Crypto miner digs itself out of hole over Texas plant tweets

A CRYPTOCURRENCY business has been forced to backtrack on claims made by a fund manager who disclosed private company information in a series of posts on Twitter.

Argo Blockchain – which creates new units of Bitcoin and other digital currencies by “mining”, a process where supercomputers solve complicated maths problems – said executives had inadvertently revealed market sensitive data in a meeting with the investor Anthony Coyle.

Among the statements was an estimate from Argo that a planned 800 megawatt cryptocurrency mining plant in Texas would cost between $1.5bn (£1.1bn) and $2bn to build.

Argo has now said this estimate is “subject to numerous inherent risks and uncertainties” and could be significantly different to the final cost.

Mr Coyle later deleted his tweets. Argo Blockchain said it had decided to update the market to provide clarity. Argo also admitted that a claim it would see a 500pc return on cryptocurrency mining machines it had purchased was “a particularly favourable example”, but that returns can “vary greatly”.

Argo Blockchain, which is dual listed in London and New York, builds data centres that can mine digital coins. Its share price has surged 277pc this year on the back of booming demand for Bitcoin, valuing the business at £560m.

The cryptocurrency company has come in for criticism from short-seller Boatman Capital over the price it paid to buy land for the plant in Texas.

A spokesman for Boatman said: “We have previously raised concerns about governance standards at Argo and think this latest episode demonstrates a serious lapse in judgment by executives.”