Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
H. C. Wainwright & Co.
RISK FACTORS
Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. Before making an investment decision, you should consider carefully the risks, uncertainties and all risk factors set forth in this prospectus supplement and the base prospectus to which it relates, as well as any documents incorporated by reference in this prospectus, including the risk factors discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, as amended, and each subsequently filed quarterly report on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K, which may be amended, supplemented or superseded from time to time by the other reports we file with the Commission in the future.
Risks related to this offering
Future sales or other issuances of our common stock could depress the market for our common stock.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock, or the perception by the market that those sales could occur, whether through this offering or other offerings of our securities, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline or could make it more difficult for us to raise funds through the sale of equity in the future.
The issuance and sale of a significant number of our securities will cause our current stockholders’ holdings to be significantly diluted. In addition, our current stockholders’ holdings may also be diluted if we enter into arrangements with third parties permitting us to issue shares of common stock in lieu of certain cash payments upon the achievement of milestones.
We have broad discretion to use the net proceeds from this offering and our investment of these proceeds pending any such use may not yield a favorable return.
Our management has broad discretion as to how to spend the proceeds from this offering and may spend these proceeds in ways with which our stockholders may not agree. Management cannot guarantee that its decisions regarding its use of the proceeds from the sales of our common stock under this prospectus will produce gainful returns or will result in any appreciation in the value of the Company.
This offering is being conducted on a “commercially reasonable efforts” basis; we cannot guarantee our success in raising additional capital in this offering.
The Sales Agent will be attempting to sell the shares of our common stock offered under this prospectus supplement on a “commercially reasonable efforts” basis, and the Sales Agent is under no obligation to purchase any shares of our common stock offered under this prospectus supplement for their own account. Neither we nor the Sales Agent is required to sell any specific number or dollar amount of shares of common stock in this offering but will use its commercially reasonable efforts to sell the shares of our common stock offered in this prospectus supplement at management’s direction. As a “commercially reasonable efforts” offering, there can be no assurance that the offering contemplated hereby will ultimately be consummated and, accordingly, we may not raise any additional capital.
If we are unable to raise additional capital through the offering contemplated in this prospectus supplement, we may not be able to continue to fund our operations and we may have to reduce or even halt our operations entirely. Our failure to raise additional capital through the offering contemplated in this prospectus supplement may cause us to cease as a going concern and investors in our securities may lose their entire investment.
Purchasers in this offering will experience immediate and substantial dilution in the book value of their investment.
The public offering price of our common stock is substantially higher than the net tangible book value per share of our common stock as of March 31, 2019, before giving effect to this offering. At an assumed public offering price of $3.27 per share (which was the last reported sale price on the last trading day of the most recently completed fiscal quarter, March 29, 2019), and after deducting estimated offering expenses and estimated sales agent discounts payable by us, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after giving effect to the sale of shares of our common stock in the aggregate amount of $100,000,000 at the assumed offering price would be $2.00. Accordingly, purchasers of shares of our common stock in this offering will incur immediate and substantial dilution of approximately $1.27 per share, representing the difference between the pro forma book value per share of our securities after the offering and the book value per share of our securities prior to the offering. If the price at which the shares of our common stock are sold in this offering increases, the dilution experienced by such purchasers will increase proportionately. Furthermore, if outstanding notes are converted, or if outstanding options or warrants are exercised, you could experience further dilution. For a further description of the dilution that our stockholders will experience immediately after this offering, see the section in this prospectus supplement entitled “Dilution” on page S-35 of this prospectus supplement.
Our stock price can be volatile, which increases the risk of litigation, and may result in a significant decline in the value of your investment.
The trading price of our common stock has historically been, and is likely to continue to be highly volatile and subject to wide fluctuations in price in response to various factors, many of which are beyond our control and may not be related to our operating performance. These fluctuations could cause you to lose part or all of your investment in our common stock. These factors include, but are not limited to, the following:
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price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market from time to time;
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changes in the market valuations, stock market prices and trading volumes of similar companies;
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actual or anticipated changes in our net loss or fluctuations in our operating results or in the expectations of securities analysts;
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the issuance of new equity securities pursuant to a future offering, including potential issuances of preferred stock;
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general economic conditions and trends;
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positive and negative events relating to the overall blockchain and crypto mining sector;
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major catastrophic events;
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sales of large blocks of our stock;
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additions or departures of key personnel;
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changes in the regulatory status of cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency exchanges, and miners of cryptocurrencies;
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positive and negative changes in relationships with our service providers for our proposed RiotX exchange;
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announcements of new products or technologies, commercial relationships or other events by us or our competitors;
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regulatory developments in the United States and other countries;
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failure of our common stock to maintain their listing on the NASDAQ markets or other national market system;
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changes in accounting principles; and
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discussion of us or our stock price by the financial and scientific press and in online investor communities.
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In addition, equity markets in general, and the market for blockchain companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of companies traded in those markets. These broad market and industry factors may materially affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our development and operating performance. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class-action litigation has often been instituted against that company, including Riot. Due to the volatility of our stock price, we are currently and may be the target of securities litigation in the future. Securities litigation could result in substantial costs and divert management’s in the future attention and resources from our business.
General Risks
We have a history of operating losses, and we may not be able to achieve or sustain profitability; we have recently shifted to an entirely new business and may not be successful in this new business.
We are not profitable and have incurred losses since our inception. We expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future, and these losses could increase as we continue to work to develop our business. We were previously engaged in animal health and life science‑oriented businesses and were not successful in those businesses. In late 2017, we determined to instead pursue a blockchain and digital currency‑related business, initially through investments in existing companies. Our initial efforts in this new business will continue to focus primarily on digital currency mining and a potential digital currency exchange and a futures brokerage operation. Currently, however, our primary operations are at our digital currency mining facility in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Our current strategy is new and unproven, is in an industry that is itself new and evolving, and is subject to the risks discussed below. This strategy, like our prior ones, may not be successful, and we may never become profitable. Even if we achieve profitability in the future, we may not be able to sustain profitability in subsequent periods.
We expect to continue to incur losses from operations and negative cash flows, which raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern.
We have experienced recurring losses and negative cash flows from operations. As of December 31, 2018, we had approximate balances of cash and cash equivalents of $225,000, a working capital deficit of $4,348,000, total stockholders' equity of $4,491,000 and an accumulated deficit of $197,199,000. To date, we have, in large part, relied on equity financing to fund our operations.
Our primary focus is on our digital currency mining operation located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, along with our investigation of the launch of RiotX as a digital currency exchange in the United States. That operational focus and our acquisitions of Kairos and Tess, and our investment in goNumerical Ltd., (d/b/a “Coinsquare”), and our new name, reflects a strategic decision by us to operate in the blockchain and digital currency related business sector. Our current strategy will continue to expose us to the numerous risks and volatility associated within this sector.
We expect to continue to incur losses from operations for the near-term and these losses could be significant as we incur costs and expenses associated with recent and potential future acquisitions, development of the RiotX exchange platform, as well as public company, legal and administrative related expenses. As disclosed in Note 17 to our Consolidated Financial Statements contained herein, subsequent to December 31, 2018, we issued a series of Senior Secured Convertible Promissory Notes totaling $3,358,333, to three investors. These notes and an equivalent number of warrants were issued for a net investment amount of $3,000,000. Proceeds from these notes are being used for near-term working capital and general corporate purposes. We are closely monitoring our cash balances, cash needs and expense levels.
We believe that in order for us to meet our obligations arising from normal business operations for the next twelve months, we require additional capital either in the form of equity or debt. Without additional capital, our ability to continue to operate will be limited. If we are unable to obtain adequate capital in the near-term, we could be forced to reduce or cease our operations. We are currently pursuing capital transactions in the form of debt and equity, including this offering, however, we cannot provide any assurances that we will be successful in our plans. The consolidated financial statements herein disclosed do not include any adjustments to the recoverability and classification of recorded assets amounts and classification of liabilities that might be necessary should we not be able to continue as a going concern. In the opinion of management, these factors, among others, raise substantial doubt about the ability of the Company to continue as a going concern.
If our liquidity position requires us to reorganize under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, our future operations are uncertain and the reorganization could result in a substantial decrease in the value of our common stock, or no value at all.
We have limited capital resources in the past year and that, combined with our limited liquidity position and recent negative cash flow, could require us to explore whether filing for bankruptcy protection is in the best interest of the Company and its stakeholders. If we file a voluntary petition for relief under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, such a filing could lead to significant adverse effects on the Company’s liquidity, results of operations, business prospects, or abilities to operate. We cannot assure that the outcome of a bankruptcy proceeding would be favorable to us or our stockholders. Risks associated with such a filing could include the following:
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the inability to maintain sufficient liquidity throughout a filing;
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the increased costs and expenses related to a bankruptcy filing;
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the ability to manage contracts that are critical for operations and to obtain and maintain appropriate terms with customers, suppliers and service providers;
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the ability to develop, confirm and consummate a plan of reorganization;
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the ability of third parties to seek and obtain court approval to terminate or shorten the exclusivity period for us to propose and confirm a plan of reorganization, to appoint a trustee, or to convert a proceeding under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code to a proceeding under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code;
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the ability of the Company to continue as a going concern; and
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the ability of the Company to obtain bankruptcy court approval with respect to motions and legal proceedings in general.
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These risks and uncertainties could affect our business and operations in various ways. For example, negative events associated with bankruptcy proceedings could adversely affect our relationships with our suppliers, customers, employees, and other third parties, which in turn could adversely affect our operations and financial condition. Also, we would need the prior approval of the bankruptcy court for transactions outside the ordinary course of business, which would then limit our ability to respond timely to certain events or take advantage of certain opportunities. If our financial position does not improve or we do not raise additional capital during 2019, we may need to file to sell our assets or reorganize under the United States Bankruptcy Code, rendering our future operations uncertain and filing for bankruptcy protection could result in a substantial decrease in the value of our common stock, or no value at all.
Our mining operating costs outpace our mining revenues, which could seriously harm our business or increase our losses.
Our mining operations are costly, and we expect our expenses may increase in the future. This expense increase may not be offset by a corresponding increase in revenue. Our expenses may be greater than we anticipate, and our investments to make our business more efficient may not succeed and may outpace monetization efforts. Increases in our costs without a corresponding increase in our revenue would increase our losses and could seriously harm our business and financial performance.
We may be unable to raise additional capital needed to grow our business.
We will likely continue to operate at a loss, at least until our business becomes established, or if digital currency prices decline, and we expect to need to raise additional capital to expand our operations and pursue our growth strategies, including potential acquisitions of complementary businesses, and to respond to competitive pressures or unanticipated working capital requirements. We may not be able to obtain additional debt or equity financing on favorable terms, if at all, which could impair our growth and adversely affect our existing operations. If we raise additional equity financing, our
stockholders
may experience significant dilution of their ownership interests, and the per share value of our common stock could decline. Furthermore, if we engage in additional debt financing, the holders of debt likely would have priority over the holders of common stock on order of payment preference. We may be required to accept terms that restrict our ability to incur additional indebtedness, take other actions including terms that require us to maintain specified liquidity or other ratios that could otherwise be not in the interests of our stockholders.
We have an evolving business model.
As digital currency assets and blockchain technologies become more widely available, we expect the services and products associated with them to evolve. In order to stay current with the industry, our business model may need to evolve as well. From time to time, we may modify aspects of our business model relating to our product mix and service offerings. We cannot offer any assurance that these or any other modifications will be successful or will not result in harm to our business. We may not be able to manage our current business or any future growth effectively, which could damage our reputation, limit our growth and negatively affect our operating results. Further, we cannot provide any assurance that we will successfully identify all emerging trends and growth opportunities in this emerging business sector and we may lose out on those opportunities. Such circumstances could have a material effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations.
We may acquire other businesses, form joint ventures or make investments in other companies or technologies that could negatively affect our operating results, dilute our stockholders' ownership, increase our debt or cause us to incur significant expense; notwithstanding the foregoing, our growth may depend on our success in uncovering and completing such transactions.
