Zug, Switzerland and Vancouver, Canada – HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (TSX.V:HIVE) (OTC:HVBTF) (the “Company” or “HIVE”) today announced that it is ushering in a new chapter for the Company as HIVE transitions from its initial start-up phase to HIVE 2.0. HIVE became a publicly listed company in September 2017 and is now a fully operational blockchain infrastructure company operating significant GPU and ASIC mining capacity. The Company is pleased to provide an update on its ASIC mining capacity which began operations on time on September 30, 2018. The previously announced cloud-based contract has been amended to reduce operating costs by ~30%, retroactive to October 1, 2018, and provides the option to extend the contract term to two years from one year. Management believes this will have an immediate positive impact on profitability and cash flow generation for the Company.
Additionally, HIVE is pleased to announce that it has appointed Marco Streng, CEO of Genesis Group (“Genesis”) and a co-founder of HIVE, as its Vice Chairman and that it has appointed Darcy Daubaras as Chief Financial Officer effective immediately. Mr. Daubaras replaces Jessica Van Den Akker who has resigned from the Company. Mr. Daubaras will assume responsibility for signing off on the Company’s second quarter financial statements. Management believes that these are positive corporate developments for HIVE and mark important milestones for the Company as it continues to expand its blockchain footprint and looks towards positive cash flow generation.
Marco Streng is the CEO and co-founder of Genesis as well as a co-founder of HIVE and brings significant experience in the blockchain infrastructure ecosystem. His experience benefits HIVE as the Company expands its footprint and presence in blockchain, including Bitcoin mining. Since its inception in 2013 and under the direction of Marco Streng, Genesis has grown to become the largest hashpower provider in the cloud and a leading services provider to the blockchain industry.
Mr. Daubaras brings over 20 years of experience in corporate accounting and public company service. Prior to joining HIVE, Darcy was a member of the executive team at FinancialCAD Corporation. Mr. Daubaras has previously served as the Chief Financial Officer for Canadian listed public companies as well as serving as the Director of Corporate Accounting with Mercer International. Darcy was awarded a CPA, CA designation from the Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia as well as being awarded a CPA designation in Illinois and has experience with Sarbanes-Oxley. He received a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Victoria.
“I am pleased to welcome Darcy to the executive team and believe his significant experience will serve HIVE extremely well as we enter the next phase of the Company which we are calling HIVE 2.0.” said Frank Holmes, Interim Executive Chairman. “I am also pleased that Marco has agreed to join the Board of Directors given his expertise in blockchain as CEO and co-founder of Genesis. Further, the amendments made to the cloud-based services agreement with Genesis mean that HIVE’s mining operations are expected to see improved profitability despite current market conditions and we remain bullish on the long-term value of cryptocurrencies in spite of volatility seen throughout 2018.”
“I would like to thank Jessica who has served as CFO since our launch as a publicly listed blockchain infrastructure company and is an industry pioneer. During her tenure, Jessica developed deep knowledge of the cryptocurrency industry and she was a key contributor to HIVE during its critical growth period. I wish her success in her future endeavours.”
About HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd.
HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. is a growth oriented, TSX.V-listed company building a bridge from the blockchain sector to traditional capital markets. HIVE is strategically partnered with Genesis Mining Ltd. to build the next generation of blockchain infrastructure. HIVE owns state-of-the-art GPU-based digital currency mining facilities in Iceland and Sweden, which produce newly minted digital currencies like Ethereum continuously as well as cloud-based ASIC-based capacity which produce newly minted digital currencies like Bitcoin. Our deployments provide shareholders with exposure to the operating margins of digital currency mining as well as a growing portfolio of crypto-coins.
For more information and to register to HIVE’s mailing list, please visit www.HIVEblockchain.com. Follow @HIVEblockchain on Twitter and subscribe to HIVE’s YouTube channel.
On Behalf of HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd.
“Frank Holmes”
Interim Executive Chairman
For further information please contact:
Frank Holmes
Tel: (604) 664-1078
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Forward-Looking Information
Except for the statements of historical fact, this news release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation that is based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. “Forward-looking information” in this news release includes information about the Company’s amended ASIC mining cloud based contract with Genesis, including reduced operating costs and extension of option term; management’s belief that the amended ASIC mining cloud contract will have an immediate positive impact on profitability and cash flow generation; long term growth of the Company; the business goals and objectives of the Company, and other forward-looking information includes but is not limited to information concerning the intentions, plans and future actions of the parties to the transactions described herein and the terms thereon.
Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, the ongoing partnership with Genesis; the digital currency market; the Company’s ability to successfully mine digital currency; the Company may not be able to profitably liquidate its current digital currency inventory, or at all; a decline in digital currency prices may have a significant negative impact on the Company’s operations; the volatility of digital currency prices; and other related risks as more fully set out in the Company’s documents disclosed under the Company’s filings at www.sedar.com.
The forward-looking information in this news release reflects the current expectations, assumptions and/or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this news release, the Company has made assumptions about the Company’s ability to profitably liquidate its digital currency inventory as required; the Company’s ongoing partnership with Genesis; historical prices of digital currencies and the ability of the Company to mine digital currencies will be consistent with historical prices; and there will be no regulation or law that will prevent the Company from operating its business. The Company has also assumed that no significant events occur outside of the Company's normal course of business. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein.