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Thanks Monk. I think the board has been pretty decent all round today. Just wish the extremists/disruptors on both sides stay away today after the way it degenerated yesterday. Can but hope!

I think that's a very good summing up Monk. The main thing I would add is the published profits. We got a small taste yesterday of how quickly these are accelerating - from £0.5m gross profit for 2020 to £10.7m for just 6 months of 2021. Also bear in mind this included over £6m loss due to recent BTC wobbles so if BTC had not been so capricious then profit would have been £17m. This is not a one-off rise and the dynamics of the business, especially if BTC rises significantly, means this will continue to accelerate and nothing improves sentiment and sp more than rising profits.

Unfortunately sentiment was dented yesterday and I'm pretty sure the timing of the scurrilous Boatman report was deliberate to dampen the impact of the earnings news. That sort of cheap tactic may work when profits are £10m but won't make a dent when they are many multiples of this.

Nothing is certain (BTC needs to play ball and ARB need to deliver on their plans) but although I don't like to predict future SP (as comes across as rampy) I would be very disappointed with only £3 in the next 2 years. GLA

Plenty actually, thanks for asking. We've had some very good discussions on Texas funding for example. Scroll back and take look if you're really interested.

Agree Eddie, the video was as about as good as it could have been but depressing if he does see the nonsense here. Such a shame some people only seem to come here to cause disruption = and it seems to have been a concerted group effort this evening.

Yeah, imagine if PW wandered onto this board. What a great impression he'd get of his investors this evening.

Cane Toad - I think any useful insight would be wasted this evening whilst the playground bullies are in town. Save it for another day.

Excellent video - all issues affecting this board and the sp today addressed - recommend viewing if still have doubts.

"ARB was 33p on 1 January" - so up about 300% :-)

@speel - I think you're getting the orders mixed up. The ePIC machines are separate to the ones previously cancelled and now coming (still) in September/October. The original ePIC order read:

"As part of the agreement, Argo has committed to an initial purchase of US$8 million of ePIC's mining rigs and will have priority on all future production runs of ePIC machines globally for 2021 and 2022. Expected delivery of the machines will begin in early Q4, 2021. Larger scale delivery of ePIC machines will commence in 2022."

Like you I think it would be good to get an update soon on this to see if it is simply a minor bump in the road or has more serious implications.

Exactly Speel - although, as ObiWan rightly says, ARB are still getting one order later this year it looked like ePIC was the main one for Q4 and going into next year so this is the key thing to get more info on not the report which will blow over anyway in my view (if it isn't dealt with directly).

Agree Mittenator but it's not just BTC rise vs Boatman report at the moment. I think the good financials posted are also helping the sp whilst the cancelled order for new rigs in Q4 is another (and possibly bigger) drag on it. So it's a right old mixed bag at the moment. The impact of the report though will be very short-lived I think.

@swans - I agree with you usually on most things and I also think the report is scaremongering nonsense but if you are suggesting Argo Innovations is not Argo Blockchain then that is not correct - Argo Innovations Labs Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Argo Blockchain. Apologies if I've misunderstood your point but there are plenty of holes in their report but this isn't one of them.

Agree Rory - It amazes me some have called this RNS 'very good' even 'superb'. Put simply it had a very good message on the financials and a very bad message on new rigs. But the rampers are only focusing on the first part and the FUD spreaders on the second.

As to the Boatman thing it reads as a hatchet job (17 pages to make two accusations). The way it rubbishes the financials and valuation of the company is laughable and destroys any credibility for me along with how they bang on about the 320 vs 160 acres which seems to be just splitting hairs in the wording. Others have pointed out many other flaws in the paper. So I think it is worthless but still it is clearly spooking some, and probably harming the sp temporarily, so is a storm in a teacup that just has to blow over and not sure it warrants formal intervention from Argo.

Excellent point Obi - I missed that which means my £50m year end gross profit estimate is even more conservative than I thought.

Cazenove - You've missed out the impact of the price rise in BTC since the end of June. This adds nearly £15m to revenue (at no extra cost) as it affects both impact of HODL on revenue and future mining revenue. Correct I have not allowed for increasing mining difficulty as this is not certain just as I did not allow for any new rigs - as they are not certain, or changes in BTC. I believe my numbers are correct for the assumptions given and I believe overall these assumptions are conservative but just my view.

If BTC stays at its current level of around $43k and mining levels stay at current 225pm then FY profit is actually heading for nearly £50m! The fact that the sp is holding up despite the bad news about new rigs (can't see how can describe it any other way) suggests the market is surprised by the level of profit even though it is so easy to work out in advance - though some of the resilience is also probably due to the rise in BTC over the weekend.

But the really good news is if that the market still doesn't get the profitability of ARB think how it's going to react to £50m at year end. And this assumes no new machines and no further growth in BTC!

That would be my thought too Eddie (and hence wouldn't apply to Arb anyway) and also part of the reason why it makes no sense to me to collect info from just US miners as would only see a random fraction of total transactions reported.

Thanks mwhite22 - yes I'd seen the comments on problems it would create for miners if they had to report as well but I couldn't get my head around why they would be included - partly for that reason and also it seems overkill and illogical. But agree, if that happens then would be a problem for US miners - but would Arb be classed a US miner or a UK miner that mines in the US?

@mwhite22 - I know many see it as a threat but how much is this just a reaction to anything anti-crypto and how much reflects genuine impact? My understanding is that it is about changes in reporting requirements to enable the US to collect more tax. It's not a new tax itself. So US investors may end up paying more tax, but only what they should be paying anyway (and comparable to other investments) and brokers (and perhaps, but probably not, miners) will have more onerous reporting obligations. Of course my understanding may be wrong and/or the implications may be much more serious than I think but I haven't yet seen anything that clearly explains why exactly it will be so bad (other than maybe a short term hit on BTC price because of the fear/uncertainty). Also it may be watered down anyway.

Rick123 - couple of places below. As I said just looks like scaremongering. My reading of the bill is that it doesn't seem that big a deal (though likely to spook some so may have short term impact if passed).

https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/1473999/bitcoin-price-latest-ethereum-cryptocurrency-joe-biden-infrastructure-bill-us-crypto-tax

https://network-bussiness.com/2021/08/08/us-senate-on-verge-of-passing-crypto-killer-law-that-could-be-a-backdoor-bitcoin-ban/

Rick123 - to be fair to @Gilbosconi he is reported as saying the other thing too. Agree it is rubbish though and presumably scare tactics on Cruz's part to stop the bill?