Rapid Demand for Digital Payment Systems Being Fueled by Increasing Market Growth In Blockchain

Financialnewsmedia.com News Commentary

PALM BEACH, Fla., May 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blockchain has emerged as a highly promising technology in the IT domain. It is an open, immutable, distributed public ledger that can be accessed by several parties involved in the transaction and acts as a universal depository of all transactions between the involved parties. The increasing acceptance of cryptocurrency worldwide is one of the major factors driving market growth. Commercial and central banks across the world are now using blockchain technology for payment processing and issuing of their digital currencies. The technology enables cross-border payments that are less expensive and faster as compared to traditional systems. The traditional stock exchange involves a lot of bureaucracy and stages and thereby, requires three days for processing. However, blockchain technology's decentralization nature in banking removes unnecessary intermediates and enables trade to be run on computers globally. At the same time, blockchain helps improve performance by reducing the redundancy of information in trading transactions. Various financial service providers use blockchain technology for enhancing their stock exchange processes.  A report from Grand View Research said that the global blockchain technology market size was valued at USD 3.67 billion in 2020. It is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 82.4% from 2021 to 2028.   Active companies in the market this week include Troika Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRKA), Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA), Riot Blockchain, Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT), Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN), Canaan Inc. (NASDAQ: CAN).

The Grand View Research report continued: "The increasing global demand for digital payment systems is driving the market growth in the current days. Digital Payments relies on multiple parties to process transactions, including merchant banks, retail banks, card issuers, and payments software companies, which creates the demand for blockchain technology to secure the transactions. Simultaneously, the reliability of users on trusted institutions to complete their day-to-day electronic transactions is also creating the demand for blockchain technology.  The financial services segment dominated the market in 2020 and accounted for more than 38.0% share of the global revenue. Financial services use blockchain technology for managing financial transactions taking place in businesses. Blockchain technology provides secured and efficient transactions and this is driving the demand for the technology in financial services. The technology is expected to be widely adopted in this vertical owing to factors such as rising cryptocurrencies, high compatibility with the industry ecosystem, rapid transactions, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), and reduced total cost of ownership."

Troika Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRKA) BREAKING NEWS:  Troika Media Group Acquires Crypto/NFT Platform Redeeem - Troika Media Group, Inc. ("TMG" or "Company"), a brand consultancy and marketing innovations company that provides integrated branding and marketing solutions for global brands, today announced that it has closed on the acquisition by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Redeeem Acquisition Corp. ("RAC") of Redeeem, LLC ("Redeeem"), a fintech platform that empowers businesses to digitize any asset and build their own blockchain-based payment solutions.  RAC has acquired substantially all of the assets and approximately $165,000 of specified liabilities of Redeeem for $1.21 million in cash and $10.89 million in common stock of TMG that vest over three years.

Building on Redeeem's digital blockchain capabilities, TMG intends to integrate their products across its media services and will work with new and existing brands to offer non-fungible token (NFT) capabilities, crypto payment APIs, mobile payment expertise, and other revenue-generating products capable of deploying digital tokens throughout TMG's expansive network of brands. TMG is adding 10 new employees in the purchase of Redeeem, including founder and CEO Kyle Hill who brings 5+ years of experience in blockchain and 15+ years of experience in tech startups, having served for eight years as the founder/CEO of HomeHero, a home care marketplace that raised $23 million from Social Capital, Graham Holdings, Tencent, Science and others in 2016 and was acquired in 2018 by William Yarmuth, former CEO of Almost Family (AFAM). Since its inception in 2018, Redeeem has processed over $10 million in crypto payments and manages over $1 million a month in trading volume.

