Jihan Wu-Backed Crypto Miner Bitdeer Acquires ‘Singapore’s Fort Knox’ for $28.4 Million

Sources have disclosed that the digital currency mining operation, Bitdeer Technologies, has purchased a high-security storage and display facility in Singapore called Le Freeport for $28.4 million. Bitdeer’s chairman, Jihan Wu, confirmed the vault acquisition via a text message following the reports that revealed the mining firm purchased Le Freeport.

Bitdeer Purchases Maximum Security Vault Le Freeport From Yves Bouvier, DBS

After the co-founder of Bitmain Technologies Jihan Wu left the company, he co-founded a firm called Matrixport and he’s also the chairman of Bitdeer Technologies. According to a report published by Bloomberg, that cites sources familiar with the matter, Bitdeer paid S$40 million ($28.4 million) for the maximum security vault known as Le Freeport.

The vault was originally constructed to be similar to the high-security storage vaults located in Luxembourg and Geneva. Freeport has also been dubbed “Singapore’s Fort Knox for fine art and collectibles.” Freeport was originally built for S$100 million and the latest acquisition by Bitdeer paid off a significant amount of debt to creditors like DBS and the vaults former owner Yves Bouvier.

The vault has been for sale since 2017, and the high-security storage facility has had a large number of well known corporate clients. Before 2018, the luxury auction house Christie’s once rented more than a third of Freeport’s storage space. Deutsche Bank once leveraged Freeport to house more than $8.9 billion in gold bullion.

Bloomberg’s Ranjeetha Pakiam, Chanyaporn Chanjaroen, and Zheping Huang detail that Bouvier and Freeport’s other shareholders “received about S$5 million from the sale.” However, the sources do not disclose what Bitdeer aims to do with the facility, but following the initial report, Jihan Wu confirmed the Freeport purchase with the Bloomberg authors via text.

During the last year, Bitdeer has been making a number of business moves like investing $25 million into a facility based in Texas in May 2021. Five days later, Bitdeer announced cloud hosting, which allows “retail miners to generate revenue with 1 mining machine.”

At the end of June 2021, Bitdeer revealed the company’s Antbox products and last October, the company introduced Filecoin mining services. The sources who disclosed the latest acquisition of Freeport in Singapore, also detailed that Bitdeer is researching going public through a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) deal via a blank check company.

Bitdeer is not the only crypto firm to purchase a high-security vault or bunker system. Xapo’s bunker in the Swiss mountains is just as extravagant and reportedly millionaires stored their bitcoins there. Last week, reports indicated that the bitcoin mining operation Arsenal Digital Holdings (OTCMKTS: ADHI) acquired an underground data center outside Houston. Some people suspect it’s Westland Oil’s infamous two-story subterranean campus fallout bunker.

What do you think about Bitdeer acquiring ‘Singapore’s Fort Knox’ otherwise known as Le Freeport? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Editorial photo credit: SGPMX