We commenced the implementation of our new strategy with our investment in Coinsquare and have made several additional investments and acquisitions in the blockchain sector. Most recently, we acquired Logical Brokerage Corp. to serve as a platform for our planned digital currency exchange. We may pursue, and our growth may depend upon our success in making, other investments in companies and acquisitions of businesses and assets and/or strategic alliances and joint ventures. We have limited experience in acquiring other companies and forming strategic partnerships. We may not be able to find suitable partners or acquisition candidates, and may not be able to complete such transactions on favorable terms, if at all. If we make any acquisitions, we may not be able to integrate these acquisitions successfully into the existing business, and could assume unknown or contingent liabilities.
Any future acquisitions also could result in the incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities or future write-offs of intangible assets or goodwill, any of which could have a negative impact on our cash flows, financial condition and results of operations. Integration of an acquired company may also disrupt ongoing operations and require management resources that otherwise would be focused on developing and expanding our existing business. We may experience losses related to potential investments in other companies, which could harm our financial condition and results of operations. Further, we may not realize the anticipated benefits of any acquisition, strategic alliance or joint venture if such investments prove fruitless.
To finance any acquisitions or joint ventures, we may choose to issue shares of common stock or securities convertible into common stock as consideration, which would dilute the ownership of our existing
stockholders
. Additional funds may not be available on terms that are favorable to us, or at all. If the price of our common stock is low or volatile, we may not be able to acquire other companies or fund a joint venture project using stock as consideration.
We may not be able to compete with other companies, some of whom have greater resources and experience.
We may not be able to compete successfully against present or future competitors. We do not have the resources to compete with larger providers of similar services at this time. The digital currency industry has attracted various high-profile and well-established operators, some of which have substantially greater liquidity and financial resources than we do. With the limited resources we have available, we may experience great difficulties in expanding and improving our network of computers to remain competitive and with creating a U.S. based digital currency exchange. Competition from existing and future competitors, particularly Overstock.com and the many Canadian companies that have access to cheap energy, could result in our inability to secure acquisitions and partnerships that we may need to expand our business in the future. This competition from other entities with greater resources, experience and reputations may result in our failure to maintain or expand our business, as we may never be able to successfully execute our business plan. If we are unable to expand and remain competitive, our business could be negatively affected which would have an adverse effect on the trading price of our securities, which would harm investors in our Company.
The properties included in our mining network may experience damages, including damages that are not covered by insurance.
Our current operational mine in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is, and any future mines we establish will be, subject to a variety of risks relating to physical condition and operation, including:
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the presence of construction or repair defects or other structural or building damage;
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any noncompliance with or liabilities under applicable environmental, health or safety regulations or requirements or building permit requirements;
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any damage resulting from natural disasters, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, floods and windstorms; and
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claims by employees and others for injuries sustained at our properties.
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For example, a mine could be rendered inoperational, temporarily or permanently, as a result of a fire or other natural disaster or by a terrorist or other attack on the mine. The security and other measures we take to protect against these risks may not be sufficient. Additionally, our mines could be materially adversely affected by a power outage or loss of access to the electrical grid or loss by the grid of cost-effective sources of electrical power generating capacity. Given the power requirement, it would not be feasible to run miners on back-up power generators in the event of a power outage. Our insurance covers the replacement cost of any lost or damaged miners, but does not cover any interruption of our mining activities; our insurance therefore may not be adequate to cover the losses we suffer as a result of any of these events. In the event of an uninsured loss, including a loss in excess of insured limits, at any of the mines in our network, such mines may not be adequately repaired in a timely manner or at all and we may lose some or all of the future revenues anticipated to be derived from such mines. The potential impact on our business is currently magnified because we are only operating a single mine.
Our mines are also subject to federal, state and local laws and regulations relating to the protection of the environment, natural resources and worker health and safety, including laws and regulations governing and creating liability relating to the management, storage and disposal of hazardous substances and other regulated materials and the cleanup of contaminated sites. Our mines are also subject to various environmental laws and regulations that govern certain aspects of their ongoing operations. These laws and regulations control such things as the nature and volume of wastewater discharges, quality of water supply and waste management practices. We presently comply with all environmental laws and regulations, but shifting policies could require us to expand additional compliance cost, which could have an adverse effect on our business.
Our chief executive officer is new; loss of key members of management, or our inability to attract and retain qualified personnel could adversely affect our business. Our officers and directors do not have substantial prior experience creating or operating any type of currency, stock or commodity exchange.
Our success and future growth will depend to a significant degree on the skills and services of our senior management team. Our chief executive officer was appointed in February 2019, and we need to continue to grow our senior management team. If our senior management team, including any new hires that we may make, fails to work together effectively and to execute our plans and strategies on a timely basis, our business could be harmed. Furthermore, any future changes in our senior management team may be disruptive to our business.
The loss of key members of management could inhibit our growth prospects. Our future success also depends in large part on our ability to attract, retain and motivate key management and operating personnel. As we continue to develop and expand our operations, we may require personnel with different skills and experiences, and who have a sound understanding of our business and the digital currency industry. The market for highly qualified personnel in this industry is limited and is very competitive and we may be unable to attract such personnel. If we are unable to attract such personnel, our business could be harmed. Our current business expansion plans consist of launching the RiotX digital currency exchange. Our current executive management and directors do not have substantial prior experience in founding, operating, or being employed by any existing cryptocurrency, commodity or securities exchanges, however, in 2018 we hired an officer of one of our subsidiaries, who has significant experience working for exchanges. We have and plan to continue to outsource to third parties certain key planned development and operational functions of the proposed RiotX exchange, and we cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully integrate these third party-provided elements into a usable exchange or a profitable business.
We, and some of our current officers, have been named as parties to various lawsuits arising out of, or related to, allegedly false and misleading statements made in prior securities filings, and those lawsuits could adversely affect us, require significant management time and attention, result in significant legal expenses or damages, and cause our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows to suffer.
A number of securities class action complaints and a shareholder derivative action have been filed against us and certain of our current officers and directors, as described more fully in our most recent Form 10-K, Item 3, Legal Proceedings. Stockholders have filed three class action complaints against us in three states, accusing us of violations of the federal securities laws based on purported material misrepresentations or omissions allegedly made by the Company. Each class action complaint seeks unspecified money damages and other relief on behalf of a putative class of persons who purchased or otherwise acquired our common stock between November 13, 2017 and February 15, 2018. The shareholder derivative case alleges similar disclosure violations and seeks unspecified monetary damages and corporate governance reforms. If these matters cannot be resolved expeditiously, management's attention may be diverted to this matter and there can be no assurance that the litigation would be settled. If the current litigation proceeds or if additional claims are filed, the legal and other costs associated with the defense of these actions and their ultimate outcomes could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. While we expect insurance to cover many of the costs associated with defending such litigation, insurance coverage may be insufficient and could require a diversion of our resources. There also may be adverse publicity associated with litigation that could negatively affect customer perception of our business, regardless of whether the allegations are valid or whether we are ultimately found liable.
We incur significant costs and demands upon management and accounting and finance resources as a result of complying with the laws and regulations affecting public companies; if we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls, our ability to produce accurate and timely financial statements could be impaired, which could harm our operating results, our ability to operate our business and our reputation.
As a public reporting company, we are required to, among other things, maintain a system of effective internal control over financial reporting. Ensuring that we have adequate internal financial and accounting controls and procedures in place so that we can produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis is a costly and time-consuming effort that needs to be re-evaluated frequently. Substantial work will continue to be required to further implement, document, assess, test and remediate our system of internal controls.
If our internal control over financial reporting is not effective, we may be unable to issue our financial statements in a timely manner, we may be unable to obtain the required audit or review of our financial statements by our independent registered public accounting firm in a timely manner or we may be otherwise unable to comply with the periodic reporting requirements of the SEC, our common stock listing on the NASDAQ could be suspended or terminated and our stock price could materially suffer. In addition, we or members of our management could be subject to investigation and sanction by the SEC and other regulatory authorities and to shareholder lawsuits, which could impose significant additional costs on us and divert management attention.
We identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting in the prior year and may identify additional material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, which may result in material misstatements of our financial statements or cause us to fail to meet our periodic reporting obligations.
We are required to comply with certain provisions of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“Sarbanes-Oxley Act”). Section 404 requires that we document and test our internal control over financial reporting and issue management’s assessment of our internal control over financial reporting. Management assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2018. In making this assessment, we used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”) in Internal Control — Integrated Framework. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Based on our assessment, as of December 31, 2018, we concluded that our internal control over financial reporting contained material weaknesses. To remediate these material weaknesses, our management has been implementing and continues to implement measures designed to ensure that control deficiencies contributing to the material weakness are remediated, such that these controls are designed, implemented, and operating effectively.
We believe that these actions will remediate the material weakness. The weakness will not be considered remediated, however, until the applicable controls operate for a sufficient period of time and our management has concluded, through testing, that these controls are operating effectively. We expect that the remediation of this material weakness will be completed prior to the end of our next fiscal year on December 31, 2019.
If we fail to comply with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the accuracy and timeliness of the filing of our annual and quarterly reports may be materially adversely affected and could cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a negative effect on the trading price of our common stock. In addition, a material weakness in the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting could result in an increased chance of fraud and the loss of customers, reduce our ability to obtain financing and require additional expenditures to comply with these requirements, each of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We will not be able to successfully execute our business strategy if we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940.
U.S. companies that have more than 100 stockholders or are publicly traded in the U.S. and are, or hold themselves out as being, engaged primarily in the business of investing, reinvesting or trading in securities are subject to regulation under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the “Investment Company Act”). Unless a substantial part of our assets consists of, and a substantial part of our income is derived from, interests in majority-owned subsidiaries and companies that we primarily control, we may be required to register and become subject to regulation under the Investment Company Act. If bitcoin and other digital currencies were to be deemed securities for purposes of the Investment Company Act, we would have difficulty avoiding classification and regulation as an investment company.
If we were deemed to be, and were required to register as, an investment company, we would be forced to comply with substantive requirements under the Investment Company Act, including limitations on our ability to borrow money and limitations on our capital structure; restrictions on acquisitions of interests in associated companies, prohibitions on transactions with affiliates, restrictions on specific investments, and compliance with reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy disclosure and other rules and regulations affecting investment companies. If we were forced to comply with the rules and regulations of the Investment Company Act, our operations would significantly change, and we would be prevented from successfully executing our business strategy. To avoid regulation under the Investment Company Act and related SEC rules, we could need to divest ourselves of bitcoin and other assets which we would otherwise want to retain and we could be unable to sell assets which we would otherwise want to sell. In addition, we could be forced to acquire additional, or retain existing, income-generating or loss-generating assets which we would not otherwise have acquired or retained and could need to forgo opportunities to acquire bitcoin and other assets that would benefit our business. If we were forced to sell, buy or retain assets in this manner, we could be prevented from successfully executing our business strategy. Accordingly, if bitcoin and other digital currencies are determined to be securities and we, therefore, become subject to investment company requirements, we could experience material adverse effects on our business.
We may be classified as an inadvertent investment company.
We believe that we are not engaged in the business of investing, reinvesting, or trading in securities, and we do not hold ourselves out as being engaged in those activities. However, under the Investment Company Act a company may be deemed an investment company under section 3(a)(1)(C) thereof if the value of its investment securities is more than 40% of its total assets (exclusive of government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis.
As a result of our investments and our mining activities, including investments in which we do not have a controlling interest, the investment securities we hold could exceed 40% of our total assets, exclusive of cash items and, accordingly, we could determine that we have become an inadvertent investment company. The digital currency we own, acquire or mine may be deemed an investment security by the SEC, although we do not believe any of the digital currencies we own, acquire or mine are securities. An inadvertent investment company can avoid being classified as an investment company if it can rely on one of the exclusions under the Investment Company Act. One such exclusion, Rule 3a-2 under the Investment Company Act, allows an inadvertent investment company a grace period of one year from the earlier of (a) the date on which an issuer owns securities and/or cash having a value exceeding 50% of the issuer's total assets on either a consolidated or unconsolidated basis and (b) the date on which an issuer owns or proposes to acquire investment securities having a value exceeding 40% of the value of such issuer's total assets (exclusive of government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. As of December 31, 2018, we do not believe we are an inadvertent investment company, however resolution of pending comments received from the SEC have not been concluded and this issue has not been resolved by SEC rules or regulations. For us, any grace period would be unknown until these issues are resolved or the SEC issues rules and regulations concerning digital currency treatment. We may take actions to cause the investment securities held by us to be less than 40% of our total assets, which may include acquiring assets with our cash and digital currency on hand or liquidating our investment securities or digital currency or seeking a no-action letter from the SEC if we are unable to acquire sufficient assets or liquidate sufficient investment securities in a timely manner.
