Dogecoin continues to earn significant recognition from Elon Musk as an accepted investment option and payment method after another tweet on May 20th. Naturally, companies from around the world are looking to make their mark in the cryptocurrency space with different innovations and uses for crypto, including using these currencies to pay for their products and services and embracing crypto mining initiatives. Companies such as Hello Pal International Inc. (CSE:HP) (OTC:HLLPF), Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Riot Blockchain Inc. (NASDAQ:RIOT, SOS Limited (NYSE:SOS), and Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA) have made strides in positioning themselves as key industry leaders and trendsetters in the cryptocurrency space.
Hello Pal Acquires Interest in Crypto Mining Assets
International live streaming, language learning, and social-crypto platform provider Hello Pal (CSE:HP) (OTC:HLLPF) recently made an exciting move within the crypto mining space last month after acquiring 51% interest in Crypto Pal Technology Ltd., which owns 12,500 mining rigs dedicated to mining Dogecoin (DOGE) and Litecoin (LTC), from a company controlled by Shanghai Yitang Data Technology Co. Ltd, with an option to increase its interest to 100% within two years after the completion of the transaction. The mining assets have a combined hash rate of 6.25 TH/s or 2.1 of the entire LTC network hash rate.
The transaction, which was previously announced in March 2021, was amended so that Hello Pal will no longer acquire an interest in a single cryptocurrency mining facility. Instead, the company has entered into a guaranteed services agreement with Yitang to ensure that its mining assets are hosted across multiple locations in order to guarantee diversification of risk against potential future local governmental regulations and seasonal fluctuations of electricity costs.
“With the signing of the definitive agreement with Yitang, we have taken the next step towards having cryptocurrency as an integral part of Hello Pal,” said KL Wong, Founder and Chairman of Hello Pal. “We are also ecstatic that our choice of cryptocurrencies to mine seems to have been validated especially by the recent incredible surge in market interest and activity of Dogecoin. As far as we are aware, upon completion of this transaction, we shall be the only publicly listed company with primary exposure to Dogecoin.”
Just days later, Hello Pal announced the acquisition of a 51% interest in Crypto Pal Technology Ltd at the low acquisition cost of $3.5 million, consisting of $1.5 million cash and 1,800,000 units. Crypto Pal currently has 12,500 mining rigs that are actively mining Dogecoin and Litecoin. As a result of the acquisition of Crypto Pal, Hello Pal has created the first publicly listed company focused on mining Dogecoin.
Following its move into the crypto mining space, Hello Pal closed a brokered private placement led by Canaccord Genuity for gross proceeds of C$7.25 million. The company said that the strong demand for this offering is “a testament to our highly-accretive acquisition of Dogecoin and Litecoin mining assets and the continued robust growth of our live-streaming services.”
In regards to the robust growth of its live-streaming services, Hello Pal just announced that in May the company achieved its sixth consecutive month above $2 million in revenue, with a gross margin of 14%.
Companies Taking Bold Steps in the Crypto Space
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) has also made waves with its recent announcement that its subsidiary, SpaceX’s mission to the moon will be funded entirely by Dogecoin. The DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon, which will launch aboard a rideshare SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, usually costs roughly $62 million to book which translates to around 129 million Dogecoin at its current values. Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted about the deal, adding that this would be the first time cryptocurrency is used in space. “The mission will demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency beyond earth orbit and set the foundation for interplanetary commerce. We’re excited to launch DOGE-1 to the Moon!” said Tom Ochinero, SpaceX Vice President of Commercial Sales.
Riot Blockchain Inc. (NASDAQ:RIOT) has made a move towards becoming an industry leader in Bitcoin mining in the US after signing a definitive agreement to acquire Whinstone US, North America’s largest Bitcoin hosting facility. According to Riot, the acquisition of Whinstone is foundational to its strategy to become a global leader in bitcoin mining and is set to place Riot as North America’s largest bitcoin mining and hosting company by total developed capacity. Speaking about the acquisition, Riot’s CEO Jason Les said, “After the consummation of this transaction, we will have created a very clear path for the company’s future growth. Riot will wholly own the largest bitcoin mining facility in North America with very low power costs and one of the most talented development teams in the industry.”
SOS Limited (NYSE:SOS) recently announced that its Canadian and US subsidiaries obtained MSB licenses from the US Crimes Enforcement Network Department of the Treasury, and the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre. This US MSB license will allow SOS subsidiary to act as a foreign exchange dealer, money transfer agent and seller of money orders, while the Canadian license allows SOS to conduct money transfers and be a forex dealer and virtual currencies. According to the release, the licenses are part of the company’s efforts to become compliant as they work towards launching an exchange.
One of the largest enterprise Bitcoin self-mining companies in North America Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA) became the first North American enterprise miner to produce bitcoin in adherence to the anti-money laundering regulations and the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control’s standards..Marathon announced the launch of a compliant bitcoin mining pool on March 30 and began directing its hashrate through the compliant mining pool on May 1. “By excluding transactions between nefarious actors, we can provide investors and regulators with the peace of mind that the bitcoin we produce is ‘clean’, ethical, and compliant with regulatory standards,” said Fred Thiel, CEO Marathon. The pool will accept other US-based bitcoin mining companies starting June 1, 2021.
Of course, all eyes could shift focus to Dogecoin moving forward, as Tesla CEO Elon Musk and other supporters continue to sing its praises, which could bode well for Hello Pal.
“As far as we are aware, we are the only publicly listed company with primary exposure to Dogecoin,” said Hello Pal CEO KL Wong.
To learn more about Hello Pal, please click here.
Featured Image: Depositphotos ©
