Argo Blockchain regains Nasdaq compliance as price recovers

BTC block reward miner Argo Blockchain (NASDAQ: ARBK ) has regained compliance with Nasdaq listing rules, the company has announced.

Argo was first listed on Nasdaq in September 2021 at a time when the BTC price was rising, and with it blocked reward mining shares. BTC has since fallen as the bear market wiped out trillions of dollars from the digital asset market. BTC mining stocks were among the biggest victims, with some, such as Core Scientific (NASDAQ: CORZW ) having to file for bankruptcy.

Argo’s stock, which debuted on the Nasdaq at $15, has been on a downward trend throughout 2022, losing 95% of its value. In December, the company received a warning from Nasdaq after its shares traded below $1 for 30 consecutive days.

With the recent pump in digital asset prices, Argos shares have recorded over 160% gains in the past month. This has pushed the share price to just under $2 at press time, which in turn has gotten the company into Nasdaq’s good books.

Argo has regained compliance with @nasdaqits entry rules. January 13 marked the 10th consecutive trading day that $ARBK closed above $1.

Nasdaq has confirmed that this case is now closed.https://t.co/TUJS6dYvoM#ARB $ARBK #BTC #Bitcoin

— Argo (@ArgoBlockchain) 23 January 2023

In its SEC filing, the company disclosed that it received a letter from Nasdaq notifying it that the matter was closed.

Argo has struggled with cash flow over the past year and had to dig into its BTC reserves to keep going. It also had to sell some of its other assets to raise cash. Three weeks ago, the miner sold its Helios, Texas-based mining facility to Galaxy Digital (NASDAQ: BRPHF ), the digital asset investment firm led by Wall Street veteran Mike Novogratz. The $65 million it raised from the sale went to service the loans and operating costs.

2022 was a year of reckoning for block reward miners. After enjoying a long period of consistent BTC price appreciation, last year’s bear market exposed their business models, which rely solely on BTC pumping.

Data from Messari shows that last year public BTC miners sold all the BTC they mined (whatever happened to HODLing?). Some, like Argo, sold twice as much BTC as they mined, indicating that they were dipping into their reserves to keep running.

BTC miners sell about 100% of the coins they mine

The 10 public bitcoin miners
detailed here mined ~40.7k BTC and sold ~40.3k in 2022

This is a sustained headwind for BTC and for no other reason a good thesis to be bullish on the ETHBTC ratio trade pic.twitter.com/L1iI6Z07p7

— Tom Dunleavy (@dunleavy89) 26 December 2022

See: Blockchain Mining and Energy Innovation

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