As the Rule 3a-2 exception is available to a company no more than once every three years, and assuming no other exclusion were available to us, we would have to keep within the 40% limit for at least three years after we cease being an inadvertent investment company. This may limit our ability to make certain investments or enter into joint ventures that could otherwise have a positive impact on our earnings. In any event, we do not intend to become an investment company engaged in the business of investing and trading securities.
Classification as an investment company under the Investment Company Act requires registration with the SEC. If an investment company fails to register, it would have to stop doing almost all business, and its contracts would become voidable. Registration is time consuming and restrictive and would require a restructuring of our operations, and we would be very constrained in the kind of business we could do as a registered investment company. Further, we would become subject to substantial regulation concerning management, operations, transactions with affiliated persons and portfolio composition, and would need to file reports under the Investment Company Act regime. The cost of such compliance would result in the Company incurring substantial additional expenses, and the failure to register if required would have a materially adverse impact to conduct our operations.
The Company has received a subpoena from the SEC.
On April 9, 2018, the Company received a subpoena from the SEC requesting certain information from the Company. The Company has fully cooperated with the SEC request. The Company has notified its insurance carrier and is in a dispute regarding potential coverage, although there can be no assurance that the costs of compliance with the subpoena or any related matters will be eligible for insurance coverage. Nevertheless, responses to the subpoena have and may continue to entail cost and management's attention. The existence of an investigation of the Company could have a materially adverse effect on the Company, its business or operations.
Our chief executive officer and our management team have limited experience.
Our management team suffers from limited experience in blockchain, digital currency assets, digital currency and currency exchanges. Inasmuch as the industry is in its infancy and few people would be able to describe themselves as having extensive experience when it comes to digital currency, the Company nevertheless believes blockchain, digital currency assets and digital currency are an emerging asset class and its management and key employees, and contractors allow it to remain competitive in the market. Should these skills not be compatible with the needs of our business, and we cannot hire qualified personnel or management, the results could have a material adverse effect on our business and operations.
Digital Currency-Related Risks
Regulatory changes or actions may alter the nature of an investment in us or restrict the use of digital currencies in a manner that adversely affects our business, prospects or operations.
As digital currencies have grown in both popularity and market size, governments around the world have reacted differently to digital currencies; certain governments have deemed them illegal, and others have allowed their use and trade without restriction, while in some jurisdictions, such as in the U.S., subject to extensive, and in some cases overlapping, unclear and evolving regulatory requirements. Ongoing and future regulatory actions may impact our ability to continue to operate, and such actions could affect our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations.
Our change in our business strategy has subjected us to increased SEC scrutiny, which scrutiny may continue in the future.
We were previously focused in life science‑oriented businesses (as a diagnostics company and then a research tools company), under the name Bioptix. In late 2017, we determined to abandon this business and instead pursue a blockchain and digital currency related business. The SEC has announced that it is scrutinizing public companies that change their name or business model in a bid to capitalize upon the hype surrounding blockchain technology, and has suspended trading of certain of such companies. Continued regulatory scrutiny over the Company’s business could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations.
The development and acceptance of cryptographic and algorithmic protocols governing the issuance of and transactions in digital currencies is subject to a variety of factors that are difficult to evaluate.
The use of digital currencies to, among other things, buy and sell goods and services and complete transactions, is part of a new and rapidly evolving industry that employs digital currency assets based upon a computer-generated mathematical and/or cryptographic protocol. Large-scale acceptance of digital currencies as a means of payment has not, and may never, occur. The growth of this industry in general, and the use of digital currencies in particular, is subject to a high degree of uncertainty, and the slowing or stopping of the development or acceptance of developing protocols may occur unpredictably. The factors include, but are not limited to:
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continued worldwide growth in the adoption and use of digital currencies as a medium to exchange;
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governmental and quasi-governmental regulation of digital currencies and their use, or restrictions on or regulation of access to and operation of the network or similar digital currency systems;
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changes in consumer demographics and public tastes and preferences;
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the maintenance and development of the open-source software protocol of the network;
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the increased consolidation of contributors to the bitcoin blockchain through mining pools;
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the availability and popularity of other forms or methods of buying and selling goods and services, including new means of using fiat currencies;
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the use of the networks supporting digital currencies for developing smart contracts and distributed applications;
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general economic conditions and the regulatory environment relating to digital assets; and
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negative consumer sentiment and perception of bitcoin specifically and digital currencies generally.
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The outcome of these factors could have negative effects on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our business strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations as well as potentially negative effect on the value of any bitcoin or other digital currencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account, which would harm investors in our securities.
Banks and financial institutions may not provide banking services, or may cut off services, to businesses that provide digital currency-related services or that accept digital currencies as payment, including financial institutions of investors in our securities.
A number of companies that provide bitcoin and/or other digital currency-related services have been unable to find banks or financial institutions that are willing to provide them with bank accounts and other services. Similarly, a number of companies and individuals or businesses associated with digital currencies may have had and may continue to have their existing bank accounts closed or services discontinued with financial institutions in response to government action, particularly in China, where regulatory response to digital currencies has been particularly harsh. We also may be unable to obtain or maintain these services for our business. The difficulty that many businesses that provide bitcoin and/or derivatives on other digital currency-related services have and may continue to have in finding banks and financial institutions willing to provide them services may be decreasing the usefulness of digital currencies as a payment system and harming public perception of digital currencies, and could decrease their usefulness and harm their public perception in the future.
During early 2018, Riot experienced similar difficulties with two financial institutions it had previous relationships with and these difficulties may persist in the future. In each instance wherein the Company was rejected by a bank or other financial institution, the Company was not provided a specific reason for the rejection. The Company therefore cannot say with any reasonable degree of certainty whether its status as a cryptocurrency mining company affected these decisions, nor can it speculate as to the possibility of future banking difficulties. If the Company continues to experience such difficulties, however, the Company’s business may suffer and the trading price of its common stock may decline as a result.
The usefulness of digital currencies as a payment system and the public perception of digital currencies could be damaged if banks or financial institutions were to close the accounts of businesses providing bitcoin and/or other digital currency-related services. This could occur as a result of compliance risk, cost, government regulation or public pressure. The risk applies to securities firms, clearance and settlement firms, national stock and derivatives on commodities exchanges, the over-the-counter market, and the Depository Trust Company, which, if any of such entities adopts or implements similar policies, rules or regulations, could negatively affect our relationships with financial institutions and impede our ability to convert digital currencies to fiat currencies. Such factors could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and harm investors.
We may face risks of Internet disruptions, which could have an adverse effect on the price of digital currencies.
A disruption of the Internet may affect the use of digital currencies and subsequently the value of our securities. Generally, digital currencies are dependent upon the Internet. A significant disruption in Internet connectivity could disrupt a currency's network operations until the disruption is resolved and have an adverse effect on the price of digital currencies.
The impact of geopolitical events on the supply and demand for digital currencies is uncertain.
Geopolitical crises may motivate large-scale purchases of bitcoin and other digital currencies, which could increase the price of bitcoin and other digital currencies rapidly. This may increase the likelihood of a subsequent price decrease as crisis-driven purchasing behavior dissipates, adversely affecting the value of our inventory following such downward adjustment. Such risks are similar to the risks of purchasing commodities in general uncertain times, such as the risk of purchasing, holding or selling gold.
As an alternative to fiat currencies that are backed by central governments, digital currencies, which are relatively new, are subject to supply and demand forces. How such supply and demand will be impacted by geopolitical events is largely uncertain but could be harmful to us and investors in our common stock. Political or economic crises may motivate large-scale acquisitions or sales of digital currencies either globally or locally. Such events could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin or any other digital currencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account.
Acceptance and/or widespread use of digital currency is uncertain.
Currently, there is a relatively limited use of any digital currency in the retail and commercial marketplace, thus contributing to price volatility that could adversely affect an investment in our securities. Banks and other established financial institutions may refuse to process funds for digital currency transactions, process wire transfers to or from digital currency exchanges, digital currency-related companies or service providers, or maintain accounts for persons or entities transacting in digital currency. Conversely, a significant portion of digital currency demand is generated by investors seeking a long-term store of value or speculators seeking to profit from the short- or long-term holding of the asset. Price volatility undermines any digital currency's role as a medium of exchange, as retailers are much less likely to accept it as a form of payment. Market capitalization for a digital currency as a medium of exchange and payment method may always be low.
The relative lack of acceptance of digital currencies in the retail and commercial marketplace, or a reduction of such use, limits the ability of end users to use them to pay for goods and services. Such lack of acceptance or decline in acceptances could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of bitcoin or any other digital currencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account.
Transactional fees may decrease demand for bitcoin and prevent expansion.
As the number of bitcoins currency rewards awarded for solving a block in a blockchain decreases, the incentive for miners to continue to contribute to the bitcoin network may transition from a set reward to transaction fees.
In order to incentivize miners to continue to contribute to the bitcoin network, the bitcoin network may either formally or informally transition from a set reward to transaction fees earned upon solving a block. This transition could be accomplished by miners independently electing to record in the blocks they solve only those transactions that include payment of a transaction fee. If transaction fees paid for bitcoin transactions become too high, the marketplace may be reluctant to accept bitcoin as a means of payment and existing users may be motivated to switch from bitcoin to another digital currency or to fiat currency. Either the requirement from miners of higher transaction fees in exchange for recording transactions in a blockchain or a software upgrade that automatically charges fees for all transactions may decrease demand for bitcoin and prevent the expansion of the bitcoin network to retail merchants and commercial businesses, resulting in a reduction in the price of bitcoin that could adversely impact an investment in our securities. Decreased use and demand for bitcoin may adversely affect its value and result in a reduction in the price of bitcoin and the value of our common stock.
We face risks from the lack of clarity in the corporate governance of many digital currency systems.
Lack of clarity in the corporate governance of many digital currency systems may lead to ineffective decision making that slows development or prevents a network from overcoming emergent obstacles. Governance of many digital currency systems is by voluntary consensus and open competition with no clear leadership structure or authority. To the extent lack of clarity in corporate governance of digital currency systems leads to ineffective decision making that slows development and growth of such digital currencies,, the value of our common stock may be adversely affected.
It may be illegal now, or in the future, to acquire, own, hold, sell or use bitcoin, ether, or other digital currencies, participate in blockchains or utilize similar digital currency assets in one or more countries, the ruling of which would adversely affect us.
Although currently digital currencies generally are not regulated or are lightly regulated in most countries, one or more countries such as China and Russia, which have taken harsh regulatory action in recent months, may take regulatory actions in the future that could severely restrict the right to acquire, own, hold, sell or use these digital currency assets or to exchange for fiat currency. Such restrictions may adversely affect us as the large-scale use of digital currencies as a means of exchange is presently confined to certain regions globally. Such circumstances could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin or other digital currencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account, and harm investors.
The popularity of cryptocurrencies and cryptosecurities offerings may decrease in the future, which could have a material impact on the cryptocurrency and cryptosecurities industry and the Company’s operations and financial conditions.
In recent years, cryptocurrencies and cryptosecurities have become more widely accepted among investors and financial institutions, but have been also faced increasingly complex legal and regulatory challenges and, to date, have not benefited from widespread adoption by governments, central banks or established financial institutions. Any significant decrease in the acceptance or popularity of cryptocurrency or cryptosecurity offerings may have a material impact on the Company’s operations and financial conditions.
There is a lack of liquid markets, and possible manipulation of blockchain/digital currency‑based assets.
Digital assets that are represented and trade on a ledger-based platform may not necessarily benefit from viable trading markets. Stock exchanges have listing requirements and vet issuers; requiring them to be subjected to rigorous listing standards and rules, and monitor investors transacting on such platform for fraud and other improprieties. These conditions may not necessarily be replicated on a distributed ledger platform, depending on the platform's controls and other policies. The more lax a distributed ledger platform is about vetting issuers of digital currency assets or users that transact on the platform, the higher the potential risk for fraud or the manipulation of digital currency assets. These factors may decrease liquidity or volume, or increase volatility of digital securities or other assets trading on a ledger-based system, which may adversely affect us. Such circumstances could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin or other digital currencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account, and harm investors.
Our operations, investment strategies and profitability may be adversely affected by competition from other methods of investing in digital currencies.
