin mining machines at economical prices to us. The growth of our business is dependent upon the availability of new generation mining machines offered for sale at a price conducive to profitable bitcoin mining, as well as the trading price of bitcoin. The market price and availability of new mining machines fluctuates with the price of bitcoin and can be volatile. Higher bitcoin prices increase the demand for mining equipment and increase the cost. In addition, as more companies seek to enter the mining industry, the demand for machines may outpace supply and create mining machine equipment

shortages. There are no assurances that bitcoin mining equipment suppliers, such as Bitmain, MicroBT, Intel and others, will be able to keep pace with any surge in demand for mining equipment or continue to supply bitcoin mining equipment. Further, mining machine purchase contracts are not favorable to purchasers and we may have little or no recourse in the event a mining machine manufacturer defaults on its mining machine delivery commitments. If we are not able to obtain a sufficient number of bitcoin mining machines at favorable prices, our growth expectations, business, financial condition and results of operations will be negatively impacted.

Supply chain and logistics issues for us or our suppliers may delay our expansion plans or increase the cost of constructing our infrastructure.

The equipment used in our business is generally manufactured by third parties using a large amount of commodity inputs. Our third-party manufacturers, suppliers, sub-contractors and customers have been disrupted by worker absenteeism, quarantines, restrictions on employees’ ability to work, office and factory closures, disruptions to ports and other shipping infrastructure, border closures or other travel or health-related restrictions, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Supply chain disruptions may also occur from time to time due to a range of factors beyond our control, including, but not limited to, climate change, increased costs of labor, freight costs and raw material prices along with a shortage of qualified workers or unforeseen global events such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine or the conflict in Israel and the Gaza Strip. See also “—We are currently operating in a period of economic uncertainty and capital markets disruption, which has been significantly impacted by geopolitical instability due to the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the conflict in Israel and the Gaza Strip. Our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially adversely affected. affected by any negative impact on the global economy and capital markets resulting from the conflict in Ukraine, Israel and the Gaza Strip or any other geopolitical tensions.” Such issues may cause delays in the delivery of, or increases in the cost of, the equipment used in our operations, which could materially impact our business, financial condition and results of operations and may delay our expansion plans.

Cancellation or withdrawal of required operating and other permits and licenses could materially impact our operations and financial performance.

In each jurisdiction in which we operate, it is typical that event, the trading pricewe must obtain certain permits, approvals and/or licenses in order to construct and operate our facilities. If such permits, approvals and/or licenses are not granted, or if they are suspended, terminated or revoked, it may result in delays in construction of our securities could decline and a holder of our securities could losefacilities or require us to halt all or part of its investment. This report also contains forward-looking statements that involve risksour operations. Such circumstances could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and uncertainties. operating results.

Our actualevolving business model increases the complexity of our business, which makes it difficult to evaluate our future business prospects and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results could differ materially from those anticipatedof operation.

Our business model has significantly evolved since our formation in the forward-looking statements as a result of specific factors, including the risks described below.

Risks Related2018 and we expect it to the Merger

We may not be able to complete the Merger pursuant to the Merger Agreement. If we are unablecontinue to do so in the future. As cryptocurrency assets and blockchain technologies become more widely available, we will incur substantial costsexpect the services and products associated with withdrawing from the transaction andthem to evolve. As a result, our business model may not be ablerequire us to find additional sources of financing to cover those costs.

In connection with the Merger, we have incurred substantial costs researching, planning and negotiating the transaction. These costs include, but are not limited to, costs associated with employing and retaining third-party advisors who performed the financial, auditing and legal services required to complete the transaction and the expenses generated by our officers, executives, managers and employees in connection with the transaction. If, for whatever reason, the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement fail to close, we will be responsible for these costs, but will have no source of revenue with which to pay them.evolve as well. We may need to obtain additional sourcesmodify aspects of financingour business model relating to our strategy from time to time and we cannot offer any assurance that these or any other modifications will be successful. Further, any new services that we offer that are not favorably received by the market could damage our reputation or our brand. There can be no assurance that we will ever generate sufficient revenues or achieve profitably in orderthe future or that we will have adequate working capital to meet our obligations whichas they become due. In the event that we may not be able secure on the same terms as our existing financing or at all. If we are unable to secure new sources of financing and do not effectively evaluate future business prospects, successfully implement new strategies or adapt to our evolving industry, it will have sufficient fundsa material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our future success depends on our ability to expand our organization to match the growth of our activities, and any failure to manage our growth effectively could place strains on our managerial, operational and financial resources and could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operation.

As our operations grow, the demands upon us will grow, and our success will depend upon our ability to meet those demands. We require certain financial, managerial and other resources, which could create challenges to our ability to successfully manage operations and impact our ability to assure compliance with its policies, practices and procedures. These demands include, among others, increased executive, accounting, management, legal services, staff support and general office services. We may need to hire additional qualified personnel to meet these demands, the cost and quality of which depends in part upon market factors outside of our control. Further, we will need to effectively manage the training and growth of our staff to maintain an efficient and effective workforce, and our failure to do so could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Currently, we have limited personnel in our organization to meet our obligations,organizational and administrative demands. If we will be forcedfail to cease operationsmanage our growth effectively or to develop and liquidate the trust account.

If the Merger fails, it may be difficult to complete a business combination with a new prospective business, negotiateexpand our managerial, operational and agree to a new business combination, and/or arrange for new sources of financing by the applicable extension date, in which case we would cease all operations except for the purpose of winding upfinancial resources and we would redeem our IPO Shares and liquidate.

Finding, researching, analyzing and negotiating with GRIID took a substantial amount of time and effort, and if the Merger fails for any reason,systems, we may not be able to find, research, negotiate and agree to terms with, and/or arrange for new sources of financing for a business combination with, a new prospective business byexecute

IPO Shares and liquidate.

Risks Relating to Our Search for, Consummation of, or Inability to Consummate, a Business Combination and Post-Business Combination Risks

Our public stockholders may not be afforded an opportunity to vote on our proposed business combination, which means we may completeplan, respond to competitive pressures or take advantage of market opportunities and our initial business, combination even though a majority of our public stockholders do not support such a combination.

We may not hold a stockholder vote to approve our initial business combination unless such business combination would require stockholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements or if we decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other legal reasons. Except as required by law, the decision as to whether we will seek stockholder approval of a proposed business combination or will allow stockholders to sell their shares to us in a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion. If we decide to allow stockholders to their shares to us in a tender offer, we may complete our initial business combination even if holders of a majority of our IPO Shares do not approve of the business combination.

The ability of our public stockholders to redeem their shares for cash may make our financial condition unattractive to potential target businesses, which may make it difficult for us to enter into a business combination with a target.

We may seek to enter into a definitive agreement with a prospective target business that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum amountand results of cash. If too many public stockholders exercise their redemption rights,

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we may not be able to meet such closing condition and, as a result, would not be able to proceed with the business combination. Furthermore, under our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, we may not redeem our IPO Shares unless our NTA are at least $5,000,001 either immediately prior to or upon consummation of such business combination. Consequently, if accepting all properly submitted redemption requests would cause our NTA to be less than $5,000,001 or will result in us not being able to satisfy a closing condition as described above, we would not proceed with such redemption and the related business combination and may instead search for an alternate business combination. Prospective targets will be aware of these risks and, thus, may be reluctant to enter into a definitive agreement with us.

Because a substantial number of holders of IPO Shares have already elected to redeem their IPO Shares, it may not be possible for us to complete a business combination.

In the event the aggregate cash consideration weoperations would be required to pay for all shares of common stock that are validly submitted for redemption would exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us or cause us to have NTA below $5,000,001 immediately prior to or upon consummation of an initial business combination, under our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, we will not complete the business combination or redeem any shares, all shares of common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof, and we instead may search for an alternate business combination. If we are not able to complete the Merger or another initial business combination by the applicable extension date, the latest of which is July 14, 2023 if our board of directors approves all six one-month extensions allowed under our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, we will cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, redeeming the IPO Shares and liquidating the trust account, in which case our warrants will expire worthless. However, we intend to solicit at a special meeting of stockholders votes to approve a proposal to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to remove the requirement in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that we have at least $5,000,001 of NTA to effect any redemptions.adversely affected.

The ability of our public stockholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares could increase the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful and that you would have to wait for liquidation in order to have the public stockholders’ stock redeemed.

If our business combination agreement requires us to use a portion of the cash in the trust account to pay the purchase price, or requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at closing, the probability that our initial business combination would not be consummated is increased. If our initial business combination is not consummated, our public stockholders would not receive their pro rata portion of the trust account until we liquidate the trust account. If our public stockholders are in need of immediate liquidity, they could attempt to sell their stock in the open market; however, at such time our stock may trade at a discount to the pro rata amount per share in the trust account. In either situation, our public stockholders may suffer a material loss on your investment or lose the benefit of funds expected in connection with our redemption until we liquidate or our public stockholders are able to sell their stock in the open market.

The requirement that we complete our initial business combination by the applicable extension date may give potential target businesses leverage over us in negotiating a business combination as we approach our dissolution deadline, which could undermine our ability to complete our business combination on terms that would produce value for our stockholders.

Any potential target business with which we enter into negotiations concerning a business combination will be aware that we must complete our initial business combination by the applicable extension date. Consequently, such target business may obtain leverage over us in negotiating a business combination, knowing that if we do not complete our initial business combination with that particular target business, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination with any target business. This risk will increase as we get closer to the timeframe described above.

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We may not be able to completecompete effectively against our initialcurrent and future competitors, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, combinationfinancial condition and results of operations.

The bitcoin mining ecosystem is highly innovative, rapidly evolving and characterized by intense competition, experimentation and frequent introductions of new products and services, and is subject to uncertain and evolving industry and regulatory requirements. We expect competition to increase in the future as existing competitors expand their operations, new competitors enter the industry, and new products are introduced or existing products enhanced. We compete against a number of companies operating globally that focus on mining digital assets.

Our existing and potential competitors may have various competitive advantages over us, such as:

If we are unable to compete successfully, or if competing successfully requires us to take costly actions in response to the actions of our competitors, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

There are several new and existing competitors in our industry that are purchasing mining equipment at scale, which may cause delays or difficulty in us obtaining new miners, which could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Many of the applicable extension date,competitors in our industry have also been purchasing mining equipment at scale, which casehas caused a world-wide shortage of mining equipment and extended the corresponding delivery schedules for new miner purchases. There are no assurances that manufacturers, including the manufacturers we currently utilize, will be able to keep pace with the surge in demand for mining equipment. It is uncertain how manufacturers will respond to this increased global demand and whether they can deliver on the schedules promised to all of their customers.

In the event manufacturers are not able to keep pace with demand, we may not be able to purchase miners in sufficient quantities or on the delivery schedules that meet our business needs. Additionally, should manufacturers default on their purchase agreements with us, we would ceasehave to pursue recourse, which would be costly and time consuming to resolve, and there is no guarantee we would succeed in recovering any of our deposits paid for such miner purchases, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our future success will depend significantly on the price of bitcoin, which is subject to risk and has historically been subject to wide swings and significant volatility.

We generate substantially all of our revenue from the generation and sale of bitcoin. The price of bitcoin is highly speculative and is not based on the performance of an underlying business. Furthermore, the price of bitcoin could be subjected to additional influence from fraudulent or illegitimate actors, real or perceived scarcity, and political, economic, regulatory, tax or other conditions. Changes in the legislative or regulatory environment, or actions by governments or regulators that impact the cryptocurrency industry

generally, could also affect the price of bitcoin. These factors may inhibit consumer trust in and market acceptance of bitcoin as a means of exchange, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, or operations exceptand potentially the value of any bitcoin we mine. The speculative nature of the price of bitcoin and past dramatic volatility in pricing, particularly in recent months, may create risks for the purposevolatile trading price of winding upbitcoin.

There is no assurance that bitcoin will maintain its value or that there will be meaningful levels of trading activities to support markets in bitcoin. A decline in the market value of bitcoin or in the demand for trading bitcoin could lead to a corresponding decline in the value of our bitcoin assets and the number of transactions on the bitcoin blockchain network.

If demand for transactions in bitcoin declines or is replaced by demand for other cryptocurrencies, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Our business is highly dependent on strong bitcoin demand relative to other cryptocurrencies in the market. As such, in addition to the factors impacting the broader crypto economy, our business may be adversely affected, and growth in our revenues may slow or decline, if market demand for bitcoin deteriorates and is supplanted by other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Solana. In addition, negative perceptions surrounding bitcoin relative to other cryptocurrencies may cause bitcoin to fall out of favor. If other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum and Solana, surpass bitcoin in market demand over a sustained period of time, such a trend could harm our business. Also, competition from public and central bank backed digital currencies could undercut the need for other cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Additionally, stablecoins (commodity-backed or fiat-backed) could undercut demand for other cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin. All of these factors could cause the value of bitcoin to decline, and if the value of bitcoin were to continue to be low or decline further, particularly if such decline were significant or over an extended period of time, our operating results would be adversely affected, and there could be a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our bitcoin strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations, and harm investors in our securities.

Although we would redeemdo not hold any bitcoin for third parties, our business, financial condition and results of operations may still be adversely affected by recent events beyond our controlIPO Shares.

While we do not hold any bitcoin for third parties, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected by recent events beyond our control, including the fallout from the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filings of cryptocurrency exchanges FTX (including its affiliated hedge fund, Alameda Research LLC), crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (“Three Arrows”) and crypto lenders Celsius Network LLC, et al. (“Celsius”), Voyager Digital Ltd., et al. (“Voyager”), BlockFi Inc., et al. (“BlockFi”) and Genesis Global Holdco, LLC, et al. (“Genesis”). In January 2023, Genesis filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Genesis is owned by Digital Currency Group Inc. (“DCG”), who also owns Foundry Digital LLC, one of our custodians ("Foundry"). At this time, we believe that there are no material risks to our business arising from our indirect exposure to Genesis. Although (i) we have no direct exposure to any cryptocurrency entities listed above that have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; (ii) we have no assets that may not be recovered due to these bankruptcies; and (iii) we have no exposure to any other counterparties, customers, custodians or other crypto asset market third parties known to us to have (x) experienced material excessive redemptions, withdrawals or suspended redemptions or withdrawal of crypto assets, (y) the crypto assets of their customers unaccounted for, or (z) experienced material compliance failures, our business, financial condition and results of operations may not be immune to unfavorable investor sentiment resulting from these recent developments in the broader cryptocurrency industry.

The digital asset exchanges on which cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, trade are relatively new and largely unregulated, and thus may be exposed to fraud and failure. Such failures may result in a reduction in the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and can adversely affect an investment in our securities.

Digital asset exchanges on which cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, trade are relatively new and, liquidate.in most cases, largely unregulated. Many digital exchanges do not provide the public with significant information regarding their ownership structure, management teams, corporate practices or regulatory compliance. As a result, the marketplace may lose confidence in, or may experience problems relating to, cryptocurrency exchanges, including prominent exchanges handling a significant portion of the volume of digital asset trading.

In response to the bankruptcy filings of FTX and its affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research LLC, in addition to other bankruptcy filings of crypto companies throughout 2022 and 2023, the digital asset markets, including the market for bitcoin specifically, have experienced extreme price volatility, and several other entities in the digital asset industry have been, and may continue to be, negatively affected, further undermining confidence in the digital assets markets and in bitcoin. These events have also negatively impacted the liquidity of the digital assets markets as certain entities affiliated with FTX engaged in significant trading activity. If the liquidity of the digital assets markets continues to be negatively impacted by these events, digital asset prices, including the price of bitcoin, may continue to experience significant volatility and confidence in the digital asset markets may be further

undermined. Because the value of bitcoin is derived from the continued willingness of market participants to exchange government-issued currency that is designated as legal tender in its country of issuance for bitcoin, permanent and total loss of the value of bitcoin may result should the marketplace for bitcoin be jeopardized or disappear entirely. These potential consequences of a digital asset exchange’s failure could adversely affect an investment in our public stockholderssecurities.

We are continuing to monitor and evaluate our risk management procedures, but we believe our current risk management procedures are reasonably designed and effective. The perceived lack of stability in digital asset exchanges and a potential decline in the value of bitcoin could adversely affect an investment in our securities. Furthermore, any decrease in the price of bitcoin would cause a risk of increased losses or impairments to the extent that the price of bitcoin falls below our Carrying value.

It may only receive $10.00 per share,take significant time and expenditure for us to grow our bitcoin mining operations and our efforts may not be successful.

The continued development of our existing and planned facilities is subject to various factors beyond our control. There may be difficulties in integrating new equipment into existing infrastructure, constraints on our ability to connect to or procure the expected electricity supply capacity at our facilities, defects in design or construction, diversion of management resources, insufficient funding, or other resource constraints. Actual costs for development may exceed our planned budget. There may be difficulty acquiring land either through lease, purchase, or some other means, zoning intended locations for our commercial activities, or permitting the land to develop the facilities. All these challenges could delay or halt expansion and therefore negatively impact business performance.

We intend to expand by acquiring and developing additional sites, taking into account a number of important characteristics such as availability of renewable energy, electrical infrastructure and related costs, geographic location and the local regulatory environment. We may have difficulty finding sites that satisfy our requirements at a commercially viable price, or that satisfy our timing requirements associated with our expansion plans. Furthermore, there may be significant competition for suitable cryptocurrency mining sites, and government regulators, including local permitting officials, may potentially restrict our ability to set up cryptocurrency mining operations in certain locations.

Transfer of sites that we have contractually secured may ultimately fail to complete due to factors beyond our control (e.g., due to default or non-performance by counterparties). In addition, estimated power availability at sites secured could be materially less than such amountinitially expected or not available at all, and processes to secure permits, approvals and/or licenses to construct and operate our facilities could be delayed in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless.regulatory processes or may not be successful.

Development and construction delays, cost overruns, changes in market circumstances, an inability to find suitable data center locations as part of our expansion, and other factors may adversely affect our operations, financial position and financial performance.

Our management team has limited experience managing a public company.

Members of our management team have not previously served as management of a publicly traded company and therefore do not have experience complying with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies. Our management team may not successfully or efficiently manage our immediate transition to being a public company. We must completeare subject to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations under the federal securities laws, as well as the continuous scrutiny of securities analysts and investors. These new obligations and constituents will require significant attention from our initialmanagement and could divert their attention away from the day-to-day management of our business, combination by which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our success and future growth will, to a significant degree, depend on the applicable extension dateskills and services of our management. The loss of any members of our management team or our inability to execute an effective succession plan could adversely affect our business.

Our success and future growth will to a significant degree depend on the skills and services of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer, James D. Kelly III, Chief Technology Officer, Dwaine Alleyne, Chief Operating Officer, Gerard F. King II, Chief Research Officer, Michael W. Hamilton, Chief Financial Officer, Allan J. Wallander, Chief Strategy Officer, Harry Sudock, and General Counsel and Secretary, Alexander Fraser. We will need to continue to grow our management to alleviate pressure on our existing team and to set up and develop our business. If our management, including any new hires that we may make, fails to work together effectively and to execute our plans and strategies on a timely basis, our business could be significantly harmed. Furthermore, if we fail to execute an effective contingency or succession plan with the loss of any member of management, the loss of such management personnel could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

We do not maintain any key person life insurance policies. The loss of any member of our management team, investment professionals or other key personnel could make it more difficult to execute our business strategy and, therefore, have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Competition for employees is intense, and we may not be able to attract and retain the qualified and skilled employees needed to support our business, which in turn could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operation.

We believe our success depends on the efforts and talent of our employees, including facility design, construction management, operations, data processing, engineering, IT, risk management and communications personnel. Our future success depends on our continued ability to attract, develop, motivate and retain qualified and skilled employees. Competition for highly skilled personnel is extremely intense. We may not be able to hire and retain these personnel at compensation levels consistent with our existing compensation and salary structure. Some of the companies with which we compete for experienced employees have greater resources than we have and may be able to offer more attractive terms of employment.

In addition, we invest significant time and expenses in training our employees, which increases their value to competitors who may seek to recruit them. If we fail to retain our employees, we could incur significant expenses in hiring and training their replacements, and the quality of our services could diminish, resulting in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The potential acquisition of businesses, services or technologies may not be successful or may adversely affect our existing operations.

As part of our business strategy, we intend to make acquisitions of other companies, products and technologies. We have limited experience in acquisitions. We may not be able to find suitable acquisition candidates and we may not be able to complete acquisitions on favorable terms in the future, if at all. Further, the pursuit of potential acquisitions may divert the attention of management and cause us to incur expenses in identifying, investigating and pursuing suitable acquisitions, regardless of whether or not they are ultimately completed.

If we acquire additional businesses, we may not be able to integrate the acquired personnel, operations and technologies successfully, or effectively manage the combined business following the acquisition. We also may not achieve the anticipated synergies, strategic advantages or earnings from the acquired business due to a suitablenumber of factors, including:

We may have to pay cash, incur debt or issue equity securities to pay for any such acquisition, each of which could affect our financial condition or the value of our securities. The sale of equity to finance any such acquisitions could result in dilution to our stockholders. If we incur more debt, it would result in increased fixed obligations and could also subject us to covenants or other restrictions that would impede our ability to flexibly operate our business. In addition, if an acquired business fails to meet expectations, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected.

We are vulnerable to risks associated with climate change, severe weather conditions and natural and man-made disasters, including earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, severe storms (including impacts from rain, snow, lightning and wind), and warfare, as well as power outages and other industrial incidents, which could severely disrupt the normal operation of our business and completeadversely affect our initialresults of operations.

Our business combination within such time period. If we have not completed our initial business combination within such time period and have not increased the time available to us by amending our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, we will: (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 10 business days thereafter, redeem the IPO Shares, at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our tax obligations (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding IPO Shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law, and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption,may be subject to the approvalrisks of climate change, severe weather conditions and natural and man-made disasters, including earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, severe storms (including impacts from rain, snow, lightning and wind), and warfare, as well as power outages and other industrial incidents, any of which could result in system failures, power supply disruptions and other interruptions that could harm our business. The potential physical impacts of climate change on our properties and operations are highly uncertain and would be particular to the geographic circumstances in areas in which we operate. These may include changes in rainfall and storm patterns and intensities, water shortages, changing sea levels and changing temperatures. The impacts of climate change may materially and adversely impact the cost, production and financial performance of our remaining stockholdersoperations.

