CleanSpark Borrow Dries Up as Shorts Hold Firm at 32%

CleanSpark enters December's earnings window in an unusual position: short interest is near its highest level all year, borrow availability has just hit zero, and yet options traders are more bullish than they have been in months.

The lending market is the sharpest signal this week. Availability has dropped to 0%, meaning every share in the lending pool is currently lent out. That is the tightest the borrow market has been in the past year, a sharp reversal from a reading above 50% back in mid-September. The move happened fast. Four weeks ago availability was above 27%. Two weeks ago it was still at 12%. Now there is nothing left. Short interest itself holds at 31.6% of free float, up roughly 2.5% on the week, with FINRA's fortnightly data confirming 78.7 million shares short as of mid-October. Days to cover stands at 4.58. Despite all that demand for borrows, cost to borrow remains surprisingly cheap at 0.74%, up 9% on the week and 42% over the past month but still well below levels that would signal serious squeeze pressure. The ORTEX short score sits at 71.9, placing CLSK in the bottom 5th percentile of its universe on short positioning, a persistently bearish setup.

Options are telling a different story. The put/call ratio has fallen to 0.33, the lowest reading of the past year and roughly 1.4 standard deviations below its 20-day average of 0.40. Calls have been dominant for several weeks. Through September and early October the PCR was consistently above 0.45; it has compressed steadily since, reaching a new 52-week low on the last trading day of October. That one-sided call demand sits in direct contrast to the record short positioning, making the divergence between options traders and short sellers the defining tension in the stock right now.

The Street remains constructive but is pulling back its price targets. B. Riley cut its target to $21 from $26 on October 30, maintaining its Buy rating. Cantor Fitzgerald did the same thing two weeks earlier, dropping to $19 from $26. Canaccord Genuity started coverage fresh at $20 Buy on October 22. The direction of travel is clear: analysts still believe in the story but are resetting around a lower share price after the stock lost 42% in October alone, closing Friday at $7.67. The consensus mean target is $22.77, implying significant upside on paper, but the gap between that figure and the current price reflects how far the stock has fallen rather than fresh enthusiasm. The bull case centres on a signed 20-year, $6.6 billion lease with an investment-grade tenant for 175 MW of AI data center capacity, with year-one yield on cost of roughly 12.8% and around $1 billion of combined liquidity. Bears point to lower Bitcoin prices squeezing mining revenue, execution risk in converting mining infrastructure to AI colocation, and potential equity dilution if the HPC pipeline requires new capital. The EV/EBITDA multiple has compressed 5% over the past 30 days, while the earnings yield factor score ranks in the 8th percentile, reflecting how deeply loss-making the business remains.

The peer group offers no relief. Bitcoin miners sold off hard on Friday: MARA fell 5.5% on the day, RIOT dropped 6.8%, HUT fell 10.6%, and BTDR shed 11.5%. CLSK's own 6.5% daily decline puts it roughly in the middle of the group. Over the week CLSK is down 2.7%, broadly in line with MARA at minus 3.6% and HIVE at minus 2.6%, while CIFR underperformed at minus 8.2%. The sector is under pressure across the board, which makes it harder to read CLSK's moves in isolation.

On Wikipedia, retail attention to the stock is running at a z-score of 3.1 against its own 90-day history, a notable spike in interest that coincides with the stock's sharp decline and strategic pivot news rather than any positive catalyst.

Earnings are scheduled for December 1. With availability at zero, short interest at 31.6% of float, and options traders leaning hard into calls near 52-week lows on the PCR, the setup into that print is as polarised as it has been all year. What matters next is whether the AI colocation lease economics hold up under scrutiny, and whether Bitcoin stabilises enough to take pressure off the mining segment that still funds the transition.