We compete with other users and/or companies that are mining digital currencies and other potential financial vehicles, including securities backed by or linked to digital currencies through entities similar to us. Market and financial conditions, and other conditions beyond our control, may make it more attractive to invest in other financial vehicles, or to invest in digital currencies directly, which could limit the market for our shares and reduce their liquidity. The emergence of other financial vehicles and exchange-traded funds have been scrutinized by regulators and such scrutiny and the negative impressions or conclusions resulting from such scrutiny could be applicable to us and impact our ability to successfully pursue our new strategy or operate at all, or to establish or maintain a public market for our securities. Such circumstances could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin or other digital currencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account, and harm investors.
The development and acceptance of competing blockchain platforms or technologies may cause consumers to use alternative distributed ledgers or other alternatives.
The development and acceptance of competing blockchain platforms or technologies may cause consumers to use alternative distributed ledgers or an alternative to distributed ledgers altogether. Our business utilizes presently existent digital ledgers and blockchains and we could face difficulty adapting to emergent digital ledgers, blockchains, or alternatives thereto. This may adversely affect us and our exposure to various blockchain technologies and prevent us from realizing the anticipated profits from our investments. Such circumstances could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin or other digital currencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account, and harm investors.
Our digital currencies may be subject to loss, theft or restriction on access.
There is a risk that some or all of our digital currencies could be lost or stolen. Digital currencies are stored in digital currency sites commonly referred to as “wallets” by holders of digital currencies which may be accessed to exchange a holder’s digital currency assets. Access to our digital currency assets could also be restricted by cybercrime (such as a denial of service attack) against a service at which we maintain a hosted hot wallet. A hot wallet refers to any digital currency wallet that is connected to the Internet. Generally, hot wallets are easier to set up and access then wallets in cold storage, but they are also more susceptible to hackers and other technical vulnerabilities. Cold storage refers to any digital currency wallet that is not connected to the Internet. Cold storage is generally more secure, but is not ideal for quick or regular transactions. We hold the majority of our digital currencies in cold storage to reduce the risk of malfeasance, but this risk cannot be eliminated.
Hackers or malicious actors may launch attacks to steal, compromise or secure digital currencies, such as by attacking the digital currency network source code, exchange miners, third-party platforms, cold and hot storage locations or software, or by other means. We may be in control and possession of one of the more substantial holdings of digital currency. As we increase in size, we may become a more appealing target of hackers, malware, cyber-attacks or other security threats. Any of these events may adversely affect our operations and, consequently, our investments and profitability. The loss or destruction of a private key required to access our digital wallets may be irreversible and we may be denied access for all time to our digital currency holdings or the holdings of others held in those compromised wallets. Our loss of access to our private keys or our experience of a data loss relating to our digital wallets could adversely affect our investments and assets.
Digital currencies are controllable only by the possessor of both the unique public and private keys relating to the local or online digital wallet in which they are held, which wallet’s public key or address is reflected in the network’s public blockchain. We will publish the public key relating to digital wallets in use when we verify the receipt of transfers and disseminate such information into the network, but we will need to safeguard the private keys relating to such digital wallets. To the extent such private keys are lost, destroyed or otherwise compromised, we will be unable to access our digital currency rewards and such private keys may not be capable of being restored by any network. Any loss of private keys relating to digital wallets used to store our or our client’s digital currencies could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin or other digital currencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account.
Risks due to hacking or adverse software event.
In order to minimize risk, Riot has established processes to manage wallets that are associated with our digital currency holdings. There can be no assurances that any processes we have adopted or will adopt in the future are or will be secure or effective, and we would suffer significant and immediate adverse effects if we suffered a loss of our digital currency due to an adverse software or cybersecurity event. Riot utilizes several layers of threat reduction techniques, including: (i) the use of hardware wallets to store sensitive private key information; (ii) performance of transactions offline; and (iii) offline generation storage and use of private keys.
At present, the Company is evaluating several third-party custodial wallet alternatives, but there can be no assurance Riot will utilize such services, as other new options may develop in the future, and if a custodial wallet is used there can be no assurance that such services will be more secure than those the Company presently employs. Human error and the constantly-evolving state of cybercrime and hacking techniques may render present security protocols and procedures ineffective in ways which we cannot predict. If our security procedures and protocols are ineffectual and our digital currency assets are compromised by cybercriminals, we may not have adequate recourse to recover our losses stemming from such compromise and we may lose much of the accumulated value of our digital currency mining activities. This would have a negative impact on our business and operations.
Incorrect or fraudulent digital currency transactions may be irreversible.
Digital currency transactions are irrevocable and stolen or incorrectly transferred digital currencies may be irretrievable. As a result, any incorrectly executed or fraudulent digital currency transactions could adversely affect our investments and assets.
Digital currency transactions are not, from an administrative perspective, reversible without the consent and active participation of the recipient of the digital currencies from the transaction. In theory, digital currency transactions may be reversible with the control or consent of a majority of processing power on the network, however, we do not now, nor is it feasible that we could in the future, possess sufficient processing power to effect this reversal. Once a transaction has been verified and recorded in a block that is added to a blockchain, an incorrect transfer of a digital currency or a theft thereof generally will not be reversible and we may not have sufficient recourse to recover our losses from any such transfer or theft. It is possible that, through computer or human error, or through theft or criminal action, our digital currency rewards could be transferred in incorrect amounts or to unauthorized third parties, or to uncontrolled accounts. Further, at this time, there is no specifically enumerated U.S. or foreign governmental, regulatory, investigative or prosecutorial authority or mechanism through which to bring an action or complaint regarding missing or stolen digital currency. To the extent that we are unable to recover our losses from such action, error or theft, such events could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations of and potentially the value of any bitcoin or other digital currencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account.
Our interactions with a blockchain may expose us to SDN or blocked persons or cause us to violate provisions of law that did not contemplate distribute ledger technology.
The Office of Financial Assets Control of the US Department of Treasury requires us to comply with its sanction program and not conduct business with persons named on its specially designated nationals (“SDN”) list. However, because of the pseudonymous nature of blockchain transactions we may inadvertently without our knowledge engage in transactions with persons named on OFAC's SDN list. Our Company’s policy prohibits any transactions with such SDN individuals, but we may not be adequately capable of determining the ultimate identity of the individual with whom we transact with respect to selling digital currency assets. Moreover, federal law prohibits any US person from knowingly or unknowingly possessing any visual depiction commonly known as child pornography. Recent media reports have suggested that persons have imbedded such depictions on one or more blockchains. Because our business requires us to download and retain one or more blockchains to effectuate our ongoing business, it is possible that such digital ledgers contain prohibited depictions without our knowledge or consent. To the extent government enforcement authorities literally enforce these and other laws and regulations that are impacted by decentralized distributed ledger technology, we may be subject to investigation, administrative or court proceedings, and civil or criminal monetary fines and penalties, all of which could harm our reputation and affect the value of our common stock.
Digital currencies face significant scaling obstacles that can lead to high fees or slow transaction settlement times.
Digital currencies face significant scaling obstacles that can lead to high fees or slow transaction settlement times, and attempts to increase the volume of transactions may not be effective. Scaling digital currencies is essential to the widespread acceptance of digital currencies as a means of payment, which widespread acceptance is necessary to the continued growth and development of our business. Many digital currency networks face significant scaling challenges. For example, digital currencies are limited with respect to how many transactions can occur per second. Participants in the digital currency ecosystem debate potential approaches to increasing the average number of transactions per second that the network can handle and have implemented mechanisms or are researching ways to increase scale, such as increasing the allowable sizes of blocks, and therefore the number of transactions per block, and sharding (a horizontal partition of data in a database or search engine), which would not require every single transaction to be included in every single miner's or validator's block. However, there is no guarantee that any of the mechanisms in place or being explored for increasing the scale of settlement of digital currency transactions will be effective, or how long they will take to become effective, which could adversely affect an investment in our securities.
The price of digital currencies may be affected by the sale of such digital currencies by other vehicles investing in digital currencies or tracking digital currency markets.
The global market for digital currency is characterized by supply constraints that differ from those present in the markets for commodities or other assets such as gold and silver. The mathematical protocols under which certain digital currencies are mined permit the creation of a limited, predetermined amount of currency, while others have no limit established on total supply. To the extent that other vehicles investing in digital currencies or tracking digital currency markets form and come to represent a significant proportion of the demand for digital currencies, large redemptions of the securities of those vehicles and the subsequent sale of digital currencies by such vehicles could negatively affect digital currency prices and therefore affect the value of the digital currency inventory we hold. Such events could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin or other digital currencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account.
Because there has been limited precedent set for financial accounting of bitcoin and other digital currency assets, the determination that we have made for how to account for digital currency assets transactions may be subject to change.
Because there has been limited precedent set for the financial accounting of digital currencies and related revenue recognition and no official guidance has yet been provided by the Financial Accounting Standards Board or the SEC, it is unclear how companies may in the future be required to account for digital currency transactions and assets and related revenue recognition. A change in regulatory or financial accounting standards could result in the necessity to change our accounting methods and restate our financial statements. Such a restatement could adversely affect the accounting for our newly mined digital currency rewards and more generally negatively impact our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operation. Such circumstances would have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations as well as and potentially the value of any digital currencies we hold or expects to acquire for our own account and harm investors.
If a malicious actor or botnet obtains control of more than 50% of the processing power on a digital currency network, such actor or botnet could manipulate blockchains to adversely affect us, which would adversely affect an investment in us and our ability to operate
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If a malicious actor or botnet (a volunteer or hacked collection of computers controlled by networked software coordinating the actions of the computers) obtains a majority of the processing power dedicated to mining a digital currency, it may be able to alter blockchains on which transactions of digital currency reside and rely by constructing fraudulent blocks or preventing certain transactions from completing in a timely manner, or at all. The malicious actor or botnet could control, exclude or modify the ordering of transactions, though it could not generate new units or transactions using such control. The malicious actor could “double-spend” its own digital currency (i.e., spend the same bitcoin in more than one transaction) and prevent the confirmation of other users' transactions for as long as it maintained control. To the extent that such malicious actor or botnet does not yield its control of the processing power on the network or the digital currency community does not reject the fraudulent blocks as malicious, reversing any changes made to blockchains may not be possible. The foregoing description is not the only means by which the entirety of blockchains or digital currencies may be compromised, but is only an example.
Although there are no known reports of the control of a blockchain being achieved by an individual or a single mining pool through controlling over 50% of the processing power on the blockchain’s network, if, for example, a single mining pool could exert authority over the validation of bitcoin (our largest digital currency asset) transactions, any compromise of that mining pool by a malicious actor
or botnet
could do substantial harm to the value of bitcoin. To the extent that the bitcoin ecosystem and the administrators of mining pools specifically, do not act to ensure continued decentralization of bitcoin mining processing power, the feasibility of a malicious actor obtaining control over the majority of the bitcoin blockhain’s mining processing power will increase. As control of bitcoin mining processing power becomes increasingly centralized, a malicious actor in control of a single majority mining pool (if one ever comes to exist) or few major mining pools could feasibly gain control over more than 50% of the aggregate bitcoin mining processing power, thereby compromising the entire bitcoin blockchain; whereas if the blockchain remains decentralized it is inherently more difficult for a botnet or other malicious actor to aggregate enough processing power to gain control over the bitcoin blockchain. Continued centralization of the bitcoin blockchain’s mining processing power potentially poses a threat to the value of
the
bitcoin we mine or hold for our account (or other digital currencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account, which are subject to similar risks), as the value of bitcoin is tied to the authenticity of the transactions on the blockchain, which, in large part, is ensured by the decentralized nature of the bitcoin blockchain. This trend towards centralization of the bitcoin blockchain could result in a loss of confidence in bitcoin, harming its value which could have a material adverse effect on our business and the value of our common stock.
Digital Currency Mining-Related Risks
There are risks related to technological obsolescence and difficulty in obtaining new hardware.
