Argo becomes the LSE’S first crypto-miner as it raises £25m
A CRYPTOCURRENCY company has become the first digital coin mining firm to be listed on the London Stock Exchange. Argo Blockchain, which is headquartered in London but runs its service from a data centre in Canada, has raised £25m as it debuted on the main market.
Its shares, placed with institutional investors at 16p a piece, gave up early gains to close at 12.5p, giving Argo a market value of £37m.
The company mines so-called digital currencies such as Bitcoin Gold, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic and Zcash on behalf of monthly subscribers using a model it compares with Spotify and Netflix.
This means people with little technical prowess and lacking the right tools to set up a “mining rig” can still join the cryptocurrency mining craze by creating an account on Argo’s website or smartphone app from £18 a month.
Cryptominers essentially create the digital ledger necessary to keep Bitcoin and other digital currencies online. Rather than one central organisation, like a bank, taking responsibility for keeping a record of transactions, the ledger is spread among participants in the market. Each transaction must be verified before it is added. It is easy to track wallets holding cryptocurrency, but not the person who owns it.
Individual cryptocurrency miners can use their computers to keep the system running and power the transactions using their own electricity and computer power. This typically yields poor returns unless someone owns a server farm.
The lucrative area has sparked a trend in “cryptojacking”, a phenomenon where companies install a programme to hijack the computing power of visitors to a webpage to mine cryptocurrency. The person who has been “cryptojacked” will only notice a small, temporary drop in computer speed.
In February, hackers took over thousands of government websites to install cryptojacking software. The sites, including the Information Commissioner’s Office, the Scottish NHS helpline and the Student Loans company – along with hundreds of other central and local government sites – were unknowingly running the power-pinching program.
Argo was developed by Jonathan Bixby and Mike Edwards, who own around 13pc of the company. Miton Capital, Henderson Global Investors and Jupiter Asset Management, are named on the shareholder register.
Argo plans to use the cash made from its listing to drive its expansion and raise its public profile. Upon announcing its plans to go public, Mr Bixby said: “We have launched this service to take the pain and heartache out of participating in the biggest new technology breakthrough since the launch of the internet.”