HIVE Blockchain Delivers Shareholder Meeting Results and Announces Opportunistic Acquisition of Energy Efficient Bitmain S19j Pro Miners to Take HIVE to Target 3 Exahash in the New Year

by Arthur · December 22, 2022

This press release constitutes a “designated news release” in connection with the Company’s prospectus supplement dated September 2, 2022 to its amended and restated short form base shelf prospectus dated January 4, 2022.

Vancouver, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. – December 22, 2022) – HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (TSXV: HIVE) (Nasdaq: HIVE) (FSE: HBF) (the “Company” or “HIVE”) is pleased to announce that all resolutions considered at the 2022 Annual Meeting on December 20, 2022 were approved by the shareholders. The company also provides a corporate update for the third quarter ending December 31, 2022.

Shareholders approve resolutions

The resolutions approved by the shareholders who were present in person or represented by proxy at the meeting were:

All nominated board members were duly elected or re-elected to HIVE’s board. HIVE’s board consists of Frank Holmes, Marcus New, Dave Perrill, Ian Mann and Susan McGee. Each director will serve until HIVE’s next annual meeting of shareholders or until their respective successors are elected or appointed or they otherwise cease to hold office.

Davidson & Company LLP was re-elected as the independent external auditor of HIVE for the following year or until the successor is appointed, and the board was authorized to determine the remuneration.
The company’s stock option plan was reapproved.

The resolutions voted on at the meeting are described in more detail in HIVE’s Management Information Circular, dated November 10, 2022, which was sent to shareholders and is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Company update

HIVE upgrades the energy efficiency of its ASIC mining fleet

HIVE is pleased to announce additional strategic acquisitions of Bitmain Antminer S19j Pro ASIC miners at opportunistic $ per Terahash prices:

the purchase of 1540 S19j Pro miners, at an average hash rate of 104 TH/s, expected to produce over 159 PH/s
the purchase of 100 S19j Pro miners, at an average hash rate of 98 TH/s, expected to produce over 9 PH/s
The company notes that these purchases follow the 1,930 S19j Pro miners, which were recently announced to generate over 185 PH/s
In total, HIVE’s recent strategic purchase of 3570 S19j Pro miners is expected to add over 355 PH/s of highly efficient Bitcoin mining hashrate, with a rated efficiency of 29.5 J/TH

Better Joule per Terahash (J/TH) energy efficiency in Bitcoin mining reduces the amount of energy consumed per hash. By investing in machines with a low $ per TH acquisition price, the company can realize a better cash flow return on invested capital, while improving the Bitcoin break even production price for its global fleet, to navigate the current crypto mining economy.

HIVE has also received 420 HIVE BuzzMiners in Sweden, which have been installed, in addition to the 262 HIVE BuzzMiners operating in New Brunswick, bringing the current operating total to 682 HIVE BuzzMiners, which have a nominal production capacity of 75 PH/s. The total production of HIVE BuzzMiners will be 5,800 units, which are expected to produce 638 PH/s.

HIVE’s fleet of 9,370 new generation Bitcoin ASIC miners, in the 30 J/TH range, is expected to produce over 990 PH/s of highly efficient Bitcoin mining capacity. These machines will upgrade existing machines within HIVE’s global operating fleet, replacing older machines, some of which have been mining since 2018 and 2020. The company expects these 9,370 machines to be delivered and deployed within existing operating infrastructure by the end of January 2023.

This upgrade is expected to increase HIVE’s overall global Bitcoin production capacity by approximately 20%, within the same electrical infrastructure operational footprint. In reality, this upgrade is therefore expected to reduce the average production price by around 20%.

Evidence of progress in the work industry

The company notes that with the advent of technological innovations in Bitcoin’s proof-of-work ecosystem, we have seen energy consumption drop by 67% since the Bitmain Antminer S9 was the most widely used Bitcoin miner in the 2018/2019 era. The S9 had an efficiency of 90 to 98 J/TH, while today’s S19j Pro has an efficiency that uses 1/3 of the average energy per terahash compared to an S9.