Further, any impacts to our business, financial condition and results of operations as a result of climate change are likely to occur over a sustained period of time and are therefore difficult to quantify with any degree of specificity. For example, extreme weather events may result in adverse physical effects on portions of our boardinfrastructure, which could disrupt our supply chain and ultimately our business operations. Also, disruption of directors, dissolvetransportation, power and liquidate, subjectdistribution systems could result in reduced operational efficiency. Additionally, unforeseen global events such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine or the conflict in Israel and the Gaza Strip could adversely affect our business and results of operations. We are currently operating in a period of economic uncertainty and capital markets disruption, which has been significantly impacted by geopolitical instability due to the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the conflict in Israel and the Gaza Strip. Our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially adversely affected by any negative impact on the global economy and capital markets resulting from the conflict in Ukraine or any other geopolitical tensions.

We do not currently, and may not in the casefuture, carry business interruption insurance sufficient to compensate for the losses that may result from interruptions in our operations as a result of clauses (ii)inability to operate or failures of equipment and (iii)infrastructure at our facilities. A system outage could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are currently operating in a period of economic uncertainty and capital markets disruption, which has been significantly impacted by geopolitical instability due to the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the conflict in Israel and the Gaza Strip. Our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially adversely affected by any negative impact on the global economy and capital markets resulting from the conflict in Ukraine, Israel and the Gaza Strip or any other geopolitical tensions.

U.S. and global markets are experiencing volatility and disruption following the escalation of geopolitical tensions and the start of the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and conflict in Israel and the Gaza Strip. In late February 2022, Russian military forces launched significant military action against Ukraine. Although the length and impact of the ongoing military conflict is highly unpredictable, the conflict in Ukraine, Israel and the Gaza Strip could lead to market disruptions, including significant volatility in commodity prices, credit and capital markets, as well as supply chain interruptions for some of our mining equipment components. Our operations would be particularly vulnerable to potential interruptions in the supply of certain critical materials and metals, such as neon gas and palladium, which are used in semiconductor manufacturing. Any interruption to semiconductor chip supply could significantly impact our ability to receive the mining equipment. Furthermore, any potential increase in geopolitical tensions in Asia could also significantly disrupt existing semiconductor chip manufacturing and increase the prospect of an interruption to the semiconductor chip supply across the world. The world’s largest semiconductor chip manufacturer is located in Taiwan and a large part of equipment and materials for our bitcoin mining, including ASIC chips, is manufactured in, and imported from, Taiwan. A setback to the current state of relative stability in Asia could compromise existing semiconductor chip production and have downstream implications for our company. We are continuing to monitor the situation in Ukraine, Israel, the Gaza Strip and globally and assessing its potential impact on our business, including any future impairment or other charges.

Additionally, Russia’s prior annexation of Crimea, recent recognition of two separatist republics in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine and subsequent military interventions in Ukraine have led to a broad array of new or expanded sanctions, export controls, and other measures against Russia and others supporting Russia’s economy or military efforts being levied by the United States, European Union and other countries against Russia, Belarus, the Crimea Region of Ukraine, the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, and the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic, including agreement to remove certain Russian financial institutions from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication payment system.

Any of the abovementioned factors could affect our business, prospects, financial condition, and operating results. The extent and duration of the military action, sanctions and resulting market disruptions are impossible to predict, but could be substantial. Any such disruptions may also magnify the impact of other risks described in this Annual Report.

Adverse developments affecting financial institutions, companies in the financial services industry or the financial services industry generally, such as actual events or concerns involving liquidity, defaults or nonperformance, could adversely affect our operations and liquidity.

Actual events involving limited liquidity, defaults, non-performance or other adverse developments that affect financial institutions or other companies in the financial services industry or the financial services industry generally, or concerns or rumors about any events of these kinds, have in the past and may in the future lead to market-wide liquidity problems. For example, on March 10, 2023, Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”), was closed by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “FDIC”), as receiver. Similarly, on March 12, 2023, the New York Department of Financial Services took possession of Signature Bank and appointed the FDIC as receiver. On May 1, 2023, First Republic Bank was closed by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, which appointed the FDIC as

receiver. Following a bidding process, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., to acquire the substantial majority of the assets and assume certain liabilities of First Republic Bank from the FDIC.

Although depositors of SVB, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank were granted access to all of their money following the date of the banks’ respective closures, uncertainty and liquidity concerns in the broader financial services industry remain. Inflation and rapid increases in interest rates have led to a decline in the trading value of previously issued government securities with interest rates below current market interest rates. The U.S. Department of Treasury, FDIC and Federal Reserve Board created a program to provide up to $25 billion of loans to financial institutions secured by such government securities held by financial institutions to mitigate the risk of potential losses on the sale of such instruments. However, widespread demands for customer withdrawals or other needs of financial institutions for immediate liquidity may exceed the capacity of such program. There is no guarantee that the U.S. Department of Treasury, FDIC and Federal Reserve Board will provide access to uninsured funds in the future in the event of the closure of other banks or financial institutions in a timely fashion or at all.

Our access to our cash and cash equivalents in amounts adequate to finance our operations could be significantly impaired by the financial institutions with which we have arrangements directly facing liquidity constraints or failures. In addition, investor concerns regarding the U.S. or international financial systems could result in less favorable commercial financing terms, including higher interest rates or costs and tighter financial and operating covenants, or systemic limitations on access to credit and liquidity sources, thereby making it more difficult for us to acquire financing on acceptable terms or at all. Any material decline in available funding or our ability to access our cash and cash equivalents could adversely impact our ability to meet our operating expenses, result in breaches of our contractual obligations or result in violations of federal or state wage and hour laws, any of which could have material adverse impacts on our operations and liquidity.

Our cash and cash equivalents could be adversely affected if the financial institutions at which we hold our cash and cash equivalents fail.

We currently maintain and may in the future maintain our cash and cash equivalents in accounts with U.S. banks and financial institutions at levels that exceed insured limits. We previously maintained a restricted cash account with Signature Bank where the cash balance exceeded insured limits. The restricted cash provided underlying support to an irrevocable letter of credit that was issued by Signature Bank for a surety bond. Market conditions can impact the viability of these institutions. For example, on March 12, 2023, Signature Bank was closed by the New York State Department of Financial Services, which appointed the FDIC as receiver. The FDIC created a successor bridge bank, Signature Bridge Bank, N.A. (“SBB”), and all deposits of Signature Bank were transferred to SBB under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditorsa systemic risk exception approved by the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury Department, and the requirementsFDIC. While the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury Department, and the FDIC announced in a joint statement on March 12, 2023 that all Signature Bank deposits, including both insured and uninsured amounts, would be available in full to account holders, there is no guarantee that the Federal Reserve Board, the U.S. Treasury Department and the FDIC will provide access to uninsured funds in the future in the event of the closure of any other applicable law. In such case,banks or financial institutions in a timely fashion or at all. Any inability to access or delay in accessing these funds could adversely affect our business, financial position, and liquidity.

Additionally, on March 22, 2023, Coinbase Global, Inc. (“Coinbase Global,” and together with the other named subsidiary of Coinbase Global, the “Relevant Coinbase Entities”) received a “Wells Notice” from the SEC staff stating that the SEC staff made a “preliminary determination” to recommend that the SEC file an enforcement action against the Relevant Coinbase Entities alleging violations of the federal securities laws, including the Exchange Act and the Securities Act. According to Coinbase Global’s public stockholdersreporting company disclosure, based on discussions with the SEC staff, the Relevant Coinbase Entities believe these potential enforcement actions would relate to aspects of the Relevant Coinbase Entities’ Coinbase Prime service, spot market, staking service Coinbase Earn, and Coinbase Wallet, and the potential civil action may only receive $10.00 per share,seek injunctive relief, disgorgement, and our warrants will expire worthless. In certain circumstances, our public stockholders may receive less than $10.00 per share oncivil penalties. On June 6, 2023, the redemptionSEC filed a complaint against the Relevant Coinbase Entities in federal district court in the Southern District of their shares.

If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, our initial stockholders, directors, officers, advisorsNew York, alleging, among other things: (i) that Coinbase Inc. violated the Exchange Act by failing to register with the SEC as a national securities exchange, broker-dealer, and their affiliates may elect to purchase shares from public stockholders, which may influence a vote on a proposed business combination and reduce the public “float” of our common stock.

If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptionsclearing agency, in connection with our initial business combination pursuantactivities involving certain identified digital assets that the SEC’s complaint alleges are securities, (ii) that Coinbase Inc. violated the Securities Act by failing to register with the tenderSEC the offer rules, our initial stockholders, directors, officers, advisors or anyand sale of their affiliates may purchase IPO Shares in privately negotiated transactions or inits staking program, and (iii) that Coinbase Global is jointly and severally liable as a control person under the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination, although they are under no obligation to do so. Such a purchase may include a contractual acknowledgement that such public stockholder, although still the record holder of our shares is no longer the beneficial owner thereof and therefore agrees not to exercise its redemption rights. In the event that our initial stockholders, Sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their affiliates purchase IPO Shares in privately negotiated transactions from public stockholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling public stockholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. The purpose of such purchases would be to vote such shares in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining stockholder approval of our initial business combination or to satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a target that requires us to have a minimum amount of cash at the closing of our initial business combination, where it appears that such requirements would otherwise not be met. This may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible. Any such purchases will be reported pursuant to Section 13 and Section 16Exchange Act for Coinbase Inc.’s violations of the Exchange Act to the same extent such purchasers are subject to such reporting requirements.

In addition, if such purchases are made,as Coinbase Inc. The SEC’s complaint against the public “float” of our common stockRelevant Coinbase Entities does not allege that bitcoin is a security nor does it allege that Coinbase Inc’s activities involving bitcoin caused the alleged registration violations, and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, possibly making it difficultbitcoin custodian was not named as a defendant. The SEC’s complaint seeks a permanent injunction against the Relevant Coinbase Entities to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.

If a stockholder fails to receive notice of our offer to redeem our IPO Shares in connection with our business combination, or fails to comply with the procedures for tendering its shares, such shares may not be redeemed.

We will comply with the tender offer rules or proxy rules, as applicable, when conducting redemptions in connection with our business combination. Despite our compliance with these rules, if a stockholder fails to receive our tender offer or proxy materials, as applicable, such stockholder may not become awareprevent them from violations of the opportunity to redeem its shares. In addition,Exchange Act or Securities Act, disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, and such other relief as the tender offer documentscourt deems appropriate or proxy materials, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our IPO Shares in connection with our initial business combination will describe the various procedures that must be complied with in order to validly tender or redeem IPO Shares. For example, in connection with any

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stockholder vote to approve a business combination, we may require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to either tender their certificates to our transfer agent up to two business days prior to the vote on the proposal to approve the business combination or to deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically. In the event that a stockholder fails to comply with these or any other procedures, its shares may not be redeemed.

Public stockholders will not have any rights or interests in funds from the trust account, except under certain limited circumstances. In order for public stockholders to liquidate their investment, therefore, you may be forced to sell your IPO Shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.

Our public stockholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only upon the earliest to occur of: (i) our completion of an initial business combination, and then only in connection with those shares of common stock that such stockholder properly elected to redeem, subject to the limitations described herein; (ii) the redemption of any IPO Shares properly submitted in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or certain amendments to our certificate of incorporation or to redeem 100% of our IPO Shares if we do not complete our initial business combination by the applicable extension date or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity and (iii) the redemption of our IPO Shares if we are unable to complete an initial business combination by the applicable extension date as further described herein. In no other circumstances will a public stockholder have any right or interest of any kind in the trust account. Holders of warrants will not have any right to the proceeds held in the trust account with respect to the warrants. Accordingly, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your IPO Shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.

Our stockholders will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.

Since the net proceeds of the IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants are intended to be used to complete an initial business combination with a target business that has not been identified, we may be deemed to be a “blank check” company under the U.S. securities laws. However, because we have NTA in excess of $5,000,000, we are exempt from rules promulgated by the SEC to protect investors in blank check companies, such as Rule 419 under the Securities Act. Accordingly, investors will not be afforded the benefits or protections of those rules. Among other things, this means our units will be immediately tradable and we will have a longer period of time to complete our initial business combination than do companies subject to Rule 419. Moreover, offerings subject to Rule 419 would prohibit the release of any interest earned on funds held in the trust account to us unless and until the funds in the trust account were released to us in connection with our completion of our initial business combination.

Because of our limited resources and the significant competition for business combination opportunities, it may be more difficult for us to complete our initial business combination.necessary. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share on our redemption of our IPO Shares, or less than such amount in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless.

We expect to encounter intense competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including private investors (which may be individuals or investment partnerships), other blank check companies and other entities, domestic and international, competing for the types of businesses we intend to acquire. Many of these individuals and entities are well-established and have extensive experience in identifying and effecting, directly or indirectly, acquisitions of companies operating in or providing services to various industries. Many of these competitors possess greater technical, human and other resources or more local industry knowledge than we do and our financial resources will be relatively limited when contrasted with those of many of these competitors. While we believe there will be numerous target businesses we could potentially acquire with the net proceeds of the IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants, our ability to compete with respect to the acquisition of certain target businesses that are sizable will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent competitive limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of certain target businesses. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only $10.00 per share, or possibly less than $10.00 per share, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless.

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If the funds not being held in trust are insufficient to allow us to operate until the applicable extension date, we may be unable to complete a business combination, in which case our public stockholders may only receive $10.00 per share, or less than such amount in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless.

We believe that the funds available to us outside of the trust account, together with funds that may be made available to us by our Sponsor, members of our management team and their affiliates through loans, will be sufficient to allow us to operate through the applicable extension date, assuming that a business combinationCoinbase Global is not consummated during that time. However, we cannot assure you that our estimates will be accurate. Accordingly, if we use all of the funds held outside of the trust account, we may not have sufficient funds available with which to structure, negotiate or close an initial business combination. In such event, we would need to borrow funds from our Sponsor, officers or directors or their affiliates to operate or may be forced to liquidate.

Neither our Sponsor, members of our management team nor any of their affiliates is under any obligation to advance funds to us in such circumstances. Any such advances would be repaid only from funds held outside the trust account or from funds released to us upon completion of our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the trust account. Consequently, our public stockholders may only receive $10.00 per share, or possibly less than $10.00 per share, on our redemption of our IPO Shares and our warrants will expire worthless.

Subsequent to our completion of our initial business combination, we may be required, to take write-downs or write-offs, restructuring and impairment or other charges that could have a significant negative effect on our financial condition, results of operations and our stock price, which could cause you to lose some or all of your investment.

Even if we conduct extensive due diligence on a target business with which we combine, we cannot assure you that this diligence will surface all material issues that may be present inside a particular target business, that it would be possible to uncover all material issues through a customary amount of due diligence, or that factors outside of the target business and outside of our control will not later arise. As a result of these factors, we may be forced to later write-down or write-off assets, restructure our operations, or incur impairment or other charges that could result in our reporting losses. Even if our due diligence successfully identifies certain risks, unexpected risks may arise and previously known risks may materialize in a manner not consistent with our preliminary risk analysis. Even though these charges may be non-cash items and not have an immediate impact on our liquidity, the fact that we report charges of this nature could contribute to negative market perceptions about us or our securities. In addition, charges of this nature may cause us to violate net worth or other covenants to which we may be subject as a result of assuming pre-existing debt held by a target businessjudicial determination, or by virtuecould choose, to restrict or curtail the services its subsidiaries provide to the Company, or its financial condition is negatively affected, it could negatively affect our ability to operate.

If we do not effectively diversify our bank deposits and investment portfolio, the value and liquidity of our obtaining post-combination debt financing. Accordingly, any stockholders who chooseinvestments may fluctuate substantially which could affect our access to remain stockholders following the business combination could suffercapital and results of operations in a reductionmaterial way. Furthermore, our access to our cash and cash equivalents in the value of their shares.

If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust accountamounts adequate to finance our operations could be reduced andsignificantly impaired if the per-share redemption amount received by stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share.

Our placing of funds in the trust account may not protect those funds from third-party claims against us. Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent auditors), prospective target businesses or other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public stockholders, such parties may not execute such agreements, or even if they execute such agreements they may not be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account, including, but not limited to, fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will only enter into an agreement with a third party that has not executed a waiver if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative.

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Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where management is unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver. Upon redemption of our IPO Shares, if we are unable to complete our business combination within the prescribed timeframe, we will be required to provide for payment of claims of creditors that were not waived that may be brought against us within the 10 years following redemption. Accordingly, the per-share redemption amount received by public stockholders could be less than the $10.00 per share initially held in the trust account, due to claims of such creditors. Our Sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a vendor for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target businessfinancial institutions with which we have discussed entering into a definitive agreement for a business combination, reducearrangements directly face liquidity constraints or failures. Investor concerns regarding the amount of fundsU.S. or international financial systems could result in the trust account to below (i) $10.00 per IPO Shareless favorable commercial financing terms, including higher interest rates or (ii) such lesser amount per IPO Share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest which may be withdrawn to pay our tax obligationscosts and up to $100,000 for liquidation expenses, except as to any claims by a third party who executed a waiver of anytighter financial and all rights to seekoperating covenants, or systemic limitations on access to the trust account (even if such waiver is deemed to be unenforceable)credit and except as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the IPO against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. We have not independently verified whether our Sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligation and its only assets are expected to be our securities. As a result, we think it is unlikely that our Sponsor would be able to satisfy any indemnification obligation if it arises. In such event, you may receive less than $10.00 per share in connection with any redemption of your IPO Shares. None of our directors or officers will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.

Our directors may decide not to enforce the indemnification obligation of our Sponsor resulting in a reduction in the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public stockholders.

In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per IPO Share or (ii) such lesser amount per share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of the interest which may be withdrawn to pay our tax obligations and up to $100,000 for liquidation expenses, and our Sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its obligation or that it has no indemnification obligation related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our Sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligation.

While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our Sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligation to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment may choose not to do so if, for example, the cost of such legal action is deemed by the independent directors to be too high relative to the amount recoverable or if the independent directors determine that a favorable outcome is not likely. If our independent directors choose not to enforce this indemnification obligation, the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public stockholders may be reduced below $10.00 per share.

If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy court may seek to recover such proceeds, and we and our board may be exposed to claims of punitive damages.

If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by stockholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover all amounts received by our stockholders. In addition, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or having acted in bad faith,liquidity sources, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of punitive damages, by paying public stockholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors.

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If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the claims of creditors in such proceeding may have priority over the claims of our stockholders and the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our stockholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.

If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our stockholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, the per-share amount that would otherwise be received by our stockholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.

Our stockholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against us to the extent of distributions received by them upon redemption of their shares.

Under the DGCL, stockholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against a corporation to the extent of distributions received by them in a dissolution. The pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our IPO Shares in the event we do not complete our initial business combination by the applicable extension deadline may be considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law. If a corporation complies with certain procedures set forth in Section 280 of the DGCL intended to ensure that it makes reasonable provision for all claims against it, including a 60-day notice period during which any third-party claims can be brought against the corporation, a 90-day period during which the corporation may reject any claims brought, and an additional 150-day waiting period before any liquidating distributions are made to stockholders, any liability of stockholders with respect to a liquidating distribution is limited to the lesser of such stockholder’s pro rata share of the claim or the amount distributed to the stockholder, and any liability of the stockholder would be barred after the third anniversary of the dissolution. However, it is our intention to redeem our IPO Shares as soon as reasonably possible following the 24th month from the closing of the IPO in the event we do not complete our business combination and, therefore, we do not intend to comply with the foregoing procedures.

Because we will not be complying with Section 280, Section 281(b) of the DGCL requires us to adopt a plan, based on facts known to us at such time that will provide for our payment of all existing and pending claims or claims that may be potentially brought against us within the 10 years following our dissolution. However, because we are a blank check company, rather than an operating company, and our operations will be limited to searching for prospective target businesses to acquire, the only likely claims to arise would be from our vendors (such as lawyers, investment bankers, etc.) or prospective target businesses. If our plan of distribution complies with Section 281(b) of the DGCL, any liability of stockholders with respect to a liquidating distribution is limited to the lesser of such stockholder’s pro rata share of the claim or the amount distributed to the stockholder, and any liability of the stockholder would likely be barred after the third anniversary of the dissolution. We cannot assure you that we will properly assess all claims that may be potentially brought against us. As such, our stockholders could potentially be liable for any claims to the extent of distributions received by them (but no more) and any liability of our stockholders may extend beyond the third anniversary of such date. Furthermore, if the pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our IPO Shares in the event we do not complete our initial business combination by the applicable extension date is not considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law and such redemption distribution is deemed to be unlawful, then pursuant to Section 174 of the DGCL, the statute of limitations for claims of creditors could then be six years after the unlawful redemption distribution, instead of three years, as in the case of a liquidating distribution.

We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders until after the consummation of our initial business combination, which could delay the opportunity for our stockholders to elect directors.

In accordance with the NYSE American corporate governance requirements, we are not required to hold an annual meeting until one year after our first full fiscal year end following our listing on the NYSE American. Under Section 211 (b) of the DGCL, we are, however, required to hold an annual meeting of stockholders for the purposes of electing directors in accordance with our bylaws unless such election is made by written consent in lieu of such a meeting. We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders to elect new directors prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, and thus we may not be in compliance with Section 211(b) of the DGCL.

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Therefore, if our stockholders want us to hold an annual meeting prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, they would have to force us to hold one by submitting an application to the Delaware Court of Chancery in accordance with Section 211(c) of the DGCL.

We may seek acquisition opportunities in industries or sectors outside of our management team’s area of expertise.

We may consider a business combination outside of our management team’s area of expertise if a target business is presented to us and we determine that such target offers an attractive acquisition opportunity for our company. In the event we elect to pursue an acquisition outside of the areas of our management’s expertise, our management’s expertise may not be directly applicable to its evaluation or operation, and the information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K regarding the areas of our management’s expertise would not be relevant to an understanding of the business that we elect to acquire. As a result, our management may not be able to adequately ascertain or assess all of the significant risk factors. Accordingly, any stockholders who choose to remain stockholders following our business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their shares.

Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses, we may enter into our initial business combination with a target that does not meet such criteria and guidelines, and as a result, the target business with which we enter into our initial business combination may not have attributes entirely consistent with our general criteria and guidelines.

Although we have identified general criteria and guidelines for evaluating prospective target businesses, it is possible that a target business with which we enter into our initial business combination will not have all of these positive attributes. If we complete our initial business combination with a target that does not meet some or all of these guidelines, such combination may not be as successful as a combination with a business that does meet all of our general criteria and guidelines. In addition, if we announce a prospective business combination with a target that does not meet our general criteria and guidelines, a greater number of stockholders may exercise their redemption rights, which may make it difficult for us to meet any closing condition with a target business that requires us to have a minimum amount of cash. In addition, if stockholder approval of the transaction is required by law, or we decide to obtain stockholder approval for business or other legal reasons, it may be more difficult for us to attain stockholder approval of our initial business combination if the target business does not meet our general criteria and guidelines.

