Fire breaks out at Bitdeer bitcoin mining facility in Ohio, no injuries reported

A fire broke out Tuesday afternoon at a Bitdeer bitcoin mining facility in Massillon, Ohio, damaging two buildings but causing no injuries.

The Massillon Fire Department responded to reports of a blaze at the Bitdeer site at around 2 p.m. ET on Nov. 11, where 24 buildings are under construction to house bitcoin mining rigs, according to local news outlet The Canton Repository.

Fire Chief Matt Heck said firefighters found two of the unfinished structures burning but were able to contain the flames swiftly. No one was hurt or taken to the hospital, and no mining equipment had yet been installed in the affected buildings, Heck confirmed. 

The fire appeared to start in one structure on the site's southeast corner before wind carried the flames to a neighboring building, the fire department explained. However, the cause remains undetermined, with investigators looking into whether construction activities may have played a role. Heck said there was no indication of arson, and the damaged buildings might be salvageable.

Bitdeer verified the incident on X, confirming that the fire affected two buildings within the facility and that it was extinguished by local firefighters shortly after arrival. The Singapore-based company, which purchased about 19 acres in Massillon through its U.S. subsidiary White Tail Creek LLC for $1.6 million in 2023, said site management is also investigating the extent of the damage and the cause of the fire.

Bitdeer was founded by Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu, who spun it off from Bitmain in 2020 following a corporate split with Micree Zhan. The Massillon site is part of the Nasdaq-listed firm's ongoing expansion of its global mining and data center operations, which also include facilities in Texas, Washington, Norway, and Bhutan.

Bitdeer stock tumbles after earnings disappoint

The incident came as Bitdeer's shares fell more than 30% after its third-quarter earnings release on Tuesday, closing the day down 14.9% at $15.02 to extend a month-long decline following investor disappointment over the company's limited updates on its AI infrastructure plans. The stock is currently up 2.9% in pre-market trading on Wednesday, according to The Block's BTDR price page.

Nevertheless, Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer reaffirmed a buy rating on the stock with a $38 price target, saying the sell-off "appeared to reflect lofty investor expectations rather than any deterioration in the underlying business." Palmer argued that Bitdeer's fundamentals remained solid across self-mining, hosting, and cloud services, with revenue up 174% year-over-year to nearly $170 million and adjusted EBITDA swinging to $43 million from a loss a year earlier.

Still, VanEck Head of Digital Assets Matthew Sigel said the update fell short of expectations, noting "a delay on key next-gen ASIC, no concrete update on AI lease potential, and the CEO didn't even join the call."