Our mining operations can only be successful and ultimately profitable if the costs, including hardware and electricity costs, associated with mining digital currencies are lower than the price of a bitcoin. As our mining facility operates, our miners experience ordinary wear and tear, and may also face more significant malfunctions caused by a number of extraneous factors beyond our control. The degradation of our miners will require us to, over time, replace those miners which are no longer functional. Additionally, as the technology evolves, we may be required to acquire newer models of miners to remain competitive in the market. Reports have been released which indicate that Bitmain adjusts the prices of its miners according to bitcoin prices, so the cost of new machines is unpredictable but could be extremely high. Further, given supply limitations and competition from other industry participants, those miners can be difficult to obtain from Bitmain directly on a timely basis. As a result, at times, we may obtain Bitmain miners and other hardware from third parties at premium prices, to the extent they are available. For example, in November 2017, in order to facilitate the launch of our mining operations without the potential delay associated with acquiring miners directly from Bitmain, we purchased Bitmain miners at substantially above Bitmain’s list prices. Additionally, to keep pace with technological advances and competition from other mining companies, we will need to replace or update our miners and other equipment from time to time to stay competitive. This process will require substantial capital investment, and we may face challenges in doing so on a timely and cost-effective basis. Also, because our miners are expected to require replacement in a relatively short amount of time, we expect to depreciate them over only a two-year period for financial reporting purposes, adversely affecting our reported operating results. Such events could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and the value of our common stock.
Our reliance primarily on a single model of miner may subject our operations to increased risk of mine failure.
The performance and reliability of our miners and our technology is critical to our reputation and our operations. Because we currently only use Bitmain miners, if there are issues with those machines, our entire system could be affected. Any system error or failure may significantly delay response times or even cause our system to fail. Any disruption in our ability to continue mining could result in lower yields and harm our reputation and business. Any exploitable weakness, flaw, or error common to Bitmain miners affects all our miners, if a defect other flaw is exploited, our entire mine could go offline simultaneously. Any interruption, delay or system failure could result in financial losses, a decrease in the trading price of our common stock and damage to our reputation.
The Company’s reliance on a third-party mining pool service provider for our mining revenue payouts may have a negative impact on the Company operations.
We use third–party mining pools to receive our mining rewards from the network. Bitcoin mining pools allow miners to combine their processing power, increasing their chances of solving a block and getting paid by the network. The rewards are distributed by the pool operator, proportionally to our contribution to the pool’s overall mining power, used to generate each block. Should the pool operator’s system suffer downtime due to a cyber-attack, software malfunction or other similar issues, it will negatively impact our ability to mine and receive revenue. Furthermore, we are reliant on the accuracy of the mining pool operator’s record keeping to accurately record the total processing power provided to the pool for a given bitcoin mining application in order to assess the proportion of that total processing power we provided. While we have internal methods of tracking both our power provided and the total used by the pool, the mining pool operator uses its own record-keeping to determine our proportion of a given reward. We have little means of recourse against the mining pool operator if we determine the proportion of the reward paid out to us by the mining pool operator is incorrect, other than leaving the pool. If we are unable to consistently obtain accurate proportionate rewards from our mining pool operators, we may experience reduced reward for our efforts, which would have an adverse effect on our business and operations.
The primary digital currencies for which we mine, bitcoin and litecoin, are subject to halving; the digital currency reward for successfully uncovering a block will halve several times in the future and their value may not adjust to compensate us for the reduction in the rewards we receive from our mining efforts
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Halving is a process designed to control the overall supply and reduce the risk of inflation in cryptocurrencies using a Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm. At a predetermined block, the mining reward is cut in half, hence the term “halving.” For bitcoin, the reward was initially set at 50 bitcoin currency rewards per block and this was cut in half to 25 in November 28, 2012 at block 210,000 and again to 12.5 on July 9, 2016 at block 420,000. The next halving for bitcoin is expected in May 2020 at block 630,000 when the reward will reduce to 6.25. This process will reoccur until the total amount of bitcoin currency rewards issued reaches 21 million, which is expected around 2140. Similarly, litecoin first halved on August 25, 2015 at block 840,000 from 50 to 25. It is expected to halve a second time in August 2019 at block 1,680,000 to 12.5. While bitcoin and litecoin prices have had a history of price fluctuations around the halving of their respective digital currency rewards, there is no guarantee that the price change will be favorable or would compensate for the reduction in mining reward. If a corresponding and proportionate increase in the trading price of these digital currencies does not follow these anticipated halving events, the revenue we earn from our mining operations would see a corresponding decrease, which would have a material adverse effect on our business and operations.
Our future success will depend in large part upon the value of bitcoin; the value of bitcoin and other digital currencies may be subject to pricing risk and has historically been subject to wide swings
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Our operating results will depend in large part upon the value of bitcoin because it’s the primary digital currency we currently mine. Specifically, our revenues from our bitcoin mining operations are based upon two factors: (1) the number of bitcoin rewards we successfully mine and (2) the value of bitcoin. In addition, our operating results are directly impacted by changes in the value of bitcoin, because under the value measurement model, both realized and unrealized changes will be reflected in our statement of operations (i.e., we will be marking bitcoin to fair value each quarter). This means that our operating results will be subject to swings based upon increases or decreases in the value of bitcoin. Furthermore, our new strategy initially focuses almost entirely on bitcoin (as opposed to other digital currencies). Further, our current application-specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”) machines (which we refer to as “miners”) are principally utilized for mining bitcoin and bitcoin cash and cannot mine other digital currencies, such as ether, that are not mined utilizing the “SHA-256 algorithm.” If other digital currencies were to achieve acceptance at the expense of bitcoin or bitcoin cash causing the value of bitcoin or bitcoin cash to decline, or if bitcoin were to switch its proof of work algorithm from SHA-256 to another algorithm for which our miners are not specialized, or the value of bitcoin or bitcoin cash were to decline for other reasons, particularly if such decline were significant or over an extended period of time, our operating results would be adversely affected, and there could be a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations, and harm investors.
Bitcoin and other digital currency market prices, which have historically been volatile and are impacted by a variety of factors (including those discussed below), are determined primarily using data from various exchanges, over-the-counter markets and derivative platforms. Furthermore, such prices may be subject to factors such as those that impact commodities, more so than business activities, which could be subjected to additional influence from fraudulent or illegitimate actors, real or perceived scarcity, and political, economic, regulatory or other conditions. Pricing may be the result of, and may continue to result in, speculation regarding future appreciation in the value of digital currencies, or our share price, inflating and making their market prices more volatile or creating “bubble” type risks for both bitcoin and shares of our common stock.
We may not be able to realize the benefits of forks.
To the extent that a significant majority of users and miners on a digital currency network install software that changes the digital currency network or properties of a digital currency, including the irreversibility of transactions and limitations on the mining of new digital currency, the digital currency network would be subject to new protocols and software. However, if less than a significant majority of users and miners on the digital currency network consent to the proposed modification, and the modification is not compatible with the software prior to its modification, the consequence would be what is known as a “fork” of the network, with one prong running the pre-modified software and the other running the modified software. The effect of such a fork would be the existence of two versions of the digital currency running in parallel, yet lacking interchangeability and necessitating exchange-type transaction to convert currencies between the two forks. Additionally, it may be unclear following a fork which fork represents the original asset and which is the new asset. Different metrics adopted by industry participants to determine which is the original asset include: referring to the wishes of the core developers of a digital currency, blockchains with the greatest amount of hashing power contributed by miners or validators; or blockchains with the longest chain. A fork in the network of a particular digital currency could adversely affect an investment in our securities or our ability to operate.
We may not be able to realize the economic benefit of a fork, either immediately or ever, which could adversely affect an investment in our securities. If we hold a digital currency at the time of a hard fork into two digital currencies, industry standards would dictate that we would be expected to hold an equivalent amount of the old and new assets following the fork. However, we may not be able, or it may not be practical, to secure or realize the economic benefit of the new asset for various reasons. For instance, we may determine that there is no safe or practical way to custody the new asset, that trying to do so may pose an unacceptable risk to our holdings in the old asset, or that the costs of taking possession and/or maintaining ownership of the new digital currency exceed the benefits of owning the new digital currency. Additionally, laws, regulation or other factors may prevent us from benefitting from the new asset even if there is a safe and practical way to custody and secure the new asset.
There is a possibility of digital currency mining algorithms transitioning to proof of stake validation and other mining‑related risks, which could make us less competitive and ultimately adversely affect our business and the value of our stock
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Proof of stake is an alternative method in validating digital currency transactions. Should the algorithm shift from a proof of work validation method to a proof of stake method, mining would require less energy and may render any company that maintains advantages in the current climate (for example, from lower priced electricity, processing, real estate, or hosting) less competitive. We, as a result of our efforts to optimize and improve the efficiency of our digital currency mining operations, may be exposed to the risk in the future of losing the benefit of our capital investments and the competitive advantage we hope to gain form this as a result, and may be negatively impacted if a switch to proof of stake validation were to occur. This may additionally have an impact on other various investments of ours, including how it may potentially affect transactional volume on Coinsquare or affect our strategy for investigating the launch of a digital currency exchange in the United States. Such events could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin or other digital currencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account.
To the extent that the profit margins of bitcoin mining operations are not high, operators of bitcoin mining operations are more likely to immediately sell bitcoin rewards earned by mining in the market, thereby constraining growth of the price of bitcoin that could adversely impact us, and similar actions could affect other digital currencies.
Over the past two years, bitcoin mining operations have evolved from individual users mining with computer processors, graphics processing units and first-generation ASIC servers. Currently, new processing power is predominantly added by incorporated and unincorporated “professionalized” mining operations. Professionalized mining operations may use proprietary hardware or sophisticated ASIC machines acquired from ASIC manufacturers. They require the investment of significant capital for the acquisition of this hardware, the leasing of operating space (often in data centers or warehousing facilities), incurring of electricity costs and the employment of technicians to operate the mining farms. As a result, professionalized mining operations are of a greater scale than prior miners and have more defined and regular expenses and liabilities. These regular expenses and liabilities require professionalized mining operations to maintain high profit margins on the sale of bitcoin. To the extent the price of bitcoin declines and such profit margin is constrained, professionalized miners are incentivized to more immediately sell bitcoin earned from mining operations, whereas it is believed that individual miners in past years were more likely to hold newly mined bitcoin for more extended periods. The immediate selling of newly mined bitcoin greatly increases the trading volume of bitcoin, creating downward pressure on the market price of bitcoin rewards.
The extent to which the value of bitcoin mined by a professionalized mining operation exceeds the allocable capital and operating costs determines the profit margin of such operation. A professionalized mining operation may be more likely to sell a higher percentage of its newly mined bitcoin rapidly if it is operating at a low profit margin and it may partially or completely cease operations if its profit margin is negative. In a low profit margin environment, a higher percentage could be sold more rapidly, thereby potentially depressing bitcoin prices. Lower bitcoin prices could result in further tightening of profit margins for professionalized mining operations creating a network effect that may further reduce the price of bitcoin until mining operations with higher operating costs become unprofitable forcing them to reduce mining power or cease mining operations temporarily.
The foregoing risks associated with bitcoin could be equally applicable to other digital currencies, whether existing now or introduced in the future. Such circumstances could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of bitcoin and any other digital currencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account, and harm investors.
Digital currencies, including those maintained by or for us, may be exposed to cybersecurity threats and hacks.
As with any computer code generally, flaws in digital currency codes may be exposed by malicious actors. Several errors and defects have been found previously, including those that disabled some functionality for users and exposed users' information. Exploitations of flaws in the source code that allow malicious actors to take or create money have previously occurred. Despite our efforts and processes to prevent breaches, our devices, as well as our miners, computer systems and those of third parties that we use in our operations, are vulnerable to cyber security risks, including cyber-attacks such as viruses and worms, phishing attacks, denial-of-service attacks, physical or electronic break-ins, employee theft or misuse, and similar disruptions from unauthorized tampering with our miners and computer systems or those of third parties that we use in our operations. Such events could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin or other digital currencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account.
We are subject to risks associated with our need for significant electrical power. Government regulators may potentially restrict the ability of electricity suppliers to provide electricity to mining operations, such as ours.
