A Dallas company is emerging from stealth with its eyes on the crypto mining industry.
Applied Blockchain exited stealth mode, announcing its entrance into the Ethereum and Altcoin markets with an oversubscribed $16.5 million private equity investment and a strategic partnership with blockchain companies SparkPool and General Mining Research.
"Ethereum represents one of the most attractive investment opportunities in the blockchain ecosystem," said Applied CEO and chairman Wes Cummins in a statement.
Under the deal, Applied sold 660,000 shares of convertible preferred stock, representing about 31 percent of the company's ownership. Both SparkPool and General Mining, which are helping Applied to scale with hardware and software tools, each has a 9.9 percent equity stake in the company.
"Through these partnerships, we have strategically aligned our collective interests around a common goal of deploying capital rapidly to expand mining operations and capture a meaningful share of the Ethereum/Altcoin mining market," Cummins said.
Applied is now listed on the OTC markets under the ticker symbol APLD. As of this afternoon, shares were trading at about $.55 apiece.
The company uses the funding to purchase GPU mining hardware, with plans of bringing on its initial mining capacity in May. While its initial focus will be on Ethereum and Altcoin, Applied said it is looking to scale to decentralized finance and NFTs quickly. Ultimately, the company said it plans to list on the Nasdaq as promptly as possible.
In addition to announcing its launch and funding, Applied also unveiled its board of advisors, made up of SparkPool and General Mining leaders, including SparkPool Co-Founder and CEO Xin Xu and General Mining co-founders Guo Chen and Bo Dong.
Applied said it is planning to release more details next week. Its leadership is composed of Cummins, who also serves as the CEO of 272 Capital; CFO David Rench, who holds a similar position at Hirzel Capital; and Executive VP of Operations Regina Ingel, the founder and CEO of events company Deck Out Dallas.
"The success of our private placement is indicative of the interest and excitement around Ethereum and the growing demand for distributed permissionless platforms without centralized toll-takers," Cummins said.
