Autor Cointelegraph By Cointelegraph Research

The Cointelegraph Research Terminal, the leading provider of premium databases and institutional-grade research on blockchain and digital assets, has added a new report to its expanding library. The latest paper looks at a particular group of players in the Bitcoin (BTC) mining industry. Published by crypto consulting firm Crypto Oxygen, the report highlights the current landscape of publicly listed crypto mining companies that control approximately 17% of the total hash rate of the entire Bitcoin network. The crypto mining industry is a quickly growing and evolving sector. In January this year, a United States-based company Core Scientific went public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger, making it the largest publicly traded crypto mining company in revenue and hash rate. Core Scientific’s hash rate leads all public companies with 8.3 exahashes per second (Eh/s), and it mined 5,769 BTC in 2021, generating about $545 million in revenue. Coming in second and third in terms of revenue are Riot Blockchain and Hive Blockchain Technologies, earning $215 million and $195 million, respectively.Strategic, operational and financial breakdownHash rate and revenue are just a few ways to distinguish between companies, but they don’t paint the whole picture since some firms have revenue models separate from their core mining activity. The report dissects such key stats and offers a more detailed comparison, encompassing each company’s strategic, operational and financial performance.Download the full report, complete with charts and infographics from the Cointelegraph Research TerminalFor instance, the report compares each company’s operations via the current hash rate per U.S. dollar invested. This way, it becomes easier to see which company offers more investment value to investors, which, in this metric’s case, is Stronghold Digital Mining with 46.56 gigahashes per second (GH/s) to lead the pack.Aside from this, the report also provides a quick snapshot of each company’s operations, including each one’s operational key performance indicators (KPIs,) business model, data center locations, BTC holdings and other pertinent information. Specifically, major players like Marathon have lean setups and rely entirely on being hosted by external providers, while others like Stronghold own assets along with the full value chain, including the electrical infrastructure.Rather than just depending solely on financial reports and public statements, Crypto Oxygen has also further conducted a survey to include direct feedback from the analyzed companies in its research.SustainabilityA major concern of Bitcoin mining, in general, pertains to Environment, Social and Governance, or ESG. Sustainability has always been a central talking point concerning the crypto mining industry, and publicly listed companies are particularly subject to increased scrutiny. Yet, there seems to be a focus among the companies in the report on limiting the carbon footprint of their operations, despite the differences in approaches.Out of the 12 companies, eight are already carbon neutral or environmentally beneficial operations. Bitfarms, Hive, Iris Energy and Argo are four companies that rely exclusively on renewable energy sources. Northern Data, Core Scientific and Greenidge Generation use offset credits to reduce their carbon footprint. Marathon Digital Holdings and Hut 8 Mining are also already using carbon offset credits and target to be carbon neutral by the end of 2022, while 67% of Bit Digital’s energy source is from renewables.Indirect exposureInvesting in public crypto mining firms offers investors exposure in the crypto space, albeit not as direct as holding Bitcoin. The correlation between the mining companies’ stock prices to the price of BTC is underscored in the report, and the recent drop in the price of BTC exhibits that. It also shows that more significant BTC holdings tend to be a key driver in the downturn.Yet, the mining firms’ stock prices have declined disproportionately. What the 46-page report delivers is an analysis of each public mining firm’s performance and presents a detailed comparison of each one to help bring more clarity to the players involved in the developing space and the industry in general. For those interested in reading the full report, download it by visiting Cointelegraph Research Terminal.This article is for information purposes only and represents neither investment advice nor an investment analysis or an invitation to buy or sell financial instruments. Specifically, the document does not serve as a substitute for individual investment or other advice.

