London Stock Exchange welcomes the first blockchain stock, cloud mining company Argo plans to raise 20 million pounds for listing

Cloud mining company Argo has received permission from the UK Listing Authority to list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), the Financial Times reported.

It is understood that Argo has not yet made a profit and only raised $2.5 million from private investors at the beginning of this year. Argo is currently valued at 40 million pounds and plans to raise 20 million pounds after the listing.

Argo co-founder Jonathan Bixby said: "Currently 90% of cryptocurrency mining power is monopolized by large mining farms. A mining machine costs $5,000, so the cost of individual mining is very expensive. Argo's cloud mining business can reduce mining costs. We plan to become the cryptocurrency version of the Amazon cloud computing center."

Cloud mining is simply sharing local mining machines on the Internet, which can be said to be a sharing economy model. Argo provides mining machines, networks, operation and maintenance services, and users only need to pay a certain amount of mining machine rental and hosting service fees to obtain corresponding mining income, and do not have to worry about the tedious process of buying machines and maintenance. Argo claims that cloud mining can save miners from the suffering of huge noise.

Argo's cloud mining business adopts a mining rights membership system, charging a fixed fee of US$25 per month, which is mainly used to mine four cryptocurrencies: bitcoin gold, ethereum, ethereum classic and zcash.

Argo has already built a large mining farm in Vancouver, Canada’s second largest city. Now they plan to open two more mining farms in Iceland and China to enjoy low-temperature environments and cheap electricity.

Mike Edwards, co-founder of Argo, commented:

"Building computer equipment to mine cryptocurrencies is difficult, inefficient and expensive. We must change the rules of the game and democratize the process so that cryptocurrency mining becomes a mainstream consumer activity."

It is understood that Argo is the first cryptocurrency company approved for listing in the UK. Argo believes that London is a global financial center and it is relatively easy to raise funds by listing in the UK. Of course, this is also related to the relatively relaxed attitude of the British regulatory authorities towards cryptocurrency and blockchain-related businesses.