Last week, October 20,2021, Bitcoin stormed above $66,000 for the first time, riding a wave of excitement about how the financial establishment is increasingly accepting the digital currency’s rise. APNews reported that one Bitcoin was valued at $66,096, as of 4:15 p.m. Eastern time, after earlier climbing as high as $66,974.77. The digital currency has roared back after sinking below $30,000 during the summer to top its prior record set in April. That previous all-time high was nearly $64,889, according to CoinDesk. The surge has come as more businesses, professional investors and even the government of El Salvador buy into Bitcoin, further broadening its base beyond its initial core of fanatics. The AP continued saying: “The latest converts came into the world of crypto on Tuesday, when the first exchange-traded fund linked to Bitcoin found huge interest from investors. Shares of the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF changed hands 24.1 million times in a resounding debut. It was even busier on Wednesday, with trading volume topping 29.4 million. The ETF doesn’t invest directly in Bitcoin. It instead invests in the futures market tied to Bitcoin, but the industry sees the ETF bringing in a new class of investors. Someone with an old-school brokerage account can buy the ETF, for example, without having to open a trading account for crypto.” Active Companies in the markets today include The OLB Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: OLB), Sphere 3D Corp. (NASDAQ: ANY), Bit Digital, Inc. (NASDAQ: BTBT), Bitfarms Ltd. (NASDAQ: BITF) (TSXV: BITF), HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: HIVE) (TSXV: HIVE).
The APNews article continued: “Investors are getting more interested in Bitcoin because they’re always looking for assets whose prices moves independently of everything else in their portfolios. One school of thought says Bitcoin can offer investors protection from high inflation, and some fans see it as akin to “digital gold,” though it doesn’t have a long track record to back that up. More high-minded fans say digital assets are simply the future of finance, allowing transactions to sidestep middlemen and fees with a currency that’s not beholden to any government. Cryptocurrencies are still very far from winning over everyone, though. Critics point to how they’re still not widely used as forms of payment. Cryptocurrencies are also notorious for their sharp swings in price. The last time Bitcoin set a record high, the price dropped by half in roughly three months. A big reason for that volatility is how wide the range of possibilities is for Bitcoin’s future, said Gil Luria, technology strategist at D.A. Davidson. “
The OLB Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: OLB) BREAKING NEWS: OLB Group Announces Launch of 5 Bitcoin Data Centers with Additional 500 Antminer S19j Pro Cryptocurrency Asic Miners – The OLB Group, Inc., a diversified eCommerce merchant services provider and Bitcoin mining enterprise, announced today that DMint, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of OLB (“DMint”), has expanded its Bitcoin mining operation with the addition of five hundred (500) Antminer S19j Pro cryptocurrency mining computers. DMint anticipates having a total of 1000 computers in operation at its newly completed Bradford, PA location by the end of 2021 and projects to reach 24,000 Bitcoin mining computers – in various locations – in the next 24 months.
As the U.S. overtakes China as the top destination for Bitcoin mining, OLB Group is at the forefront of institutional cryptocurrency adoption as one of the first eCommerce merchants to host Bitcoin mining data centers. By applying innovative processes to their unique merchant services expertise, OLB’s entrance into the mining industry signals the next wave of mining operations in North America.
“The addition of 500 state-of-the-art Antminer S19j Pro computers is a major step towards scaling our Bitcoin Mining operation,” said Ronny Yakov, Chairman and CEO of the OLB Group. “The positive price movement since the start of our mining operations makes us even more optimistic about the long term viability of our operations. We remain fully committed to scaling our operations to 24,000 computers by the fall of 2023.”
Yakov continued, “Because we are a diversified company with a robust core eCommerce business, we have a stable revenue base as our foundation as we ramp up our Bitcoin mining operations.”
Once at full capacity – assuming current market price and mining network size – DMint expects to mine 24.5 Bitcoins per month, generating $129,166 in monthly revenue.
