First Crypto Firm IPO on London Stock Exchange Raises $32.5 Million

A crypto mining company has raised £25 million (about $32.5 million) through an IPO on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

U.K.-based Argo Mining (ticker: ARB), which provides "accessible" crypto mining via a subscription service, is the first crypto company to be listed on the LSE. The company raised £5 million (about $6.5 million) more than its initial goal of £20 million through the IPO.

Argo kicked off on the exchange with about 156 million shares accounting for 53.2% of its issued shared capital, according to a company document. Shares were priced at 16 pence, giving the business a total market valuation of £47 million pounds (about $61.2 million).

"Argo's admission to the London main market is a major step in the company's development and will put us in a strong position to execute our long-term growth strategy," executive chairman Jonathan Bixby said in the document. "We are delighted with the strong response from investors which will enable us to grow our business in multiple jurisdictions."

The company won approval from the UK Listing Authority in May to be listed on the exchange, and subsequently released its crypto mining subscription service in June. According to its website, Argo offers consumers three packages differentiated by the capacity of the mining power provided. BTG, ETH, ZEC and ETC are currently supported. All of its packages are sold out.

Bixby told the Financial Times around the time of the release that Argo wants to be "the Amazon Web Services of crypto."

"More than 90 percent of crypto mining is done by elites on industrial scale because it is technically very difficult to do," Bixby was quoted as saying. "It is incredibly expensive to buy, up front, the hardware you need at $5,000 a machine."

Several other mining companies in the space are also considering IPOs.

As previously reported by CoinDesk, market leader Bitmain is rumored to be conducting a pre-IPO funding round and to be considering going public. Two other China-based mining hardware makers, Canaan Creative and Ebang Communication have both filed IPO applications with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

London Stock Exchange image via Shutterstock