Benzinga | Mar 15, 2021 09:09AM EDT

SOS Reports Successful Installation Of Second Fleet Of 5K Cryptocurrency Mining Rigs

SOS Limited (NYSE: SOS) (the "Company" or "SOS") announced today that it has successfully installed its second fleet of 5,000 cryptocurrency mining rigs. Together with its prior fleet of 5,000 mining rigs, the Company expects the combined fleet to have the capacity to calculate an average of 353 Peta-Hashes per second (PH/s) for mining Bitcoin and 707 Giga-Hashes per second (GH/s) for mining Ether (ETH). These hash rates are subject to numerous factors, including down time for maintenance, reconfiguration and other variable factors that may materially impact computing performance in the future.

The Company also announced that on February 24, 2021, it was awarded its first Bitcoin from successful mining activities. SOS Chairman Yandai Wang commented, "This is a significant milestone for our Company. To memorialize this event, SOS is creating a commemorative gold coin that will serve as a tangible representation of our first mined Bitcoin. We anticipate that this will be the first of many future mining successes, as we continue to execute our cryptocurrency mining strategy."

The Company's board of directors also commissioned an independent review of the Company's cryptocurrency mining activities. As part of the review, payments from multiple mining pools were traced to SOS through the public Bitcoin and ETH blockchain ledgers. The review also validated SOS's control over certain electronic wallets and that the rate of Bitcoin and ETH payouts received in those wallets was generally consistent with the expected productivity of the Company's deployed fleet based on its hash rate capacity.

The Company expects to generate at least 41 Bitcoins and 909 ETH in the first quarter of 2021, based on various assumptions relating to down time for its fleet, worldwide hash power and other operating conditions. SOS Chief Financial Officer Steven Li elaborated, "These expected mining results reflect only a partial quarter of operations, since our current fleet of mining rigs was only recently installed during the first quarter. Our output should grow in future quarters as we receive and install our third batch of mining rigs and have a full quarter of operations for our current rigs."

These mining results do not include any financial results for the Company and do not address the Company's other, non-mining operations, such as the Company's marketing data, technology and solutions for emergency rescue services. United States generally accepted accounting principles for cryptocurrency mining are complex, emerging and uncertain. Cryptocurrencies may not be recognized as cash or cash equivalents, and mining activities may not qualify for revenue recognition. Cryptocurrencies have no inherent value, are not legal tender recognized by any governmental entity, and might not be able to be converted into fiat currencies. Investors are advised not to place undue reliance on mining results alone, without considering other financial and non-financial metrics.