We may seek acquisition opportunities with a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of revenue or earnings, which could subject us to volatile revenues or earnings or difficulty in retaining key personnel.

To the extent we complete our initial business combination with a financially unstable business or an entity lacking an established record of revenues or earnings, we may be affected by numerous risks inherent in the operations of the business with which we combine. These risks include volatile revenues or earnings and difficulties in obtaining and retaining key personnel. Some of these risks may be outside of our control and leave us with no ability to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely impact a target business.

We are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from another independent firm that commonly renders valuation opinions, and consequently, our stockholders may have no assurance from an independent source that the price we are paying for the business is fair to our company from a financial point of view.

Unless we complete our business combination with an affiliated entity, we are not required to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions that our initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view. If no opinion is obtained, our stockholders will be relying on the judgment of our board of directors, who will determine fair market value based on standards generally accepted by the financial community. Such standards used will be disclosed in our proxy solicitation or tender offer materials, as applicable, related to our initial business combination.

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Compliance obligations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may makemaking it more difficult for us to effectuate our initial business combination, require substantial financial and management resources, and increase the time and costs of completing an acquisition.

Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we evaluate and reportacquire financing on our system of internal controls beginning with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2022. The fact that we are a blank check company makes compliance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act particularly burdensome on us as compared to other public companies because a target company with which we seek to complete our business combination may not beacceptable terms or at all. Any material decline in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of its internal controls. The development of the internal control of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such acquisition. Further, we may be subject to additional burdensome and costly requirements under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act if we are no longer an emerging growth companyavailable funding or smaller reporting company.

Resources could be wasted in researching acquisitions that are not completed, which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business.

We anticipate that the investigation of each specific target business and the negotiation, drafting and execution of relevant agreements, disclosure documents and other instruments will require substantial management time and attention and substantial costs for accountants, attorneys and others. If we decide not to complete a specific initial business combination, the costs incurred up to that point for the proposed transaction likely would not be recoverable. Furthermore, if we reach an agreement relating to a specific target business, we may fail to complete our initial business combination for any number of reasons including those beyond our control. Any such event will result in a loss to us of the related costs incurred which could materially adversely affect subsequent attempts to locate and acquire or merge with another business.

Our key personnel may negotiate employment or consulting agreements with a target business in connection with a particular business combination. These agreements may provide for them to receive compensation following our business combination and as a result, may cause them to have conflicts of interest in determining whether a particular business combination is the most advantageous.

Our key personnel may be able to remain with the company after the completion of our business combination only if they are able to negotiate employment or consulting agreements in connection with the business combination. Such negotiations would take place simultaneously with the negotiation of the business combination and could provide for such individuals to receive compensation in the form of cash payments and/or our securities for services they would render to us after the completion of the business combination. The personal and financial interests of such individuals may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business. However, we believe the ability of such individuals to remain with us after the completion of our business combination will not be the determining factor in our decision as to whether or not we will proceed with any potential business combination. The determination as to whether any of our key personnel will remain with us will be made at the time of our initial business combination.

We may have a limited ability to assess the management of a prospective target business and this, as a result, may affect our initial business combination with a target business whose management may not have the skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company, which could, in turn, negatively impact the value of our stockholders’ investment in us.

When evaluating the desirability of affecting our initial business combination with a prospective target business, our ability to assess the target business’s management may be limited due to a lack of time, resources or information. Our assessment of the capabilities of the target’s management, therefore, may prove to be incorrectaccess our cash and such management may lack the skills, qualifications or abilities we suspected. Should the target’s management not possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to manage a public company, the operations and profitability of the post-combination business may be negatively impacted. Accordingly, any stockholders who choose to remain stockholders following the business combinationcash equivalents could suffer a reduction in the value of their shares.

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We may engage Adit, or another affiliate of our Sponsor, as our lead financial advisor on our business combinations and other transactions. Any fee in connection with such engagement may be conditioned upon the completion of such transactions. This financial interest in the completion of such transactions may influence the advice such affiliate provides.

We may engage Adit, or another affiliate of our Sponsor, as a financial advisor in connection with our initial business combination and pay such affiliate a customary financial advisory fee in an amount that constitutes a market standard financial advisory fee for comparable transactions. Pursuant to any such engagement, the affiliate may earn its fee upon closing of the initial business combination. The payment of such fee would likely be conditioned upon the completion of the initial business combination. Therefore, our Sponsor may have additional financial interests in the completion of the initial business combination. These financial interests may influence the advice any such affiliate provides us as our financial advisor, which advice would contribute to our decision on whether to pursue a business combination with any particular target.

We may issue notes or other debt securities, or otherwise incur substantial debt, to complete a business combination, which may adversely affect our leverage and financial condition and thus negatively impact the value of our stockholders’ investment in us.

Although we have no commitments as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to issue any notes or other debt securities, or to otherwise incur outstanding debt, we may choose to incur substantial debt to complete our business combination, but we will not incur any indebtedness unless we have obtained from the lender a waiver of any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to the monies held in the trust account. As such, no issuance of debt will affect the per-share amount available for redemption from the trust account. Nevertheless, the incurrence of debt could have a variety of negative effects, including:

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If our business combination is with only one target business, we would be solely dependent on this single business which may have a limited number of products or services. This lack of diversification may negatively impact our operations and profitability.

We may effectuate our business combination with a single target business or multiple target businesses simultaneously or within a short period of time. However, we may not be able to effectuate our business combination with more than one target business because of various factors, including the existence of complex accounting issues and the requirement that we prepare and file pro forma financial statements with the SEC that present operating results and the financial condition of several target businesses as if they had been operated on combined basis. By completing our initial business combination with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory developments. Further, we would not be able to diversify our operations or benefit from the possible spreading of risks or offsetting of losses, unlike other entities which may have the resources to complete several business combinations in different industries or different areas of a single industry. In addition, we intend to focus our search for an initial business combination in a single industry. Accordingly, the prospects for our success may be:

This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory developments, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact upon the particular industry in which we may operate subsequent to our business combination.

If we attempt to simultaneously complete business combinations with multiple prospective targets, it may hinder our ability to complete our business combination and give rise to increased costs and risks that could negatively impact our operations and profitability.

If we determine to simultaneously acquire several businesses that are owned by different sellers, we may need for each of such sellers to agree that our purchase of its business is contingent on the simultaneous closings of the other business combinations, which may make it more difficult for us, and delay our ability, to complete our initial business combination. With multiple business combinations, we could also face additional risks, including additional burdens and costs with respect to possible multiple negotiations and due diligence investigations (if there are multiple sellers) and the additional risks associated with the subsequent assimilation of the operations and services or products of the acquired companies in a single operating business. If we are unable to adequately address these risks, it could negatively impact our profitability and results of operations.

We do not have a specified maximum redemption threshold. The absence of such a redemption threshold may make it possible for us to complete a business combination even though holders of our IPO Shares elected to redeem a substantial majority of our IPO Shares in connection with the extension meeting and may elect to redeem additional IPO Shares in the future.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation does not provide a specified maximum redemption threshold. As a result, we may be able to complete the Merger or any other business combination even though holders of a substantial majority of our IPO Shares have redeemed their shares in connection with the extension meeting and additional holders of our IPO Shares may redeem their shares in connection with the Merger or such other business combination. In connection with the extension meeting, approximately 91% of the then-outstanding IPO Shares were redeemed. Following the redemptions in connection with the extension meeting, approximately $253.8 million was withdrawn from the trust account and distributed to the holders of IPO Shares that redeemed such shares, leaving approximately $25 million left in the trust account as of December 31, 2022. Consummating an initial business combination after a substantial amount of  additional redemptions could have an adverse effect on our business, liquidity, financial condition and operating results.

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Because we must furnish our stockholders with target business financial statements, we may lose the ability to complete an otherwise advantageous initial business combination with some prospective target businesses.

The federal proxy rules require that a proxy statement with respect to a vote on a business combination meeting certain financial significance tests include historical and/or pro forma financial statement disclosure in periodic reports. We will include the same financial statement disclosure in connection with our tender offer documents, whether or not they are required under the tender offer rules. These financial statements may be required to be prepared in accordance with, or be reconciled to GAAP or IFRS, depending on the circumstances and the historical financial statements may be required to be audited in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), or PCAOB. These financial statement requirements may limit the pool of potential target businesses we may acquire because some targets may be unable to provide such financial statements in time for us to disclose such statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame.

If we effect our initial business combination with a company with operations or opportunities of outside the United States, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may negatively impact our operations.

If we effect our initial business combination with a company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States, we would be subject to any special considerations or risks associated with companies operating in an international setting, including any of the following:

We may not be able to adequately address these additional risks. If we were unable to do so, our operations might suffer, which may adversely impact our results of operations and financial condition.

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Cyber incidents or attacks directed at us could result in information theft, data corruption, operational disruption and/or financial loss.liquidity.

Our existing insurance coverage may not be adequate to cover all of our potential losses, and increased self-insurance and other insurance costs could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We depend on digital technologies, including information systems, infrastructuremaintain insurance policies for our business that provide us with some protection in the event our miners are lost or damaged, however, these insurance policies and cloud applications and services, including those of third parties with whichprotections may not be adequate to protect us from liabilities that we may deal. Sophisticated and deliberate attacks on, or security breachesincur in our systems or infrastructure, orconnection with the systems or infrastructure of third parties or the cloud, could lead to corruption or misappropriationoperation of our assets, proprietary informationbusiness. Certain extraordinary hazards, for example, may not be covered, and sensitive or confidential data, or thatinsurance may not be available (or may be available only at prohibitively expensive rates) with respect to many other risks. Moreover, any loss incurred could exceed policy limits, and policy payments made to us may not be made on a timely basis.

Additionally, the premiums we pay to obtain insurance coverage may, and are likely to, increase over time. These increases in insurance premiums can occur unexpectedly and without regard to our efforts to limit them, and, because of a third party with which we do business. As an early stage company without significant investments in data security protection,these rising costs, we may not be sufficiently protected againstable to obtain similar levels of insurance coverage on reasonable terms, or at all. If this occurs, we may choose or be forced to self-insure our assets, which could expose us to significant financial risk. If insurance costs become unacceptably high and we elect to self-insure, and we experience a significant casualty event resulting in the loss of some or all of our miners, we could be forced to expend significant capital resources to acquire new replacement miners. If such occurrences. casualty loss of our miners is not adequately covered by insurance and we do not have access to sufficient capital resources to acquire replacement miners, we may not be able to compete in our rapidly evolving and highly competitive industry, which could materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations, and our business could suffer.

Furthermore, the bitcoin held by us is not insured by any government-sponsored investor protection program or otherwise. Therefore, any loss of bitcoin held by us, either through an information security failure, a mistaken transaction or otherwise, would not be reimbursed. This could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may not have adequate sources of recovery if the bitcoin held by us is lost, stolen or destroyed.

If the bitcoin held by us is lost, stolen or destroyed under circumstances rendering a party liable to us, the responsible party may not have the financial resources sufficient resources to adequately protect against,satisfy its claim. For example, as to a particular event of loss, the only source of recovery for us might be limited, to the extent identifiable, other responsible third parties (e.g., a thief or to investigate and remediate any vulnerability to, cyber incidents. It is possible thatterrorist), any of these occurrences,which may not have the financial resources (including liability insurance coverage) to satisfy a valid claim by us.

Bitcoin held by us is not subject to FDIC or SIPC protections.

We do not hold bitcoin with a banking institution or a combinationmember of them,the FDIC or the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (“SIPC”) and, therefore, the bitcoin we hold is not subject to the protections enjoyed by depositors with FDIC or SIPC member institutions.

We may be affected by price fluctuations in the wholesale and retail power markets.

Our power arrangements may vary depending on the markets in which we operate, and comprise fixed and variable power prices, including arrangements that may contain certain price adjustment mechanisms in case of certain events. Furthermore, some portion of our power arrangements may be priced by reference to published index prices and, thus, reflect market movements outside of our control.

A substantial increase in electricity costs or a fall in bitcoin exchange values could have adverse consequences onrender bitcoin mining ineffective or not viable for us. Market prices for power, generation capacity and ancillary services, are unpredictable. An increase in market prices for power, generation capacity, and ancillary services may adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition, and leadoperating results. Long- and short-term power prices may fluctuate substantially due to financial loss, lawsuits, investigations, finesa variety of factors outside of our control, including, but not limited to:

If we consummate a business combination could be materially and adversely affected. Furthermore, we may beare unable to complete a business combination if concerns relating to COVID-19 continue to restrict travel, limit the ability to have meetings with potential investorssecure power supply at prices or the target company’s personnel, vendors and services providers are unavailable to negotiate and consummate a transaction in a timely manner. The extent to which COVID-19 impacts our search for a business combination will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of COVID-19 and the actions to contain COVID-19 or treat its impact, among others. If the disruptions posed by COVID-19 or other events (such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters or a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases) continue for an extensive period of time, our ability to consummate a business combination, or the operations of a target business with which we ultimately consummate a business combination, may be materially adversely affected.

In addition, our ability to consummate a transaction may be dependent on the ability to raise equity and debt financing which may be impacted by COVID-19 and other events (such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters or a significant outbreak of other infectious diseases), including as a result of increased market volatility, decreased market liquidity in third-party financing being unavailable on terms acceptable to us, it would potentially have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

We may be exposed to cybersecurity threats and hacks, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The threats to network and data security are increasingly diverse and sophisticated. In addition, cybersecurity researchers anticipate an increase in cyberattack activity in connection with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Although we have not taken specific actions as a result of the situation in Ukraine, we have made efforts and instituted processes to prevent breaches. Despite such efforts and processes, our computer servers and computer systems may be vulnerable to cybersecurity risks, including denial-of-service attacks, physical or electronic break-ins, employee theft or misuse and similar disruptions from unauthorized tampering with our computer servers and computer systems. The preventive actions we take to reduce the risk of cyber incidents and protect our information technology and networks may be insufficient to repel a major cyber-attack in the future. To the extent that any disruption or security breach results in a loss or damage to our network, in unauthorized disclosure of confidential information or in a loss of our bitcoin, it could cause significant damage to our reputation, lead to claims against us and ultimately have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, we may be required to incur significant costs to protect against damage caused by these disruptions or security breaches in the future.

We may only have limited control over our mining operation.

Our mining operation comprises blockchain mining technologies that depend on a network of computers to run certain software programs to solve complex transactions in competition with other mining operations and to process transactions. Because of this less centralized model and the complexity of our mining operation, we have limited control over the success of our mining operations. While we participate in mining pools to combine our mining operations with other mining participants to increase processing power to solve blocks, there can be no assurance that such pools will adequately address this risk.

We may be subject to material litigation, including individual and class action lawsuits, as well as investigations and enforcement actions by regulators and governmental authorities.

We may from time to time become subject to claims, arbitrations, individual and class action lawsuits, government and regulatory investigations, inquiries, actions or requests, including with respect to employment matters, and other proceedings alleging violations of laws, rules and regulations, both foreign and domestic. The scope, determination and impact of such litigation, government and regulatory investigations, enforcement actions, disputes and proceedings to which we are subject cannot be predicted with certainty, and may result in:

Any such matters can have an adverse impact, which may be material, on our business, operating results or financial condition because of legal costs, diversion of management resources, reputation damage and other factors.

The transition of digital asset validation from proof-of-work mining algorithms to proof-of-stake validation may significantly impact the value of our capital expenditures and investments in machines and real property to support proof-of-work mining, which could make us less competitive and ultimately adversely affect our business and the value of our securities.

Proof-of-stake is an alternative method of validating distributed ledger transactions. Proof-of-stake methodology does not rely on resource intensive calculations to validate transactions and create new blocks in a blockchain, but rather the validator of the next block is determined, sometimes randomly, based on a methodology in the blockchain software. Rewards, and sometimes penalties, are issued based on the amount of digital assets a user has “staked” in order to become a validator.

Our business strategy currently focuses entirely on mining bitcoin (as opposed to other digital assets). Additionally, all of our hardware is limited to mining using a “proof-of-work” protocol based on the SHA-256 hashing algorithm. Should bitcoin shift from a proof-of-work validation method to a proof-of-stake method, the transaction verification process (i.e. “mining” or “validating”) would require less power and may render any company that maintains advantages in the current climate with respect to proof-of-work mining (for example, from lower-priced electricity, processing, computing power, or real estate) less competitive or less profitable, including ours. For example, the Ethereum blockchain, another popular blockchain with a widely traded digital asset, has recently completed a transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, in part to achieve more efficiency in relation to the energy consumption of its network and production and verification of its blockchain. If this transition is successful, current Ethereum mining equipment and other investments in Ethereum mining operations could become obsolete or be repurposed for mining other digital assets, which may be less profitable.

If bitcoin shifts to proof-of-stake validation, we may lose the benefit of our capital investments and the competitive advantage we hope to gain from our capital investments, which were intended to improve the efficiency of our bitcoin mining operations only with respect to proof-of-work networks. Further, a shift in market demand from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake protocols could impair our business and operations which are based on hardware that is strictly limited to mining digital assets based on the SHA-256 algorithm. Such events could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our business strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operating.

Bitcoin is a form of technology which may become redundant or obsolete in the future.

Bitcoin currently holds a “first-to-market” advantage over other digital assets and is currently the market leader, in terms of value and recognition, in the digital assets market. This first-to-market advantage is driven in large part by having the largest user base and, more importantly, the largest combined mining power in use to secure the bitcoin network. Despite the current first-to-market advantage of the bitcoin network over other digital asset networks, the digital asset market continues to grow rapidly as the value of existing digital assets rises, new digital assets enter the market and demand for digital assets increases. Therefore, it is possible that another digital asset could become comparatively more popular than bitcoin in the future. As a result, the emergence of a digital asset that erodes bitcoin’s market share and value could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The utilization of digital assets technologies is influenced by public acceptance and confidence in its integrity and potential application, and if public acceptance or confidence is lost for any reason, the use of that technology may become less attractive, with users instead utilizing alternative digital assets. If preferences in the digital assets markets shift away from proof-of work networks such as bitcoin, or the market otherwise adopts new digital assets, this could result in a significant reduction in the value of bitcoin, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations, including the value of the bitcoin that it mines or otherwise acquires or holds for its own account.

The price of new miners may be linked to the market price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and our costs of obtaining new and replacement miners may increase along with the market price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which may have a material and adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Our business, financial condition and results of operations are dependent on our ability to sell the bitcoin we mine at a price greater than our costs to produce that bitcoin. We incur significant up-front capital costs each time we acquire new miners, and, if future prices of bitcoin are not sufficiently high, we may not realize the benefit of these capital expenditures. As the price for new miners we buy increases, our cost to mine a single bitcoin also increases, therefore requiring a corresponding increase in the price of bitcoin for us to maintain our results of operations, to the extent we sell the bitcoin shortly after mining it.

The global supply chain for miners is presently constrained due to unprecedented demand coupled with a global semiconductor (including microchip) shortage, with a significant portion of available miners being acquired by companies with substantial resources. Semiconductors are utilized in various devices and products and are a crucial component of miners. Supply chain constraints coupled with increasing demand has led to increased pricing and limited availability for semiconductors. Prices for both new and older models of miners have been on the rise and these supply constraints are expected to continue for the foreseeable future. China, a major supplier of miners, has seen a production slowdown as a result of COVID-19. Should similar outbreaks or other disruptions to the China-based global supply chain for mining hardware occur, we may not be able to obtain adequate replacement parts for our existing miners or to obtain additional miners on a timely basis, if at all, or we may only be able to acquire miners at premium prices. Such events could have a material adverse effect on our ability to pursue our strategy, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and the value of our securities.

There is a lack of liquid markets in bitcoin, and these markets are subject to possible manipulation.

Cryptocurrencies that are represented and trade on a ledger-based platform may not necessarily benefit from viable trading markets. Stock exchanges have rules and regulations regarding marketplace conduct, and monitor investors transacting on such platforms for fraud and other improprieties. These conditions may not necessarily be replicated on a digital assets trading platform, depending on the platform’s controls and other policies, and there are no controls regarding transactions that take place outside of organized exchanges. Although some digital assets trading platforms are subject to regulation and monitor for illegal activity, because the bitcoin market itself is unregulated, there are few means to prevent manipulation of prices for the overall market. These factors may decrease liquidity or volume or may otherwise increase volatility of bitcoin, which may have a material adverse effect on our ability to monetize the bitcoin we mine.

If a malicious actor or botnet obtains control of more than 50% of the processing power on the bitcoin blockchain, such actor or botnet could manipulate the bitcoin blockchain, which would adversely affect your investment in us or our ability to operate.

If a malicious actor or botnet (a volunteer or hacked collection of computers controlled by networked software coordinating the actions of the computers) obtains a majority of the processing power dedicated to mining a digital asset, it may be able to alter the digital asset network or blockchain on which transactions of the digital asset are recorded by constructing fraudulent blocks or preventing certain transactions from completing in a timely manner, or at all. The malicious actor or botnet could control, exclude, or modify the ordering of transactions, though it could not generate new bitcoin or digital assets or transactions using such control. The malicious actor could “double-spend” its own bitcoin or digital assets (i.e., spend the same bitcoin or digital assets in more than one transaction) and prevent the confirmation of other users’ transactions for so long as it maintained control. To the extent that such malicious actors or botnets did not yield their control of the processing power on the bitcoin or other network, or the bitcoin or other community did not reject the fraudulent blocks as malicious, reversing any changes made to the blockchain may not be possible.

Although there are no known reports of malicious activity or control of the bitcoin blockchain achieved through controlling over 50% of the processing power on the network, it is believed that certain mining pools may have exceeded the 50% threshold. The approach towards and possible crossing of the 50% threshold indicate a greater risk that a single mining pool could exert authority over the validation of digital asset transactions. To the extent that the digital assets ecosystems do not act to ensure greater decentralization of digital asset mining processing power, the feasibility of a malicious actor obtaining in excess of 50% of the processing power on any digital asset network (e.g., through control of a large mining pool or through hacking such a mining pool) will increase, which may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

To the extent that the profit margins of digital asset mining operations are not high, mining participants are more likely to sell their earned bitcoin, which could constrain bitcoin prices.

