Argo Blockchain plc (NASDAQ:ARBK) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 4 of 4

Seif El-Bakly: Yes. Good question, Bill. Thanks. I mean we’re expecting to see a lot of hashrate come offline as miners with older-generation machines and an older fleet, mining — as mining gets more expensive and power contracts or good power contracts, it’s just more difficult to find and to mine profitably. So as we’ve seen in past halving cycles, I think the difficulty adjustment will fluctuate back and forth as the network flushes out the miners that are just right on margin or below. And I’m going to say this again. I mean, really, our focus is what we can control, and it’s why, in my initial comments, I say that we’re so focused on efficiency and costs. So relative to the entire network, we have an efficient fleet. We’re competitive from a power and hosting cost perspective.

Year-to-date, our power hosting has been all in at around $0.045 per kilowatt hour. So we’re looking at, again, efficiency in operations, and we’re also looking at potential hedging opportunities using derivatives, which I think everyone in this space should be looking into. And so I think those factors, the ones at least that are in our control, should enable us to remain competitive and continue to mine profitably after the halving. So thanks for the question, Bill. It’s a good one, and we’re conscious of all of that.

Tom Divine: And then this will be our last question from Kevin Dede at H.C. Wainwright. Seif, can you clarify, when you reached 2.8 exahash, did that come from the BlockMiner machines?

Seif El-Bakly: Yes. So thanks, Kev. In our September monthly operational update, we announced that we had completed the deployment of our ePIC blockchain machines. So — and they represent around 300 petahash of hashrate capacity. So that essentially enabled us to grow from 2.5 to 2.8 exahash. So the BlockMiners have been online and hashing since the end of September.

Tom Divine: Great. Thank you, Seif. Paul?

Operator: Fantastic. Thank you very much indeed for addressing those questions. And of course, the Company will review all questions submitted today and will publish responses on the Investor Meet Company platform. Before redirecting investors to provide you with their feedback, which is particularly important to the Company, Seif, if I could just ask you just for a few closing comments, please.

Seif El-Bakly: Yes. Thank you, Paul. I just want to thank everyone around the world for tuning into our earnings call today. Again, it was a great quarter for Argo with improvements in mining margin, adjusted EBITDA and hashrates. So we really continue to focus on deleveraging and reducing costs and looking forward to our next call to give everybody some more updates. So thank you, everybody. Be well. Thank you, Paul. Thank you, Tom. Thank you, Jim. Thanks, team.

Operator: Thank you all for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close the session as you’ll be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order the team can better understand your views and expectations? This will only take a few moments to complete and is greatly valued by the Company. On behalf of the management team of our Argo Blockchain plc, we’d like to thank you for attending today’s presentation, and good afternoon to you all.

Follow Argo Blockchain Plc

Page 4 of 4