Singapore Myanmar Investco Purchases 800 Mining Rigs, Firm Plans to Offer Mining Services

On August 24, the investment and management company, Singapore Myanmar Investco Limited (SMI), revealed the company is entering the bitcoin mining industry as it has ordered 800 mining rigs to be delivered to Southeast Asia. The move follows a number of firms pivoting toward digital currency mining.

Singapore Myanmar Investco Pivots Toward Bitcoin Mining

In 2021, a number of firms from Asia have been pivoting toward offering blockchain services and operating mining facilities. For instance, Bitcoin.com News has reported on firms like China-based gaming and internet company, The9, and its decision to move into the bitcoin mining sector.

Alongside this, the U.S. publicly-listed Chinese sports lottery firm 500.com re-branded into a crypto company this year. Now Singapore Myanmar Investco (SMI) is joining the trend as the company has ordered 800 bitcoin mining rigs. SMI is an investment and management company that’s listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. The firm believes in digital currency mining and wants to increase mining accessibility.

“This is significant progress for SMI as we move towards technology-based SaaS businesses and help increase access to cryptocurrency mining for retail customers while generating substantial shareholder value,” Mark Bedingham, president and CEO of SMI explained in the announcement.

SMI to Offer Three Mining Services: Buy, Lease, and Fractional Time-Based Ownership

According to the announcement, SMI has plans to order up to 4,000 bitcoin mining machines. The disclosure does not detail what brand SMI has chosen or the type of model the company is using to dedicate hashrate toward the Bitcoin blockchain. While SMI traditionally focused on travel, fashion retail, food and beverage products, auto services, construction services, logistics, and supply chain concepts, the company revealed the shift toward crypto solutions in June.

Essentially, SMI says it wants to offer crypto solutions as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providing these solutions to both retail and institutional clients. The announcement notes that once the services are in place, customers can buy mining machines, lease hashrate, or leverage fractional time-based ownership of the mining machines.