Argo blames bear market as it terminates mining services

Argo, a mining-as-a-service company based in the UK, will shut down its mining services on April 1, 2019. The announcement, which appeared in a strategy update posted on February 15, cites the money-losing bear market as the primary reason for terminating all customer contracts.

Argo went public on the London Stock Exchange last year

"Argo, a UK-based provider of cryptocurrency mining services (LSE:ARB), announces a refocus of its business strategy in light of the continuing difficult trading conditions in the cryptocurrency market as digital currencies face severe price pressure and volatility," the company wrote. "As a result of the challenging conditions, the Company has ceased accepting new mining subscriptions and will terminate all existing mining-as-a-service (MaaS) contracts by 1st April 2019."

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The company plans to focus on mining for itself after April 1 as well as "implement significant cost-cutting which is expected to lower its mining cost base, including ongoing expenses, by 35%." Existing customers will no longer be able to run their mining accounts and the company will not accept new customers.

The goal is to "reduce the overall cash burn and deliver EBITDA break-even in the second half of 2019."

 

About Author

John Biggs is an entrepreneur, consultant, writer, and maker. He spent fifteen years as an editor for Gizmodo, CrunchGear, and TechCrunch and has a deep background in hardware startups, 3D printing, and blockchain. His work has appeared in Men’s Health, Wired, and the New York Times. He runs the Technotopia podcast about a better future. He has written five books including the best book on blogging, Bloggers Boot Camp, and a book about the most expensive timepiece ever made, Marie Antoinette’s Watch. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Disclosure: Biggs owns and maintains cryptocurrencies in a private account and has been consulting with startups regarding blockchain-based products. He also edits and writes for startup clients.