Tether-linked buyers close $200M Peak Mining deal

Peak Mining has quietly changed hands in a $200 million deal involving Tether insiders, again.This time, the crypto miner was sold by Northern Data, a German AI data center firm mostly owned by Tether, to a trio of companies run by the exact same people behind Tether. Northern Data made the deal public in November, confirming it sold its bitcoin mining unit, Peak Mining, for “up to $200 million.”U.S. filings later revealed the buyers: Highland Group Mining Inc., Appalachian Energy LLC, and 2750418 Alberta ULC. All three are tied straight back to the top of Tether’s food chain. British Virgin Islands records show Highland Group is controlled by Giancarlo Devasini, Tether’s co-founder and chairman, and Paolo Ardoino, the company’s CEO.A Canadian document lists Devasini as the sole director of Alberta ULC. Who runs Appalachian Energy? No one knows. It’s registered in Delaware, and no directors have been publicly listed.Tether executives sell Peak Mining to companies they runBack in August, Northern Data said it had a “nonbinding agreement” to sell Peak Mining to Elektron Energy, described as a privately held bitcoin miner. Guess who runs Elektron? Yep, Devasini again.That deal was priced higher, at $235 million, but never closed. Now, just months later, Peak Mining’s been offloaded to another set of firms under the same internal network.By the way, in September, prosecutors in Europe raided Northern’s offices in Germany and Sweden over allegations of tax fraud.Authorities are probing whether the company committed “large-scale VAT fraud,” possibly dodging over €100 million in taxes. Northern Data responded by blaming a “misunderstanding of tax treatment” related to its GPU cloud services and older crypto mining structures.“We believe we are in full compliance with international tax standards and have been co-operating with European authorities,” the crypto miner said at the time.Northern Data is listed on a regulated but unofficial German market, which means it’s required to report some company updates but doesn’t have to disclose related-party transactions like this one. So while the Peak Mining sale is legal, no one had to spell out that Tether execs were on both sides of the deal.Tether expands Rumble ties as Northern Data deal growsMeanwhile, this asset sale came just days before Tether-backed Rumble announced it would buy Northern Data in a $767 million deal. Tether already owns 48% of Rumble, the conservative video platform that also hosts President Donald Trump’s social media network.Once Rumble’s Northern Data purchase is completed, Tether plans to buy $150 million worth of GPU services from Rumble and has already signed a $100 million advertising deal with them.The financial web doesn’t stop there. Tether also loaned €610 million to Northern Data. Once Rumble finalizes its acquisition, half of that debt will be repaid in Rumble stock. The other half? It turns into a new loan from Tether to Rumble, secured against Northern Data’s assets.Northern Data’s biggest shareholders are Tether, its CEO, and another unnamed investor. Together, they control 72% of the company, which is valued at roughly €885 million.The second-largest shareholder is Christian Angermayer, known for investing in biotech and “steroid Olympics” projects. He recently moved from the UK to Lugano, the crypto-friendly Swiss city where Devasini and Ardoino also live.Devasini, who used to be a plastic surgeon and ran a food delivery business, is still Tether’s most powerful decision-maker, while Ardoino acts as the public face of the company. Together, they’re steering Tether’s money into mining, AI, social media, and back into their own ventures. Don’t just read crypto news. Understand it. Subscribe to our newsletter. It's free.