Cryptocurrency-related stocks have more or less fallen out of the spotlight over the past couple of years. With the hype surrounding crypto, initial coin offerings (ICOs), and other blockchain-related businesses having somewhat died down, the few publicly listed blockchain companies have also fallen under the wayside. One of the only publicly-listed cryptocurrency miners, Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ: RIOT) shot up more than 48% on Tuesday, with shares continuing to rise by another 15% in after-hours trading, making it one of the few big movers in the day.
As for the catalyst for why this has happened, it was hard to pinpoint it initially. At first, there seemed to be little major news announcements to justify this jump. As it turned out, however, Riot announced that it would be appointing a new director to fill a previously announced vacancy. Hubert Marleau is a finance expert, has worked decades in the capital markets, and is seen as a big deal for the cryptocurrency company.
“In addition to a career in the capital markets that has spanned over five decades, Mr. Marleau has previously served as a Governor of the Montreal and Vancouver stock exchanges, and as a Director of the Listing Committee for the Toronto Stock Exchange and Director of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada (now known as IIROC),” read an official press release from Riot.
While blockchain has gained a lot more legitimacy over the past couple of years as a concept, the raw excitement that fueled the rise of the ICO era has more or less gone away. Most budding blockchain companies have ended up going bankrupt other otherwise sinking into obscurity. In contrast, Riot Blockchain remains one of the few crypto-miners that are still doing well so far this year.
Riot Blockchain reports its Q3 earnings earlier this month, revealing that it had mined around 222 bitcoins in the quarter, an increase of 41% from the same time last year. However, this is still slightly lower than the 227 bitcoins the company managed to mine in the previous quarter. Despite this, Riot is still reporting a net loss. Losses per share came in at negative $0.04, the best the company has seen in almost two years.
Since the beginning of this year, Riot has shot up by more than 400%, making it one of the better performing small-cap stocks on the market, especially in the technology sector. There are almost no Wall Street analysts covering the stock at all, with just one having picked up the stock with an enthusiastic “buy” rating. With momentum still going strong in pre-market trading, Wednesday could see Riot rise even more.
Riot Blockchain Company Profile
Riot Blockchain Inc is focused on building, supporting and operating blockchain technologies. Distributed blockchain technology is a decentralized and encrypted ledger that is designed to offer a secure, efficient, verifiable and permanent way of storing records and other information without the need for intermediaries. It serves as a medium of exchange, store of value or unit of account. The company’s portfolio consists of Verady, Tesspay, Coinsquare, and others. – Warrior Trading News
