Israel’s Blockchain Mining merges with Canadian miner Bitfarms

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Canada, in particular the Quebec area, is quickly becoming a hub for cryptocurrency mining operations. Aside from maple syrup, the area enjoys competitive electricity rates, cold weather to keep equipment cool. It’s for these reasons that Bitfarms set up shop there in 2013 and quickly became one of the leading cryptocurrency mining operations. Now, the company is set to merge with Israel-based Blockchain Mining Ltd (BML) to form one of the world’s largest mining outfits.

Bitfarms, the commercial name chosen by its registered owner, Backbone Hosting Solutions, Inc., has farms that have a combined capacity of around 27.5 megawatts (MW). It also has plans for three additional farms, which would have more than 100MW of capacity. The four existing facilities are capable of mining 200 quadrillion hashes per second (200 Ph/s). In November and December 2017, it was earning over $200,000 per day from mining SegWit-Coin BTC (also referred to as Bitcoin legacy or Core), Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Ethereum and Litecoin.

BML is traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) under the name BLCM. The company was formerly known as Natural Resource Holdings and had made substantial income dealing with precious metals. When it said that it would get into the cryptocurrency game with a transition to Bitcoin investing, its stock skyrocketed by 1,300%.

BML first mentioned late last year that it would be merging with Bitfarms, and announced this past Sunday that the merger had been completed. With that news, BML’s stock rose by almost 50% before the day was out. BML now owns 75% of Bitfarms, and is the 10th most-traded company on the TASE.

Bitfarms received $39 million in loans from two investment banks after the news of the pending merger was first announced. The money will be used to expand the company and invest more in its mining operations. Bitfarms’ corporate vice president of strategy, Emiliano Grozky, said of the merger, “The deal confirms our position as a leader in the blockchain technology industry. We are ready to implement our expansion in Canada.” Bitfarms was reportedly started without any outside financial support, attracting more than 200 shareholders to fund the company.