Ionic Digital Jumps 26% in Nasdaq Direct Listing
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- Ionic Digital shares opened at $50 on Nasdaq and closed at $62.90 on their debut Tuesday, a roughly 26% gain, giving the company a market capitalization of about $2.8 billion based on approximately 44.9 million shares outstanding.
- Ionic Digital completed a direct listing — not a traditional IPO — and Renaissance Capital said its $2.4 billion implied market value at Nasdaq's $53 reference price made it the largest US direct listing since 2021.
- Ionic Digital was formed in 2024 to acquire Celsius Mining's assets through bankrupt crypto lender Celsius's restructuring, and has since expanded into AI and high-performance computing infrastructure.
- Ionic Digital stock pared gains after the closing bell, falling 6.5% to $58.80 in after-hours trading, according to Yahoo Finance.
Why it matters: The Celsius bankruptcy estate is converting illiquid mining assets into publicly traded equity, and with a $2.8 billion debut valuation Ionic becomes the largest direct listing since 2021 — but the 6.5% after-hours slide signals that even Celsius creditors and Bitcoin-mining bulls may be debating whether the AI-infrastructure pivot justifies that premium.
