Argo Blockchain Buys 172.5 Bitcoins as Reserve Asset, Monthly Revenue Soars 52%

Argo Blockchain said Wednesday that it bought 172.5 bitcoins in the second half of January as part of its asset management strategy.

● In a trading update, the London Stock Exchange-listed bitcoin miner also reported strong revenue growth during the review month, climbing 52% to £2.48 million ($3.37 million) from £1.63 million ($2.21 million) in December.

● Argo did not reveal how much it spent buying the reserve BTC, but bitcoin prices during the last half of January oscillated between $30,000 and $38,500. The company said it now holds the equivalent of 501 in bitcoin, as of the end of January.

● For the month in review, Argo Blockchain mined 93 bitcoins, down from 96 BTC in December. Mining output appears to have progressively declined at the London firm over the last few months. In November, Argo extracted 115 BTC, falling from 126 BTC mined in October.

● Peter Wall, chief executive officer of Argo, said: “I am thrilled that Argo has delivered our best month in the company’s history in both mining revenue and profits. The year has started off very strong.”

● Argo operates 16,000 bitcoin mining rigs located throughout North America, with a capacity of 645 petahash per second (PH/s) in bitcoin mining hashrate. The company also mines privacy coin zcash (ZEC) and claims to operate 5% of the global ZEC hashpower total. Argo’s total mining capacity is currently 787 petahash (SHA-256) in addition to 280 Megasols of equihash mining capacity as well.

● Shares of Argo Blockchain are up 0.64% at £95 ($129) in afternoon London trading Thursday. The stock has soared more than 1,100% over the last three months.