Shares of Cipher Digital (CIFR) fell 26.4% in the five trading days from October 8 to October 15, 2026. The S&P 500 slipped 0.25% over the same period. The stock saw its worst single-day performance on October 13, when executives announced a plan to sell $850 million of convertible notes. Cipher already carried a large debt, so how much does the new borrowing add to it?
New Notes Equal About 15% Of Cipher Digital’s Debt
The planned $850 million sale equals about 15% of the $5.6 billion of total debt Cipher carried on June 30, 2026. Buyers also hold an option to take an additional $150 million, which would lift the total offering to $1 billion. The company priced the notes on October 14 while concurrently planning to exchange a portion of older convertible notes due 2030.
Convertible notes function as loans that buyers can later exchange for shares. The newly issued notes pay 0.00% interest and fall due in 2032. If holders eventually decide to turn the debt into equity, the conversion would add to the company’s overall share count.
The stock fell 12.8% on October 13 following the announcement of the offering. Over the same five days, shares of industry peers Applied Digital, Core Scientific and Riot Platforms fell between 10.3% and 14.8%. Cipher still fell further than any of its competitors during the week it chose to borrow more.
Cipher Digital’s Debt Is Mostly Unspent Project Cash, For Now
Before issuing the new notes, Cipher’s total debt at June 30 equaled 137.3% of its market value at the October 15 close. That compares with a 20.2% ratio for the broader S&P 500. The underlying business behind that debt continues to operate at a deficit. Cipher lost $1.12 billion over the four quarters to June 30, 2026, on revenue of $191 million. This dynamic means a traditional price-to-earnings ratio for the stock is not meaningful.
Top-line performance is shrinking as well. Revenue fell to $24.8 million in the June 2026 quarter from $71.7 million in the September 2025 quarter. Executives attributed the June quarter’s decline from the $34.8 million posted in the March quarter to the end of bitcoin mining at the Black Pearl facility. That drop aligns with the company’s broader transition toward contracted data center revenue. The new notes will increase Cipher’s debt load while this operational pivot from crypto mining to rental income remains under way.
What Cipher Digital’s Tenants Have Already Agreed To Pay
The debt issuance alters what Cipher owes, not what its tenants have agreed to pay. During an August 4, 2026 earnings call, management stated that three executed data center campus leases are expected to generate about $793 million a year of net operating income. Executives defined that metric as the rent left after covering the running costs of the sites. This net operating income is expected on average from October 2026 through September 2036. The company described the tenants as investment-grade counterparties signed to long-term agreements.