OLB provides merchants with omnicommerce services including leading-edge crypto commerce capabilities, eCommerce, back office and kitchen operations, and payment acceptance online, in store, and on mobile devices. Merchants utilizing OLB’s OmniSoft Business Management platform can transact with customers through digital wallets, cryptocurrency wallets, and traditional card-based payment. OLB expects to leverage DMint mining operations to power expanded crypto commerce services including financing, lending, and fundraising for small and medium sized businesses. CONTINUED… For more information about The OLB Group, please visit https://olb.com/ or http://olb.com/investors-data/.
Other recent developments in markets include:
Sphere 3D Corp. (NASDAQ: ANY), a company delivering containerization, virtualization, and data management solutions, recently announced that it has entered into an agreement with Gryphon Digital Mining1(“Gryphon”) for approximately 230 MW of carbon neutral bitcoin mining hosting capacity to be managed by Core Scientific (“Core”) as hosting partner. This hosting agreement is the single largest order in Core’s history and represents yet another step forward for Sphere 3D and Gryphon in becoming the world’s largest carbon neutral bitcoin miner.
This landmark hosting agreement will provide hosting capacity for up to 71,0002state-of-the-art bitcoin mining machines, and furnishes the Company with a world-class partner to host the 60,000 Bitmain S19j Pro miners whose purchase was previously announced by the Company.
Bit Digital, Inc. (NASDAQ: BTBT), a bitcoin mining company headquartered in New York with one of the largest currently-owned fleets among US listed bitcoin miners, was recently the focus of an in-depth video report by The Wall Street Journal on its operations and efforts to utilize carbon neutral energy sources for mining. The video was released on October 14, 2021.
“We applaud The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the important topic of sustainability in bitcoin mining operations, and for highlighting some of our efforts in this regard,” commented CSO Sam Tabar. Pursuant to the terms of the strategic agreement between BlockfusionUSA, Inc (“Blockfusion”), Blockfusion, whom are sole owners of the facility, provides certain premises and services to Bit Digital for the operation of a 35 MW bitcoin mining system for a term of 2 years, with automatic one-year renewals. During the term and for twelve (12) months thereafter, Bit Digital shall have a right of first refusal (“ROFR”) to match any bona fide offer from a third party to finance or acquire securities and/or assets of Blockfusion, including this facility.
Bitfarms Ltd. (NASDAQ: BITF) (TSXV: BITF), a Bitcoin mining company recently increased its corporate hashrate to over 1.6 Exahash per second (EH/s) through the expansion of operations at its Cowansville, Québec, facility and the installation of 450 newly arrived Bitmain S19j Pro miners.
“Bitfarms is committed to developing the cost-effective infrastructure to support the 55,000 new generation Bitcoin mining machines scheduled to be delivered between now and the end of 2022,” said Emiliano Grodzki, CEO of Bitfarms. “As Bitfarms upgrades its miner fleet and existing facilities while expanding into new geographies, we will continue to increase our ability to produce Bitcoin with greater efficiency across decentralized operations. Cowansville broadens our footprint in Canada and marks our first new capacity build-out in Québec in 2021. This is one of many projects that excite us about our growth opportunities and supports our goal of achieving 3 EH/s by the end of first quarter of 2022 and 8 EH/s by the end of 2022.”
HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: HIVE) (TSXV: HIVE) recently announced the purchase of 6,500 next generation Bitcoin miners.
These new machines have an aggregate hash power of 585 Petahash per second (PH/s). The integration of these miners into HIVE’s systems will be made in tranches over the next 130 days. They will be placed in existing facilities, and in our newly constructed data centres at our campus in New Brunswick, Canada. This new equipment sourced from a top global manufacturer is expected to be received and in operation by the end of February 2022 in 3 tranches, with 3,000 miners in December 2021, 3,100 miners in January 2022 and 400 miners in February 2022.
