Bitcoin Daily: Rhodium to Be First Crypto IPO of 2022; Intel to Debut Crypto Mining Chip; El Salvador Reports 4 Million Crypto Wallet Users Onboarded

Cryptocurrency technology company Rhodium Enterprises will be the first initial public offering (IPO) for the crypto industry this year, according to a Tuesday (Jan. 18) Cointelegraph report.

Rhodium will offer 7.69 million shares at $12 to $14 each, with a valuation almost at $1.7 billion. The company makes use of proprietary tech and liquid cooling tech to self-mine bitcoin, with a goal towards being sustainable and cost-efficient.

Per the report, Rhodium plans to open up a new site in Texas, where it already has one site.

Texas has been making a name for itself as a site for crypto mining, and Rhodium reportedly wants to take advantage of the state’s independent power market and numerous low-cost renewable energy resources. The company is among several newer U.S. companies mining the popular crypto.

In other news, chip maker Intel is likely planning to roll out a specialized crypto mining chip at the February International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC).

According to a CoinDesk article Tuesday, this will reportedly bring Intel in competition with Bitmain and MicroBT in the market for bitcoin mining application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).

Crypto mining has been known to ramp up prices for graphics processing units, which include Intel’s, which can be frustrating to gamers. Intel, unlike competitor Nvidia, said it does not plan to add limits on ether mining on its graphics cards.

Finally, El Salvador, which has made headlines in recent months for making bitcoin a legal tender, has onboarded 4 million users for its bitcoin wallet Chivo, CoinDesk reported Tuesday.

The wallet is government-backed and comes as a result of a partnership with Netki, a digital identity provider.

The platform claims to have helped onboard 70% of the country’s previously unbanked population, which was part of the goal of making bitcoin legal tender, according to President Nayib Bukele.

The report notes that several major financial institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have shared drastic forecasts after the country made bitcoin a legal tender, saying El Salvador’s actions might have “unwarranted” consequences in the economy. Despite these claims, Bukele has continued promoting the crypto.