Good Blockchain Companies Don’t Come Cheap

By | December 9, 2017
The Blockchain Intelligence Group (BIGG) debuted on the Canadian Securities Exchange last Wednesday and was quickly valued by the market at more than $250 million CAD before backing off a bit to close at $2.10 a share.

BIGG, like HIVE Blockchain before it, had a massive first day.

BIGG announced $10 million bought deal at 75 cents before trading opened on Wednesday.

They then up-sized it not to $11 or $12 million but $17 million and that still did not satisfy market demand.

Investors who did not get as much of the financing as they wanted went into the market to buy stock, driving it up to as high as $2.70 on a total of 9.5 million shares over the first two days of trading.

That speaks volumes (pardon the pun) to the markets interest in crypto-stocks.

It’s highly unusual for exchanges to allow such a big increase in the amount of money raised after the stock runs so far up.

I was hoping to accumulate at under $1.50 a share but didn’t move fast enough. (I did buy some of the financing back in August so I am a happy boy about that).

Unlike HIVE however, this is not a company with direct exposure to cryptocurrency (although the skyrocketing value of Bitcoin is not hurting it all!). Instead it’s a blockchain play.

Most investors, or at least the ones that I have talked to, don’t understand how blockchain companies are ever going to make money. And that’s fine, because I don’t understand how a lot of them are going to make money either.

Of course, if they show product and revenue, I am willing to change my mind in a hurry.

But BIGG checks all the boxes. They have

  1. Revenue.
  2. Sales and recurring paying customers.
    “We have our own IP, we have paying customers, and we have significant interest from the financial interest, as well as starting to branch out into the ICO marketplace, and providing regulatory tools, so even regulators are quite keen on what our product offerings can provide to them.” – Lance Morgan, CEO of BIGG
  3. Not one but three products (Blockbits, QLUE, Bitrank)
  4. A experienced management team.
    “Our management has got almost 20 + years experience in technology. We have products for the first use case of blockchain, being that we’re able to analyze and provide analytics within that ecosystem. ” – Lance

I first wrote about BIGG when it was a private company back in August, just as they were closing contracts with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the United States.

BIGG has three products:

  1. QLUE – this is technology that incorporates advanced search algorithms and various techniques to detect suspicious activity within Bitcoin transactions. Essentially its software allows law enforcement agencies to track Bitcoin wallet transactions through the public blockchain. The DHS and DOJ in the US number among its customers as well as other law enforcement agencies spanning the globe.
  2. Bitrank – Version 1.0 complete. This tool allows cryptocurrency exchanges – indeed any financials institution to assign a “grade” – like a credit rating – to any bitcoin wallet in the world. This is the bitcoin equivalent of a credit report. By offering a risk score for bitcoin wallets, Bitrank allows banks, exchanges and e-commerce sites to meet traditional regulatory/compliance requirements.
  3. Blockbits – A web site that allows ANYBODY to track Bitcoin transactions. You can try it here: www.blockbits.com
It can’t be emphasized enough that these guys are shipping product. With software there well-known phases of the development cycle: writing the code, alpha, beta, early production, version 1.0.

MOST blockchain companies are just WRITING CODE which can take months if not a year to write and debug. Then you have alpha. Then you must find customers who will put up with your buggy beta software. These guys are PAST that.

They are at least a YEAR ahead of the competition.

BIGG is not cheap but in this market you pay for quality.

Many people are guessing that crypto stocks are peaking here, at least in the short term, because of the CME Futures contract starting a week Monday.

I don’t know about that.  But the timing is sure impeccable for Blockchain Intelligence Group and the lucky shareholders who have free trading paper.

Ross