Cipher’s Founding Backer Bitfury Raises $231 Million Against Its Stake and Starts Selling Shares

The Market Context in 60 Seconds

01 Bitfury, the bitcoin-mining infrastructure group founded by Valerijs Vavilovs and the largest shareholder of bitcoin miner Cipher Digital since it went public in 2021, used a run of Schedule 13D amendments to disclose that it raised $231.2 million against its Cipher stake through prepaid forward contracts, then began selling shares outright.
02 Through Vavilovs, the group still controls about 59.5 million shares, or 14.6% of Cipher's 409 million shares outstanding, after selling 1.8 million in early June and pledging another 12.9 million as collateral for the cash.
03 The money arrived in three variable prepaid forward contracts: $100.0 million on up to 5.68 million shares signed May 11, a further $50.0 million on up to 2.81 million shares on May 13, and $81.2 million on up to 4.43 million shares on May 15, then an outright sale of 1.8 million shares on June 3.
04 A variable prepaid forward hands the holder cash today in exchange for delivering a price-dependent number of shares on a future date, which lets Vavilovs take money off the table now, keep his Cipher votes, and defer the actual share delivery to 2027.
05 The contracts carry floor prices near $21.43 and caps near $32.71, so how many shares Cipher's founder finally parts with, and whether the June sale was a one-off, will hinge on where CIFR trades when the tranches settle from April through July 2027.

View SEC Filing →

How Bitfury Pulled Cash From Its Cipher Stake

Cash Raised

$231.2M in forwards plus a 1.8M-share sale

First Prepaid Forward

Cash up front against pledged shares, signed May 11, 2026

$100.0M

5.68M shares pledged

Second Prepaid Forward

A second forward on the same terms, signed May 13, 2026

$50.0M

2.81M shares pledged

Third Prepaid Forward

A larger forward by the main Bitfury entity, signed May 15, 2026

$81.2M

4.43M shares pledged

Open-Market Sale

The group’s first outright share sale, June 3, 2026

about $48M

1.8M shares sold, $26.62 average

What to watch

1. The three forwards settle in eighteen tranches between April 1 and July 29, 2027, with floor prices near $21.43 and caps near $32.71 a share. The number of Cipher shares Bitfury ultimately delivers, and how much of its 15% stake survives, depends on where CIFR trades on each settlement date.

2. The June 3 sale of 1.8 million shares was the group’s first outright disposal after the May forwards, executed at a volume-weighted $26.62 within a $25.82 to $28.25 range. The next Schedule 13D amendment or Form 4 will show whether Vavilovs keeps selling into the open market or lets the forwards carry the rest.

3. Cipher priced $810 million of senior secured notes on June 8, days after its founder began selling, while still operating as a roughly $9 billion bitcoin miner. Whether company borrowing and insider selling keep running in parallel is the backdrop against which every future filing will be read.

Verified as of June 15, 2026.