A tech venture on a mission to “take the pain and heartache” out of cryptocurrency mining has this morning floated on the London Stock Exchange as it looks to raise public profile and expand.
Argo Blockchain was established in December 2017 with a vision to make cryptocurrency ‘Mining as a Service (MaaS)’ available at scale to anyone, anywhere in the world.
The company launched a new subscription service aimed at addressing what it described as “pent-up demand” from users who want to mine digital currencies but have been put off by its significant up-front cost and complexity.
The service went live on 11 June 2018 and initially covers four cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin Gold, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic and Zcash.
Argo has now raised £25 million and a total of 156,250,000 shares were admitted to the main market of the London Stock Exchange at a price of 16 pence per share, giving the business a market capitalisation of £47 million.
It is hoped the flotation will raise the company’s public profile and provide new funds for its expansion and long-term growth.
“Argo’s admission to the London main market is a major step in the company’s development and will put us in a strong position to execute our long-term growth strategy,” said co-founder and executive chairman Jonathan Bixby.
“We are delighted with the strong response from investors which will enable us to grow our business in multiple jurisdictions.”
Argo claims its MaaS solution allows users to start mining for digital currencies within minutes of accessing its website on a mobile phone or computer – and at a fraction of the cost.
Bixby previously said the service was launched to take the “pain and heartache” out of participating in the biggest new technology breakthrough since the launch of the internet.
Fellow co-founder Mike Edwards added at the time: “Setting up a computer rig to mine cryptocurrency is challenging, inefficient and expensive.
“I knew that we had to change the game and democratise the process so that crypto-mining could become a mainstream consumer activity.”
Argo is headquartered in London, UK, with its initial data centre located in Quebec, Canada.
Mirabaud Securities Ltd acted as the sole bookrunner and stock broker to the company.
What is cryptomining?
Cryptomining is a process where people are paid or rewarded with virtual currencies such as ethereum and other coins in exchange for providing the computing power needed to maintain the network.
Each time a transaction is made, a cryptocurrency miner is responsible for ensuring the authenticity of the information and updating the blockchain with the transaction.
The mining process involves competing with others to solve complicated mathematical problems with cryptographic hash functions that are associated with a block containing the transaction data.