Over the past few years, digital asset mining operations have evolved from individual users mining with computer processors, graphics processing units and first-generation ASIC servers. Currently, new processing power is predominantly added by incorporated

and unincorporated “professionalized” mining operations. Professionalized mining operations may use proprietary hardware or sophisticated ASIC machines acquired from ASIC manufacturers. They require the investment of significant capital to acquire this hardware, to lease or develop operating space (often in data centers or warehousing facilities), and to pay the costs of electricity and labor to operate the mining farms. As a result, professionalized mining operations are of a greater scale than prior mining operations and have more defined and regular expenses and liabilities. These regular expenses and liabilities require professionalized mining operations to maintain profit margins on the numbersale of special purpose acquisition companies evaluating targetsdigital assets. To the extent the price of digital assets declines and such profit margin is constrained, professionalized mining participants are incentivized to more immediately sell digital assets earned from mining operations, whereas it is believed that individual mining participants in past years were more likely to hold newly mined digital assets for more extended periods. The immediate selling of newly mined digital assets greatly increases attractive targets may become scarcerthe trading volume of the digital assets, creating downward pressure on the market price of digital asset rewards. The extent to which the value of digital assets mined by a professionalized mining operation exceeds the allocable capital and thereoperating costs determines the profit margin of such operation. A professionalized mining operation may be more competition for attractive targets. This could increase the costlikely to sell a higher percentage of our initial business combination and could even result in our inability to findits newly mined digital assets rapidly if it is operating at a target or to consummate an initial business combination.

In recent years, the number of special purpose acquisition companies that have been formed has increased substantially. Many potential targets for special purpose acquisition companies have already entered into an initial business combination, and there are still many special purpose acquisition companies seeking targets for their initial business combination, as well as many such companies currently in registration. As a result, at times, fewer attractive targets may be available,low profit margin and it may requirepartially or completely cease operations if its profit margin is negative. In a low profit margin environment, a higher percentage could be sold more time, more effortrapidly, thereby potentially depressing digital asset prices. Lower digital asset prices could result in further tightening of profit margins for professionalized mining operations creating a network effect that may further reduce the price of digital assets until mining operations with higher operating costs become unprofitable forcing them to reduce mining power or cease mining operations temporarily. Such circumstances could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and more resources to identify a suitable targetpotentially the value of bitcoin and to consummate an initial business combination.any other digital assets we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account.

In addition, because there are more special purpose acquisition companies seeking to enter into an initial business combination withThe “halving” of rewards available targets,on the competition for available targets with attractive fundamentalsbitcoin network, or business models may increase, which could cause targets companies to demand improved financial terms. Attractive deals could also become scarcer forthe reduction of rewards on other reasons, such as economic or industry sector downturns, geopolitical tensions, or increasesnetworks, has had and in the cost of additional capital needed to close business combinations or operate targets post-business combination. This could increase the cost of, delay or otherwise complicate or frustrate our ability to find and consummate an initial business combination, and may result in our inability to consummate an initial business combination on terms favorable to our investors altogether.

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Risks Relating to Our Management Team

Members of our management team may have conflicts of interest thatfuture could have a negative impact on our ability to generate revenue, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Under the current protocols governing the bitcoin network, the reward for validating a new block on that network is cut in half from time to time, which has been referred to in our industry as the “halving.” When the bitcoin network was first launched, the reward for validating a new block was 50 bitcoin. In 2012, the reward for validating a new block was reduced to 25 bitcoin. In July 2016, the reward for validating a new block was reduced to 12.5 bitcoin, and in May 2020, the reward was further reduced to 6.25 bitcoin. The next halving of awards is expected to occur in April 2024 and following such halving, the reward for validating a new block will be reduced to 3.125 bitcoins. In addition, other networks may operate under rules that, or may alter their rules to, limit the distribution of new digital assets. We currently rely on these rewards to generate a significant portion of our total revenue. We have attempted to mitigate the risk to us as a result of halving, including sourcing competitive electricity pricing, sourcing efficient mining hardware across a diverse range of manufacturers, vertically integrating our business model to include container fabrication, proprietary software development in order to lower deployment costs and protecting margins, and self-mining rather than hosting in order to deliver stronger margins that are prepared to tolerate the reduction in bitcoin available due to the halving event. To the extent that other mining companies exit the business, remaining miners are the direct beneficiaries from the lower competition for each 3.125 bitcoin per block. Achieving competitive advantages in the above ways increases the chances for us to be one of these beneficiaries. However, in spite of such mitigation efforts, if the award of digital assets for solving blocks and transaction fees are not sufficiently high, the halving of available rewards on the bitcoin network, or any reduction of rewards on other networks, would have a negative impact on our revenues and may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, the reduction of rewards may reduce our profit margins, which could result in us selling a substantial portion of our bitcoin, which is subject to high volatility. If we are forced to sell bitcoin at low prices, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, prospects and results of operations.

We may not be able to realize the benefits of forks, and forks in the bitcoin network may occur in the future that may affect our operations and financial performance.

The future development and growth of bitcoin is subject to a variety of factors that are difficult to predict and evaluate. As bitcoin is built on an open-source protocol without a centralized governing authority, there is a possibility bitcoin develops in ways which are not foreseeable. An example is modification of the bitcoin protocol by a sufficient number of users (known as a “fork”).

The bitcoin protocol has been subject to “forks” that resulted in the creation of new networks, including Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Cash SV, Bitcoin Diamond, Bitcoin Gold and others. Some of these forks have caused fragmentation among trading platforms as to the correct naming convention for the forked digital assets. Due to the lack of a central registry or rulemaking body, no single entity has the ability to dictate the nomenclature of forked digital assets, causing disagreements and a lack of uniformity among platforms on the nomenclature of forked digital assets, which results in further confusion to individuals as to the nature of assets they hold on digital asset trading platforms. In addition, several of these forks were contentious and, as a result, participants in certain digital asset

user and developer communities may harbor ill will toward other communities. As a result, certain community members may take actions that adversely impact the use, adoption and price of bitcoin or any of its forked alternatives.

Furthermore, hard forks can lead to new security concerns. For instance, when the Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Cash SV network split in November 2018, “replay” attacks, in which transactions from one network were rebroadcast on the other network to achieve “double-spending,” plagued platforms that traded bitcoin, resulting in significant losses to some digital asset trading platforms. Another possible result of a hard fork is an inherent decrease in the level of security due to the splitting of some mining power across networks, making it easier for a malicious actor to exceed 50% of the mining power of that network, thereby making digital asset networks that rely on proof-of-work more susceptible to attack in the wake of a fork.

Historically, speculation over a new “fork” in the bitcoin protocol has resulted in bitcoin price volatility and future forks may occur at any time. A fork can lead to a disruption of networks and our IT systems could be affected by cybersecurity attacks, replay attacks, or security weaknesses, any of which can further lead to temporary or even permanent loss of our assets. Such disruption and loss could cause us to be exposed to liability, even in circumstances where we have no intention of supporting an asset compromised by a fork. Additionally, a fork may result in a scenario where users running the previous protocol will not recognize blocks created by those running the new protocol, and vice versa. This may render our bitcoin mining hardware incompatible with the new bitcoin protocol. Such changes may have a material effect on our operations, financial position and financial performance.

Because our miners are designed specifically to mine bitcoin, our future success will depend in large part upon the value of bitcoin, and any sustained decline in its value could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our operating results will depend in large part upon the value of bitcoin because it is the only cryptocurrency we currently mine. Specifically, our revenues from our bitcoin mining operations are based upon two factors: (1) the number of bitcoin rewards we successfully mine and (2) the fair market value of bitcoin on the date earned. In addition, our operating results are directly impacted by changes in the value of bitcoin because under the value measurement model, both realized and unrealized changes will be reflected in our statement of operations (i.e., we mark bitcoin to fair value each quarter). This means that our operating results will be subject to swings based upon increases or decreases in the value of bitcoin. The introduction of alternative cryptocurrencies, such as those backed by central banks known as Central Bank Digital Currencies, could significantly reduce the demand for bitcoin. This would reduce both our ability to earn mining rewards and transaction fees, and would also impair our ability to monetize the bitcoin we earn in accordance with our financial projections.

Digital asset trading platforms for bitcoin may be subject to varying levels of regulation, which exposes our digital asset holdings to risks.

Platforms on which digital assets may trade, such as the one we use to monetize our bitcoin, pose special risks, as these platforms are generally new and the rules governing their activities are less settled and their activities may be largely unregulated or under-regulated, and may therefore be more exposed to theft, fraud and failure than established, regulated exchanges for other products. Digital asset platforms may be startup businesses with limited institutional backing, limited operating history, and no publicly available financial information. This can lead to increased price volatility. In addition, a failure of an important digital asset trading platform could result in a loss of confidence in digital assets generally, resulting in our inability to monetize the bitcoin we mine in accordance with our financial projections.

Bitcoin traded on the bitcoin blockchain do not rely on a trusted intermediary or depository institution. The participation in trading platforms requires users to take on credit risk by transferring bitcoin from a personal account to a third party’s account. Accordingly, we are exposed to the digital asset trading platform’s credit risk with respect to each bitcoin transaction we make. Digital asset exchanges may also impose daily, weekly, monthly, or customer-specific transaction or distribution limits or suspend withdrawals entirely, rendering the exchange of digital assets for fiat currency difficult or impossible. Additionally, digital asset prices and valuations on exchanges may be volatile and subject to influence by many factors, including the levels of liquidity on particular platforms and operational interruptions and disruptions. The prices and valuation of digital assets (e.g., bitcoin) remain subject to any volatility experienced by trading platforms, and any such volatility can adversely affect the value of the bitcoin that we mine. It is possible that while engaging in transactions with various digital asset platforms located throughout the world, any such platform may cease operations voluntarily or involuntarily due to theft, fraud, security breach, liquidity issues, or government investigation without any recourse available to us.

Digital asset platforms for bitcoin may be appealing targets for cybercrime, hackers and malware and have been shut down or experienced losses of assets placed on the exchange as a result of cybercrime, and any such event is likely to result in the complete loss of assets placed on such a platform. Any governmental or regulatory action against such a digital asset trading platform may cause assets on such exchange to become frozen for a substantial period of time or forfeited, and could result in material opportunity costs or even in the total loss of such assets. In addition, banks may refuse to process or support wire transfers to or from digital asset trading platforms.

There are a limited number of digital asset trading platforms for bitcoin in operation, and many operate in jurisdictions outside of the United States. Trading on digital asset platforms outside of the United States may involve certain risks not applicable to trading on digital asset exchanges that operate in the United States. Foreign markets may be subject to instability, lack of regulation, temporary closures due to fraud, business failure, local capital requirements or government-mandated regulations. Digital asset platforms located outside the United States may not be subject to regulatory, investigative, or prosecutorial authority through which an action or complaint regarding missing or stolen digital assets may be brought. Additionally, due to lack of globally consistent treatment and regulation of digital assets, certain platforms located outside the United States may not be currently available to, or may in the future become unavailable to, certain persons or entities based on their country of domicile, including the United States.

While we perform diligence on our initialcounterparties and any digital asset trading platforms that we may use, it may be difficult, or even impossible, to sufficiently verify the ultimate ownership and control of a digital asset trading platform and other information for evaluating the risks associated with such counterparty or platform. Any of our digital assets that reside on a trading platform that shuts down may be permanently unrecoverable, misapplied or otherwise lost. Additionally, to the extent that the digital asset platforms representing a substantial portion of the trading volume in a particular digital asset are involved in fraud or experience security failures or other operational issues, such failures may result in loss or less favorable prices of the digital assets, which may adversely affect our business combination.and results of operations, and consequently, an investment in our securities.

Because there is limited precedent for financial accounting for bitcoin and other digital assets, the determinations that we have made for how to account for digital asset transactions may be subject to change.

Because there is limited precedent for the financial accounting for bitcoin and other digital assets and related revenue recognition and no official guidance has been provided by the Financial Accounting Standards Board or the SEC, it is unclear how we may in the future be required to account for digital asset transactions and assets and related revenue recognition. Changes in regulatory or financial accounting standards could require us to change the accounting methods we currently intend to employ in respect of our anticipated revenues and assets and restate any financial statements produced based on those methods. Such a change or restatement could require increased professional fees and expenses and time commitment by management to address matters related to the change or restatement, increased scrutiny by the SEC and other regulatory bodies, civil or criminal penalties or stockholder litigation, which could adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operation.

Bitcoin transactions are irrevocable and, if stolen or incorrectly transferred, bitcoin may be irretrievable. As a result, any incorrectly executed bitcoin transactions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Bitcoin transactions are irrevocable, and stolen or incorrectly transferred bitcoin may be irretrievable. As a result, any incorrectly executed or fraudulent bitcoin transactions could adversely affect our investments and assets. Bitcoin transactions are not, from an administrative perspective, reversible without the consent and active participation of the recipient of the bitcoin from the transaction. Once a transaction has been verified and recorded in a block that is added to a blockchain, an incorrect transfer of bitcoin or a theft thereof generally will not be reversible and if an incorrect transfer or theft occurs, we may not have sufficient recourse to recover our losses from any such transfer or theft. It is possible that, through computer or human error, or through theft or criminal action, our bitcoin rewards could be transferred in incorrect amounts or to unauthorized third parties, or to uncontrolled accounts. Further, at this time, we are not aware of any specifically enumerated U.S. or foreign governmental, regulatory, investigative or prosecutorial authority or mechanism through which to bring an action or complaint regarding missing or stolen bitcoin. As a result, if there is human error, theft, or criminal action, we will need to rely on existing private investigative entities to investigate any potential loss of our bitcoin assets. These third-party service providers rely on data analysis and compliance of internet service providers with traditional court orders to reveal information such as the IP addresses of any attackers who may target us. Our inability to recover any losses from such action, error or theft, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Political or economic crises may motivate large-scale sales of bitcoin, which could result in a reduction in some or all of bitcoin’s values and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Geopolitical crises may motivate large-scale purchases of bitcoin, which could increase the price of bitcoin rapidly. This may increase the likelihood of a subsequent price decrease as crisis-driven purchasing behavior dissipates, adversely affecting the value of our inventory following such downward adjustment. Such risks are similar to the risks of purchasing commodities in general in uncertain times, such as the risk of purchasing, holding or selling gold. Alternatively, as an emerging asset class with limited acceptance as a payment system or commodity, global crises and general economic downturn may discourage investment in bitcoin as investors focus their investment on less volatile asset classes as a means of hedging their investment risk.

As an alternative to fiat currencies that are backed by central governments, bitcoins are subject to supply and demand forces based upon the desirability of an alternative, decentralized means of buying and selling goods and services, and it is unclear how such supply and demand will be impacted by geopolitical events. Nevertheless, political or economic crises may motivate large-scale acquisitions or sales of bitcoins either globally or locally. Large-scale sales of bitcoins would result in a reduction in some or all bitcoins’ values and may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our operations, investment strategies and profitability may be adversely affected by competition from other methods of investing in bitcoins or tracking bitcoin markets.

We compete with other users and/or companies that are mining bitcoin and other potential financial vehicles that seek to provide exposure to bitcoin, including securities backed by, or linked to, bitcoins. Market and financial conditions, and other conditions beyond our control, may make it more attractive to invest in certain financial vehicles, or to invest in bitcoin directly, which could limit the market for our securities and reduce their liquidity. In addition, the emergence of other financial vehicles and exchange-traded funds that provide exposure to bitcoin prices have been scrutinized by regulators and such scrutiny and the negative impressions or conclusions resulting from such scrutiny could be applied to our business and impact our ability to successfully pursue our strategy or operate at all, or to establish or maintain a public market for our securities.

The global market for bitcoin is generally characterized by supply constraints that may differ from those present in the markets for commodities or other assets such as gold and silver. The mathematical protocols under which bitcoin is mined permit the creation of a limited, predetermined amount of currency, while others have no limit established on total supply. To the extent that other vehicles investing in bitcoin or tracking bitcoin markets form and come to represent a significant proportion of the demand for digital assets, large redemptions of the securities of those vehicles and the subsequent sale of bitcoin by such vehicles could negatively affect bitcoin prices and therefore affect the value of any bitcoin inventory we hold.

Currently, we believe there is relatively limited use of bitcoin in the retail and commercial marketplace in comparison to relatively sizable use by speculators, thus contributing to price volatility that could adversely affect an investment in our securities.

We believe bitcoin has not yet gained widespread acceptance as a means of payment for goods and services by any major retail or commercial outlets. We believe a significant portion of the demand for bitcoin is generated by speculators and investors, some of whom may have no knowledge of the inner workings of bitcoin. Certain of these investors may seek to profit from the short-term or long-term holding of bitcoin, and thus, may contribute to bitcoin price volatility. A lack of expansion in the use of bitcoin in retail and commercial markets, or a contraction of such use, may result in increased price volatility of bitcoin or a reduction in the market price of bitcoin or in the demand for bitcoin which would reduce the performance of the business and the value of bitcoin held by us, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

As more processing power is added to a network, our relative percentage of total processing power on that network is expected to decline absent significant capital investment, which has an adverse impact on our ability to generate revenue from processing transactions on that network and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Processing power on networks has been increasing rapidly over time while the rewards and transaction fees available on those networks tends to decline over time. In order to grow or maintain the revenue we generate from processing transactions on such networks, we are required to invest significant capital to acquire new computer servers, expand our power capacity and otherwise increase our effective processing power on such networks. In the event we are unable to invest sufficient capital to grow or maintain the level of our processing power on a network relative to the total processing power of such network, our revenue from the applicable network will decline over time and as a result, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, a decrease in the price of computer servers may result in an increase in transaction processors, which may lead to more competition for fees in a particular network. In the event we are unable to realize adequate fees on a network due to increased competition, our revenue from the applicable network will decline over time and in turn, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our transactions in bitcoin may expose us to countries, territories, regimes, entities, organizations and individuals that are subject to sanctions and other restrictive laws and regulations.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“OFAC”) and the U.S. Department of State administer and enforce economic sanctions programs based on foreign policy and national security goals against targeted countries, territories, regimes, entities, organizations and individuals. These laws and regulations may be implicated by a number of digital assets activities, including investing or trading. Because of the anonymous nature of blockchain transactions, we may not be able to determine the ultimate identity of the individuals with whom we transact when buying or selling digital assets or receive bitcoin through mining (e.g. transaction fees, or rewards from mining pool), and thus may inadvertently engage in transactions with persons, or entities or territories that are the target of sanctions or other restrictions. Moreover, U.S. federal law prohibits any U.S. person from knowingly or unknowingly possessing any visual depiction of child pornography. We are aware of recent media reports that have suggested that persons have imbedded such depictions on one or more blockchains. To the extent government enforcement authorities enforce these and other laws and regulations that are impacted by blockchain technology, we may be subject to investigation, administrative or court proceedings, and civil or criminal monetary fines and penalties, all of which could harm our reputation and affect the value of our securities.

The market price of bitcoin may be extremely volatile, including due to potential under-regulation. Rapid decreases in the price of bitcoin could have a materially adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Bitcoin is represented and trades on a ledger-based platform that may not necessarily benefit from a viable trading market. Stock exchanges have rules and regulations regarding marketplace conduct, and monitor investors transacting on such platforms for fraud and other improprieties. These conditions may not necessarily be replicated on a bitcoin trading platform, depending on the platform’s controls and other policies, and there are no controls regarding transactions that take place outside of organized exchanges. The market price of bitcoin has been and may in the future continue to be extremely volatile. These factors may decrease liquidity or volume or may otherwise increase volatility of bitcoin, which will have a material adverse effect on our ability to monetize the bitcoin we mine and therefore have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Regulatory actions in one or more countries could severely affect the right to acquire, own, hold, sell or use bitcoin or to exchange them for fiat currency.

One or more countries, such as India or Russia, may take regulatory actions in the future that could severely restrict the right to acquire, own, hold, sell or use bitcoin or to exchange them for fiat currency. In some nations, including China, it is illegal to accept payment in bitcoin for consumer transactions and banking institutions are barred from accepting deposits of cryptocurrencies. Such restrictions may adversely affect us as the large-scale use of bitcoin as a means of exchange is presently confined to certain regions.

Furthermore, in the future, foreign governments may decide to subsidize or in some other way support certain large-scale bitcoin mining projects, thus adding hashrate to the overall network. Such circumstances could have a material adverse effect on the amount of bitcoin we may be able to mine, the value of bitcoin and any other cryptocurrencies we may potentially acquire or hold in the future and, consequently, our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Bitcoin exchanges, wallets and the bitcoin network may suffer from hacking and fraud risks, which may adversely erode user confidence in bitcoin, which could negatively affect the bitcoin price and our revenues.

Bitcoin transactions are entirely digital and, as with any virtual system, are at risk from hackers, malware and operational glitches. Hackers can target bitcoin exchanges and custody providers, to gain access to thousands of accounts and digital wallets where bitcoin is stored. Bitcoin transactions and accounts are not insured by any type of government program and all bitcoin transactions are permanent because there is no third party or payment processor. Bitcoin has previously suffered from hacking and cyber-theft which have affected its demand and price. Also, the price and exchange of bitcoin may be subject to fraud risk. While bitcoin uses private key encryption to verify owners and register transactions, fraudsters and scammers may attempt to sell false bitcoin. All of the above may adversely affect the operation of the bitcoin network, which would erode user confidence in bitcoin and could negatively impact our business and ability to monetize the bitcoin that we mine.

Technological advancement in computing may make our operations and ASICs obsolete. The mining hardware market for ASICs does not undergo rapid performance improvements anymore. Earlier in the SHA-256 ASIC development cycle when bitcoin

mining hardware had yet to catch up to current foundry node sizes, technological leaps in hash power and efficiency were more common and made all previous units obsolete. Since the release of the Antminer S9, these improvements have been incremental and older generation hardware is commonly run in the market. It is possible that there will be a significant breakthrough in hash power and/or efficiency that would make existing ASIC miners obsolete, severely impact the company’s balance sheet and forward-looking performance and, should we not have access to this technology, could render all operations non-viable.

Bitcoin mining activities are energy-intensive, which may restrict the geographic locations of miners, in particular, to locations with renewable sources of power. Government regulators may potentially restrict the ability of electricity suppliers to provide electricity to bitcoin miners, including us, or bitcoin mining activities generally.

Mining bitcoin requires significant amounts of electrical power, and electricity costs are expected to account for a material portion of our operating costs. There has been a substantial increase in the demand for electricity for bitcoin mining, and this has had varying level of impact on local electricity supply. The availability and cost of electricity will impact the geographic locations in which we conduct mining activities.

Additionally, renewable sources of power currently form a large portion of our power mix and we expect them to continue to do so in the future. Renewable power may, depending on the source, be intermittent or variable and not always available. Some electrical grids have little storage capacity, and the balance between electricity supply and demand must be maintained at all times to avoid blackouts or other cascading problems. Intermittent sources of renewable power can provide challenges as their power can fluctuate over multiple time horizons, forcing the grid operator to adjust its day-ahead, hour-ahead, and real-time operating procedures. Any shortage of electricity supply or increase in electricity costs in any location where we operate or plan to operate may negatively impact the viability and the expected economic return for bitcoin mining activities in that location.

