Rhodium Sold Temple Bitcoin Mine for $40M; co-CEO Departs

Rhodium Enterprises co-CEO Nathan Nichols has resigned as the Chapter 11 Bitcoin mining firm completed the sale of its Temple site in Texas for $40.6 million in cash.

In an email to investors last week, seen by TheEnergyMag, Rhodium announced that Nichols had decided to step down from his role, effective after the New Year. His resignation comes just weeks after Rhodium creditors filed a lawsuit against him and other co-founders, accusing them of fraud.

Rhodium also informed investors that the company had previously drawn $15 million of the $30 million debtor-in-possession financing from Galaxy Digital. Upon closing the Temple site sale on Dec. 18, it used $16 million of the proceeds to fully repay the Galaxy debt, including fees and interest.

Separately, Rhodium said in a release on Friday that it is set to resume miner colocation contracts at Riot’s Rockdale facility following what it described as a legal victory against the host.

Temple Green Data and Rowan Digital

Rhodium’s mining fleet was primarily hosted at Riot’s Whinstone facility in Rockdale, Texas, with the remaining hashrate at its proprietary Temple facility.

Rhodium filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August after defaulting on loans owed to investors as its mining operation was materially affected by the deteriorating relationships with Riot since 2023. The bankruptcy court later approved the auction of the Bitcoin mining assets at Rhodium’s Temple site.

Temple Green Data LLC, Rhodium’s landlord for the Temple site, won the bid to purchase Rhodium’s power agreements and infrastructure buildout for $40.6 million in cash, according to a court update on Nov 26. This amount includes a $35 million purchase price and the return of a $5.6 million security deposit.

Rhodium first entered into a data center lease with Temple Green in 2021, amending the agreement in 2022 to increase electrical capacity from 185 megawatts (MW) to 225 MW. By 2022, Rhodium had built out 50 MW of operating capacity at the Temple site, achieving a hashrate of 1.1 EH/s.

However, Temple Green Data, which is linked to data center developer Rowan Digital Infrastructure according to court filings, did not acquire the Bitcoin mining hardware at the facility.

Miners Back on in Rockdale

Notably, Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) also participated in the auction and was selected as the backup bidder. Riot’s data center subsidiary, Whinstone US, has been engaged in ongoing legal disputes with Rhodium over hosting and profit-sharing contracts.

Whinstone shut down and evicted Rhodium’s miners at its Rockdale facility late last year after issuing several notices of default, which Rhodium disputed.

In a court filing on Dec. 16, Judge Alfredo R. Pérez, who oversees Rhodium’s bankruptcy protection proceedings, ruled that none of Rhodium’s hosting contracts with Whinstone should have been superseded or terminated. The ruling stated:

“At a minimum, the Debtors [Rhodium] owe or will owe Whinstone the revenue share payments for 2024 and any other amounts due in the ordinary course. None of the payment defaults alleged in the 2024 Notice of Termination terminated the agreements between Debtors and Whinstone. The nonmonetary defaults alleged in [the] 2024 Notice of Termination were generally not material, were cured, or were not sufficiently specific to terminate the agreements.”

Rhodium said in a release that the ruling ensures the company can continue operating at Whintone’s Rockdale facility under the original contracts and “ends the landlord’s efforts to undermine the business.”