The first quarter of 2022 saw unprecedented growth in terms of venture-capital (VC) activity in different blockchain sectors. In 2021, VCs poured in over $30 billion into infrastructure, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized finance (DeFi), centralized finance (CeFi) and Web3. That set the bar pretty high if 2022 was going to beat it. In the first quarter of 2022, capital inflows from VCs were over $14.6 billion, or around 48% of all the capital investment by VCs last year. Over 500 individual deals were struck in the first three months throughout the five major sectors listed above in 2022. Cointelegraph Research studied and analyzed its database of deals, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity, investors and crypto companies to produce a 12-page report on the major VC activities in the crypto sphere. Leaving 2021 behindAnyone interested in cryptocurrencies, blockchain and the future of this industry should pay close attention to the contents of this report. By studying what the VCs are doing and knowing the players who are investing in projects and which platforms are being invested in, individuals can help stay on top and make informed decisions.It takes more than just great technology to have people use a product. History is filled with great products that just did not have the right mix of marketing, management or capital to bring a product successfully to market. VCs aim to resolve these issues by investing more than just the capital needed to get a project off the ground but also provide a network of contacts that can provide solutions to the correct marketing and strategic management mix. Download the full report here, complete with charts and infographics.The Cointelegraph Research Terminal, together with Keychain Ventures, brings you a report which dives into the first three months of 2022. The 12-page report by Cointelegraph Research analyzes the most active investors, M&A, largest deals and new funds in 2022 Q1. Record-breaking number and value of deals The first quarter of 2022 saw an unprecedented amount of capital inflows in the blockchain industry. Since the start of 2021, each quarter has continuously increased the total capital invested in this space, culminating in the 2022 Q1 that ushered in over $14.6 billion in VC investment. The average United States dollar value of each deal has also increased and now stands around $32.3 million for the last three months. The number of individual deals is also rising and broke the previous record, reaching over 500 in 2022 Q1. The increase is likely to continue to trend higher as the space is attracting new funds from Bain Capital and Sequoia Capital, long-time VCs in traditional markets. The industry also saw consolidation through acquisitions by long-time crypto players like OpenSea, Coinbase, Fireblocks, FTX and Blockchain.com. In all cases, these strategic purchases expand the reach of each of the firms’ core business offerings.The recently formed funds like Bain Capital and Haun Ventures are focused primarily on Web3 projects, which, interestingly enough, had the most involvement in 2022’s first quarter and overtook the DeFi sector — the usual leader. CeFi continues to be the least active in terms of the number of deals and capital inflows of all the different sectors. The most active investors are more evenly distributing their investments across two or three different sectors, which changed from the patterns seen in 2021. This potentially shows a maturing of VC strategy, but still, these equal allocations are across DeFi, Web3, NFTs and infrastructure, with much less being invested in CeFi. Active seed rounds, but Expansion rounds see the most capital interest Pre-Seed and Seed rounds had the most VC activity at 288 individual deals with over $2.1 billion. Watching the development in these rounds is promising for the entire industry, as each startup brings new applications for the blockchain and new competition for previously formed organizations. The Expansion rounds did not see as much activity but recorded over 2.5 times the capital inflows at almost $5.8 billion. These rounds help to encapsulate the overall growth potential and reach of the current blockchain projects, which most VCs are willing to pour money into as they are less risky than earlier stage investments like Series A rounds.Blockchain needs the right peopleOne issue intensifying with all this capital investment is the need for people and talent in the blockchain space. As more companies have plans to expand, create new products and diversify their organizations, employees with the right skills are becoming harder to find. Cointelegraph Research recently interviewed Keychain Ventures and Dragonfly Capital. In that conversation, many topics were discussed including the bottleneck of human capital, which will only get further strained as more investment pours into the industry.Quarterly VC reports from Cointelegraph Research Terminal and Keychain Ventures The report pulls from Cointelegraph Research Terminals’ expansive database along with analysis from Michael Tabone, an economist from Cointelegraph Research. Michael has an extensive background in economics, business, finance, cryptocurrency, blockchain technology and working with emerging technologies. Besides working for Cointelegraph Research, Michael is a Ph.D. candidate working on his dissertation, which is focused on the theory and application of DAOs.Keychain Ventures is a crypto investment firm that engages in investing different funds in the blockchain space. Keychain Ventures, along with Cointelegraph Research, will be presenting quarterly interviews with VC firms as well as crypto/blockchain projects which have recently gone through a funding round. These interviews will open up different viewpoints of investment practices from all parties. This article is for information purposes only and represents neither investment advice nor an investment analysis or an invitation to buy or sell financial instruments. Specifically, the document does not serve as a substitute for individual investment or other advice.