Bitfury secures $80M private placement with Korelya Capital

Cryptocurrency miner company Bitfury has announced a private placement of $80 million, the latest high growth blockchain company to draw significant support from global institutional investors.

The placement was led by Korelya Capital, an investment firm with the backing of Korea’s Naver Group, alongside investors such as Argenthal Capital Partners and Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Capital. Valery Vavilov, Bitfury’s co-founder and CEO, said the funding marked a strong year for the company, one of Europe’s emerging blockchain unicorns.

“This private placement reflects our achievements, and it recognizes our ability to address adjacent market segments in high-performance computing, including in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI),” Vavilov said in a statement. “The institutionalization of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, partnered with the opportunity of these emerging technologies, is a natural expansion opportunity that Bitfury will build on—in 2019 and beyond.”

Antoine Dresch, of Korelya Capital, said Bitfury has the expertise and leadership to drive more innovation in the blockchain sector. He noted, “Bitfury has grown from a small startup to the largest western blockchain unicorn, equipped with world class leadership and expertise, consistently delivering innovative solutions across the entire blockchain ecosystem.”

The news comes on the heels of reports that the crypto miner manufacturer has been looking at different strategic options to raise funds, such as holding an initial public offering (IPO) as early as 2019, or raising debt financing as well as selling a minority stake in the company.

Since its launch in 2011, Bitfury has been quite active in cryptocurrency and blockchain activities. Bitfury, the largest non-Chinese-owned company, develops Bitcoin blockchain software and provides infrastructure for Bitcoin mining. The company also developed products like a digital ledger for cryptocurrency transactions, chips for mining machines and software for institutions, governments, and companies.

The recent private placement, according to Bitfury Executive Vice Chairman George Kikvadze, was a vote of confidence in the direction of travel for Bitfury, and an endorsement of their growth strategy. He explained, “This private placement will take our corporate governance to the next level, broaden our financial strategic options, and ideally position us for our next phase of growth as the market matures.”

The funding is the latest example of a significant investment in the blockchain space, as more institutional and fund investors turn to opportunities in cryptocurrency and blockchain tech.

Regarded as pioneers in blockchain development, Bitfury works with governments and large corporations to develop and deploy real-world use cases for the technology. The funding will support the company as it continues to grow in European markets, at a time of increasing interest from large organisations worldwide.

Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.

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Bitfury eyes possible initial public offering by 2019: report

Cryptocurrency miner manufacturer Bitfury is reportedly looking at various strategic options to raise funds, including holding an initial public offering (IPO). Other possible fundraising options include raising debt financing as well as selling a minority stake in the company. Sources familiar with the matter, however, noted that Bitfury has yet to decide on which fundraising strategy to punt on.

According to Bloomberg  report, if Bitfury holds the initial public offering, it will be the largest listing in Europe. The crypto start-up has reportedly contracted global investment banks ahead of the potential IPO. Bitfury is looking into listing in Amsterdam, Hong Kong or London as early as 2019, the report noted.

Going public will increase the value of Bitfury to somewhere between $3 and $5 billion in the next two years. However, this evaluation is merely an estimate and could change depending on the market, according to the report.

If Bitfury pushes through with its plans, it’ll be the latest crypto manufacturer to raise funds via IPO. This year, Canaan Creative and Ebang Communication have submitted their prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Bitmain also announced its plans for IPO; however, recent reports indicate the company is suffering from inventory losses, a lack of new manufacturing and the dwindling crypto mining market, which has already caused Nvidia to pull back on its production and financial forecasts.

Since its launch in 2011, Bitfury has been quite active in cryptocurrency and blockchain activities. Bitfury, the largest non-Chinese-owned company, develops Bitcoin blockchain software and provides infrastructure for Bitcoin mining. The company also developed products like a digital ledger for cryptocurrency transactions, chips for mining machines and software for institutions, governments, and companies.

Last month, Bitfury Group released its latest cryptocurrency mining application, the Bitfury Clarke. The specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip is fully customized for SH 256Bitcoin mining. In the announcement, Bitfury announced it was planning to include the new chips in its mining centres in Iceland, Canada Norway, and Georgia.

Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.

