It’s no secret that Bitcoin has become a leading indicator for risk-taking behavior among market participants. The correlations are undeniable, especially when it comes to the Nasdaq 100.
According to a recent article on Bloomberg.com, “Since the start of the pandemic, Bitcoin has tended to move in the same direction as the Nasdaq 100 index — and they’re now in unison more than ever. The 40-day correlation between the two reached a record of 0.6945 on Friday, Bloomberg data show. The increase further erodes the argument that Bitcoin works well as a diversifier, one that’s been held up by proponents as key to its appeal.”
At the same time, recent data from the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) just hit a new multi-decade low for bullish expectations, with the “Bullish Percent” dropping under 16% for the first time since the early 1990’s.
That measure is a contrarian indicator – when it gets extreme to the bearish side, history suggests it’s time to start looking the other way. Given the correlation framework in play, that would seem to suggest a coming tailwind for Bitcoin as well.
With that in mind, we take a look below at some of the most interesting stories in the Bitcoin equities space.
Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq:HIVE) went public in 2017 as the first cryptocurrency mining company with a green energy and ESG strategy.
The company defines itself as a growth-oriented technology stock in the emergent blockchain industry. HIVE owns state-of-the-art, green energy-powered data centre facilities in Canada, Sweden, and Iceland, where it claims to source only green energy to mine on the cloud and HODL both Ethereum and Bitcoin. Since the beginning of 2021, HIVE has held in secure storage the majority of its ETH and BTC coin mining rewards.
Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq:HIVE) recently announced production figures from the Company’s global Bitcoin and Ethereum mining operations for the month of March 2022, with a BTC HODL balance of 2,568 Bitcoin and 16,196 Ethereum as of April 3, 2022. In addition to this the Company is pleased to announce two milestone accomplishments of reaching 2 Exahash of Bitcoin mining and 6 Terahash of Ethereum mining this month.
Frank Holmes, Executive Chairman of HIVE stated “We are very pleased to report HIVE has continued its extremely strong momentum in expanding our hashing power, notably our Ethereum mining hash power grew by 33% this month. In March we produced an average of 9.0 BTC per day, and we are pleased to note that as of today, we are producing approximately 9.0 BTC a day even after the recent difficulty increase of 4%. Our Bitcoin hashing power increased in March and at the calendar month-end our hashrate was 2.0 Exahash, which translated into a 6% increase in BTC mining on a month over month basis, while BTC prices corrected.”
Even in light of this news, HIVE hasn’t really done much of anything over the past week, with shares logging no net movement over that period. Over the past month, shares of the stock have suffered from clear selling pressure, dropping by roughly -6%.
Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq:HIVE) managed to rope in revenues totaling $86M in overall sales during the company’s most recently reported quarterly financial data — a figure that represents a rate of top line growth of 381.2%, as compared to year-ago data in comparable terms. In addition, the company has a strong balance sheet, with cash levels exceeding current liabilities ($326.5M against $19.4M).
BlockQuarry Corp. (OTC US:BLQC) is an emerging name in the cryptocurrency mining space. The company has an interesting hybrid model, with proprietary mining operations complemented by a rapidly growing hosting business that has already partnered with Bitmain Technologies, one of the largest and most successful crypto companies on the planet.
The company recently updated shareholders on its name and symbol change. On March 1, FINRA approved the Company’s corporate name change from ISW Holdings Inc. (OTC: ISWH) to BlockQuarry Corp., with a new ticker symbol (OTC: BLQC). Alonzo Pierce, President and Chair of BlockQuarry Corp., said, “Our name and ticker symbol change with FINRA is just the beginning. The next steps for the Company, as far as exchanges go, would be an up-listing. We look forward to working with both regulators and auditors to make it happen. An up-listing could mean great exposure for the Company and great value added for our current shareholders.”
BlockQuarry Corp. (OTC US:BLQC), in partnership with Bit5ive and Bitmain Technologies, has also been driving rapid progress in the domain of the company’s core business, recently announcing an update to its current and prospective shareholders as the Company scales cryptocurrency mining operations following the granting of its corporate name and stock symbol change by FINRA.
“Our December Q report isn’t out yet, but we are looking for annual 2021 revenues topping $1.06 million, which comes in well above our projections from midyear and represents nearly 1,900% growth over our 2020 topline,” stated Pierce. “While we suspected our December revenues to level out a bit as a consequence of moving our self-mining facility from Pennsylvania to our Southeastern U.S. location, we effectively minimized the impact of that transition and enter April with tremendous momentum.”
According to the company’s release, at present, and as covered in recent Company updates, BlockQuarry, Bit5ive and Bitmain are managing and hosting partners in Gaffney. The partners delivered and deployed 20 MW of built-out mining infrastructure before the end of March 2022, as previously projected. The project has been scaling up mining activity on a daily basis and will soon represent the largest cryptocurrency mining operation in the region.
BlockQuarry Corp. (OTC US:BLQC) plans to expand by an additional 80 MW in phase 2 to bring its total capacity to 100 MW, which management believes will continue on to eventually reach 200 MW driven by 56,000 new ASIC rigs. BLQC shares have largely outperformed the broad crypto space as well as the broad market over the past 3-6 months. The stock is now battling for support at the $0.90/share zone after a significant pullback.
Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:MARA) is a digital asset technology company, which engages in mining cryptocurrencies, with a focus on the blockchain ecosystem and the generation of digital assets.
MARA is another of the stocks that traders point to as core in the bitcoin mining space. Like RIOT, shares have been pretty well smacked over recent months, dropping from $80/share down to the $20 level. But the stock has support. And as we outlined at the start, the next leg higher in BTC could have an outsized payoff in stocks like this once investor enthusiasm returns.
Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:MARA) recently announced the Company’s intent to transition its bitcoin miners from the facility in Hardin, MT to new locations with more sustainable and non-carbon emitting sources of power.
“Marathon made a commitment for our mining operations to be 100% carbon neutral by the end of 2022,” said Fred Thiel, Marathon’s chairman and CEO. “To achieve that goal, we have endeavored to ensure our miners are as sustainably powered as possible. With the majority of our fleet already scheduled to be deployed at renewable power facilities and deployments currently underway, we believe it is an appropriate time to transition our legacy operations away from fossil fuel generation and towards more sustainable sources of power. We will therefore be moving our miners from Hardin, Montana to new locations that are more in line with our current strategy of deploying behind the meter at sustainable power stations. We would like to thank the team at Beowulf and Hardin for the integral role they played in helping Marathon through the early stages of our journey to become one of the leading Bitcoin miners in North America.”
We’ve witnessed minor losses during the past week. But MARA has a track record that includes a number of dramatic bounces. Furthermore, the name has registered increased average transaction volume recently.
Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:MARA) has a significant war chest ($615.5M) of cash on the books, which must be weighed relative to about $13.8M in total current liabilities. One should also note that debt has been growing over recent quarters. MARA is pulling in trailing 12-month revenues of $150.5M. In addition, the company is seeing major top-line growth, with y/y quarterly revenues growing at 2180.3%.
Other key players in the Bitcoin space include Riot Blockchain Inc. (Nasdaq:RIOT), Block Inc. (NYSE:SQ), MicroStrategy Inc. (Nasdaq:MSTR), and Hut 8 Mining Corp. (Nasdaq:HUT).
