Hut 8 Settles Securities Class Action for $2.35M; Galaxy Invests in Digital Prime Technologies

ChainCatcher report, according to BBX data, two leading publicly traded cryptocurrency-related companies completed key historical resolutions and strategic upgrades yesterday, with the following core developments: Hut 8 Corp. (Nasdaq: $HUT) officially disclosed on June 23 that it has agreed to pay $2.35 million in cash to settle a securities class action lawsuit arising from its 2023 merger with U.S. Bitcoin Corp. (USBTC). The case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, involved investors who held Hut 8 securities between February 13, 2023, and January 18, 2024. The core allegation was that Hut 8 materially omitted critical information regarding infrastructure issues at its King Mountain Bitcoin mining facility in Texas—including power curtailments and network connectivity failures—thereby misleading investors. The lawsuit was triggered by a report issued on January 18, 2024, by short-seller J Capital Research, which caused Hut 8’s stock to plunge over 23% in a single day. The $2.35 million settlement represents approximately 19.6% of the plaintiffs’ estimated maximum recoverable damages of $12.08 million and exceeds the historical median settlement ratio for similar cases involving only Securities Act claims. The settlement remains subject to final court approval, and Hut 8 denies any wrongdoing or legal liability. This settlement removes the last major legal uncertainty from the company’s narrative of transitioning to AI/HPC data centers, enabling its valuation logic—centered on the on-time delivery of its River Bend ($7 billion contract) and Beacon Point ($9.8 billion contract) campuses this year—to proceed on a cleaner balance sheet. Galaxy Digital Inc. (Nasdaq: $GLXY) announced on June 23 a strategic investment in Digital Prime Technologies, a securities lending technology platform, though specific financial terms were not disclosed. This investment builds upon Galaxy’s existing role as a founding participant in the Tokenet platform—developed jointly by Digital Prime Technologies and institutional securities lending infrastructure provider EquiLend, with an official launch scheduled for May 2026. Tokenet aims to introduce proven workflows, risk management protocols, and lifecycle governance from the institutional securities lending market into the digital asset lending space. By upgrading from a platform participant to an equity investor, Galaxy directly ties Tokenet’s operations to its own institutional lending and trading businesses, creating a three-pronged synergy of “product + balance sheet + equity.” This move aligns closely with Galaxy’s broader business strategy: building on stable cash flows generated by its 15-year AI data center lease with CoreWeave (Phase 1, 133MW, delivered in April), Galaxy is deepening its infrastructure footprint in institutional digital asset lending to further reduce reliance on Bitcoin’s single beta exposure. On the same day, Galaxy was also identified in institutional research reports as one of the few cryptocurrency-related stocks capable of maintaining business resilience during Bitcoin price downturns, with its diversified strategy cited as the primary reason for decoupling from pure BTC price exposure.