The concept of a “safe haven” is critical for investors to understand when they consider cross asset capital flows. One key philosophical war going on in the financial markets world right now is between Bitcoin and Gold for bragging rights as the top inflation-protection safe haven.
And, interestingly, so far, the battle isn’t even close: the newcomer – Bitcoin – is clearly running away with the game.
At each juncture, when risk assets correct because of concerns about inflation, Bitcoin outperforms gold. It’s – as some analysts are fond of saying – gold 2.0.
And it’s not that difficult to understand why. Bitcoin is much cheaper to store and has fewer supply issues. It is also trusted fully in terms of its argument as a non-dilutable asset.
With the Federal Reserve coming out this week and declaring that it’s time to retire the word “transitory” with regard to the current high rate of inflation in the developed world, more focus is on inflation than at perhaps any time since the early 1980’s. While the Fed’s shift has hit all inflation hedge assets, Bitcoin has, once again, held up much better than gold.
With that in mind, we take a look below at some of the most interesting stocks in the Bitcoin space.
Riot Blockchain Inc (NASDAQ:RIOT) focuses on mining Bitcoin, and through Whinstone, its subsidiary, hosting Bitcoin mining equipment for institutional clients.
The Company is expanding and upgrading its mining operations through industrial-scale infrastructure development and latest-generation miner procurement. Riot is headquartered in Castle Rock, Colorado, and the Whinstone Facility operates out of Rockdale, Texas. The Company also has mining equipment operating in upstate New York under a co-location hosting agreement with Coinmint, LLC.
Riot Blockchain Inc. (Nasdaq:RIOT) recently announced monthly BTC production and operations updates for November 2021, including a further increase in estimated self-mining hash rate capacity for 2022, updates to the status of miner shipments and deployment, and updates on the 400 megawatts infrastructure expansion at the Company’s Whinstone facility in Rockdale, Texas.
In November 2021, Riot produced 466 BTC, an increase of approximately 298% over its November 2020 production of 117 BTC. Year to date through November 2021, the Company produced 3,387 BTC, an increase of approximately 262% over its BTC production during the same 2020 period of 935 BTC. As of November 30, 2021, Riot held approximately 4,464 BTC, all produced by the Company’s self-mining operations. Riot currently has a deployed fleet of approximately 29,095 miners, with a hash rate capacity of 3.0 exahash per second (“EH/s”).
The stock has suffered a bit of late, with shares of RIOT taking a hit in recent action, down about -11% over the past week.
Riot Blockchain Inc. (Nasdaq:RIOT) managed to rope in revenues totaling $64.8M in overall sales during the company’s most recently reported quarterly financial data — a figure that represents a rate of top line growth of 2532.3%, as compared to year-ago data in comparable terms. In addition, the company has a strong balance sheet, with cash levels exceeding current liabilities ($173.8M against $25.6M).
ISW Holdings (OTC US:ISWH) has been on fire for most of the past year, powering as much as 1,000% higher since May after jumping onto the scene in the cryptocurrency space with a series of game-changing partnerships that now include Bit5ive, Bitmain, and Minerset, among others. But the stock is pulling back now.
It did the same thing during the spring, pulling back above 75% in the course of three months. That preceded its next wave higher, when it ran from $0.25/share to nearly $4/share in the next 5 months. Now, here we are again. The stock has pulled back to the key $1/share level – down about 70% in about 3 months. And yet, now it sits on the precipice of monetizing its hugely lucrative deal with Bitmain. This is an interesting setup and we wanted to put it in front of you.
ISW Holdings (OTC US:ISWH) is establishing a mining and hosting model at large scale that’s just getting off the ground, as evidenced by its press release last month highlighting the company’s large performance gains in Q3, which include Total Revenues up over 2,400%, Assets up over 5,000%, and Liabilities down over 70%, all thanks to the company’s growth as a crypto player along with its stringent anti-dilution policy. The company also recently filed for a name and ticker change to “BlockQuarry”, which further helps to bolster the story given the increasingly retail-investor-oriented nature of this equity bull market.
According to the company’s release, the three months ended September 30 exceeded management expectations for growth in the Company’s assets due to positive gains from mining operations as well as greater than anticipated expansion in equipment. This was primarily due to the triggering of a performance incentive clause in the Company’s agreement with Minerset, LLC that granted the Company an additional 150 Bitmain S19 95TH/s state-of-the-art miners carrying a market value of approximately $1.7 million.
“Q3 was a landmark quarter in Company history,” remarked Alonzo Pierce, President and Chairman of ISW Holdings. “We switched on our mining fleet and saw our first substantial mining and hosting revenues hit the books. We also broke ground on our massive cryptocurrency hosting infrastructure and nearly finished the phase 1 build-out to deploy the first 20 MW to on-site Pods. In the process, we have seen a huge growth in the tangible value of the Company, as assets grew considerably while we continued our campaign to stamp out dilution risk through elimination of toxic notes and strict adherence to financing through a combination of cash from operations and non-toxic funding sources. As a result, we were in the best overall shape in our history coming into Q4, which is set to deliver on a much larger scale into year end.”
ISW Holdings (OTC US:ISWH) saw big performance gains in its Q3 data, including news that revenues from operations for the Three Months ended Sep 30 came in at $1.075 million (including deferred revenues), up 2,435% on year-over-year basis; Net Cash increased by over 3,100% year to date to over $2.8 million; Total Assets increased 5,263% year to date to $9.56 million; and Total liabilities decreased 73%, and total derivative liabilities decreased 98% to under $340k.
One key dynamic here is that continued performance and value gains at this rate could have the stock poised for a jump onto a major listed exchange before long – something the Company has talked about pursuing over recent months.
Marathon Digital Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:MARA) is one of the most recognizable names in the crypto mining space at this point.
The company bills itself as a digital asset technology player that engages in mining cryptocurrencies with a focus on the blockchain ecosystem and the generation of digital assets.
Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:MARA) recently announced that it has expanded its agreement with Compute North to host more than 100,000 of Marathon’s previously purchased bitcoin miners at multiple locations, the majority of which are wind and solar farms operated by one of the largest renewable energy power providers in North America.
According to the company, in May 2021, Marathon announced a binding letter of intent with Compute North to host approximately 73,000 of Marathon’s bitcoin miners in Texas. Today, the Company announced that the agreement has been expanded to now include over 100,000 of Marathon’s previously purchased bitcoin miners. As a result, Marathon has now procured hosting arrangements for all of its previously purchased bitcoin miners.
The stock has suffered a bit of late, with shares of MARA taking a hit in recent action, down about -6% over the past week.
Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:MARA) managed to rope in revenues totaling $51.7M in overall sales during the company’s most recently reported quarterly financial data — a figure that represents a rate of top line growth of 6091.1%, as compared to year-ago data in comparable terms. In addition, the company has a strong balance sheet, with cash levels exceeding current liabilities ($315.6M against $3.9M).
Other key names in the crypto space include Bakkt Holdings Inc. (NYSE:BKKT), MicroStrategy Inc. (Nasdaq:MSTR), Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq:HIVE), and Coinbase Global Inc. (Nasdaq:COIN).
