Argo Blockchain sees revenue grow 11 times in 2019

Argo Blockchain, a bitcoin mining company listed on the London Stock Exchange, has reported huge gains for 2019. The company achieved its success when it eliminated the consumer-facing sector by focusing on mining around 1,330 bitcoins. (BTC) in 2019.

In the full-year analysis report, Argo said 2019 revenue increased 11-fold over the previous year, peaking from $ 948,000 to $ 10.7 million. Argo's earnings excluding interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were $ 1.74 million, compared to a loss of $ 4.56 million in 2018.

This is, in part, the result of a significant capital outlay in mining equipment – with the number of active plants increasing from 10,000 to 17,000 by the end of the year – but also the response to the transition from its original mining business- as-a-service (MaaS) to mining for itself. The company also cut staff from 11 to seven.

The modification of the original business plan

CEO Peter Wall said the new arrangement puts Argo in a good position to cope with the volatility and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the impending halving event of bitcoins.

Originally Argo set out to offer mining services through a subscription model. The premise was that this would make cryptocurrency mining accessible to almost everyone, co-founder and later executive president Jonathan Bixby told the Financial Times in 2018.

But costs soon outstripped revenue and Argo reported a pre-tax loss of $ 4.1 million in its 2018 financial report. While Argo was facing the real threat of shareholder revolt, the company steered towards mining per se, increasing the number of mining rigs by 1,000 units in May 2019.

The right momentum for 2020

Wall said that the results of the entire previous year indicate that the company entered 2020 with "significant commercial momentum" and that it was "well on the way to achieving strong growth in the first half [del 2020] compared to the corresponding period of the previous year ".

The new executive president, Ian McLeod, who took the position in January, expressed "cautious optimism" on the general scenario, adding that a more flexible monetary policy could contribute to a decline, if not a complete collapse, of confidence in legal currencies. .

Cryptocurrencies, and in particular bitcoins, McLeod said, could benefit from it while investors are looking for valuable companies independent of governments and central banks. Having already mined over 900 bitcoins in the first quarter of 2020, Argo is on track to surpass the 1,300 bitcoins that the company mined in 2019.

While Argo has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2018, the company's three mining facilities are all in Quebec, Canada, with the largest near the city of Baie-Comeau on the Saint Lawrence River.