Company: CIFRW
Filing Date: 2025-02-25
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001819989-25-000005
Chunk: 136

Company: Cipher Mining Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-25
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 136
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 (the “FTC”) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“FinCEN”), may also enact regulations related to our business, which may have an impact on us

On a state level, there have been several recent legislative efforts to manage power consumption and support grid reliability, which affects our business, as an operator of industrial-scale data centers.  In 2025, the Texas legislature introduced legislation to support ERCOT’s grid reliability by proposing minimum transmission rates on certain large loads and removing phantom loads from its interconnection queue to enhance accuracy of actual future load growth. Such regulation may increase the costs of running our current data centers and sourcing new potential sites in Texas.  In 2025, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (the “PUCT”) also required operators of large virtual currency mining operations connected to register their facilities with the PUCT. For additional discussion regarding our belief about the potential risks existing and future regulation pose to our business, see “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Regulatory Framework.”

Furthermore, because we may strategically expand our operations into new areas, see “—Our Strategy— Commitment to growth, innovation and retaining flexibility to consider strategically adjacent opportunities to expand our business model,” we may become subject to additional regulatory requirements.

Intellectual Property

We use specific hardware and software for our data center operations. In certain cases, source code and other software assets may be subject to an open source license, as much technology development underway in this sector is open source. For these works, we intend to adhere to the terms of any license agreements that may be in place.

In addition, we have developed and continue to refine certain proprietary trade secrets and software applications to enhance the profitability and operational effectiveness of our data center operations and may continue to develop those applications or others in the future. We hold two granted United States patents and one allowed U.S. patent application. Additionally, we have pending U.S. and foreign patent applications for our proprietary technology used in our data center operations. We rely upon trade secrets, trademarks, service marks, trade names, copyrights and other intellectual property rights and license the use of intellectual property rights owned and controlled by others. 

Human Capital Management

As of the date of this filing, we have 43 full-time employees and officers. We believe our employee relations to be good. We aim to attract and retain talented and dedicated employees who contribute to the operation of our business model. As such, we have recruited employees with experience and expertise in the following areas: finance,