The operation of a bitcoin or other digital currency mine can require massive amounts of electrical power. Further, our mining operations can only be successful and ultimately profitable if the costs, including electrical power costs, associated with mining a bitcoin are lower than the price of a bitcoin. As a result, any mine we establish can only be successful if we can obtain sufficient electrical power for that mine on a cost-effective basis, and our establishment of new mines requires us to find locations where that is the case. Our current mining operation in Oklahoma does not have a guaranteed price of electricity, which varies. There may be significant competition for suitable mine locations, and government regulators may potentially restrict the ability of electricity suppliers to provide electricity to mining operations in times of electricity shortage, or may otherwise potentially restrict or prohibit the provision or electricity to mining operations. For example, the board of commissioners of Chelan County Public Utility District in Washington voted to stop reviewing applications for mining facilities following a review of the impact of existing operations. Additionally, our mines could be materially adversely affected by a power outage. Given the power requirement, it would not be feasible to run miners on back-up power generators in the event of a government restriction on electricity or a power outage. If we are unable to receive adequate power supply and are forced to reduce our operations due to the availability or cost of electrical power, our business would experience materially negative impacts.
If the award of digital currency rewards, for us primarily bitcoin for solving blocks and transaction fees are not sufficiently high, we may not have an adequate incentive to continue mining and may cease mining operations, which will likely lead to our failure to achieve profitability.
As the number of digital currency rewards awarded for solving a block in a blockchain decreases, our ability to achieve profitability worsens. Decreased use and demand for bitcoin rewards may adversely affect our incentive to expend processing power to solve blocks. If the award of bitcoin rewards for solving blocks and transaction fees are not sufficiently high, we may not have an adequate incentive to continue mining and may cease our mining operations. For instance, the current fixed reward for solving a new block on the bitcoin blockchain is twelve and a half bitcoin currency rewards per block, which decreased from 25 bitcoin in July 2016. It is estimated that it will halve again in about one year. This reduction may result in a reduction in the aggregate hash rate of the bitcoin network as the incentive for miners decreases. Miners ceasing operations would reduce the collective processing power on the network, which would adversely affect the confirmation process for transactions (i.e., temporarily decreasing the speed at which blocks are added to a blockchain until the next scheduled adjustment in difficulty for block solutions) and make digital currency networks more vulnerable to a malicious actor or botnet obtaining control in excess of 50 percent of the processing power active on a blockchain, potentially permitting such actor or botnet to manipulate a blockchain in a manner that adversely affects our activities. A reduction in confidence in the confirmation process or processing power of the network could result and be irreversible. Such events could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin or other digital currencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account.
Our dependence on third-party software and personnel may leave us vulnerable to price fluctuations and rapidly changing technology.
Competitive conditions within the digital currency industry require that we use sophisticated technology in the operation of our business. We currently utilize third party software applications in our mining operations. Further, we are licensing third-party software to run our planned exchange and we may not be able to amend or change our agreements with these third party service providers to respond to changes in the market. The industry for blockchain technology is characterized by rapid technological changes, new product introductions, enhancements and evolving industry standards. New technologies, techniques or products could emerge that might offer better performance than the software and other technologies we currently utilize, and we may have to manage transitions to these new technologies to remain competitive. We may not be successful, generally or relative to our competitors in the digital currency industry, in timely implementing new technology into our systems, or doing so in a cost-effective manner. During the course of implementing any such new technology into our operations, we may experience system interruptions and failures during such implementation. Furthermore, there can be no assurances that we will recognize, in a timely manner or at all, the benefits that we may expect as a result of our implementing new technology into our operations. As a result, our business and operations may suffer, and there may be adverse effects on the price of our common stock.
Risks Associated with our Exploratory Efforts to Launch a U.S. Digital Currency Exchange and Related Businesses
We may not successfully develop, market and launch any digital currency exchange.
We are investigating and planning the development of a digital currency exchange. For a variety of reasons (including but not limited to the regulatory challenges and other risks discussed below), we could suffer significant delays in our efforts to establish such an exchange, and may ultimately not be successful in doing so. We will need to obtain additional management, regulatory compliance and technical expertise and devote substantial time and effort to this project. None of our management of directors have any prior experience in founding, operating, or being employed by any existing cryptocurrency, commodity or securities exchange. We have outsourced to third parties the development of each element of the proposed RiotX exchange, and cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully integrate these various elements into a usable exchange or a profitable business. We also expect to need to raise additional funds (which may be seek by offering direct investments in this business) to pursue development of the exchange, and we may not be successful in raising that capital. It is possible that the launch of our digital currency exchange may never occur, and even if it is successfully developed, it is possible that it will not be accessed or utilized by a large number of users or will otherwise not achieve market acceptance. If our planned exchange is never launched or is never accessed and used by a large number of users, than we may be forced to reduce or cease our operations of our exchange, and we could lose all of our investment therein.
If regulatory changes or interpretations require the regulation of bitcoin or other digital currency assets under the securities laws of the United States or elsewhere, including the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Investment Company Act of 1940, the Commodity Exchange Act or similar laws of other jurisdictions and interpretations by the SEC, CFTC, IRS, Department of Treasury or other agencies or authorities, we may be required to register and comply with such regulations, including at a state or local level. To the extent that we decide to continue operations, the required registrations and regulatory compliance steps may result in extraordinary expenses or burdens to us.
Regulatory developments, including current and future legislation, SEC rulemaking, interpretations released by a regulatory authority, and/or judicial decisions, may impact the manner in which bitcoin or other digital currencies are viewed or treated for classification and clearing purposes. In particular, bitcoin and other digital currencies may not be excluded from the definition of “security” by SEC rulemaking or interpretations which require registration of all transactions therefor would occur on our planned exchange, unless another exemption is available, and require registration of trading platforms as “exchanges” with the SEC.
We cannot be certain as to how future regulatory developments will impact the treatment of bitcoin and other digital currencies under applicable law. If we determine that we are not able to comply, or otherwise fail to comply with such additional regulatory and registration requirements, we may seek to cease certain of our operations or be subjected to fines, penalties and other governmental enforcement actions. Such circumstances could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations and potentially the value of any bitcoin or other digital currencies we mine or otherwise acquire or hold for our own account, which would harm investors in our common stock.
The cryptocurrencies which may be exchanged on our planned RiotX Exchange may, in the future, be classified as “securities” by the SEC, subjecting us to substantially increased compliance costs with respect to those cryptocurrencies.
On July 25, 2017, the SEC issued an investigative report, stating that offers and sales of digital assets by “virtual” organizations using distributed ledger or cryptocurrency technology (i.e., Initial Coin Offerings or Token Sales) are subject to the requirements of federal securities laws. On June 6, 2018, the Chairman of the SEC issued a statement to clarify that bitcoin is a commodity and that the SEC does not deem it and similar cryptocurrency coins to be securities, and in contrast to initial coin offerings of tokens which do fall within the definition of a security and will be regulated as such. In March of 2019, the SEC announced that it is it is looking for an “attorney advisor” to operate as a “Crypto Specialist,” which many observers interpret as an indication that the SEC is stepping up its efforts to regulate cryptocurrencies. To the extent that bitcoin, ethereum, or litecoin are themselves determined to be a security, commodity future or other regulated asset, or to the extent that a United States or foreign government or quasi-governmental agency exerts regulatory authority over the bitcoin, ethereum, or litecoin networks, or cryptocurrency trading and ownership, trading or ownership in cryptocurrency may be adversely affected, which could adversely affect an investment in our Company.
To the extent that future regulatory actions or policies limit the ability to exchange cryptocurrency or utilize them for payments, the demand for cryptocurrency will be reduced. Furthermore, regulatory actions may limit the ability of end-users to convert cryptocurrency into fiat currency (e.g., U.S. Dollars) or use cryptocurrency to pay for goods and services. Such regulatory actions or policies could adversely affect an investment in us.
Cryptocurrency currently faces an uncertain regulatory landscape in not only the United States, but also in many foreign jurisdictions such as the European Union, China and Russia. Various foreign jurisdictions may, in the near future, adopt laws, regulations, or directives that affect cryptocurrency networks and its users, particularly cryptocurrency exchanges and service providers that fall within such jurisdictions’ regulatory scope.
To the extent that cryptocurrencies which may be traded on our planned RiotX exchange are classified as “securities” under applicable U.S. law or are otherwise regulated by governmental agencies and quasi-governmental bodies, we may incur substantially increased compliance costs associated with such classification. We may elect Rot to permit transfer of those cryptocurrencies which are classified as securities on our RiotX exchange and, in the event all cryptocurrencies are so classified, we may suspend trading altogether on our RiotX exchange. Increased costs of complying with additional regulations following such a classification will affect the future profitability of our planned RiotX exchange and as a result, RiotX may never achieve profitability and we may lose all of our capital investment in RiotX.
Our planned RiotX exchange is not now, nor do we plan for it to be, classified as an Alternative Trading System (“ATS”), as that term is defined under Rule 300(a) of Regulation M, or a registered broker-dealer under Sections 15 and 3(4) of the Exchange Act; to the extent RiotX is classified as such, we will face substantially increased regulatory compliance costs and RiotX may never achieve profitability.
Broker-dealers are subject to extensive regulatory requirements under federal and state laws and regulations and self-regulatory organization (“SRO”) rules. Our planned RiotX exchange is not registered with the SEC as a broker
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dealer under the Exchange Act and in the states in which we plan to operate it as a cryptocurrency exchange and it is not a member, and is not subject to the rules, of FINRA. So long as the cryptocurrencies which may be exchanged on the planned RiotX exchange are not considered “securities” by the SEC or other U.S. governmental and regulatory bodies, we do not believe RiotX is an exchange facilitating the exchange of securities and therefore we do not believe it constitutes an ATS or is required to register as a broker-dealer. We have relied on applicable guidance and the advice of counsel in making such determination, but we cannot guarantee that RiotX will not be classified as an ATS or a broker-dealer. In the event RiotX is so classified, it will be subject to regulation, examination,
investigation and disciplinary action by the SEC, FINRA and state securities regulators, as well as other governmental authorities and SROs with which they will have to register or become licensed or of which they become a member.
We have been and remain involved in ongoing oral and written communications with regulatory authorities in connection with ongoing examinations, inquiries, or investigations. If RiotX is determined to be an ATS or a broker-dealer and we become subject to the applicable regulatory regime, the compliance costs will be substantial, which could affect the future profitability of RiotX. If RiotX is required to comply with these regulations, we could be forced to reduce or cease its operations, which would have a material adverse effect on our operations and financial condition.
The planned RiotX exchange is intended to generate a significant portion of our revenues. Any failure of RiotX to comply with all applicable rules and regulations, and the accompanying fines and other costs, along with the possibility that we may be forced to reduce or cease its operations entirely, could have a material adverse effect on our operations and financial condition and a material adverse effect on us.
We may be required to register as a money services business with the FinCEN and as a money transmitter in states with applicable money transmitter regulations.
To the extent that our activities cause us to be deemed a money services business under the regulations promulgated by the FinCEN under the authority of the Bank Secrecy Act, we may be required to comply with FinCEN regulations, including those that would mandate us to implement anti-money laundering programs, make certain reports to FinCEN and maintain certain records which could increase our compliance costs significantly. In addition, it is possible that other regulations may apply to our spot exchange operations. For example, the SEC may take the position that digital currencies may only be traded on or subject to the rules of a national securities exchange unless exempt from such requirements.
Furthermore, to the extent that our activities cause us to be deemed a “money transmitter” under one or more state laws (e.g., engaging in the business of exchanging virtual for fiat currency or virtual for digital currency) or that we are engaged in other business involving digital currency activities that are regulated in any state in which we operate, such as business conducting digital currency business activity in New York state, which requires a so-called “BitLicense,” we may be required to seek a license or otherwise register with a state regulator and comply with state regulations. If we are required to register in these states and comply with their individual requirements, we can expect to incur significant compliance costs, including increased legal expenses, accounting expenses and internal costs. Without a required money transmitter license, we could not engage in money transmitter activities with persons residing in the relevant state (or from such state), or engage in other activities (e.g., custody) requiring another license such as a BitLicense.
We intend to initially obtain state money transmitter licenses, as necessary, on a state by state basis and we currently have such licenses from Florida and Georgia. The process of obtaining the necessary licenses to effect such trades can take an extensive period of time, and as a result we may initially operate our digital currency spot exchange in a limited number of states. There is also a risk that necessary licenses will not be granted and that therefore we will be unable to establish an exchange in particular states, or at all. If we are unable to establish a digital currency exchange (at all or in certain states), or if we are delayed in doing so, such factors could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations.