As more processing power secures the Bitcoin blockchain, which has stood the test of time as an immutable distributed ledger, the industry is striving to make this process more energy efficient.

The 9,370 new generation ASICs that HIVE is installing represent approximately 30 MW of power, to strategically maximize the output of HIVE’s global Bitcoin production.

About HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd.

HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. went public in 2017 as the first cryptocurrency mining company with a green energy and ESG strategy.

HIVE is a growth-oriented technology share in the emerging blockchain industry. As a company whose shares are traded on a major exchange, we are building a bridge between the digital currency and blockchain sector and traditional capital markets. HIVE owns state-of-the-art, green energy-powered data center facilities in Canada, Sweden and Iceland, where we strive to source only green energy to mine digital assets such as Bitcoin on the cloud. Since the beginning of 2021, HIVE has held in secure storage the majority of the treasury of ETH and BTC derived from mining rewards. Our shares give investors exposure to the operating margins of digital currency mining, as well as a portfolio of cryptocurrencies, primarily BTC. Because HIVE also owns hard assets such as data centers and advanced multipurpose servers, we believe our shares offer investors an attractive way to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency space.

We encourage you to visit HIVE’s YouTube channel here to learn more about HIVE.

For more information and to sign up for HIVE’s mailing list, please visit www.HIVEblockchain.com. Follow @HIVEblockchain on Twitter and subscribe to HIVE’s YouTube channel.

On behalf of HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd.
“Frank Holmes”
Executive Chairman

For further information please contact:
Frank Holmes
Phone: (604) 664-1078

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Regulatory Services Provider (as that term is defined in the TSX Venture Exchange Policy) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Forward-looking information

Except for the statements of historical fact, this press release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws that is based on expectations, estimates and projections as of the date of this press release. “Forward-looking information” in this news release includes, but is not limited to: business goals and objectives of the Company; acquisition, deployment and optimization of the mining fleet and equipment; the continued viability of its existing Bitcoin mining operations; and other forward-looking information about the intentions, plans and future actions of the parties to the transactions described herein and the terms thereof.

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, the volatility of the digital currency market; the Company’s ability to mine digital currency; The Company may not be able to profitably liquidate its current digital currency holdings as needed, or at all; a material decline in digital currency prices could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business; the risk of irrelevance of Bitcoin; continued effects of the COVID-19 pandemic could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s performance as supply chains are disrupted and prevent the Company from executing its expansion plans or operating its assets; protection of property rights; the effect of government regulation and compliance on the Company and the industry; network security risks; the company’s ability to maintain properly functioning systems; reliance on key personnel; an increase in network difficulties may have a significant negative impact on operations; the expected sustainability of energy or hydropower for cryptocurrency mining in applicable jurisdictions and maintenance of the Company’s power agreements; inability to maintain reliable and economical power sources for the Company to mine cryptocurrencies; the risk of an increase in the Company’s electricity costs, natural gas costs, changes in exchange rates, energy restrictions or regulatory changes in the energy regimes in the jurisdictions in which the Company operates and the negative impact on the Company’s profitability; future capital needs and uncertainties related to additional financing, including the Company’s ability to utilize the Company’s offerings to the market (the “ATM Program”), the prices at which the Company may sell common shares in the ATM Program and other equity offerings resulting in dilution, as well as capital market conditions generally; the impact of energy restrictions or regulatory changes in the energy regimes in the jurisdictions in which the Company operates; and other related risks as more fully described in the registration statement of the Company and other documents disclosed during the Company’s filings on www.sec.gov/EDGAR and www.sedar.com.

The forward-looking information in this press release reflects the company’s current expectations, assumptions and/or beliefs based on information available to the company. In connection with the forward-looking information in this press release, the company has made assumptions about the company’s goals, objectives or future plans, the timing of these and related matters. The company has also assumed that no significant events occur outside the company’s normal operations. Although the Company believes that the assumptions contained in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and, accordingly, such information should not be relied upon due to the inherent uncertainty therein. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.