This Fintech Company Is Now Into Crypto Mining

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The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

OLB Group, Inc. OLB operates as a fintech and payment facilitator company. It offers OmniSoft, a cloud-based business management platform that provides turnkey solutions for merchants to enable them to build and manage their retail businesses; eVance, a payment processing solution; SecurePay, a payment gateway and virtual terminal with proprietary business management tools; and CrowdPay.us, a white-label capital-raising platform. The company also operates ShopFast, a cloud-based omnichannel software. In addition, it provides e-commerce development and consulting services. 

As of late, OLB states that it has taken a meaningful stake in the crypto mining business. It intends to purchase up to 1,000 Antminer S19j Pro mining computers under its DMint subsidiary. The operation is taking place at its almost zero-carbon data center in Bradford, Pennsylvania. OLB entered into an exclusive agreement to purchase all-natural gas yield from wells in Bradford through Cai Energy Blockchain. The terms of the agreement enable DMint to become a vertically integrated cryptocurrency mining company, and the environmental impact footprint of the cryptocurrency mining operation will be close to zero as the natural gas will be taken directly from the wellheads to generate electricity. It is expected that the computers purchased will have a combined computing power of approximately 100 petahash per second (PH/s). 

Ronny Yakov, chairman and CEO of OLB Group, said this about the mining operations, “DMint is an integral part of OLB’s multi-stage strategy to empower our merchants with enhanced services, which today include access to capital and expanded crypto commerce services that help them compete and stand out in any market. We have taken an aggressive position with cryptocurrency and underlying blockchain technology in our omni-commerce platforms. We believe that cryptocurrency will have a major impact in the payment industry and want to be at the forefront of the industry as it adopts the acceptance of cryptocurrencies. We are committed to growing with this market and are looking to add other capabilities and services that will expand crypto commerce access for our merchants.”

“Once all 1,000 miners are fully operational, OLB Group will have the capacity for an additional $1.1 million in revenue monthly, assuming a base market price of $45,000 per Bitcoin. Although this is a major milestone, we remain focused on our long-term goal of expanding to 24,000 computers by the fall of 2023,” Yakov continued.

The move comes as the market is already congested with other miners. But if OLB can consistently generate Bitcoin via natural gas wellheads with minimal carbon impact, it will join other miners that have differentiated themselves in unique ways.

Here are some of the crypto miners currently in the game, and the differentiation that each provides:

HIVE Blockchain Technologies HIVE

HIVE built its facilities in various jurisdictions to take advantage of cooler temperatures and access low-cost green and renewable energy, which it uses exclusively for mining. In the June 2021 quarter, HIVE achieved record revenue of $37.2 million and net income of $18.6 million while also expanding its mining capacity.

Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. MARA

This Las Vegas-based company is striving to build the largest mining operation in North America at one of the lowest energy costs thanks to its access to cheap energy. 

It has co-located its Bitcoin Mining Data Center adjacent to the Hardin Generating Station, a 105-megawatt power facility in Montana. It has the capacity to deploy up to 30,000 mining rigs that will generate 3,320 PH/s. 

Riot Blockchain Inc. RIOT

Riot Blockchain is among the largest U.S.-based publicly-traded Bitcoin miners in North America. The company has been investing in its Bitcoin mining operations as it builds scale. Its New York facility is hosted by Coinmint at the largest digital currency data center in the world, where energy is drawn from 88% zero-emission sources.

BIT Digital Inc. BTBT

BIT Digital is a sustainability-focused generator of digital assets with large-scale, global mining operations representing a maximum hash rate of 1,920 PH/S. The New York-based crypto miner has one of the largest operating fleets of any U.S.-listed miner, currently totaling 32,500, with the majority of its miners running on carbon-free power.

Bitfarms Ltd. BITF

Bitfarms is a Toronto-based blockchain infrastructure company with one of the largest crypto mining networks in North America. Across its 5 facilities in Quebec with 82 megawatts of built-out infrastructure, 99% of its Bitcoin mining activities are powered by renewable hydroelectric power, with an average cost of just $0.04 kilowatts per hour and corporate hash rate of 1,600 PH/S.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.