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Bitfury debuts new ASIC chip for ‘heightened’ crypto mining

Cryptocurrency mining giant Bitfury Group has unveiled its latest crypto mining application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip, the Bitfury Clarke.

In a blog post, the crypto company described the 14nm Bitfury Clarke ASIC as “unparalleled in performance and efficiency.” The chip, which is fully customized for SHA256 Bitcoin mining, boasts of 55 millijoules per gigahash (mJ/GH) power efficiency rate and up to 120 gigahashes per second (GH/s) hashrate. It also offers fully integrated controllable clock generation, integrated power-on-reset circuit, and comes in Pb-free 6×6 mm FCLGA 35L or FCLGA 4L packages. Supply voltage for Bitfury Clarke can go as low as 0.3 volts.

According to its data sheet, Bitfury Clarke is “a double SHA256 ASIC designed for Bitcoin mining with optimized package size for smaller PCB designs.” The ASIC can easily switch between two task buffers—one for SHA256 calculations while the other can be filled by “task write” command.

The Clarke chipset will be integrated into the firm’s existing crypto mining hardware, from its mining servers and BlockBoxes to its crypto mining facilities in Canada, Norway, Iceland, and the Republic of Georgia, Bitfury stated.

CEO Valery Vavilos said Bitfury takes into consideration “all factors, including silicon packaging, chip efficiency, optimal power distribution, cooling designs and speed of development,” during the design process. This, Vavilos explained, “will lead to solutions that deliver the best ROI to our customers—regardless of ASIC size.”

Bitfury will offer enterprise-grade professional customer support and design consulting to any customer looking to integrate the Bitfury Clarke ASIC into their mining operations.

Bitfury describes itself as a “leading full service blockchain technology company,” developing blockchain-based platforms that companies can use to digitize their assets. The firm is behind the Lightning Network protocol, which promises to scale BTC “to billions of transactions per day” off chain using a network of micropayment channels. In March, Bitfury secured a deal with the Norwegian government to build a $35-million data center near the Mo I Rana town.

Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.

The post Bitfury debuts new ASIC chip for ‘heightened’ crypto mining appeared first on Coingeek.

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Bitfury debuts new ASIC chip for ‘heightened’ crypto mining

Cryptocurrency mining giant Bitfury Group has unveiled its latest crypto mining application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip, the Bitfury Clarke.

In a blog post, the crypto company described the 14nm Bitfury Clarke ASIC as “unparalleled in performance and efficiency.” The chip, which is fully customized for SHA256 Bitcoin mining, boasts of 55 millijoules per gigahash (mJ/GH) power efficiency rate and up to 120 gigahashes per second (GH/s) hashrate. It also offers fully integrated controllable clock generation, integrated power-on-reset circuit, and comes in Pb-free 6×6 mm FCLGA 35L or FCLGA 4L packages. Supply voltage for Bitfury Clarke can go as low as 0.3 volts.

According to its data sheet, Bitfury Clarke is “a double SHA256 ASIC designed for Bitcoin mining with optimized package size for smaller PCB designs.” The ASIC can easily switch between two task buffers—one for SHA256 calculations while the other can be filled by “task write” command.

The Clarke chipset will be integrated into the firm’s existing crypto mining hardware, from its mining servers and BlockBoxes to its crypto mining facilities in Canada, Norway, Iceland, and the Republic of Georgia, Bitfury stated.

CEO Valery Vavilos said Bitfury takes into consideration “all factors, including silicon packaging, chip efficiency, optimal power distribution, cooling designs and speed of development,” during the design process. This, Vavilos explained, “will lead to solutions that deliver the best ROI to our customers—regardless of ASIC size.”

Bitfury will offer enterprise-grade professional customer support and design consulting to any customer looking to integrate the Bitfury Clarke ASIC into their mining operations.

Bitfury describes itself as a “leading full service blockchain technology company,” developing blockchain-based platforms that companies can use to digitize their assets. The firm is behind the Lightning Network protocol, which promises to scale BTC “to billions of transactions per day” off chain using a network of micropayment channels. In March, Bitfury secured a deal with the Norwegian government to build a $35-million data center near the Mo I Rana town.

Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.

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