By Sam Boughedda
Investing.com — Riot Blockchain Inc (NASDAQ:RIOT) was started with a buy at Cantor Fitzgerald on Tuesday, resulting in a 3% gain in its share price.
Analyst Mike Colonnese — who also put a $45 price target on the stock — explained that RIOT is one of the best ways for investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin without directly owning the digital asset because the company holds most of its Bitcoin on its balance sheet.
"Riot Blockchain is one of the largest, vertically integrated cryptocurrency mining companies in North America with 350 MW of developed Bitcoin (BTC) mining capacity and a deployed fleet of nearly 30,000 Bitcoin miners producing an aggregate hash rate of 3 exahash per second (EH/s)," said Colonnese.
"This means that RIOT is currently capable of mining ~16-17 Bitcoin per day, on average, which equates to ~$825,000 in daily Bitcoin mining revenue (assuming BTC price of $50,000),"he added.
Cantor believes RIOT is in a unique position to continue to gain a share of the Bitcoin mining industry in 2022 and further afield. The company plans to more than double its developed mining capacity to 750 MW by the second quarter and triple its total hash rate to 9 EH/s by the end of this year.