Should our operations require more electricity than can be supplied in the areas where our mining facilities are located or should the electrical transmission grid and distribution systems be unable to provide the regular supply of electricity required, we may have to limit or suspend activities or reduce the speed of our proposed expansion, either voluntarily or as a result of either quotas imposed by energy companies or governments, or increased prices for certain users (such as us). If we are unable to procure electricity at a suitable price, we may have to shut down our operations in that particular jurisdiction either temporarily or permanently.

There may be significant competition for suitable bitcoin mining sites, and government regulators, including local permitting officials, may potentially restrict our ability to set up mining sites in certain locations. The significant consumption of electricity may have a negative environmental impact, including contribution to climate change, which may give rise to public opinion against allowing the use of electricity for bitcoin mining activities.

If bitcoin mining becomes more widespread, government scrutiny related to bitcoin mining facilities and their energy consumption may significantly increase. This could lead to new governmental measures restricting or prohibiting the use of electricity for bitcoin mining activities, or bitcoin mining activities generally.

If we are forced to reduce our operations due to the availability or cost of electrical power, or restrictions on bitcoin mining activities, this will have an adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.

The open-source structure of the bitcoin network protocol means that the contributors to the protocol are generally not directly compensated for their contributions in maintaining and developing the protocol.

The bitcoin network operates based on an open-source protocol, not represented by an official organization or authority. Instead, it is maintained by a group of core contributors, largely on the Bitcoin Core project on GitHub.com. This group of contributors is currently headed by five lead maintainers. As the bitcoin network protocol is not sold and its use does not generate revenues for contributors, contributors are generally not compensated for maintaining and updating the bitcoin network protocol. Although the MIT Media Lab’s Digital Currency Initiative funded past lead maintainer, Wladimir van der Laan, among others, this type of financial incentive is not typical. The lack of guaranteed financial incentive for contributors to maintain or develop the bitcoin network and the lack of guaranteed resources to adequately address emerging issues with the bitcoin network may reduce incentives to address the issues adequately or in a timely manner.

There can be no guarantee that developer support will continue or be sufficient in the future. Additionally, some development and developers are funded by companies whose interests may be at odds with other participants in the network or with investors’ interests. To the extent that material issues arise with the bitcoin network protocol and the core developers and open-source contributors are unable or unwilling to address the issues adequately or in a timely manner, the bitcoin network and consequently our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected.

Significant contributors to all or a network for any particular digital asset, such as bitcoin, could propose amendments to the respective network’s protocols and software that, if accepted and authorized by such network, could adversely affect our business.

The bitcoin network is maintained by a group of contributors, largely on the Bitcoin Core project on GitHub.com, currently headed by Wladimir J. van der Laan. These individuals can propose refinements or improvements to the bitcoin network’s source code through one or more software upgrades that alter the protocols and software that govern the bitcoin network and the properties of bitcoin, including the irreversibility of transactions and limitations on the mining of new bitcoin. Proposals for upgrades and discussions relating thereto take place on online forums.

If a developer or group of developers proposes a modification to the bitcoin network that is not accepted by a majority of miners and users, but that is nonetheless accepted by a substantial plurality of miners and users, two or more competing and incompatible blockchain implementations could result, with one running the pre-modification software program and the other running the modified version (i.e., a second “bitcoin network”). Such a hard fork in the blockchain typically would be addressed by community-led efforts to reunite the forked blockchains, and several prior forks have been resolved successfully. However, a hard fork in the blockchain could materially and adversely affect the perceived value of bitcoin as reflected on one or both incompatible blockchains. Additionally, a hard fork will decrease the number of users and miners available to each fork of the blockchain as the users and miners on each fork blockchain will not be accessible to the other blockchain and, consequently, there will be fewer block rewards and transaction fees may decline in value. Any of the above could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition, and operating results.

Because there has been limited precedent set for financial accounting for bitcoin and other cryptocurrency assets, the determinations that we have made for how to account for cryptocurrency assets transactions may be subject to change.

Because there has been limited precedent set for the financial accounting for bitcoin and other cryptocurrency assets and related revenue recognition and no official guidance has yet been provided by the Financial Accounting Standards Board or the SEC, it is unclear how companies may in the future be required to account for cryptocurrency transactions and assets and related revenue recognition. A change in regulatory or financial accounting standards could result in the necessity to change the accounting methods we currently intend to employ in respect of our anticipated revenues and assets and restate any financial statements produced based on those methods. Such a restatement could adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operation.

The development and acceptance of cryptographic and algorithmic protocols governing the issuance of and transactions in cryptocurrencies is subject to a variety of factors that are difficult to evaluate.

Digital assets, such as bitcoin, that may be used, among other things, to buy and sell goods and services are a new and rapidly evolving industry of which the digital asset networks are prominent, but not unique, parts. The growth of the digital asset industry, in general, and the digital asset networks, in particular, are subject to a high degree of uncertainty. The factors affecting the further development of the digital asset industry, as well as the digital asset networks, include:

The outcome of these factors could have negative effects on our ability to pursue our business strategy, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition, and operating results as well as potentially negative effect on the value of bitcoin or any other cryptocurrencies we may potentially acquire or hold in the future.

Risks Related to Third Parties

Banks and financial institutions may not provide bank accounts, or may cut off certain banking or other financial services, to bitcoin investors or businesses that engage in bitcoin-related activities or that accept bitcoin as payment.

Although a number of significant U.S. banks and investment institutions have indicated they plan to begin allowing customers to carry and invest in bitcoin, bitcoin’s acceptance and use by banks is relatively uncommon and may never become mainstream. Indeed, a number of companies and individuals engaged in bitcoin have been unable to find banks or financial institutions that are willing to provide them with banking services.

Similarly, a number of companies and individuals or businesses associated with bitcoin may have had and may continue to have their existing banking services discontinued with financial institutions in response to government action. We also may be unable to obtain or maintain these services for our business. The difficulty that many businesses that provide bitcoin have and may continue to have in finding banks and financial institutions willing to provide them services may be decreasing the usefulness of bitcoin as a payment system and harming public perception of cryptocurrencies, and could decrease bitcoin’s usefulness and harm its public perception in the future.

The public perception of bitcoin could be damaged if banks or financial institutions were to close the accounts of businesses engaging in bitcoin. This could occur as a result of compliance risk, cost, government regulation or public pressure. The risk applies to securities firms, clearance and settlement firms, national stock and derivatives on commodities exchanges, the over-the-counter market and the Depository Trust Company. The adoption or implementation of similar policies, rules or regulations by these or similar entities could negatively affect our relationships with financial institutions and impede our ability to convert bitcoin to fiat currencies. Such factors could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

As a result of the volatility of the price of bitcoin, the cryptocurrency industry has experienced increased credit pressures that could result in additional demands for credit support by third parties or decisions by banks, investors or other companies to reduce or eliminate their exposure to bitcoin and the cryptocurrency industry as a whole, including us. These credit pressures could materially and adversely impact our liquidity.

Our business is heavily dependent on the spot price of bitcoin. The prices of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, have experienced substantial volatility, meaning that high or low prices may be based on speculation and incomplete information, may be subject to rapidly changing investor sentiment, and may be influenced by factors such as technology, regulatory void or changes, fraudulent actors, manipulation, and media reporting.

An ongoing depressed bitcoin price could result further in, increased credit pressures on the cryptocurrency industry, generally. These credit pressures include banks, investors and other companies reducing or eliminating their exposure to the cryptocurrency industry. While many of these pressures are directed to the cryptocurrency industry in general, such pressures in the future could adversely impact our liquidity if we need to restructure or refinance our indebtedness or sell equity or debt securities.

We are subject to counterparty risk with respect to our bitcoin custodians, Coinbase Prime, Foundry and Blockchain.com.

We use Coinbase Prime, Foundry and Blockchain.com to act as custodians for our mined bitcoin. Our bitcoin custodied with each of Coinbase Prime, Foundry and Blockchain.com are not “deposits” within the meaning of U.S. federal or state banking law, and thus balances of digital assets held in our custodian accounts are not subject to FDIC or Securities Investor Protection Corporation protections. The nature of digital assets means that any technological difficulties experienced by any of Coinbase Prime, Foundry and Blockchain.com may prevent us from accessing or using our bitcoin custodied with Coinbase Prime, Foundry and Blockchain.com. Only Coinbase Prime, Foundry or Blockchain.com holds the private keys to wallets associated with our balances, and no one at GRIID has access to these wallets’ private keys. A loss of such private keys relating to, or hack or other compromise of, these digital wallets would adversely affect our ability to access or sell our bitcoin. No physical, operational and cryptographic system for the secure storage of private keys is completely secure, and loss or theft due to operational or other failure of Coinbase Prime’s, Foundry’s or Blockchain.com’s operations is always possible. While we believe that our agreements with each of Coinbase Prime, Foundry and Blockchain.com provide our business with reasonable protections for our operations and the safe storage of our bitcoin, we make no assurances that storing our bitcoin with each of Coinbase Prime, Foundry and Blockchain.com is free from risk. To the best of our knowledge, each of Coinbase Prime, Foundry and Blockchain.com stores our bitcoin in segregated accounts pursuant to agreements we have with each of them. However, if any of Coinbase Prime, Foundry and Blockchain.com were to breach our agreements and comingle our bitcoin with bitcoin of others, our bitcoin could be compromised. Additionally, if any of Coinbase Prime, Foundry and Blockchain.com were to cease operations, declare insolvency or file for bankruptcy, there is a reasonable risk that recovery of our assets would be delayed or unrecoverable despite the fact that our assets are kept in segregated accounts. Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings by FTX, Celsius and other digital asset market participants have raised issues concerning ownership of the digital assets held by such digital asset market participants, the outcome of which is still largely unsettled. Even if it were finally determined that the

customer owns the assets on deposit, the custodian may be unable to return the customers assets in kind because of intermingling of assets and other factors. If Coinbase Prime, Foundry or Blockchain.com were to become subject to Chapter 11 bankruptcy, there is a risk that our assets held might not be recovered in full or in part.

We may temporarily store our bitcoin on digital asset trading platforms which could subject our bitcoin to the risk of loss or access.

Although we sell our mined bitcoin from time to time, we may temporarily store all or a portion of our bitcoin on various digital asset trading platforms which requires us to rely on the security protocols of these trading platforms to safeguard our bitcoin. No security system is perfect and trading platforms have been subject to hacks resulting in the loss of businesses’ and customers’ digital assets in the past. Such trading platforms may not be well capitalized and may not have adequate insurance necessary to cover any loss or may not compensate for loss where permitted under the laws of the relevant jurisdiction. In addition, malicious actors may be able to intercept our bitcoin when we transact in or otherwise transfer our bitcoin or while we are in the process of selling our bitcoin via such trading platforms. Digital asset trading platforms have been a target for malicious actors in the past, and given the growth in their size and their relatively unregulated nature, we believe these trading platforms may continue to be targets for malicious actors. An actual or perceived security breach or data security incident at the digital asset trading platforms with which we have accounts could harm our ability to operate, result in loss of our assets, damage our reputation and negatively affect the market perception of our effectiveness, all of which could adversely affect the value of our securities.

The IRS and certain states have taken the position that digital assets are property for income tax purposes.

In early 2014, the IRS issued basic guidance on the U.S. federal income tax treatment of digital assets. The IRS has taken the position that a digital asset is “property” rather than “currency” for tax purposes. Thus, general tax principles applicable to property transactions apply to the acquisition, ownership, use or disposition of digital assets. This overall treatment creates a potential tax liability for, and potential tax reporting requirements applicable to us in any circumstance where we mine or otherwise acquire, own or dispose of a digital asset. In 2019, the IRS issued additional guidance specifically relating to the U.S. federal income tax consequences that could arise from a digital asset hard fork event in which a new unit of digital asset may or may not be received, and released frequently asked questions to address certain digital asset topics such as basis, gain or loss on the sale or exchange of certain kinds of digital assets, and how to determine the fair market value of such digital assets.

There is no guarantee that the IRS will not alter its position with respect to the taxation of digital assets, or that legislation or judicial determinations in the future will not result in a tax treatment of digital assets and transactions in digital assets for U.S. federal and state tax purposes that differs from the treatment described above. You are urged to consult your own tax advisor as to the tax implications of our acquisition, ownership, use and disposition of digital assets. The taxation of digital assets for state, local or foreign tax purposes may not be the same as the taxation of digital assets for U.S. federal income tax purposes.

In addition, under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act”), as of January 1, 2018, “like-kind exchange” treatment is not available for an exchange of digital assets. Accordingly, gain from the sale or exchange of digital assets cannot be deferred by undertaking an exchange of one type of virtual currency for another.

Certain states, including New York and Tennessee, generally follow IRS guidance with respect to the treatment of digital assets for state income tax purposes, but it is unclear if other states will do so. Transactions involving digital assets for other goods and services also may be subject to sales and use or similar taxes under barter transaction treatment or otherwise. The treatment of digital assets for state income tax and sales tax purposes may have negative consequences, including the imposition of a greater tax burden on investors in digital assets or a higher cost with respect to the acquisition, ownership and disposition of digital assets generally. In either case, this could have a negative effect on prices in the relevant digital asset exchange market and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Foreign jurisdictions also may elect to treat digital assets in a manner that results in adverse tax consequences. If a foreign jurisdiction with a significant share of the market of digital asset owners or users imposes onerous tax burdens on such owners or users, or imposes sales, use or value added tax on purchases and sales of digital assets for fiat currency, demand for digital assets may decrease in such jurisdiction. This may negatively impact the price of digital assets. This in turn may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Changes to, or changes to interpretations of, the U.S. federal, state, local or non-U.S. tax laws could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

All statements contained herein concerning U.S. federal income tax (or other tax) consequences are based on existing law and interpretations thereof. The tax regimes to which we are subject or under which we operate, including income and non-income taxes, are unsettled and may be subject to significant change. While some of these changes may be beneficial, such changes could also negatively affect our after-tax returns. Accordingly, no assurance can be given that the currently anticipated tax treatment will not be affected by legislative, judicial or administrative changes, possibly with retroactive effect. In addition, no assurance can be given that tax authorities or courts will agree with any particular interpretation of the relevant laws.

State, local or non-U.S. jurisdictions could enact or adopt new tax laws or regulations that may affect us, or impose levies on our business operations or results. Tax laws and regulations at the state and local levels frequently change, especially in relation to the interpretation of existing tax laws for new and emerging industries, and we cannot always reasonably predict the impact from, or the ultimate cost of compliance with, current or future taxes, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Related to Regulations and Regulatory Frameworks

Regulatory changes or actions may restrict the use of bitcoin in a manner that adversely affects our business, prospects or operations.

Bitcoin has been the source of much regulatory consternation, resulting in differing definitional outcomes without a single unifying statement. Bitcoin is viewed differently by different regulatory and standards setting organizations globally as well as in the United States on the federal and state levels. For example, the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”) and the IRS consider bitcoin as currency or an asset or property. Further, the IRS applies general tax principles that apply to property transactions to transactions involving virtual currency. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) classifies bitcoin as a commodity. The SEC has also publicly stated that it considers bitcoin to be a commodity, but that some digital assets should be categorized as securities. How a digital asset such as bitcoin is characterized by a regulator impacts the rules that apply to activities related to that digital asset.

As bitcoin has grown in both popularity and market size, governments around the world have reacted differently. Certain governments have deemed bitcoin illegal or have severely curtailed the use of digital assets by prohibiting the acceptance of payment in bitcoin and other digital assets for consumer transactions and barring banking institutions from accepting deposits of bitcoin. Other nations, however, allow bitcoin to be used and traded without restriction. In some jurisdictions, such as in the U.S., bitcoin is subject to extensive, and in some cases overlapping, unclear and evolving regulatory requirements. There is a risk that relevant authorities in any jurisdiction may impose more onerous regulation on bitcoin, for example banning its use, regulating its operation, or otherwise changing its regulatory treatment. Such changes may introduce a cost of compliance, or have a material impact on our business model, and therefore our financial performance and shareholder returns. If the use of bitcoin is made illegal in jurisdictions where bitcoin is currently traded in heavy volumes, the available market for bitcoin may contract.

Digital asset trading platforms may also be subject to increased regulation and there is a risk that increased compliance costs are passed through to users, including us, as we exchange bitcoin earned through our mining activities. There is a risk that a lack of stability in the bitcoin exchange market and the closure or temporary shutdown of bitcoin exchanges due to fraud, business failure, hackers or malware, or government-mandated restrictions may reduce confidence in the bitcoin network and result in greater volatility in or suppression of bitcoin’s value and consequently have an adverse impact on our operations and financial performance.

In the U.S., the Federal Reserve Board, U.S. Congress and certain U.S. agencies (e.g., the CFTC, the SEC, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Treasury Department (“FinCEN”) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation) have begun to examine the operations of the bitcoin network, bitcoin users and the bitcoin exchange market. Increasing regulation and regulatory scrutiny may result in new costs for us and our management team membersmay have to devote increased time and attention to regulatory matters or change aspects of our business. Increased regulation may also result in limitations on the use cases of bitcoin. In addition, regulatory developments may require us to comply with certain regulatory regimes. For example, to the extent that our activities cause us to be deemed a “money service business” under the regulations promulgated by FinCEN under the authority of the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”), we may be required to comply with FinCEN regulations, including those that would mandate us to implement certain anti-money laundering programs, make certain reports to FinCEN and maintain certain records.

Furthermore, in the future, foreign governments may decide to subsidize or in some other way support certain large-scale bitcoin mining projects, thus adding hashrate to the overall network. Such circumstances could have a material adverse effect on the amount of bitcoin that we may be able to mine as well as the value of bitcoin and, consequently, our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.

We cannot be certain as to how future regulatory developments will impact the treatment of bitcoin under the law, and ongoing and future regulation and regulatory actions could significantly restrict or eliminate the market for or uses of bitcoin and materially and adversely impact our business. If we fail to comply with such additional regulatory and registration requirements, we may seek to cease certain of our operations or be subjected to fines, penalties and other governmental action. Such circumstances could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our business model at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any digital assets we plan to hold or expect to acquire for our own account.

The bitcoin economy is novel and subject to the public perception that it may be used to facilitate illegal activities or fraud. Such novelty and public perception may result in new and changing laws and regulations, which may impact the value of bitcoin and adversely impact our business.

As bitcoin and other digital assets have grown in both popularity and market size, various U.S. federal, state, and local and foreign governmental organizations and public advocacy groups have been examining the operations of bitcoin networks, users and platforms, with a focus on how bitcoin can be used to launder the proceeds of illegal activities or fund criminal or terrorist enterprises, as well as the safety and soundness of platforms and other service providers that hold bitcoin and other digital assets for users.

Many of these governmental organizations and public advocacy groups have called for heightened regulatory oversight and issued advisories describing the risks posed by bitcoin to users and investors. The bitcoin economy is novel and has little access to policymakers and lobbying organizations in many jurisdictions. Competitors from other, more established industries, including traditional financial services, may have greater access to lobbyists or governmental officials, and regulators that are concerned about the potential for illicit usage of bitcoin and other digital assets may effect statutory and regulatory changes with minimal input from the bitcoin economy. As a result, new laws and regulations may be proposed and adopted in the United States and internationally, or existing laws and regulations may be interpreted in new ways, that could harm the bitcoin and digital asset industry, which could adversely impact our business.

We are subject to a highly evolving regulatory landscape and any adverse changes to, or our failure to comply with, any laws and regulations could adversely affect our business, reputation, financial condition and results of operations.

Until recently, little regulatory attention has been directed toward bitcoin by U.S. federal and state governments, foreign governments and self-regulatory agencies. As bitcoin has grown in popularity and in market size, the U.S. regulatory regime — namely the Federal Reserve Board, U.S. Congress and certain U.S. agencies — have begun to examine the operations of the bitcoin network, bitcoin users and the bitcoin exchange market. The complexity and evolving nature of our business and the significant uncertainty surrounding the regulation of the cryptocurrency industry requires us to exercise our judgment as to whether certain laws, rules, and regulations apply to us, and it is possible that governmental bodies and regulators may disagree with our conclusions. To the extent we do not comply with such laws, rules, and regulations, we could be subject to significant fines, revocation of licenses, limitations on our products and services, reputational harm, and other regulatory consequences, each of which may be significant and could adversely affect our business, reputation, financial condition and results of operations.

Additionally, the bankruptcy filings of FTX and its affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research LLC, in addition to other bankruptcy filings of crypto companies throughout 2022 and 2023 will likely attract increased regulatory scrutiny from U.S. regulatory agencies such as the SEC and CFTC. Increasing regulation and regulatory scrutiny may result in new costs for us and our management having to devote increased time and attention to regulatory matters, change aspects of our business or result in limits on the utility of bitcoin. In addition, regulatory developments and/or our business activities may require us to comply with certain regulatory regimes. Increasingly strict legal and regulatory requirements and any regulatory investigations and enforcement may result in changes to our business, as well as increased costs, and supervision and examination for ourselves and our service providers. Moreover, new laws, regulations or interpretations may result in additional litigation, regulatory investigations and enforcement or other actions. Adverse changes to, or our failure to comply with, any laws and regulations, may have an adverse effect on our reputation and brand and our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Additionally, although we are not directly connected to the bankruptcy filings of FTX and its affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research LLC, in addition to other bankruptcy filings of crypto companies throughout calendar year 2022 and 2023, we may still suffer reputational harm due to our association with the cryptocurrency industry in light of the recent disruption in the crypto asset markets. Ongoing and future regulation and regulatory actions could significantly restrict or eliminate the market for or uses of bitcoin and/or may adversely affect our business, reputation, financial condition and results of operations.

We may be at a higher risk of litigation and other legal proceedings due to heightened regulatory scrutiny of the cryptocurrency industry, which could ultimately be resolved against us, requiring material future cash payments or charges, which could impair our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The size, nature and complexity of our business could make it susceptible to various claims, both in litigation and binding arbitration proceedings, legal proceedings and government investigations, due to the heightened regulatory scrutiny following the recent disruptions in the crypto asset markets. We believe that since cryptocurrency mining, and the digital asset industry generally, is a relatively new business sector, it is more likely subject to government investigation and regulatory determination, particularly following the bankruptcy filings of FTX and its affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research LLC, in addition to other bankruptcy filings of crypto companies throughout 2022 and 2023. Any claims, regulatory proceedings or litigation that could arise in the course of our business could have a material adverse effect on our business or operations, or the industry as a whole.

