IREN Plunges More Than 10% in a Single Day After Co-CEOs Receive Equity Grants Worth About $800 Million

On July 1, 2026, IREN (formerly Iris Energy), a Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining and AI infrastructure company, disclosed that its board granted each of its co-CEOs—brothers Daniel Roberts and William Roberts—9,099,328 shares of restricted stock units (RSUs), totaling more than 18 million shares. Based on the market price at the time, the total value is approximately $780 million to $800 million, or nearly $400 million per person. The RSUs vest in equal installments over four years; after each tranche vests, there is an additional two-year lock-up period. They can be sold no later than 2033, and the company has also pledged that it will not make additional grants before fiscal 2031.

The news triggered a strong reaction from investors. The market worried that an equity incentive of such scale would significantly dilute existing shareholders’ equity (the new shares represent about 5% of the outstanding float), compounded by well-known short-seller Jim Chanos publicly criticizing the compensation plan as “overly generous,” and Meta’s plan to enter the AI computing rental market, which dampened sentiment in the sector. On July 2, IREN tumbled 10.39% on heavy volume, closing at $38.82, after briefly falling as low as $37.66 during the day.

The company defended the plan, saying it was reviewed and approved by independent directors and external compensation consultants, and that the long-term shareholding lock-up period is intended to deeply align management’s interests with shareholder value—helping IREN’s transition from Bitcoin mining to AI cloud data centers (it has already signed an approximately $9.7 billion AI cloud services deal with Microsoft). However, in the short term, the market clearly chose to vote with its feet, focusing on the risks of equity dilution and governance disputes, and the stock price has fallen noticeably from its highs earlier this year.