The Chinese government’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies is once again in the news. According to CNN, Chinese government agencies including the country’s securities regulator and the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement on Friday that all cryptocurrency-related business activities are illegal and promised to punish illicit activities involving digital currencies. The first stages of the crackdown have already caused many crypto miners to leave China and set up operations elsewhere. In fact, Texas seems to be one of such desired destination. BBC reports that Governor of Texas Greg Abbott has been a vocal supporter for cryptocurrency. “It’s happening! Texas will be the crypto leader,” he tweeted in June. In the same month, Texas became the second U.S. state after Wyoming to recognize blockchain and cryptocurrency in its commercial law, paving the way for crypto businesses to operate in the state. ISW Holdings Inc. (OTC: ISWH), HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: HVBT), Canaan Inc. (NASDAQ: CAN), The OLB Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: OLB), Bit Digital, Inc. (NASDAQ: BTBT)
The U.S. in now the new hub of the bitcoin mining market. It is the second-biggest mining destination on the planet, accounting for nearly 17% of all the world’s bitcoin miners as of April 2021. That’s a 151% increase from September 2020, according to CNBC. “For the last 18 months, we’ve had a serious growth of mining infrastructure in the U.S.,” said Darin Feinstein, founder of Blockcap and Core Scientific. “We’ve noticed a massive uptick in mining operations looking to relocate to North America, mostly in the U.S.”
ISW Holdings Inc. (OTC: ISWH), transitioning to “BlockQuarry,” pending name change, reported earlier last week that an update for, “current and prospective shareholders on core performance metrics, timeframe for hosting deployment, and corporate identity.
Performance Metrics. Mining is fully underway in Pennsylvania, and nearing full capacity on hashrate. Final adjustments and updates are being implemented into month end to push performance up to peak potential, at which time the Company’s PA mining operations will be producing mining revenues that will contribute to an overall monthly revenue run rate of $1.5 million at current cryptocurrency pricing.
In addition, the Company anticipates a breakout record quarter for the three months ending September 30, 2021. However, the fourth quarter should be a much more significant breakout in financial terms given that it will be the first quarter featuring a full three months of mining at peak capacity as well as the start of revenues from hosting operations.
Hosting Power Deployment. Management conducted site visits to its primary Southeastern US cryptocurrency mining hosting site earlier in the week. Based on that visit, the project is on schedule and the Company believes it will meet its approximate target for deploying the first 20 megawatts of power at the site around the end of October. This will begin the process of scaling up hosting operations to the full 200 MW that the project is designed to deploy to the Company’s hosting clientele.
Corporate Identity. The Company is still awaiting final approval of its corporate name and stock symbol change from FINRA. As communicated in the Company’s August 3 release, ISW Holdings has officially filed for a corporate name change to “BlockQuarry Corp.” The Company also filed to change its trading symbol. Both filings are now actively going through FINRA, and more details will be announced when FINRA has completed its due diligence process.
Management Commentary. ‘We will unquestionably log our best quarter in Company history – by a wide margin – when the books close at the end of the month,” noted Alonzo Pierce, ISWH CEO. “But that will likely be dwarfed by what rolls in over coming quarters. We have made a few final adjustments and updates that are being implemented right now that will take us to full capacity in terms of achievable hashrate in Pennsylvania. That will bring us to a topline run-rate of approximately $1.5 million per month, which may double again beginning midway through the fourth quarter as we begin to ramp up hosting revenues.'”
HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: HVBT) reported last month that it has ordered 1,800 Antminer S19j Pro miners from Bitmain Technologies Ltd. (“Bitmain”). These new miners have an aggregate hash power of 180 Petahash per second (PH/s). HIVE is proud to reconnect with Bitmain one of the leading manufacturers in our industry and is excited to make this initial order of S19j Pro miners from Bitmain. These 1,800 miners are the first of our 2022 mining purchase program and will be delivered in 6 equal tranches of 300 miners, commencing in January 2022 through June 2022. “We are constantly upgrading our ASIC fleet to have the most efficient miners we can buy from cash flow,” Frank Holmes, Executive Chairman of HIVE continued, “This purchase with Bitmain enables us to maintain our strategy to diversify the manufacturers we purchase from. Over the past year, we have been expressing our concerns about global shortages in chips and logistics delays in shipping equipment from Asia due to Covid 19. We have deep relationships Bitmain, MicroBT, and Canaan which are all top global manufacturers in our industry.”
Canaan Inc. (NASDAQ: CAN) announced last month that it has received from Mawson Infrastructure Group Inc. (OTCQB: MIGI) (“Mawson”) a purchase order (the “Order”) for 17,352 bitcoin mining machines with an aggregate operating hash power of 1.5EH. According to the terms of the Order, the Company will deliver the latest generations of its Avalon A1166 and A1246 bitcoin mining machines to Mawson’s operations in the U.S. and Australia throughout 2021 and 2022. The Order is in addition to Mawson’s previous order placed earlier this year for 11,760 of the Company’s A1246 bitcoin mining machines with an aggregate operating hash power of 1.05EH. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, Mawson is a global digital infrastructure provider with diversified operations across cryptocurrency mining and digital asset management. Mawson currently conducts its bitcoin mining operations in both the U.S. and Australia.
The OLB Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: OLB) reported earlier this month that DMint, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of OLB (“DMint”), is deploying its first lot of some one-hundred cryptocurrency mining computers for operation at its newly acquired data centers. The Antminer S19j Pro is specifically configured to mine Bitcoin and is planned to be up and running by the end of September. “Putting these new mining computers to work is the first step in building out our cryptocurrency mining operations that are expected to grow to serve some one thousand miners by the end of the year,” said Ronny Yakov, OLB Chief Executive Officer. “We recognize the high energy requirements and potential environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining, and DMint’s business plan includes our commitment to utilize green energy sources.”
Bit Digital, Inc. (NASDAQ: BTBT) and Digihost Technology Inc. announced earlier in July that the Companies have entered into a second strategic co-mining agreement (the “Agreement”). Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, Digihost will provide certain premises (the “Premises”) to Bit Digital for the operation of a 100 MW Bitcoin mining system (the “Miners”) to be delivered by Bit Digital for a term of two years. This expanded collaboration between Digihost and Bit Digital is expected to facilitate an additional increase in hashrate of approximately 2 EH between the companies, and a total increase in hashrate between the two companies of approximately 2.4 EH including the initial collaboration.
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