Saudi Aramco, an oil company behemoth and currently the third largest company in the world, is planning to make a venture into the cryptocurrency industry.
Just like other industry giants, Saudi Aramco is recognizing the big opportunities that lie in the cryptocurrency space, and establishing a foothold in this fast-booming sector makes a lot of business sense.
According to Brazilian bitcoin miner Ray Nasser, Saudi Aramco holds so much energy and other related assets that it can solely power up over half of the world's bitcoin network today.
Gas-powered bitcoin mining
The oil company could use its excess gas from producing oil in order to mine cryptocurrencies. This excess is considered by experts as a by-product and is usually disposed of, that's why instead of disposing of it, Saudi Aramco can generate large profits from it, Investing.com said.
Aramco needs to effectively burn this flared gas and get rid of it as it is a by-product of their oil mining, Nasser said.
Aramco has reportedly deployed its corporate blockchain platform in its partnership with IBM, which enables Aramco to scale up its blockchain solutions, sources said.
Blockchain technology is a digital infrastructure of recording data in a way that makes it very hard or virtually impossible to alter, penetrate, or dupe the system.
Even before its planned crypto venture, Aramco -- with a market cap of around $1.92 trillion -- is already involved in blockchain tech and is currently using it for its cost reduction, operational efficiency, and safety.
Aramco has not yet issued any statement with regards its planned foray into cryptocurrency mining.
Gazprom goes crypto, too
Russian oil company Gazprom -- the world's 10th biggest oil producer -- on the other hand, has started its crypto venture in December last year.
The state-owned oil company has been successful in its pilot test of using gas to generate electricity for its crypto mining peration.
Meanwhile, the world's crypto market valuation reached $1.60 trillion level, more than 4% higher than the previous day. The total market volume of crypto, however, was up more than 6% to $81.51 billion.