"We believe this is a game-changing transaction for both companies and achieves unique and complementary strategic objectives of taking the Company into the new digital era," said Robert Machinist, Troika's Chairman and CEO. "The acquisition of Redeeem increases our ability to significantly grow revenue and strategic opportunities to enhance the core businesses of TMG by immediately positioning the Company as a go-to expert in the NFT and crypto space, particularly in our sports, gaming, and entertainment business, where we will provide brands new opportunities to foster fandom through NFT integration. The combined offering of TMG's existing portfolio of services, extensive client network, and operational scale with Redeeem's highly innovative platform, supports our long-term strategic vision of utilizing transformative technology to create additional revenue opportunities for the global brands we partner with every day."  CONTINUED…   For more information about Troika Media Group, visit www.thetmgrp.com

Other recent developments in the markets include:

Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MARQ), one of the largest enterprise Bitcoin self-mining companies in North America, recently has successfully directed all of its hashrate to the Marathon OFAC Pool, Marathon's recently launched mining pool, thereby becoming the first North American enterprise Bitcoin miner to produce Bitcoin in a manner that adheres to anti-money laundering (AML) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control's (OFAC's) standards.

On March 30, Marathon announced that it was launching the first Bitcoin mining pool based in North America that is fully compliant with U.S. regulations, including AML and OFAC's standards. The mining pool refrains from processing transactions from those listed on the U.S. Department of Treasury's Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN), therefore ensuring all bitcoin mined by the pool is compliant with U.S. regulatory standards.

Riot Blockchain, Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT), one of the leading Nasdaq-listed public Bitcoin ("BTC") mining companies in the United States, recently reported financial results as of and for the three-months ended March 31, 2021. The unaudited financial statements are available on Riot's website.

They were: Increased mining revenue by 881.1% to $23.2 million for the three-month period ended March 31, 2021, as compared to $2.4 million for the same three-month period in 2020; Increased mining revenue margin to 67.5% for the three-month period ended March 31, 2021, as compared to 40.4% for the same three-month period in 2020; Produced record net income of $7.5 million, or $0.09 per share for the three-month period ended March 31, 2021, as compared to a $(4.3) million net loss, or $(0.15) per share, for the same three-month period in 2020; Achieved a record net income margin of 32.5% for the three-month period ended March 31, 2021; and Increased total cash and Bitcoin to $275.6 million, as compared to $235.0 million as of December 31, 2020.

Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN) recently announced its intention to offer, subject to market conditions and other factors, $1.25 billion aggregate principal amount of Convertible Senior Notes due 2026 (the "notes") in a private offering (the "offering") to persons reasonably believed to be qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A promulgated under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). Coinbase also expects to grant the initial purchasers of the notes a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional $187.5 million principal amount of notes solely to cover over-allotments. The notes will be senior, unsecured obligations of Coinbase, will accrue interest payable semi-annually in arrears and will mature on June 1, 2026, unless earlier repurchased, redeemed or converted. The notes will be convertible into cash, shares of Coinbase's Class A common stock, or a combination thereof, at Coinbase's election. The interest rate, initial conversion rate, and other terms of the notes are to be determined upon pricing of the offering.

In connection with the pricing of the notes, Coinbase expects to enter into privately negotiated capped call transactions with one or more of the initial purchasers and/or their respective affiliates and/or other financial institutions (the "option counterparties"). The capped call transactions will cover, subject to anti-dilution adjustments substantially similar to those applicable to the notes, the number of shares of Coinbase's Class A common stock underlying the notes sold in the offering. The capped call transactions are generally expected to reduce potential dilution to Coinbase's Class A common stock upon any conversion of the notes and/or offset any potential cash payments Coinbase is required to make in excess of the principal amount of converted notes, as the case may be, with such reduction and/or offset subject to a cap.

Canaan Inc. (NASDAQ: CAN), a leading high-performance computing solutions provider, recently announced that it has entered into a long-term strategic partnership with Genesis Digital Assets Limited ("Genesis Digital Assets") and secured a purchase order (the "Order") from Genesis Digital Assets valued at up to US$93.63 million. As part of the Order, Canaan will deliver its A1246 AvalonMiner mining machines to Genesis Digital Assets throughout 2021, adding 117MW in next-generation Bitcoin computing capacity to Genesis Digital Assets' current capacity of 140MW.

Genesis Digital Assets is a leading Bitcoin mining enterprise with extensive experience in building and operating industrial-scale Bitcoin mining farms. Since 2013, Genesis Digital Assets and its legal predecessors has brought more than 250,000 miners online and mined over US$1 billion in Bitcoin. As of April 2021, Genesis Digital Assets' operations accounted for more than 1.2% of the world's total Bitcoin mining hashrate.

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