To the extent that we need to register as a money services business or become licensed as a money transmitter or businesses engaged in digital currency business activity, and be subject to associated regulatory obligations, such obligations will cause us to incur additional expenses, possibly affecting an investment in us in a material and adverse manner. In addition, to the extent we are found to have operated without appropriate state or federal licenses, we may be subject to investigation, administrative or court proceedings, and civil or criminal monetary fines and penalties, all of which could harm our reputation and affect the value of our securities.
If we are successful in developing a spot exchange for trading digital currencies like bitcoin, we will begin to store, process, and use data, some of which contains personal information. This will subject us to complex and evolving federal, state and foreign laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, content and other matters. Many of these laws and regulations are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, and could result in investigations, claims, changes to our business practices, increased cost of operations and declines in user growth, retention, or engagement, any of which could seriously harm our business.
If we successfully launch a spot exchange for trading digital currency, we will be subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the United States and potentially other jurisdictions (such as The European Union) that affect matters central to our business, including but not limited to; anti-money laundering, user privacy, security, rights of publicity, data protection, content, intellectual property, distribution, electronic contracts and other communications, competition, protection of minors, consumer protection, taxation, and online payment services. These laws can be particularly restrictive in countries outside the United States. Both in the United States and abroad, these laws and regulations constantly evolve and remain subject to significant change. In addition, the application and interpretation of these laws and regulations are often uncertain, particularly in the new and rapidly evolving industry in which we operate. Because we may store, process and use data, some of which contains personal information, we will likely be subject to complex and evolving federal, state and foreign laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, content and other matters. Many of these laws and regulations are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, and could result in investigations, claims, changes to our business practices, increased cost of operations and declines in user growth, retention, or engagement, any of which could seriously harm our business. If we do not comply with all of our requirements, we may be subject to investigation, administrative or court proceedings, and civil or criminal monetary fines and penalties, all of which could harm our reputation and affect the value of our securities.
Digital currency exchanges and other trading venues (including the Coinsquare exchange, in which we have an ownership interest) are relatively new and, in most cases, largely unregulated, and may therefore be subject to fraud and failures, including security breaches that may result in a loss of all or some digital currencies.
Digital currency market prices depend, directly or indirectly, on the prices set on exchanges and other trading venues, which are new and, in most cases, largely unregulated as compared to established, regulated exchanges for securities, derivatives on commodities or currencies. For example, during the past three years, a number of exchanges offering bitcoin and other digital currencies have closed due to fraud, business failure or security breaches. In many of these instances, the customers of the closed exchanges were not compensated or made whole for the partial or complete losses of their account balances. While smaller exchanges are less likely to have the infrastructure and capitalization that may provide larger exchanges with some stability, larger exchanges may be more likely to be appealing targets for hackers and “malware” (i.e., software used or programmed by attackers to disrupt computer operations, gather sensitive information or gain access to private computer systems) and may be more likely to be targets of regulatory enforcement action. Insurance for such exchanges is not currently readily available and we do not expect any insurance for customer accounts to be available (such as federal deposit insurance) at any time in the future, putting customer accounts at risk of such events. In the event that we face fraud, security failures, operational issues or similar events, such factors could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue as a going concern or to pursue our new strategy at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or operations.
Our introducing broker subsidiary is subject to oversight by the CFTC and NFA.
In connection with our plan to establish a digital currency spot exchange, our recently acquired subsidiary Logical Brokerage Corp., is a CFTC-registered introducing broker and is subject to oversight by the CFTC and the NFA. The CFTC and NFA do not have functional oversight over digital currency spot exchanges, but the CFTC has authority to bring cases based on fraud and manipulation. As a result of this, we must comply with CFTC and NFA requirements applicable to introducing brokers, including complying with anti-money laundering requirements. If we do not fully comply with all such requirements, we may be subject to investigation, administrative or court proceedings, and civil or criminal monetary fines and penalties, all of which could harm our reputation and affect the value of our securities.
Security breaches of our systems, or those of our clients or third parties, may subject us to significant liability and damage the Company or our U.S. Digital Currency Exchange’s reputation.
Our business involves the secure processing, storage, and transmission of confidential information about our clients and us. Information security risks for financial institutions are increasing, in part because of the use of the internet and mobile technologies to conduct financial transactions, and the increased sophistication and activities of organized crime, activists, hackers and other external parties, including foreign state actors. Our systems and those of other exchanges have been and are likely to continue to be the target of cyber-attacks, malicious code, computer viruses and denial of service attacks that could result in unauthorized access, misuse, loss or destruction of data (including confidential client information), account takeovers, unavailability of service or other events. Despite our efforts to ensure the integrity of our systems, we may not be able to anticipate or to implement effective preventive measures against all security breaches of these types, especially because the techniques used change frequently or are not recognized until launched, and because security attacks can originate from a wide variety of sources. Data security breaches may also result from non-technical means, for example, employee misconduct. Given the high volume of transactions that an exchange processes, the large number of clients, counterparties and third-party service providers with which we do business and the increasing sophistication of cyber-attacks, a cyber-attack could occur and persist for an extended period of time before being detected. The extent of a particular cyber-attack and the steps we may need to take to investigate the attack may not be immediately clear, and it may take a significant amount of time before an investigation is completed and full and reliable information about the attack is known. During such time we would not necessarily know the extent of the harm or how best to remediate it, and certain errors or actions could be repeated or compounded before they are discovered and remediated, all or any of which would further increase the costs and consequences of a cyber-attack.
Security breaches, including breaches of our security measures or those of our third-party service providers or clients, could result in a violation of applicable privacy and other laws and could subject us to significant liability or loss that may not be covered by insurance, actions by our regulators, damage to our U.S. Digital Currency Exchange’s reputation, or a loss of confidence in our security measures which could harm our business. We may be required to expend significant additional resources to modify our protective measures or to investigate and remediate vulnerabilities or other exposures.
We also face risk related to external fraud involving the misappropriation and use of clients’ user names, passwords or other personal information to gain access to clients’ financial accounts and digital currency accounts at our U.S. Digital Currency Exchange. This could occur from the compromise of clients’ personal electronic devices or as a result of a data security breach at an unrelated company where clients’ personal information is taken and then made available to fraudsters. Such risk has grown in recent years due to the increased sophistication and activities of organized crime and other external parties, including foreign state-sponsored parties. Losses reimbursed to clients for these activities could have a negative impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations while failure to reimburse clients for these events could materially adverse our reputation.
Our U.S. Digital Currency Exchange will rely heavily on technology, which can be subject to interruption and instability due to operational and technological failures, both internal and external
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We will rely on technology, particularly the Internet and mobile services, to conduct much of our business activity and allow our users to conduct financial transactions. Our systems and operations, including our primary and disaster recovery data center operations, as well as those of the third parties on whom we rely to conduct certain key functions, are vulnerable to disruptions from natural disasters, power outages, computer and telecommunications failures, software bugs, computer viruses, malware, distributed denial of service attacks, spam attacks, phishing or other social engineering, ransomware, attempted unauthorized access, technological failure, human error, terrorism and other similar events. In addition, extraordinary trading volumes or site usage could cause our computer systems to operate at an unacceptably slow speed or even fail. Disruptions to, destruction of, instability of or other failure to effectively maintain our information technology systems or external technology that allows our customers to use our products and services could harm our business and our reputation.
Should our technology operations be disrupted, we may have to make significant investments to upgrade, repair or replace our technology infrastructure and may not be able to make such investments on a timely basis. While we have made significant investments designed to enhance the reliability and scalability of our operations, we cannot assure that we will be able to maintain, expand and upgrade our systems and infrastructure to meet future requirements and mitigate future risks on a timely basis or that we will be able to retain skilled information technology employees. Disruptions in service and slower system response times could result in substantial losses, decreased customer service and satisfaction, customer attrition and harm to our reputation. Our insurance coverage may be insufficient to protect us against all losses and costs stemming from operational and technological failures.
Our U.S. Digital Currency Exchange may not be widely adopted and may have limited users.
It is possible that our U.S. Digital Currency Exchange will not be used by a large number of individuals, institutional investors, companies and other entities or that there will be limited interest in the creation and development of U.S. Digital Currency Exchange or digital current exchanges in general. Such a lack of use or interest could negatively impact the financial position of the Company.
The open-source structure of many digital currencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and others means that the digital currencies held by the Company, held by our current or potential clients at our U.S. Digital Currency Exchange or available for trading at our U.S. Digital Currency Exchange may be susceptible to developments by users or contributors that could materially damage our reputation as well as the value of our client’s investments.
An open source project, may not be represented, maintained or monitored by an official organization or authority. The open-source nature of many projects means that it may be difficult for the many digital currencies or their contributors to maintain or develop their underlying project and may not have adequate resources to address emerging issues or malicious programs that develop in an adequate or timely manner. Third parties not affiliated with these projects may introduce weaknesses or bugs into the core infrastructure elements of the network and open-source code which may negatively impact the prices of digital currencies available on our U.S. Digital Currency Exchange. Such events may result in a loss of trust in the security and operation of these digital currencies and a decline in user activity and could negatively impact the market price of the digital currencies. Further as open source projects, we may not have the ability to evaluate key parties behind the development of many digital currencies or to properly communicate with any key decision makers for digital currencies available on our U.S. Digital Currency Exchange These factors could lead to negative outcomes for digital currencies and our clients that are beyond our control but that harm the Company or its reputation.
Even well-established Digital Currencies such as The Bitcoin Network use a cryptographic protocol to govern the peer-to-peer interactions between computers connected to the Bitcoin Network. The code that sets forth the protocol is informally managed by a development team known as the Core Developers that was initially appointed informally by the Bitcoin Network’s purported creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. The members of the Core Developers evolve over time, largely based on self-determined participation in the resource section dedicated to Bitcoin on Github.com. The Core Developers can propose amendments to the Bitcoin Network’s source code through software upgrades that alter the protocols and software of the Bitcoin Network and the properties of bitcoins, including the irreversibility of transactions and limitations on the mining of new bitcoins. Proposals for upgrades and related discussions take place on online forums including GitHub.com and Bitcointalk.org. To the extent that a significant majority of the users and miners on the Bitcoin Network install such software upgrade(s), the Bitcoin Network would be subject to new protocols and software that may adversely impact the network and Bitcoin as a whole, including the price of Bitcoin.
Because there has been limited precedent set for tax accounting of bitcoin and other digital currency assets, the determination that we have made for how to account for the tax treatment of digital currency assets transactions may be subject to change and challenge by relevant tax authorities in various countries, including the U.S. Failure to properly report user’s tax related activity related to digital currency assets may have negative regulatory or legal outcomes and harm the Company’s reputation.
Because there has been limited precedent set for the tax accounting of digital currencies and no official guidance has yet been provided by the many tax authorities in various countries, including the Internal Revenue Service in the United States, it is unclear how companies or individuals should account for digital currency transactions or other actions related to digital currencies (such as forks or other similar items) and related tax consequences. Failure to properly account for and report the transactions and other items related to the digital currencies held by our users to relevant tax authorities, such as the IRS, could have negative outcomes for the Company and our harm reputation with users and others.
The acceptance of software patches or upgrades by a significant, but not overwhelming, percentage of the users and miners in a digital currency network could result in a “fork” in the Blockchain, resulting in the operation of two separate networks and the existence of two or more digital assets for each asset held by users on our exchange. As an exchange, each fork requires us to choose which fork represents the original asset, which is the new asset and which asset or asset(s) to support for key functions such as deposit, withdrawal and trading activities. Failure to choose which asset(s) to support and the decisions we make related to forks on behalf of our users could adversely impact the Company and U.S. Digital Currency Exchange. However, supporting numerous forks could result in larger than expected and burdensome costs and operational difficulties.
To the extent that a significant majority of users and miners on a digital currency network install software that changes the digital currency network or properties of a digital currency, including the irreversibility of transactions and limitations on the mining of new digital currency, the digital currency network would be subject to new protocols and software. Any individual can download the software of many digital currency networks and make any desired modifications, which are proposed to users and miners on the network through software downloads and upgrades.
For instance, on the Bitcoin network, a substantial majority of miners and Bitcoin users must consent to such software modifications by downloading the altered software or upgrade; otherwise, the modifications do not become a part of the Bitcoin Network. Since the Bitcoin Network’s inception, modifications to the Bitcoin Network have been accepted by the vast majority of users and miners, ensuring that the Bitcoin Network remains a coherent economic system. If, however, a proposed modification is not accepted by a vast majority of miners and users, but is nonetheless accepted by a substantial population of participants in the Bitcoin Network, a “fork” in the Blockchain could develop, resulting in two separate Bitcoin Networks. Such a fork in the Blockchain typically would be addressed by community-led efforts to merge the forked Blockchains, and several prior forks have been so merged.
