Japan’s SBI Holdings has been dabbling in the crypto world for some time now, launching its own crypto exchange back in July 2018. Now, SBI has taken the next step into the crypto domain and has begun manufacturing its own crypto mining rigs, with a focus on energy efficiency. To begin its venture, it has created a sister company named SBI Mining Chip Co. Ltd (SBIMC) and has hired ex-NASA engineer Adam Traidman to run the show. Traidman has held CEO positions at numerous chip manufacturing companies, including Chip Estimate and WearSens – making him the perfect man for the job.
Crypto Mining Hardware Manufacturers Struggling
SBI makes its move into the mining world at a time where Bitmain is slowly scaling back operations. Bitmain was once the largest crypto mining hardware manufacturer in the world, but after a few bad investment decisions and wasted resources has left the company in tatters. With the massive price collapse of crypto markets over the past 12 months having caused mining to become a less popular activity on a large scale. However, smaller hobbyist miners have been picking up the slack thanks to the use of renewable energy.
A Secretive Partnership
As with all good business moves, there is a secret partnership that will help it develop and manufacture mining equipment in the US – presumably to avoid the huge import tariffs set by Trump. For now, SBIMC has stated that its partner is a “large semiconductor enterprise” but is refusing to release a name. Samsung is known to be working on developing a 10nm ASIC mining chip, so the unnamed “large semiconductor enterprise” could turn out to be Samsung if the rumors are to be believed.
SBI Going All Out for Crypto
The mining rigs that SBIMC will be producing will go on sale later this year and will be available around the world. This new crypto mining business compliments SBI’s crypto exchange by helping to decentralize the networks of the coins that it has listed. VCTRADE went live back in July 2018 and has gone on to attract thousands of daily active users in Japan. The exchange currently lists XRP, BTC, BCH, and ETH to JPY trading pairs and isn’t looking to add any more pairs at the time of writing.
It’s a bold move to enter the crypto mining hardware business in the current crypto climate, but if anyone can pull it off and be successful, its SBI. The appointment of Traidman as CEO is a smart move and will help SBIMC start life on the right track.