Blockchain technology may expose us to specially designated nationals or blocked persons or cause us to violate provisions of law.

We are subject to the rules enforced by OFAC, including regarding sanctions and requirements not to conduct business with persons named on its specially designated nationals list. However, because of the pseudonymous nature of blockchain transactions, we may inadvertently and without our knowledge engage in transactions with persons named on OFAC’s specially designated nationals list, which may expose us to regulatory sanctions and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business and financial condition may be materially adversely affected by increased regulation of energy sources.

Our bitcoin mining activities are powered primarily by renewable energy sources. While renewable energy generally is less exposed to carbon pricing and underlying commodity price risks of fossil fuels, there is a risk that regulatory constraints placed on energy intense industries may restrict the operation of, or increase the cost of operating, data centers and bitcoin mining activities. Additionally, although we target markets with high levels of renewable energy penetration and our energy is primarily sourced from renewable sources, we currently rely on non-renewable energy sources for approximately 26% of our data center energy needs. Governmental authorities have and may continue to pursue and implement legislation and regulation that seeks to limit the amount of carbon dioxide produced from electricity generation, which, in the event any of our data centers are powered by non-renewable energy sources, would affect our ability to source electricity from fossil fuel-fired electric generation in a potentially material adverse manner. For example, in November 2022, New York passed a law banning certain bitcoin mining operations that run on carbon-based power sources. For the next two years, unless a company engaged in proof-of-work mining, such as ours, which requires sophisticated gear and large amounts of electricity, uses 100% renewable energy, it will not be allowed to expand or renew permits, and new entrants will not be allowed to come online. Potential increases in costs arising from compliance and environmental monitoring may adversely affect our operations and financial performance.

If we were deemed an “investment company” under the 1940 Act, applicable restrictions could make it impractical for us to continue our business as contemplated and could have a material adverse effect on our business.

An issuer will generally be deemed to be an “investment company” for purposes of the 1940 Act if:

We believe that we are not and will not be primarily engaged in the business of investing, reinvesting or trading in securities, and we do not hold ourselves out as being engaged in those activities. We intend to hold ourselves out as a bitcoin mining business. Accordingly, we do not believe that we are an “orthodox” investment company as described in the first bullet point above.

Furthermore, while certain cryptocurrencies may be deemed to be securities, we do not believe that certain other cryptocurrencies, in particular bitcoin, are securities. Our mining activities currently focus on bitcoin, which we believe should not be treated as an investment security for purposes of the 1940 Act. Therefore, we believe that less than 40% of our total assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis will comprise certain other cryptocurrencies or assets that could be considered investment securities. Accordingly, we do not believe that we are an inadvertent investment company by virtue of the 40% inadvertent investment company test as described in the second bullet point above. However, although the SEC and courts are providing increasing guidance on the treatment of digital assets for purposes of federal securities law, this continues to be an evolving area of law. Previous statements by the SEC that bitcoin should not be considered a security are not official policy statements by the

SEC and reflect only the speakers’ views, which are not binding on the SEC or any other agency or court. Therefore, it is possible that the SEC or a court could take a position that bitcoin constitutes an investment security for purposes of the 1940 Act, which might require us to register as an investment company.

If we were to be deemed an inadvertent investment company, we may seek to rely on Rule 3a-2 under the 1940 Act, which allows an inadvertent investment company a grace period of one year from the earlier of (a) the date on which the issuer owns securities and/or cash having a value exceeding 50% of the issuer’s total assets on either a consolidated or unconsolidated basis or (b) the date on which the issuer owns or proposes to acquire investment securities having a value exceeding 40% of the value of such issuer’s total assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. We are putting in place policies that we expect will work to keep the investment securities held by us at less than 40% of our total assets, which may include acquiring assets with our cash, liquidating our investment securities or seeking no-action relief or exemptive relief from the SEC if we are unable to acquire sufficient assets or liquidate sufficient investment securities in a timely manner. As Rule 3a-2 is available to an issuer no more than once every three years, and assuming no other exclusion were available to us, we would have to keep within the 40% limit for at least three years after we cease being an inadvertent investment company. This may limit our ability to make certain investments or enter into joint ventures that could otherwise have a positive impact on our earnings. In any event, we do not intend to become an investment company engaged in the business of investing and trading securities.

Finally, we believe we are not an investment company under Section 3(b)(1) of the 1940 Act because we are primarily engaged in a non-investment company business.

The 1940 Act and the rules thereunder contain detailed parameters for the organization and operations of investment companies. Among other things, the 1940 Act and the rules thereunder limit or prohibit transactions with affiliates, impose limitations on the issuance of debt and equity securities, prohibit the issuance of stock options, and impose certain governance requirements. We intend to continue to conduct our operations so that we will not be deemed to be an investment company under the 1940 Act. However, if anything were to happen that would cause us to be deemed to be an investment company under the 1940 Act, requirements imposed by the 1940 Act, including limitations on our capital structure, ability to transact business with affiliates and ability to compensate key employees, could make it impractical for us to continue our business as currently conducted, impair the agreements and arrangements between and among us and our senior management team. Compliance with the requirements of the 1940 Act applicable to registered investment companies may make it difficult for us to continue our current operations or our operations as a company that is engaged in the business of developing data center infrastructure and in activities related to bitcoin mining, and this would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we were required to register as an investment company but failed to do so, the consequences could be severe. Among the various remedies it may pursue, the SEC may seek an order of a court to enjoin us from continuing to operate as an unregistered investment company. In addition, all contracts that we have entered into in the course of our business, including securities that we have offered and sold to investors, will be rendered unenforceable except to the extent of any equitable remedies that might apply. An affected investor in such case may pursue the remedy of rescission.

Any change in the interpretive positions of the SEC or its staff with respect to cryptocurrencies or digital asset mining firms could have a material adverse effect on us.

We intend to conduct our operations so that we are not required to register as an investment company under the 1940 Act. Specifically, we do not believe that bitcoin is a security. The SEC staff has not provided guidance with respect to the treatment of digital assets under the 1940 Act. To the extent the SEC staff publishes new guidance with respect to these matters, we may be required to adjust our strategy or assets accordingly. There can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain our exclusion from registration as an investment company under the 1940 Act. In addition, continuously seeking to avoid the need to register under the 1940 Act may limit our ability to engage in cryptocurrency mining operations or otherwise make certain investments, and willthese limitations could result in our holding assets we may wish to sell or selling assets we may wish to hold, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If regulatory changes or interpretations of our activities require us to register under the regulations promulgated by FinCEN under the authority of the BSA, or otherwise under state laws, we may incur significant compliance costs, which could be substantial or cost-prohibitive. If we become subject to these regulations, our costs in complying with them may have a material negative effect on our business and the results of its operations.

Cryptocurrencies are treated as “money” by FinCEN, and businesses engaged in the transfer of money or other payments services are subject to registration and licensure requirements at the U.S. federal level and also under U.S. state laws. While FinCEN has issued guidance that cryptocurrency mining, without engagement in other activities, generally does not commitrequire registration and licensure with FinCEN, this could be subject to change as FinCEN and other regulatory agencies continue their fullscrutiny of the bitcoin

network and digital assets generally. To the extent that our business activities cause us to be deemed a “money services business” under the regulations promulgated by FinCEN under the authority of the BSA, we may be required to comply with FinCEN regulations, including those that would mandate us to implement anti-money laundering programs, make certain reports to FinCEN and maintain certain records.

To the extent that our activities would cause us to be deemed a “money transmitter” (“MT”) or equivalent designation, under state law in any state in which we may operate, we may be required to seek a license or otherwise register with a state regulator and comply with state regulations that may include the implementation of anti-money laundering programs, maintenance of certain permissible investments in relation to the customer funds that we hold, recordkeeping and other operational requirements. For example, in August 2015, the New York State Department of Financial Services enacted the first U.S. regulatory framework for licensing participants in “virtual currency business activity.” The regulations, known as the “BitLicense,” are intended to focus on consumer protection and regulate the conduct of businesses that are involved in “virtual currencies” in New York or with New York customers and prohibit any person or entity involved in such activity to conduct activities without a license.

Such additional federal or state regulatory obligations may cause us to incur extraordinary expenses. Furthermore, we may not be capable of complying with certain federal or state regulatory obligations applicable to money services businesses and MTs. If we are deemed to be subject to and determine we are not able to comply with such additional regulatory and registration requirements, we may act to dissolve and liquidate.

The application of the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”) and the regulations promulgated thereunder by the CFTC to our business is unclear and is subject to change in a manner that is difficult to predict. To the extent we are deemed to be or subsequently become subject to regulation by the CFTC in connection with our business activities, we may incur additional regulatory obligations and compliance costs, which may be significant.

The CFTC has stated and judicial decisions involving CFTC enforcement actions have confirmed that bitcoin and other digital assets fall within the definition of a “commodity” under the CEA, and the regulations promulgated by the CFTC thereunder (“CFTC Rules”). As a result, the CFTC has general enforcement authority to police against manipulation and fraud in the spot markets for bitcoin and other digital assets. From time to time, manipulation, fraud and other forms of improper trading by other participants involved in the markets for bitcoin and other digital assets have resulted in, and may in the future result in, CFTC investigations, inquiries, enforcement action, and similar actions by other regulators, government agencies and civil litigation. Such investigations, inquiries, enforcement actions and litigation may cause negative publicity for bitcoin and other digital assets, which could adversely impact mining profitability.

In addition to the CFTC’s general enforcement authority to police against manipulation and fraud in spot markets for bitcoin and other digital assets, the CFTC has regulatory and supervisory authority with respect to commodity futures, options, and/or swaps (“Commodity Interests”) and certain transactions in commodities offered to retail purchasers on a leveraged, margined, or financed basis. Although we do not currently engage in such transactions, changes in our affairs,activities, the CEA, CFTC Rules, or the interpretations and guidance of the CFTC may subject us to additional regulatory requirements, licenses and approvals which could result in significant increased compliance and operational costs.

Furthermore, trusts, syndicates and other collective investment vehicles operated for the purpose of trading in Commodity Interests may be subject to regulation and oversight by the CFTC and the National Futures Association (“NFA”) as “commodity pools”. If our mining activities or transactions in bitcoin and other digital assets were deemed by the CFTC to involve Commodity Interests and the operation of a commodity pool for our shareholders, we could be subject to regulation as a commodity pool operator and required to register as such. Such additional registrations may result in increased expenses, thereby materially and adversely impacting an investment in our securities. If we determine it is not practicable to comply with such additional regulatory and registration requirements, we may seek to cease certain of our operations. Any such action may adversely affect an investment in our business.

While we are not aware of any provision of the CEA or CFTC Rules currently applicable to the mining of bitcoin and other digital assets, this is subject to change. We cannot be certain how future changes in legislation, regulatory developments, or changes in CFTC Rules, interpretations and policy may impact the treatment of digital assets and the mining of digital assets. Any resulting requirements that apply to or relate to our mining activities or our transactions in bitcoin and digital assets may cause us to incur additional extraordinary, non-recurring expenses, thereby materially and adversely impacting an investment in our securities.

Bitcoin’s status as a conflict“security” in any relevant jurisdiction is subject to a high degree of interest in allocating their time betweenuncertainty and if we are unable to properly characterize bitcoin, we may be subject to regulatory scrutiny, investigations, fines and other penalties, which may adversely affect our operationsbusiness, operating results and financial condition. Furthermore, a determination that bitcoin is a “security” may adversely affect the value of bitcoin and our searchbusiness.

The SEC and its staff have taken the position that certain digital assets fall within the definition of a “security” under the U.S. federal securities laws. The legal test for determining whether any given digital asset is a security is a highly complex, fact-driven analysis that may evolve over time, and the outcome is difficult to predict. The SEC generally does not provide advance guidance or confirmation on the status of any particular digital asset as a security. Furthermore, the SEC’s views in this area have evolved over time and it is difficult to predict the direction or timing of any continuing evolution. It is also possible that a change in the governing administration or the appointment of new SEC commissioners could substantially impact the views of the SEC and its staff.

Public statements made by some senior officials at the SEC indicate that the SEC does not intend to take the position that bitcoin and Ethereum (as currently offered and sold) are securities under the federal securities laws. However, such statements are not official policy statements by the SEC and reflect only the speakers’ views, which are not binding on the SEC or any other agency or court and cannot be generalized to any other digital asset. As of the date of this Annual Report, with the exception of certain centrally issued digital assets that have received “no-action” letters from the SEC staff, bitcoin and Ethereum are the only digital assets which senior officials at the SEC have publicly stated are unlikely to be considered securities. With respect to all other digital assets, there is no certainty under the applicable legal test that such assets are not securities, notwithstanding the conclusions we may draw based on our risk-based assessment regarding the likelihood that a particular digital asset could be deemed a security under applicable laws.

Any enforcement action by the SEC or any international or state securities regulator asserting that bitcoin is a security, or a court decision to that effect, would be expected to have an immediate material adverse impact on the trading value of bitcoin, as well as our business. This is because the business combinationmodels behind most digital assets are incompatible with regulations applying to transactions in securities. If a digital asset is determined or asserted to be a security, it is likely to become difficult or impossible for the digital asset to be traded, cleared or custodied through the same channels used by non-security digital assets, which in addition to materially and adversely affecting the trading value of the digital asset is likely to significantly impact its liquidity and market participants’ ability to convert the digital asset into U.S. dollars and other currencies.

The regulatory regime governing bitcoin is uncertain, and new regulations or policies may alter our business practices with respect to bitcoin.

The determination as to whether bitcoin is a security is a fact-driven analysis and the outcome may be difficult to predict. While we have determined that we do not offer digital securities, the SEC could take a position that bitcoin mined by us are deemed “securities” under its definition and interpretation. We have policies and procedures in place that are intended to enable it to make a risk-based assessment regarding the likelihood that a bitcoin could be deemed a security under applicable laws. These policies and procedures are not legal determinations as to whether or not bitcoin is a security under federal securities laws nor are they binding on regulators. These policies and procedures include (1) internally evaluating whether a digital asset is included in the lists of instruments making up the definition of “security” in the Securities Act, the Exchange Act and the 1940 Act, (2) communicating with our general counsel, outside counsel, and other advisors, and (3) following recent SEC guidance on whether a digital asset, specifically bitcoin, falls within the definition of a “security” under the U.S. federal securities laws. We believe that our process reflects a comprehensive and thoughtful analysis and is reasonably designed to facilitate consistent application of available legal guidance to bitcoin to facilitate informed risk-based business judgment. However, we recognize that the application of securities laws to the specific facts and circumstances of bitcoin may be complex and subject to change, and that our listing determination does not guarantee any conclusion under the U.S. federal securities laws. The SEC has not made any statement as to whether the bitcoin that we mine are or are not digital securities. There is no certainty that bitcoin is not a security, notwithstanding the conclusions drawn based on our risk-based assessment. We could be subject to legal or regulatory action in the event a regulatory authority or court were to determine that a bitcoin that we mine is a security under applicable laws.

There can be no assurances that we will properly characterize bitcoin as a security or non-security, or that the SEC, other regulatory authorities, or a court, if the question was presented to it, would agree with our assessment. If the SEC, other regulatory authority, or a court were to determine that the bitcoin that we mine is a security, we would not be able to mine such bitcoin until we are able to do so in a compliant manner.

If bitcoin is deemed to be a security under any U.S. federal, state or foreign jurisdiction, or in a proceeding in a court of law or otherwise, it may have adverse consequences for bitcoin, and we could be subject to legal or regulatory action. Moreover, the networks on which bitcoin are utilized may be required to be regulated as securities intermediaries, and subject to applicable rules, which could effectively render the network impracticable for its existing purposes. Further, it could draw negative publicity and a

decline in the general acceptance of bitcoin. Also, it may make it difficult for bitcoin to be mined, traded, cleared, and custodied as compared to other digital assets that are not considered to be securities.

As bitcoin and cryptocurrency business activities grow in popularity and market size, and as new cryptocurrency businesses and technologies emerge and proliferate, foreign, federal, state, and local regulators can be expected to revisit and update their laws and policies. Changes in this regulatory environment, including changing interpretations and the implementation of new or varying regulatory requirements by the government, may significantly affect or change the manner in which we currently conduct some aspects of our business.

We are subject to governmental regulation and other businesses.legal obligations related to data privacy, data protection and information security. If we are unable to comply with these, we may be subject to governmental enforcement actions, litigation, fines and penalties or adverse publicity.

We collect and process data, including personal, financial and confidential information about individuals, including our employees and business partners. The collection, use, processing and storage of such data about individuals are governed by data privacy laws, regulations, guidelines and rules. We do not intend tocurrently have any full-time employees priorformal data privacy policies and procedures in place and have not completed an assessment of whether we are in compliance with all applicable data privacy laws and regulations. Data privacy laws and regulations are complex, continue to evolve, and on occasion may be inconsistent between jurisdictions leading to uncertainty in interpreting such laws and it is possible that these laws, regulations and requirements may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our existing information processing practices, and many of these laws are significantly litigated and/or subject to regulatory enforcement. The implication of this includes that various federal, state and foreign legislative or regulatory bodies may enact or adopt new or additional laws and regulations concerning data privacy, data retention, data transfer and data protection. Such laws may continue to add to our compliance costs, restrict or dictate how we collect, maintain, combine and disseminate information and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.

In the United States, according to the completionFederal Trade Commission (“FTC”), failure to take appropriate steps to keep consumers’ personal information secure constitutes unfair acts or practices in or affecting commerce in violation of Section 5(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45(a). The FTC expects a company’s data security measures to be reasonable and appropriate in light of the sensitivity and volume of consumer information it holds, the size and complexity of its business, and the cost of available tools to improve security and reduce vulnerabilities. Individually identifiable health information is considered sensitive data that merits stronger safeguards. State privacy and security laws vary from state to state and, in some cases, can impose more restrictive requirements than U.S. federal law. For example, California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) on June 28, 2018, which went into effect on January 1, 2020. The CCPA creates individual privacy rights for California consumers and increases the privacy and security obligations of entities handling certain personal data. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that is expected to increase data breach litigation. The CCPA may increase our compliance costs and potential liability, and many similar laws have been proposed and/or enacted in other states and at the federal level.

Any actual or perceived failure by us or the third parties with whom we work to comply with data privacy laws, regulations, guidelines, rules or industry standards, or any security incident that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of personally identifiable information, may result in governmental enforcement actions and investigations including by U.S. federal and state regulatory authorities, fines and penalties, litigation and/or adverse publicity, including by consumer advocacy groups, and could cause our customers to lose trust in us, which could harm our reputation and have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.

Due to the unregulated nature and lack of transparency surrounding the operations of many bitcoin trading venues, they may experience fraud, security failures or operational problems, which may adversely affect the value of our initialbitcoin holdings.

Bitcoin trading venues are relatively new and, in some cases, unregulated. Furthermore, there are many bitcoin trading venues which do not provide the public with significant information regarding their ownership structure, management teams, corporate practices and regulatory compliance. As a result, the marketplace may lose confidence in bitcoin trading venues, including prominent exchanges that handle a significant volume of bitcoin trading.

Negative perception, a lack of stability in the broader bitcoin markets and the closure or temporary shutdown of bitcoin trading venues due to fraud, business combination. Eachfailure, hackers or malware or government-mandated regulation may reduce confidence in bitcoin and result in greater volatility in the prices of bitcoin. To the extent investors view our securities as linked to the value of our officersbitcoin holdings, these potential consequences of a bitcoin trading venue’s failure could have a material adverse effect on the market value of our securities.

We are subject to environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, including applicable zoning and building codes, that may expose us to significant liabilities for penalties, damages or costs of remediation or compliance.

Our operations and properties are subject to laws and regulations governing health and safety, the discharge of pollutants into the environment or otherwise relating to health, safety and environmental protection requirements in the countries and localities in which we operate. These laws and regulations may impose numerous obligations that are applicable to us, including acquisition of a permit or other approval before conducting construction or regulated activities; limitation or prohibition of construction and operating activities in environmentally sensitive areas, such as wetlands or areas with endangered plants or species; imposition of specific health and safety standards addressing worker protection; imposition of certain zoning building code standards for the sites at which we operate; and imposition of significant liabilities for pollution, including investigation, remedial and clean-up costs. Failure to comply with these requirements may expose us to fines, penalties and/or interruptions in our operations, among other sanctions, that could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations and cash flows. Certain environmental laws may impose strict, joint and several liability for costs required to clean up and restore sites where hazardous substances have been disposed or otherwise released into the environment, even under circumstances where the hazardous substances were released by prior owners or operators or the activities conducted and from which a release emanated complied with applicable law. Failure to secure renewal of permits or tightening of restrictions within our existing permits, or the failure to meet the zoning and building code standards imposed by regulations applicable to our sites, could have a material adverse effect on our business or cause us to incur material expenses. Moreover, it is engagednot uncommon for neighboring landowners and other third parties to file claims for personal injury and property damage allegedly caused by noise or the release of hazardous substances into the environment.

The trend in several other business endeavors for which heenvironmental regulation has been to place more restrictions and limitations on activities that may be entitledperceived to substantial compensationimpact the environment, and thus there can be no assurance as to the amount or timing of future expenditures for environmental regulation compliance or remediation. New or revised laws and regulations that result in increased compliance costs or additional operating restrictions, or the incurrence of environmental liabilities, could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations and cash flows.

The regulatory and legislative developments related to climate change, may materially adversely affect our brand, reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.

A number of governments or governmental bodies have introduced or are contemplating legislative and regulatory changes in response to the increasing focus on climate change and its potential impact, including from governmental bodies, interest groups and stakeholders. Despite our sustainability objectives in sourcing electricity from renewable energy sources, given the very significant amount of electrical power required to operate bitcoin mining machines, as well as the environmental impact of mining for the rare earth metals used in the production of mining servers, the bitcoin mining industry may become a target for future environmental and energy regulation. Legislation and increased regulation regarding climate change could impose significant costs on us and our officerssuppliers, including costs related to increased energy requirements, capital equipment, environmental monitoring and reporting, costs to purchase renewable energy credits or allowances and other costs to comply with such regulations. Specifically, imposition of a tax or other regulatory fee in a jurisdiction where we operate or on electricity that we purchase could result in substantially higher energy costs, and due to the significant amount of electrical power required to operate bitcoin mining machines, could in turn put our facilities at a competitive disadvantage. Any future climate change regulations could also negatively impact our ability to compete with companies situated in areas not subject to such limitations.

Given the political significance and uncertainty around the impact of climate change and how it should be addressed, we cannot predict how legislation and regulation will affect our financial condition, operating performance and ability to compete. Furthermore, even without such regulation, increased awareness and any adverse publicity in the global marketplace about potential impacts on climate change by us or other companies in our industry could harm our reputation. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position and results of operations.

Concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and global climate change may result in environmental taxes, charges, assessments or penalties and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The effects of human activity on global climate change have attracted considerable public and scientific attention, as well as the attention of the United States and other foreign governments. Efforts are not obligatedbeing made to contributereduce greenhouse gas emissions, particularly those from coal combustion power plants, some of which plants we may rely upon for power. The added cost of any specific numberenvironmental taxes, charges, assessments or penalties levied on such power plants could be passed on to us, increasing the cost to run our facilities. Any enactment of hours per weeklaws or promulgations of regulations regarding greenhouse gas emissions by the United States, or any domestic or foreign jurisdiction in which we conduct business, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Increasing scrutiny and changing expectations from investors, lenders, customers, government regulators and other market participants with respect to our affairs. The conflictsEnvironmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) policies may impose additional costs on us or expose us to additional risks.

Certain institutional investors, investor advocacy groups, investment funds, creditors and other influential financial markets participants have become increasingly focused on companies’ ESG practices in evaluating their investments and business relationships, including the impact of interestbitcoin mining operations on the environment. Certain organizations also provide ESG ratings, scores and benchmarking studies that assess companies’ ESG practices. Although there are no universally adopted standards for such ratings, scores or benchmarking studies, they are used by some investors to inform their investment and voting decisions. It is possible that our future shareholders or organizations that report on, rate or score ESG practices will not be satisfied with our ESG strategy or performance. Unfavorable press about or ratings or assessments of our ESG strategies or practices, regardless of whether or not we comply with applicable legal requirements, may lead to negative investor sentiment toward us, which could have a negative impact on our abilitystock price and our access to completeand cost of capital.

Additionally, in February 2021, the Acting Chair of the SEC issued a statement directing the Division of Corporation Finance to enhance its focus on climate-related disclosure in public company filings and in March 2021 the SEC announced the creation of a Climate and ESG Task Force in the Division of Enforcement. The increased focus and activism related to ESG may hinder our initialaccess to capital, as investors and lenders may reconsider their capital investment allocation as a result of their assessment of our ESG practices. If we do not adapt to or comply with investor, lender or other industry shareholder expectations and standards and potential government regulations, which are evolving but may relate to the suitable deployment of electric power, or which are perceived to have not responded appropriately to the growing concern for ESG issues, our reputation could suffer which would have a material adverse effect on our business, combination.financial condition and results of operations.

Our compliance and risk management methods might not be effective and may result in outcomes that could adversely affect our reputation, operating results and financial condition.

Our ability to successfully effectcomply with applicable complex and evolving laws, regulations and rules is largely dependent on the establishment and maintenance of our initial business combinationcompliance, audit and reporting systems, as well as our ability to attract and retain qualified compliance and other risk management personnel. We cannot assure you that our policies and procedures will be effective or that we will be successful thereafter willin monitoring or evaluating the risks to which we are or may be totally dependent upon the effortsexposed in all market environments or against all types of risks, including unidentified or unanticipated risks. Our risk management policies and procedures rely on a combination of technical and human controls and supervision that are subject to error and failure. Some of our key personnel, somemethods for managing risk are discretionary by nature and are based on internally developed controls and observed historical market behavior, and also involve reliance on standard industry practices. These methods may not adequately prevent losses, particularly as they relate to extreme market movements, which may be significantly greater than historical fluctuations in the market. Our risk management policies and procedures also may not adequately prevent losses due to technical errors if our testing and quality control practices are not effective in preventing failures. In addition, we may elect to adjust our risk management policies and procedures to allow for an increase in risk tolerance, which could expose us to the risk of whom may join us following our initial business combination. The loss of key personnel could negatively impactgreater losses.

Risks Related to Intellectual Property

If we are unable to protect the operations and profitabilityconfidentiality of our post-combination business.trade secrets or other intellectual property rights, our business and competitive position could be harmed.

Our ability to successfully effectconduct our business combination is dependentin a profitable manner relies in part on our proprietary methods and designs, which we primarily protect as trade secrets. We rely upon trade secret and other intellectual property laws, physical and technological security measures and contractual commitments to protect our trade secrets and other intellectual property rights, including entering into non-disclosure agreements with employees, consultants and third parties with access to our trade secrets. However, such measures may not provide adequate protection and the effortsvalue of our key personnel. The roletrade secrets could be lost through misappropriation or breach of our key personnelconfidentiality agreements. For example, an employee with authorized access may misappropriate our trade secrets and provide them to a competitor, and the recourse we take against such misconduct may not provide an adequate remedy to protect our interests fully, because enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret can be difficult, expensive and time consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. Thus, if any of our trade secrets were to be disclosed or misappropriated, our competitive position could be harmed. In addition to the risk of misappropriation and unauthorized disclosure, our competitors may develop similar or better methods independently in a manner that could prevent legal recourse by us, which could result in costly product redesign efforts, discontinuance of certain product offerings or other competitive harm. Furthermore, any of our intellectual property rights could be challenged, invalidated, circumvented, infringed, diluted, disclosed or misappropriated and adequate legal recourse may be unavailable. Thus, there can be no assurance that our trade secrets or other intellectual property rights will be sufficient to protect against competitors operating their business in a manner that is substantially similar to us.

We may infringe on third-party intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our commercial success depends on our ability to operate without infringing third-party intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights. For example, there may be issued patents of which we are not aware that our services or products infringe on. Also, there may be patents we believe we do not infringe on, but that we may ultimately be found to by a court of law or government regulatory agency. Moreover, patent applications are in some cases maintained in secrecy until patents are issued. Because patents can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending applications of which we are unaware that may later result in issued patents that our services or products allegedly infringe on.

Third parties could accuse us of misappropriating their trade secrets. Any claims of patent infringement or trade secret misappropriation, even claims without merit, could be costly and time-consuming to defend and could require us to divert resources away from operations. In addition, if any third party has a meritorious or successful claim that we are infringing their intellectual property, we may be forced to redesign our operations or secure a license from such third parties, which may be costly or impractical. We also may be subject to significant damages or injunctions that may cause a material adverse effect to our business and operations, if we cannot license or develop an alternative for any infringing aspect of its business, and may result in a material loss in revenue, which could adversely affect the trading price of our shares and harm our investors.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Securities

A market for our securities may not continue, which would adversely affect the liquidity and price of our securities.

The price of our securities may fluctuate significantly due to the market’s reaction to the Merger and general market and economic conditions. An active trading market for our securities may never develop or, if developed, it may not be sustained. In addition, the price of our securities can vary due to general economic conditions and forecasts, our general business condition and the release of our financial reports. Additionally, if our securities are not listed on, or become delisted from The Nasdaq Global Market or Cboe Canada for any reason, the liquidity and price of our securities may be more limited than if we were quoted or listed on The Nasdaq Global Market or Cboe Canada, or another securities exchange. You may be unable to sell your securities unless a market can be established or sustained.

The market price of our common stock may be volatile.

Fluctuations in the target business, however, cannot presentlyprice of our securities could contribute to the loss of all or part of your investment. Immediately prior to the Merger, there had not been a public market for GRIID’s securities and trading in the shares of Adit’s common stock had not been active. Accordingly, the valuation ascribed to GRIID’s and Adit’s common stock in the Merger may not be ascertained. Althoughindicative of the price of our common stock. As a result, the trading price of our securities could be volatile and subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our key personnelcontrol. Any of the factors listed below could have a material adverse effect on your investment in our securities and our securities may remaintrade at prices significantly below the price you paid for them. In such circumstances, the trading price of our securities may not recover and may experience a further decline.

Factors affecting the trading price of our securities may include:

Broad market and industry factors may materially harm the market price of our securities irrespective of our operating performance. The stock market in general has experienced price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of the particular companies affected such as continued industry-wide fallout from the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings of FTX, including its affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research LLC, crypto hedge fund Three Arrows and crypto lenders Celsius, Voyager, BlockFi and Genesis, as well as the many risk factors listed in this Annual Report. The market price of our common stock could be subject to extreme volatility and fluctuations in response to recent industry-wide developments beyond our control. Although we do not have any direct exposure to any of the cryptocurrency market participants that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, including FTX and Genesis, Genesis is owned by Digital Currency Group Inc., who also owns Foundry, one of our custodians. Currently we believe that we are not subject to any material risks arising from our indirect exposure to Genesis. We also have no direct exposure to any of the cryptocurrency market participants who are known to have experienced suspended withdrawals or have crypto assets of their customers unaccounted for, and we do not have any assets, material or otherwise, that may not be recovered due to these bankruptcies or excessive or suspended redemptions. Even though GRIID did not have, and we do not have, direct exposure to any of the events described above, the price of our securities may still not be immune to unfavorable investor sentiment resulting from these recent developments in the broader cryptocurrency industry.

Additionally, the trading price of our securities may be increasingly correlated to the trading prices of bitcoin. Bitcoin companies’ stocks have shown volatility relative to bitcoin. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency market prices, which have historically been volatile and are impacted by a company regulatedvariety of factors (including those discussed herein), are determined primarily using data from various exchanges, over-the-counter markets and derivative platforms. As noted elsewhere herein, while we do not have any direct exposure to the cryptocurrency market participants that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the failure or insolvency of such participants may cause the price of bitcoin to fall and decrease confidence in the cryptocurrency industry, which could negatively impact our stock price. Furthermore, such prices may be subject to factors such as those that impact commodities, more so than business activities, which could be subjected to additional influence from fraudulent or illegitimate actors, real or perceived scarcity, and political, economic, regulatory or other conditions. Pricing may be the result of, and may continue to result in, speculation regarding future appreciation in the value of bitcoin, or our stock price, inflating and making their market prices more volatile.

In the past, securities class action litigation has often been initiated against companies following periods of volatility in their stock price. This type of litigation could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention and resources, and could also require us to make substantial payments to satisfy judgments or to settle litigation.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish, or cease publishing, research or reports about us, our business, or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our common stock adversely, then the price and trading volume of our common stock could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the SEC, which could causeresearch and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about us, our business, our market, or our competitors. If no securities or industry analysts commence coverage of us, our stock price and trading volume would likely be negatively impacted. If any of the analysts who may cover us change their recommendation regarding our stock adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, the price of our common stock would likely decline.

We may be unable to haveobtain additional financing to expend timefund our operations and resources helping them become familiar with such requirements.growth.

The role of an acquisition candidate’s key personnel uponWe may require additional financing to fund our operations or growth. While Adit and GRIID entered into the GEM Agreement to provide further liquidity to us after the completion of the Merger, there can be no guarantee that we will be able to secure additional financing on favorable terms, or at all. To the extent that cash on hand and cash generated from operations are not sufficient to fund capital requirements, or if we do not meet the conditions to sell shares to GEM Global under the GEM Agreement, we may require proceeds from asset sales, additional debt, equity financing or alternative financing structures. However, the opportunity to sell assets, obtain additional debt, equity financing, or access capital through other financing structures may not be available to us, whether due to negative investor sentiment from the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings of various cryptocurrency market participants, including Genesis, FTX, BlockFi, Celsius, Voyager and Three Arrows, or adverse geopolitical or economic conditions, or, if available, may not be available on satisfactory terms. Additionally, our initialcredit agreement may restrict our ability to obtain such financing. If we are unable to obtain additional capital, we may be forced to reduce or delay capital expenditures or change its business combination cannotstrategy, sell assets or restructure or refinance its indebtedness, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business or financial condition None of our officers, directors or stockholders is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after the Merger.

With the limited exceptions of the services performed under the HDP Agreement and the Mining Services Agreement as defined and described elsewhere in this Annual Report, we will mine only bitcoin solely for its own account (without customers or counterparties). We will not hold crypto assets on behalf of third parties or any customers and has no direct exposure (whether through deposits or otherwise) to any cryptocurrency market participants that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy or are known to have experienced excessive redemptions, suspended redemptions or have crypto assets of their customers unaccounted for. Additionally, our business in the commercial optimization of power is unaffected by the recent crypto industry market events. However, negative investor sentiment regarding the cryptocurrency industry at large may make it difficult for us to obtain additional financing on terms that are acceptable, or at all, which could affect our liquidity.

Changes in laws, regulations or rules, or a failure to comply with any laws, regulations or rules, may adversely affect our business, investments and results of operations.

We are subject to laws, regulations and rules enacted by national, regional and local governments, and The Nasdaq Global Market and Cboe Canada. In particular, we are required to comply with certain SEC, The Nasdaq Global Market, Cboe Canada and other legal or regulatory requirements. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws, regulations and rules may be ascertained at this time. Althoughdifficult, time consuming and costly. Those laws, regulations or rules and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws, regulations or rules, as interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

The Warrants may never be in the money, may be exercised on a “cashless” basis, or may expire worthless and therefore we contemplatemay not receive cash proceeds from the exercise of warrants.

We will receive up to an aggregate of approximately $242.3 million from the exercise of the Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants, assuming the exercise in full of all of such warrants for cash. We will receive up to an aggregate of approximately $8,391,234 from the exercise of the GEM Warrant, assuming the exercise in full of such warrant for cash. To the extent that certain membersthe Public Warrants, Private Placement Warrants and GEM Warrant are exercised on a “cashless” basis, we will not receive any proceeds from the exercise of an acquisition candidate’s management teamsuch warrants. We expect to use the net proceeds from the exercise of the Warrants, if any, for working capital and general corporate purposes. We will remainhave broad discretion over the use of proceeds from the exercise of the Warrants. However, there is no assurance that the holders of our Warrants will elect to exercise any or all of such Warrants. The cash proceeds associated with the exercises of the Warrants are dependent on the stock price inasmuch as the holders are unlikely to exercise their Warrants if the exercise price thereof is less than the price of our common stock at the time of exercise. In that circumstance, such holder may be less likely to exercise their Warrants as such holder would be selling at a loss if they exercised their Warrants and sold their common stock. Accordingly, we have not included the net proceeds from any exercise of the Warrants in our assessment of our

liquidity and our ability to fund operations on a prospective basis. Our future capital requirements and the adequacy of available funds will depend on many factors, including those set forth under “Risk Factors” elsewhere in this Annual Report.

We may amend the terms of the Public Warrants and the Private Placement Warrants in a manner that may be adverse to holders with the approval by the holders of at least a majority of the then-outstanding Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants. As a result, the exercise price of a holder’s warrants could be increased, the exercise period could be shortened and the number of shares of our common stock purchasable upon exercise of such a warrant could be decreased, all without the approval of that warrant holder.

Our Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants are issued in registered form under the amended and restated warrant agreement with Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company (the “warrant agreement”). The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval by the holders of at least a majority of the then-outstanding Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders. Accordingly, we may amend the terms of the Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants in a manner adverse to a holder if holders of at least a majority of the then-outstanding Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants approve of such amendment. Although our ability to amend the terms of the Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants with the consent of at least a majority of the then-outstanding Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of shares of common stock purchasable upon exercise of a Public Warrant or Private Placement Warrant.

We will have broad discretion over the use of proceeds from the exercise of Warrants, if any, and we may invest or spend the proceeds, if any, in ways with which investors do not agree and in ways that may not yield a return.

We will have broad discretion over the use of proceeds, if any, from the exercises of Warrants, if any. Investors may not agree with our decisions, and our use of the proceeds may not yield a return on investment. We intend to use these net proceeds for working capital and other general corporate purposes, which may include research and development, general and administrative matters and capital expenditures. However, the cash proceeds associated with the exercises of the Warrants are dependent on the stock price inasmuch as the holders are unlikely to exercise their Warrants if the exercise price thereof is less than the price of our common stock at the time of exercise. In that circumstance, such holder may be less likely to exercise their Warrants as such holder would be selling at a loss if they exercised their Warrants and sold their common stock. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds for the acquisition candidate followingof, or investment in, complementary companies, products, services, technologies or assets. However, we have no current understandings, commitments or agreements to enter into any such acquisitions or make any such investments. Our use of these proceeds may differ substantially from our current plans. Our failure to apply the net proceeds from the exercises of Warrants effectively could impair our ability to pursue our growth strategy or could require us to raise additional capital.

As a result of the closing of the Merger, warrants became exercisable for our common stock, which, upon exercise, would increase the number of shares eligible for future resale in the public market and result in dilution to our stockholders.

We issued warrants to purchase 13,800,000 shares of common stock as part of our initial business combination, it is possible that memberspublic offering and, on the initial public offering closing date, we issued warrants to Adit EdTech Sponsor, LLC ("the Sponsor") and our initial stockholders to purchase 7,270,000 shares of our common stock, in each case with a strike price of $11.50 per share. Such warrants became exercisable 30 days after the closing of the Merger.

We are entitled to draw down up to $200 million of gross proceeds from GEM Global in exchange for newly issued shares of our common stock at a price equal to 92% of the average closing bid price of our shares of our common stock on the Principal Market (as defined in the GEM Agreement) for a 30 trading-day period, subject to meeting the terms and conditions of the GEM Agreement. This facility is available for a period of 36 months from the closing date of the Merger. The limitations on the amount and frequency of the draws that we can make under the GEM Agreement, which include the requirement that (i) there be an effective registration statement covering the common stock to be issued under GEM Agreement and (ii) offering size restrictions relating to our trading volume, may affect the ability to draw under the GEM Agreement. Therefore, the proceeds, if any, under the GEM Agreement may be less than anticipated. As of the date of this Annual Report, we have drawn down on an aggregate of $4.3 million under the GEM Agreement.

Under the GEM Agreement, we are obligated to pay GYBL a commitment fee of $4 million, payable in cash or shares, and issue a warrant to GYBL exercisable for 1,733,726 shares of our common stock.

Issuances of our common stock pursuant to the GEM Agreement and exercises, if any, of the Warrants will result in dilution in equity ownership to the then-existing holders of our common stock and an increase in the number of shares eligible for resale in the

public market. Sales of substantial numbers of such shares in the public market could adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

Anti-takeover provisions contained in our charter, as well as provisions of Delaware law, could impair a takeover attempt.

Our charter contains provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that stockholders may consider to be in their best interests. We are also subject to anti-takeover provisions under Delaware law, which could delay or prevent a change of control. Together, these provisions may make more difficult the removal of management and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities. These provisions will include:

Our charter contains a provision renouncing our interest and expectancy in certain corporate opportunities.

Our charter provides that the doctrine of corporate opportunity, or any other analogous doctrine, will not wishapply with respect to remain in place. The loss of key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitabilityany of our post-combination business.

Certain membersofficers or directors in circumstances where the application of our management team are now, and any of them may in the future become, affiliatedsuch doctrine would conflict with entities engaged in business activities similar to those intended to be conducted by us and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in allocating their time and determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented.

Until we consummate our initial business combination, we intend to engage in the business of identifying and combining with one or more businesses. Members of our management team are, and may in the future become, affiliated with entities that are engaged in a similar business. Our management team members also may become aware of business opportunities which may be appropriate for presentation to us and the other entities to which they owe certainany fiduciary duties or contractual duties.

Accordingly,obligations they may have conflictsas of interest the date of the filing of the charter with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware or

in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity should be presented. These conflicts may not be resolved in our favor and a potential target business may be presented to another entity prior to its presentation to us.the future. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporationcharter also provides that we renounce our interest in anythe doctrine of corporate opportunity offeredwill not apply to any directorother corporate opportunity with respect to any of our directors or officerofficers unless such corporate opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of our company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue.

For These provisions of the charter create the possibility that a complete discussioncorporate opportunity of ours may be used for the benefit of our officers’ directors’ and industry advisors’ business affiliations and the potential conflicts, please see “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance - Conflictsrelated parties.

The provision of Interest” and “Item 12. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence.”

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Our officers, directors, industry advisors, security holders and their respective affiliates may have competitive pecuniary interests that conflict with our interests.

We have not adopted a policy that expressly prohibits our directors, officers, industry advisors, security holders or affiliates from having a direct or indirect pecuniary or financial interest in any investment to be acquired or disposed of by us or in any transaction to which we are a party or have an interest. In fact, we may enter into a business combination with a target business that is affiliated with our initial stockholders, officers, directors, industry advisors or their affiliates although we do not currently intend to do so. We do not have a policy that expressly prohibits any such persons from engaging for their own account in business activities of the types conducted by us. Accordingly, such persons or entities may have a conflict between their interests and ours.

We may engage in a business combination with one or more target businesses that have relationships with entities that may be affiliated with our Sponsor, initial stockholders, officers, directors, industry advisors or their affiliates which may raise potential conflicts of interest.

We may decide to acquire one or more businesses affiliated with our Sponsor, initial stockholders, officers, directors, industry advisors or their affiliates. Although we will not be specifically focusing on, or targeting, any transaction with any affiliated entities, we would pursue such a transaction if we determined that such a transaction was attractive andcharter requiring exclusive forum in the best interests of our stockholders and such a transaction was approved by a majority of our independent and disinterested directors. Despite our agreement to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or from another independent entity that commonly renders valuation opinions regarding the fairness of such a transaction, potential conflicts of interest still may exist and, as a result, the terms of the business combination may not be as advantageous to our public stockholders as they would be absent any conflicts of interest.

Since our Sponsor and our management team will lose their entire investment in us if our business combination is not completed, a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination.

On October 23, 2020, we issued an aggregate of 5,750,000 founder shares for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000. On January 11, 2021, we effected a stock dividend of 1,150,000 shares with respect to our common stock, and as a result, our Sponsor currently holds 6,832,500 founder shares, each of our independent directors currently holds 10,000 founder shares, and each of our industry advisors currently holds 7,500 founder shares, such that our initial stockholders own an aggregate of 6,900,000 founder shares. The number of founder shares was determined based on the expectation that such founder shares would represent 20% of our issued and outstanding shares of common stock after the IPO. The founder shares will be worthless if we do not complete an initial business combination. In addition, in connection with our IPO, our Sponsor purchased an aggregate of 7,270,000 private placement warrants, each exercisable for one share of common stock at $11.50 per share, for a purchase price of $7,270,000, or $1.00 per warrant, that will also be worthless if we do not complete a business combination. In addition, we may obtain loans from our initial stockholders, officers, directors, industry advisors or their affiliates which likely would not be repaid if we do not consummate an initial business combination. The personal and financial interests of our management team may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business combination, completing an initial business combination and influencing the operation of the business following the initial business combination.

Our management may not be able to maintain control of a target business after our initial business combination.

