On January 03, WISeKey International Holding Ltd. (WKEY) announced its investment plan for up to $10M in mining actives for cybersecurity in the next two years. Consequently, shares of WKEY were trading at $4.53 apiece in the after-hours on Monday.
In the regular trading session, the stock fluctuated between $3.88 and $4.18 at 688.52K shares. After closing the session at $4.07 with an increase of 3.56%, the stock soared higher in the after hours. Hence, WKEY gained a huge 11.30% at an after-hours volume of 335.11K shares.
The digital security technology solutions provider, WISeKey International Holding Ltd. was founded in 2015. Currently, its 17.73 million outstanding shares trade at a market capitalization of $96.84 million.
WKEY’s Investment and Cybersecurity Plan
The company plans to invest up to $10 million in the next two years for performing BTC mining for adapting cybersecurity technologies for helping customers defend against illicit cryptocurrency mining. WKEY will be performing the mining in its Geneva data center as well as a former Swiss military bunker situated in the Swiss Alps.
The reason for the company entering crypto mining is to help its customers defend against crypto-jacking. Crypto-jacking means persistent or non-persistent installation by malicious cyber actors. Through the installation, they hijack the processing power of the system through the exploitation of vulnerabilities. Hence, illicitly installing crypto mining software on the victim’s systems. According to estimates, fifty out of every 100,000 devices have suffered from a crypto miner.
Furthermore, WKEY has already created a Special Purpose Vehicle, TrusteCoin AG in Zoug for the crypto mining operations. Moreover, the company will slowly be acquiring and installing over 1000 BTC mining machines at its Swiss Alps bunker. Moreover, the secure bunker facility will in turn be connected to Geneva’s control center. In addition, the company is in search of other such bunkers in Gibraltar and the U.S as well.
2021 Key Business Milestones
On December 29, the company provided a summary of its key business milestones in 2021.
According to this:
- The expected full-year revenues of WKEY are $20 million approx., marking a 32% YOY increase.
- The cash position of the company was $33 million at the end of the third quarter of 2021.
- The backlog of non-cancellable purchase orders totals $33.4 million with $1.0 million new orders per week on average. This marks a growth of 500% against 2020.
- Acquired a controlling interest in Arago with a total investment of $13.0 million.
- Launched WISe.Art NFT platform for collectible and luxury market.
- Developed a new semiconductor chip that works on both Android and IOS 12 devices.
In addition to these, WKEY also secured many strategic collaborations and partnerships in 2021.