When a permanent fork occurs, a digital currency network evolves into two slightly different versions. For example, in 2016, Ethereum, a digital currency, experienced a permanent fork in its blockchain that resulted in two slightly different versions of the digital currency. Community-led efforts to merge the blockchains were not successful and a small minority of Ethereum holders continued to support the old blockchain. This led to the development of two distinct blockchains that produced two slightly different versions of Ethereum: Ethereum and Ethereum Classic. Therefore, holders of Ethereum Classic were given an equal number of the new Ethereum currency and therefore held equal numbers of Ethereum Classic and Ethereum when the fork became permanent. In cases such as this an exchange, such as our U.S. Digital Currency Exchange, must decide which digital currency network to enable for trading on the exchange and how to treat digital currencies issued to holders prior to the fork. Large networks, such as Bitcoin are attractive targets for proposed forks and new digital currencies that result from the fork. It would be burdensome to support all the forks of a large network such as Bitcoin and few exchanges support all forks. However, the decisions related to forks on behalf of our users could have material adverse consequences for the Company and impact our business as well as our financial results.
The Company may face substantial competition from a number of known and unknown competitors as well as the risk that one or more of them may obtain patents or other protections covering technology critical to the operations of our U.S. Digital Currency Exchange.
The Company believes that a number of organizations are or may be working to develop trading systems utilizing distributed ledger or blockchain technologies or other novel technologies that may be competitive with its own technology. Some or all of such organizations may have substantially greater technological expertise, experience with distributed ledger technologies and/or financial resources than the Company has, and many of them appear to be attempting to patent technologies that may be competitive with or similar to the technology the Company has developed. The Company does not have access to detailed information about the technologies these organizations and/or their respective purchasers may be attempting to patent. If one or more other persons, companies or organizations obtains a valid patent covering technology critical to the operations of our U.S. Digital Currency Exchange, the Company and the other entities that need the relevant technology in order to operate our U.S. Digital Currency Exchange as intended might be unable or unwilling to license the technology, and it could become impossible to operate our planned U.S. Digital Currency Exchange, which could have a material adverse effect on the Company
Some market participants may oppose the development of distributed ledger or blockchain-based systems like those central to the Company’s commercial mission.
Many participants in the system currently used for trading securities in the United States may oppose the development of capital markets systems and processes that utilize distributed ledger and blockchain-based systems. The market participants who may oppose such a system may include market participants with significantly greater resources, including financial resources and political influence, than the Company has. The ability of the Company to operate and achieve its commercial goals could be adversely affected by any actions of any such market participants that result in additional regulatory requirements or other activities that make it more difficult for the Company to operate, which could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s operations and financial conditions.
Risks Related to Intellectual Property
If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, our business and competitive position could be harmed.
We plan to rely upon trademarks, copyright and trade secret protection (and possibly also patents in the future), as well as non-disclosure agreements and invention assignment agreements with employees, consultants and third parties, to protect all confidential and proprietary information. Significant elements of our intended products and services are based on unpatented trade secrets and know-how that are not publicly disclosed. In addition to contractual measures, we try to protect the confidential nature of our proprietary information using physical and technological security measures. Such measures may not, for example, in the case of misappropriation of a trade secret by an employee or third party with authorized access, provide adequate protection for our proprietary information. The security measures may not prevent an employee or consultant from misappropriating our trade secrets and providing them to a competitor, and the recourse we take against such misconduct may not provide an adequate remedy to protect our interests fully. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret can be difficult, expensive and time consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, trade secrets may be independently developed by others in a manner that could prevent legal recourse by us. If any of our confidential or proprietary information, such as our trade secrets, were to be disclosed or misappropriated, or if any such information was independently developed by a competitor, our competitive position could be harmed.
We may infringe the intellectual property rights of others, which may prevent or delay our product development efforts and stop us from commercializing or increase the costs of commercializing the intended products and services.
Our commercial success depends significantly on our ability to operate without infringing the patents and other intellectual property rights of third parties however, due to the open-source and constantly evolving nature of our business, we may not always be able to determine that we are using or accessing protected information or software. For example, there could be issued patents of which we are not aware that our products infringe. There also could be patents that we believe we do not infringe, but that we may ultimately be found to infringe. Moreover, patent applications are in some cases maintained in secrecy until patents are issued. The publication of discoveries in scientific or patent literature frequently occurs substantially later than the date on which the underlying discoveries were made and patent applications were filed. Because patents can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending applications of which we are unaware that may later result in issued patents that our products infringe.
Accordingly, we could expend significant resources defending against patent infringement and other intellectual property right claims; which could require us to divert resources away from operations. Any damages we are required to pay or injunctions against our continued use of such intellectual property in resolution of such claims may cause a material adverse effect to our business and operations, which could adversely affect the trading price of our securities and harm our investors.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock
The trading price of our common stock has been, and is likely to continue to be, volatile; you might not be able to sell your shares at or above the price that you paid for them and we may not be able to stop the decline of our stock price.
The trading price of our common stock has been, and is likely to continue to be, volatile, and may be influenced by numerous factors, some of which are beyond our control; you might not be able to sell your shares at or above the price that you paid for them.
In addition, the trading prices of bitcoin have been highly unpredictable, and the trading prices of our common stock has generally been highly and directly correlated with the trading prices of bitcoin. Specifically, we have experienced adverse effects on our stock price when the value of bitcoin has fallen, and we anticipate similar outcomes as our stock price tracks the general status of that digital currency. Furthermore, if the market for bitcoin company stocks or the stock market in general experiences a loss of investor confidence, the trading price of our stock could decline for reasons unrelated to our business, operating results or financial condition. That is, the trading price of our common stock is subject to arbitrary pricing factors that are not necessarily associated with traditional factors that influence stock prices or the value of non-digital currency assets such as revenue, cash flows, profitability, growth prospects or business activity levels since the value and price, as determined by the investing public, may be influenced by future anticipated adoption or appreciation in value of digital currencies or blockchains generally, factors over which we have little or no influence or control.
Other factors which could cause volatility in the market price of our common stock include, but are not limited to:
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actual or anticipated fluctuations in our financial condition and operating results or those of companies perceived to be similar to us;
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actual or anticipated changes in our growth rate relative to our competitors;
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commercial success and market acceptance of blockchain and bitcoin and other digital currencies;
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actions by our competitors, such as new business initiatives, acquisitions and divestitures;
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strategic transactions undertaken by us;
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additions or departures of key personnel;
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prevailing economic conditions;
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disputes concerning our intellectual property or other proprietary rights;
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sales of our common stock by our officers, directors or significant stockholders;
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other actions taken by our stockholders;
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future sales or issuances of equity or debt securities by us;
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business disruptions caused by earthquakes, tornadoes or other natural disasters;
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issuance of new or changed securities analysts' reports or recommendations regarding us;
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legal proceedings involving our company, our industry or both;
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changes in market valuations of companies similar to ours;
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the prospects of the industry in which we operate;
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speculation or reports by the press or investment community with respect to us or our industry in general;
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the level of short interest in our stock; and
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other risks, uncertainties and factors described in this annual report.
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In addition, the stock markets in general have experienced extreme volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of the issuer. These broad market fluctuations may negatively impact the price or liquidity of our common stock. When the price of a stock has been volatile, holders of that stock have sometimes instituted securities class action litigation against the issuer, and we have been impacted in that way. See Item 3 – Legal Proceedings, “We, and some of our current and former officers and directors, have been named as parties to various lawsuits arising out of, or related to, allegedly false and misleading statements made in prior securities filings, and those lawsuits could adversely affect us, require significant management time and attention, result in significant legal expenses or damages, and cause our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows to suffer.”
Our Bylaws contain a forum selection clause which requires our stockholders to bring claims against us in the State of New York as the sole and exclusive forum for the resolution of their claims; our stockholders may be prejudiced by this forum selection clause.
The Company’s choice of the state and federal courts located within the State of New York as the sole and exclusive forum for the resolution of claims brought by our stockholders under the forum selection clause contained in our Bylaws may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for such disputes and may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims. The Company believes, however, that the choice of New York is beneficial to our stockholders and the Company, as the state and federal courts of New York have considerable experience and familiarity with stockholder derivative type claims and other similar claims which are frequently brought against corporations, which leads to greater consistency in the application of applicable law. The Company’s forum selection clause applies to civil claims and it is our intention that this forum selection clause apply to claims brought under the Securities Act and the Exchange Act to the fullest extent permitted by law
Nevada law contains provisions that could discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company, prevent attempts to replace or remove current management and reduce the market price of our stock
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Provisions in Nevada corporate law may discourage, delay or prevent a merger or acquisition involving us that our stockholders may consider favorable. For example, Nevada corporate law contains strong “anti-takeover” provisions, which prohibit us from entering into a business combination with an “interested stockholder” or their affiliates for a period of two years after they become an “interested stockholder” unless certain provisions are met. As a result, a proposed merger favored by our stockholders could be blocked by operation of Nevada law.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish unfavorable research about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by whether industry or securities analysts publish research and reports about us, our business, our market or our competitors and, if any analysts do publish such reports, what they publish in those reports. We may not obtain or maintain analyst coverage in the future. Any analysts that do cover us may make adverse recommendations regarding our stock, adversely change their recommendations from time to time and/or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors. If analysts who may cover us in the future were to cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, or if analysts fail to cover us or publish reports about us at all, we could lose (or never gain) visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause the stock price of our common stock or trading volume to decline. Moreover, if our operating results do not meet the expectations of the investor community, one or more of the analysts who cover our company may change their recommendations regarding our company and our stock price could decline.
The senior secured convertible promissory notes and warrants issued in connection with our recent private financing transactions are convertible or exercisable for shares of our common stock, which, upon conversion or exercise, will dilute the Company’s current stockholders’ equity value.
We issued senior secured convertible promissory notes and warrants in connection with a private financing completed on January 28, 2019, as previously reported on our current report on Form 8-K filed on February 2, 2019. As previously disclosed, these notes and warrants are convertible into or exercisable for shares of our common stock. To the extent such notes are converted and such warrants are exercised, additional shares of common stock will be issued, which will result in dilution to the holders of common stock. Upon registration of such shares for resale on the public market, such conversion and exercise will increase the number of shares eligible for resale in the public market. Sales of substantial numbers of such shares in the public trading market could adversely affect the market trading price of the Company’s common stock
Because we do not intend to pay any cash dividends on our common stock, our stockholders will not be able to receive a return on their shares unless they sell them.
We intend to retain any future earnings to finance the development and expansion of our business. We do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. Unless we pay dividends, our stockholders will not be able to receive a return on
their shares unless they sell them. There is no assurance that stockholders will be able to sell shares when desired.
Negative media attention may adversely affect our business opportunities and our ability to raise capital; if we fail to maintain the value and reputation of our brand, the trading price of shares of our common stock is likely to decline.
Blockchain technologies and digital currencies, including Riot Blockchain, Inc., are new to the market and have faced and are likely to continue to face significant negative media attention, particularly with respect to the volatility in the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Accordingly, as a cryptocurrency company, our brand has been affected by this negative media attention. Maintaining, promoting and differentiating our brand will depend largely on our ability to distinguish ourselves from other cryptocurrency mining and trading companies and to build public trust.
In addition to the negative media attention associated with the cryptocurrency industry in general, various media sources, such as CNBC, have published negative reports regarding our company and certain of our former executives and directors. This negative media attention and the alleged improprieties perpetrated by certain of our former executives and directors while at companies not associated with Riot Blockchain, Inc. that are cited in media reports has been associated with declines in the trading price of our common stock. The individuals named in these reports are no longer associated with the Company, however, if we continue to be portrayed negatively in the press, our public image and reputation could be irreparably tarnished and our brand could be harmed. In addition to traditional media, we have experienced significant negative treatment of our brand in internet trading chatrooms, websites, and on social media networks, which have also been associated with declines in the trading price of our common stock. If we are unable to counter such negative media and online attention effectively, investors may lose confidence in our business and sell their shares of our common stock in large quantities, which could result in a serious decline in the trading price of our common stock, harming our investors.