We anticipate only completing a business combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target sufficient for us not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. Even if the post-transaction company owns 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our stockholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post business combination company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination transaction. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new shares of common stock in exchange for all of the outstanding capital stock of a target. In this case, we would acquire a 100% interest in the target. However,

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as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new shares of common stock, our stockholders immediately prior to such transaction could own less than a majority of our outstanding shares of common stock subsequent to such transaction. In addition, other minority stockholders may subsequently combine their holdings resulting in a single person or group obtaining a larger share of the company’s stock than we initially acquired. Accordingly, this may make it more likely that our management will not be able to maintain our control of the target business. We cannot provide assurance that, upon loss of control of a target business, new management will possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to profitably operate such business.

Risks Relating to Our Securities

If we were deemed to be an “investment company” under the Investment Company Act, we may be required to institute burdensome compliance requirements and our activities may be restricted, which would make it difficult for us to complete the Merger or any other business combination.

We completed our IPO in January 2021. Since we are a blank check company, the efforts of our board of directors and management since the completion of our IPO have been focused on searching for a target business with which to consummate an initial business combination and, since November 29, 2021, on the consummation of the Merger.

On March 30, 2022, the SEC issued proposed rules (the “SPAC Rule Proposals”), which include proposals relating to the circumstances in which SPACs such as us could be subject to the Investment Company Act, and the regulations thereunder. The SPAC Rule Proposals would provide a safe harbor from one prong of the definition of “investment company” under Section 3(a)(1)(A) of the Investment Company Act for a SPAC satisfying certain conditions that limit a SPAC’s duration, asset composition, business purpose and activities. To comply with the duration limitation of the proposed safe harbor, a SPAC would have a limited time period to announce and complete a de-SPAC transaction. Specifically, the SPAC Rule Proposals would require a company to file a report on Form 8-K announcing that it has entered into an agreement with a target company for an initial business combination no later than 18 months after the effective date of the SPAC’s IPO registration statement. The SPAC also would need to complete its initial business combination no later than 24 months after the effective date of the IPO registration statement.

There is currently uncertainty concerning the applicability of the Investment Company Act to a SPAC, including a SPAC like us, that may not complete its initial business combination within 24 months from the effective date of its IPO registration statement. It is possible that a claim could be made that we have been operating as an unregistered investment company. If we were deemed to be an investment company for purposes of the Investment Company Act, we might be forced to abandon our efforts to complete an initial business combination and instead be required to liquidate. If we are required to liquidate, our investors would not be able to realize the benefits of owning stock in a successor operating business, such as any appreciation in the value of our common stock and warrants following such a transaction, our warrants would expire worthless and shares of our common stock would have no value apart from their pro rata entitlement to the funds then-remaining in the trust account.

Following our IPO, the funds in the trust account were held only in U.S. government treasury obligations with a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds investing solely in U.S. government treasury obligations and meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act. However, to mitigate the risk of us being deemed to have been operating as an unregistered investment company (including under the subjective test of Section 3(a)(1)(A) of the Investment Company Act), we instructed Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, the trustee with respect to the trust account, to liquidate the U.S. government treasury obligations or money market funds held in the trust account and thereafter to hold all funds in the trust account in cash until the earlier of consummation of our initial business combination or liquidation. As a result, following such liquidation, we will likely receive minimal interest, if any, on the funds held in the trust account, which would reduce the dollar amount our public stockholders would receive upon any redemption or liquidation.

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If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, and if you or a “group” of stockholders are deemed to hold in excess of 15% of our common stock, you will lose the ability to redeem all such shares in excess of 15% of our common stock.

If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any other person with whom such stockholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from seeking redemption rights with respect to the Excess Shares. However, we would not be restricting our stockholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination. Your inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce your influence over our ability to complete our initial business combination and you could suffer a material loss on your investment in us if you sell Excess Shares in open market transactions. Additionally, you will not receive redemption distributions with respect to the Excess Shares if we complete our initial business combination. And as a result, you will continue to hold that number of shares exceeding 15% and, in order to dispose of such shares, would be required to sell your stock in open market transactions, potentially at a loss.

There can be no assurance that we will be able to comply with the continued listing standards of the NYSE American or any other exchange on which our securities may be listed in the future.

Our common stock, units and warrants are currently listed on the NYSE American..

Our eligibility for continued listing may depend on, among other things, the number of our shares that are redeemed and the resulting market capitalization, public float and number of round lot holders of our shares immediately after the Merger, each of which may drop below the required amount due to redemptions. If, in connection with the Merger or any other business combination, the NYSE American delists our common stock from trading on its exchange for failure to meet the listing standards, we and our stockholders could face significant material adverse consequences including:

The National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, prevents or preempts the states from regulating the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered securities.” To the extent our common stock, units, or warrants are listed on the NYSE American, they are covered securities. Although the states are preempted from regulating the sale of our securities, the federal statute does allow the states to investigate companies if there is a suspicion of fraud, and, if there is a finding of fraudulent activity, then the states can regulate or bar the sale of covered securities in a particular case. Certain state securities regulators view blank check companies unfavorably and might use these powers, or threaten to use these powers, to hinder the sale of securities of blank check companies in their states. Further, if we were no longer listed on the NYSE American, our securities would not be covered securities and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities.

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We may issue additional shares of common stock or preferred stock to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. Any such issuances would dilute the interest of our stockholders and likely present other risks.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes the issuance of up to 100,000,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, and 1,000,000 shares of undesignated preferred stock, par value $0.0001 per share. There are 65,500,000 authorized but unissued shares of common stock available for issuance. We may issue a substantial number of additional shares of common stock, and may issue shares of preferred stock to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. However, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides, among other things, that prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional shares of capital stock that would entitle the holders thereof to (i) receive funds from the trust account or (ii) vote on any initial business combination. The issuance of additional shares of common or preferred stock:

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation requires, subject to limited exceptions, that derivative actions brought in our name, actions against our directors, officers, other employees or stockholders for breach of fiduciary duty and other similar actions may be brought only in the Court of Chancerycourts in the State of Delaware for certain types of lawsuits may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers.

Our charter provides that, except for claims or causes of action brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Securities Act or Exchange Act, and unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, (i) any derivative action brought on behalf of us (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers, or employees or our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL, the charter or Amended and Restated Bylaws, or (iv) any action asserting a claim against us, our directors, officers or employees governed by the internal affairs doctrine and, if such actions are brought outside of the State of Delaware, the stockholder bringing the suit will be deemed to have consented to service of process on such stockholder’s counsel which may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors, officers, other employees or stockholders.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation requires, to the fullest extent permitted by law, that derivative actions brought in our name, actions against our directors, officers and employees for breach of fiduciary duty and certain other actions may be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware, except any action (A)(x) as to which the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware determines that there is an indispensable party not subject to the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery (and the indispensable party does not consent to the personal jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery within ten days following such determination), (B)(y) which is vested in the exclusive jurisdiction of a court or forum other than the Court of Chancery or (C)(z) for which the Court of Chancery does not have subject matter jurisdiction. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our capital stock shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to the forum provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation.

This choice of forum provision may make it more costly, or limit a stockholder’s ability, to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers or employees, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims. We cannot be certain that a court will decide that this provision is either applicable or enforceable, and if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that theThe exclusive forum provision will be applicabledescribed above does not apply to actions arising under the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, subject to certain exceptions.Exchange Act. Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder. As a result, the exclusive forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the federal district courts of the United States of America

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shall, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act, or the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder. We note, however, that there is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce this provision and that investors cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for statefederal and federalstate courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder.

We may amend There is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce a forum selection clause in connection with claims arising under the terms of the warrants in a manner that may be adverse to holders of warrants with the approval by the holders of at least a majority of the then outstanding warrants.

Our warrants are issued registered form under a warrant agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval by the holders of at least a majority of the then outstanding warrants (including the private placement warrants) to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders of IPO warrants. Accordingly, we may amend the terms of the warrants in a manner adverse to a holder if holders of at least a majority of the then outstanding warrants approve of such amendment. Although our ability to amend the terms of the warrants with the consent of at least a majority of the then outstanding warrants is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the warrants, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of shares of our common stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.

We may redeem unexpired IPO warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to the holder thereof.

We have the ability to redeem outstanding warrants issued in our IPO at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant, provided that the last reported sales price of our common stock equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, reorganizations, recapitalizationsSecurities Act and the likerules and for certain issuances of common stockregulations promulgated thereunder, and equity-linked securities as described herein) for any 20 trading days within a 30 trading-day period commencing once the warrants become exercisable and ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which we give proper notice of such redemption and provided certain other conditions are met. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws.

Redemption of the outstanding warrants could force the holder thereof (i) to exercise the holders warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for the holder to do so, (ii) to sell the holder’s warrants at the then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold the holder’s warrants or (iii) to accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding warrants are called for redemption, is likely to be substantially less than the market value of the warrants. None of the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us so long as they are held by the initial purchasers or their permitted transferees.

Our warrants may have an adverse effect on the market price of our common stock and make it more difficult to effectuate our business combination.

In our IPO, we issued warrants to purchase up to 13,800,000 shares of common stock as part of the units and issued private placement warrants to purchase an aggregate of 7,270,000 shares of common stock at $11.50 per share. In addition, if our Sponsor officers, directors, industry advisors, or their affiliates makes any working capital loans, up to $2,000,000 of such loans may be converted into warrants, at the price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants, including as to exercise price, exercisability and exercise period.

To the extent we issue shares of common stock to effectuate a business combination, the potential for the issuance of a substantial number of additional shares of common stock upon exercise of these warrants could make us a less attractive acquisition vehicle to a target business. Any such issuance will increase the number of issued and outstanding shares of our common stock and reduce the value of the shares of common stock issued to complete the

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business combination. Therefore, our warrants may make it more difficult to effectuate a business combination or increase the cost of acquiring the target business.

The grant of registration rights may make it more difficult to negotiate the terms of our initial business combination, and the future exercise of such rights may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

The initial holders of our sponsor shares and the purchasers of the private placement warrants and their permitted transferees can demand that we register their founder shares, private placement warrants and the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants held by them, as well as any warrants and underlying shares of common stock that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans. We will bear the cost of registering these securities. The registration and availability of such a significant number of securities for trading in the public market may have an adverse effect on the market price of our common stock. In addition, the existence of the registration rights may make negotiating the terms of our initial business combination more difficult. This is because the stockholders of the target business may increase the equity stake they seek in the combined entity or ask for more cash consideration to offset the negative impact on the market price of our common stock that may occur when the securities owned by our initial stockholders, holders of the private placement warrants or their respective permitted transferees are registered.

The provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation may be amended with the approval of holders of a majority of our common stock.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that its provisions may be amended by holders of a majority of our outstanding common stock entitled to vote thereon, subject to applicable provisions of the DGCL or applicable stock exchange rules. Our initial stockholders, who will collectively beneficially own up to 20% of our common stock, will participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and will have the discretion to vote in any manner it chooses. Our ability to amend the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation which govern our pre-business combination activity may increase our ability to complete a business combination with which you do not agree.

Our initialevent, stockholders will control a substantial interest in us and thus may influence certain actions requiring a stockholder vote.

Our initial stockholders own approximately 73.7% of our issued and outstanding shares of common stock. None of our Sponsor, officers, directors, industry advisors, initial stockholders or their affiliates has indicated to us any intention to purchase any units or shares of common stock from persons in the open market or in private transactions. However, our Sponsor, officers, directors, industry advisors, initial stockholders or their affiliates could determine in the future to make such purchases in the open market or in private transactions, to the extent permitted by law, in order to influence the vote or magnitude of the number of stockholders seeking to tender their shares to us. In connection with any vote for a proposed business combination, our initial stockholders, as well as all of our management team, have agreed to vote the shares of common stock owned by them in favor of such proposed business combination.

Our board of directors is divided into two classes, each of which will generally serve for a term of two years with only one class of directors being elected in each year. It is unlikely that there will be an annual meeting of stockholders to elect new directors prior to the consummation of a business combination, in which case all of the current directors will continue in office until at least the consummation of the business combination. Accordingly, you may not be able to exercise your voting rights under corporate law until after the applicable extension date. If there is an annual meeting, as a consequence of our “staggered” board of directors, only a minority of the board of directors will be considered for election and our initial stockholders, because of their ownership position, will have considerable influence regarding the outcome. Accordingly, our initial stockholders will continue to exert control at least until the consummation of a business combination.

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Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and Delaware law may inhibit a takeover of us, which could limit the price investors might be willing to pay in the future for our common stock and could entrench management.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation contains provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that stockholders may consider to be in their best interests. These provisions include a staggered board of directors and the ability of the board of directors to designate the terms of and issue new series of preferred shares. We are also subject to anti-takeover provisions under Delaware law, which could delay or prevent a change of control. Together these provisions may make the removal of management more difficult and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.

Section 203 of the DGCL affects the ability of an “interested stockholder” to engage in certain business combinations, for a period of three years following the time that the stockholder becomes an “interested stockholder.” We have elected in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation not to be subject to Section 203 of the DGCL. Nevertheless, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation contains provisions that have the same effect as Section 203 of the DGCL, except that it provides that affiliates of our Sponsor and their transferees will not be deemed to be “interested stockholders,” regardlesshave waived our compliance with the federal securities laws and the related rules and regulations.

Although we believe these exclusive forum provisions benefit us by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law, the percentage of our voting stock owned by them, and will therefore not be subject to such restrictions. These charterexclusive forum provisions may limit thea stockholder’s ability of third parties to acquire controlbring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our company.

General Risk Factors

We aredirectors, officers or stockholders, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims. Further, in the event a blank check companycourt finds the exclusive forum provision contained in the charter to be unenforceable or inapplicable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with no operating history and no revenues, and you have no basis onresolving such action in other jurisdictions, which to evaluate our ability to achievecould harm our business, objective.

We are a blank check company with no operating results. Because we lack an operating history, you have no basis upon which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective of completing our initial business combination with one or more target businesses. We may be unable to complete our initial business combination. If we fail to complete our initial business combination, we will never generate any operating revenues.

Past performance by Adit or its affiliates, including our management team, may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in ADEX or the surviving company.

Past performance by us, Adit, businesses associated with Adit, our management team or their respective affiliates is not a guarantee of future success. You should not rely on the historical record of Adit, businesses associated with Adit, our management team or their respective affiliates as indicative of the future performance of an investment in us or the surviving company or the returns we or the surviving company will, or are likely to, generate going forward.

Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any lawsresults and regulations, may adversely affect our business, investments and results of operations.

We are subject to laws and regulations enacted by national, regional and local governments. In particular, we will be required to comply with certain SEC and other legal requirements. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws and regulations may be difficult, time consuming and costly. Those laws and regulations and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations, as interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

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We are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company within the meaning of the Securities Act, and if we take advantage of certain exemptions from disclosure requirements available to emerging growth companies or smaller reporting companies, this could make our securities less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare our performance with other public companies.financial condition.

We are anThe JOBS Act permits “emerging growth company” within the meaning of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act, and we maycompanies” like us to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies.

We currently qualify as an “emerging growth company” as defined in Section 2(a)(19) of the Securities Act. As such, we take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limitedfor as long as we continue to not being required to comply withbe an emerging growth company, including: (i) the exemption from the auditor attestation requirements ofwith respect to internal control over financial reporting under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act,Act; (ii) the exemptions from say-on-pay, say-on-frequency and say-on-golden parachute voting requirements; and (iii) reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.statements. As a result, our stockholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important. We could bewill remain an emerging growth company for upuntil the earliest of (i) the last day of the fiscal year: (a) following January 11, 2026, the fifth anniversary of our initial public offering; (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.235 billion; or (c) in which we are deemed to five years, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier, including ifbe a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of any June 30 beforethe last business day of our prior second fiscal quarter, and (ii) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period.

In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that time, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company ascan take advantage of the following December 31. We cannot predict whether investors will find our securities less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions, the trading prices of our securities may be lower than they otherwise would be, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the trading prices of our securities may be more volatile.

Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companiesexemption from being required to complycomplying with new or revised financialaccounting standards provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act as long as it remains an emerging growth company. An emerging growth company can therefore delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards.companies. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies, but any such an election to opt out is irrevocable. We have elected not to opt outavail ourselves of such extended transition period, which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, we, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of our financial statements with another public company whichthat is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company whichthat has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accountantaccounting standards used.

We cannot predict if investors will find our securities less attractive because we arerely on these exemptions. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Rule 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market valueresult of our common stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $250 million as ofreliance on these exemptions, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the prior June 30th and our annual revenues exceeds $100 million during such completed fiscal year or (2) the market valueprice of our common stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th. To the extent we take advantage of such reduced disclosure obligations, itsecurities may also make comparison of our financial statements with other public companies difficultbe more volatile or impossible.lower.

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Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.

Not applicable.

Item 1C. Cybersecurity.

As a vertically integrated self-hosted and self-mining Bitcoin miner, the stability and security of GRIID's operating environment, the protection of our intellectual property, and the integrity and cybersecurity practices of strategic third parties are critical. GRIID's information security program is designed to detect, respond to, and manage reasonably foreseeable cybersecurity risks and threats. To protect our systems from cybersecurity threats, we use various security tools that help prevent, escalate, investigate, and recover from identified vulnerabilities and security incidents in a timely manner. We also maintain a third-party risk management program to identify, prioritize, assess, mitigate, and remediate third-party risks; however, we rely on the third parties we use to implement security programs commensurate with their risk and cannot guarantee their efforts will be successful in all circumstances.

We regularly assess risks from cybersecurity and technology threats and monitor our systems for potential vulnerabilities and exploit attempts. We use a widely adopted risk quantification model to identify, measure, and prioritize cybersecurity and technology risks and develop related security controls and safeguards. We take a risk-based approach to regular reviews and tests of our information security program and also leverage tabletop and other exercises to evaluate the effectiveness of our information security program and improve our security measures and planning.

Our systems periodically experience directed attacks intended to lead to interruptions and delays in our service and operations as well as loss, misuse, or theft of personal information (of third parties and employees) and other data, confidential information, or intellectual property. To date, we have not identified any cybersecurity threats that have materially affected or are reasonably likely to materially affect our business strategy, results of operations, or financial condition. However, despite our efforts, we cannot eliminate all risks from cybersecurity threats, or provide assurances that we have not experienced undetected cybersecurity incidents. For additional information about these risks, see Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" in this Annual Report.

The Vice President of Information Security leads our information security program. Our VP of Information Security has over 20 years of industry experience, including serving in similar roles leading and evolving cybersecurity programs at other public companies. Regular reports are provided to senior management and other relevant teams on various cybersecurity threats, assessments, and findings.

As a newly public company, GRIID's Board of Directors will oversee our annual enterprise risk assessment, where we assess key risks within the company, including security and technology risks and cybersecurity threats. This oversight will include regular discussions on various cybersecurity matters, including risk assessments, mitigation strategies, areas of emerging risks, incidents and industry trends, and other areas of importance.

Item 2. Properties.

Facilities

Our executive officesThe following table sets forth selected information concerning our principal facilities, as of December 31, 2023.

We believe our existing facilities are located at 1345 Avenuein good condition and suitable for the conduct of the Americas, 33rd Floor, New York, New York 10105. The cost for our use of any office space used by us, including this space, is included in the $10,000 per month fee we pay to our Sponsor or its affiliates for office space, utilities, secretarial support and administrative services. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.business.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings.

ToOn November 15, 2021, Washington County, Tennessee (the “County”) filed a complaint (Civil Action No. 21-CV-0664) (the “Zoning Complaint”) against Johnson City Energy Authority d/b/a BrightRidge (“BrightRidge”), alleging that Red Dog, as leasehold user of the property in Limestone, Tennessee owned by BrightRidge and subject to the Zoning Complaint, was in violation of County zoning rules by operating a blockchain verification data center on such property. The County sought an injunction of the operation by Red Dog of its blockchain verification data center on the property. BrightRidge subsequently filed a Motion to Dismiss for the failure to name a necessary party, Red Dog, as a defendant. On November 22, 2021, Red Dog filed a Motion to Intervene as a Party Defendant in connection with the Zoning Complaint.

On November 2, 2023, Red Dog, BrightRidge and the County entered into a settlement agreement pursuant to which: (i) Red Dog is allowed to operate its blockchain verification data center in Limestone, Tennessee through no later than March, 2026; (ii) Red Dog paid Washington County an upfront fine of $12,500 following entry of a court order dismissing the case; (iii) for each day that the blockchain verification data center continues to operate after entry of such order, Red Dog must pay Washington County $100, (iv) Red Dog will have 120 days from when it ceases operation to remove its equipment from the Limestone site; and (v) Red Dog and BrightRidge will pay for internet service for those Limestone residents that live near the Limestone site, splitting the expected cost of $150,000 evenly. On November 8, 2023, the Chancery Court for Washington County issued an order dismissing the case.

Except as set forth above, we are not involved in any legal proceedings that we believe could have a material adverse effect on our financial position or results of operations. There is no action, suit, proceeding, inquiry or investigation before or by any court, public board, government agency, self-regulatory organization or body pending or, to the knowledge of our management, there is no litigation currently pendingexecutive officers, threatened against or contemplated against us, any ofaffecting our Company or our officers or directors in their capacitycapacities as such or against any of our property.such.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.

Not applicable.

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PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.

Market Information

Our units, common stock trades on The Nasdaq Global Market and warrants are listed on NYSE AmericanCboe Canada under the symbols “ADEX.U,” “ADEX”ticker symbol “GRDI” and “ADEX.WS,” respectively.our Public Warrants trade on The Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol “GRDIW”.

Holders of Record of Our Common Stock

As of January 3, 2023,March 28, 2024 there were 560approximately 41 holders of record of our common stock.stock and two holders of record of our warrants. The actual number of stockholders is greater than this number of record holders and includes stockholders who are beneficial owners but whose shares are held in street name by brokers and other nominees.

DividendsDividend Policy

We have historically not declared or paid any cash dividends on our shares of common stock to datecapital stock. Any future determination regarding the declaration and do not intend to pay cash dividends prior to the completion of a business combination. The payment of cash dividends, in the futureif any, will be contingent upon our revenues and earnings, if any, capital requirements, and general financial condition subsequent to completion of a business combination. The payment of any dividends subsequent to a business combination will be withinat the discretion of our then board of directors. It is the present intention of our board of directors to retain all earnings, if any, for use inand will depend on then-existing conditions, including our financial condition, operating results, contractual restrictions, capital requirements, business operationsprospects, and accordingly,other factors our board does not anticipate declaring any dividends in the foreseeable future. Further, if we incur any indebtedness in connection withof directors may deem relevant.

Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans

Information about our initial business combination, our abilityequity compensation plans is incorporated herein by reference to declare dividends may be limited by restrictive covenants we may agree to in connection therewith.Part III, Item 12 of this Annual Report.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities; UseSecurities

Private Placement Warrants