Regular readers will know that MGT Capital Investments Inc (OTCMKTS:MGTI) is one we come back to quite often in the technology space. The company, headed up by cybersecurity mainstay John McAfee, is working to become a leader in the field of personal and commercial technological security, and developments on a number of fronts (but for the most part, all working towards the same aim) have caught our attention as well worth looking at in a little bit more detail than the press releases generally allow.For those looking to catch up on our thesis for the stock, there's plenty to read here.For those already familiar with MGT and our views on the company, we'll get straight to the point. Management just put out a fresh release detailing the expansion (or at this stage, planned expansion) of the company's bitcoin mining efforts. A few things from this release are pertinent and worth highlighting, so here goes.As per the PR, MGT just closed on a financing that consists of a $1.35 million 10% convertible note (convertible at $1.05 per MGTI share) issued to a single institutional investor and 1.2 million warrants with an exercise price equal to that of the conversion price of the note, again issued to a single (the same) investor.The funds from the issue will be used to purchase 1,000 Bitmain Antminer S9 computers and associated power supplies. Right now, the company's mining facility has around 400 S9s. These are a type of bitcoin miner (basically the gold standard in the space) and additional units add, in equal proportions, to the facility's hashpower, which is the unit of measurement that describes the overall computing power dedicated to mining bitcoins.So, to go from 400 to 1400 is a 250% increase.Right now, as per the latest announcement, the company is generating around 80 bitcoins per month. As a side note, this is down by 20 from the 100 bitcoin reported a few weeks ago, so the assumption is that some of the units are offline (for whatever reason). Some will argue that this isn’t necessarily the case and could just be a symptom of increased difficulty. Sure, the difficulty increases over time, reducing the number of bitcoins a certain hashpower can produce in a set period, but not by 20% in a few weeks (with the exclusion of a halving, and we've not had one of those since last year).So, McAfee reckons that by the time all of the units are up and running (which is expected to happen early July) the company will be generating around 225 bitcoins per month. Given the scale of the uptick in hashpower, that seems reasonable – assuming the offline units (if that's what's caused the dip in output) get back online.Right now, with BTC priced at $2,246 USD, that's a monthly production value of more than $500 thousand. McAfee also thinks that EBITDA on this topline generation is about 66%. That seems a little high (it's not unlike McAfee to lean towards optimism) but even with the figure a little lower, say at 50%, the bitcoin operations will be bringing in EBITDA of circa $250K monthly.That's not too bad – if it happens.The thing is, this press release is impeccably well timed. Bitcoin is literally making fresh highs daily and is in the news more now than it has been for a long time. Speculative volume is looking for an exposure to the cryptocurrency sector and, with the latest announcement, MGT is positioning itself as – and to quote – the only public company in the space. That's not strictly true, but it is one of the most direct based on its mining operations; we'll give McAfee that.What we're getting at here is that we've seen numerous developments hit press over the past twelve months that are yet to materialize operationally. If this one does, then it's a big deal at a time when bitcoin is printing daily headlines at major outlets. If it doesn’t, no-one's really going to be that surprised.With this risk noted, however, there's still value in this one as a near term crypto play. Bitcoin continues to rise in price and, as it does, the above noted speculative volume is going to continue to seek exposure to the gains. MGT offers exactly that.We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on MGTI, sign up below!Disclosure: We have no position in MGTI and have not been compensated for this article.
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