HIVE Blockchain Announces >20% Increase in Ether Coins Mined Daily

ZUG, Switzerland and VANCOUVER, Jan. 14, 2020 /CNW/ - HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (TSX.V:HIVE) (OTCQX:HVBTF) (the "Company" or "HIVE") is pleased to provide the following operational update. The Company announces that it has experienced a more than 20% increase in newly minted Ether coins mined daily compared to its exit run rate for the last 15 days in December 2019.

The improvement has occurred since the Company completed the recent Ethereum network upgrade dubbed the "Muir Glacier" earlier this month.  Assuming no significant future decreases in the price of Ethereum or significant increases in the current Ethereum network hash rate, the increased generation of Ether coins is anticipated to have a positive impact on HIVE's revenues from Ethereum mining as well as gross mining profit as the upgrade did not result in an increase in electricity power consumption.

"As one of the world's largest miners on the Ethereum network, we are excited about recent developments on the network including the beneficial impact of the recent network upgrade," said Frank Holmes, Interim Executive Chairman of HIVE. "The recent uptick in the number of unique addresses on the Ethereum network also illustrates increasing adoption of the network, which we hope will also result in an increase in the price of Ethereum as such activity has been correlated with the price of Ethereum coins in the past.

"Additionally, in a recent survey by Deloitte¹, 95% of survey respondents saw smart contracts as an important blockchain capability. Ethereum is an open-ended, decentralized, blockchain-based public software platform that facilitates such peer-to-peer contracts, or "smart contracts", as well as de-centralized applications," noted Mr. Holmes.

About Ethereum and Ether Mining²

Mining is the process of creating a block of transactions to be added to the Ethereum blockchain. Miners essentially process pending transactions and are awarded block rewards in the form of Ether, the Ethereum network's native currency, for each block generated. HIVE maintains a portfolio of Ether coins and sells some for fiat currency in order to cover its mining and other operating and administrative expenses.

Generating a block requires intensive computational work (or hashing power) due to the difficulty set by the Ethereum network protocol. This difficulty level is proportional to the total amount of computational power (also known as the total hashrate of the network) being used to mine Ethereum and serves as a way to secure the network from attacks as well as tuning the speed at which blocks (and block rewards) are generated.

In order to support the Ethereum network, developers need the cryptocurrency Ether to create and run applications. Ether is used to pay for transaction fees and computational services. Users can send Ether to other users. And developers can write smart contracts that receive, hold and send Ether.

About HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd.

HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. is a growth oriented, TSX.V-listed company building a bridge from the blockchain sector to traditional capital markets. HIVE owns state-of-the-art GPU-based digital currency mining facilities in Iceland and Sweden, which produce newly minted digital currencies like Ethereum continuously as well as cloud-based ASIC-based capacity which produces newly minted digital currencies like Bitcoin. Our deployments provide shareholders with exposure to the operating margins of digital currency mining as well as a growing portfolio of crypto-coins.

For more information and to register to HIVE's mailing list, please visit www.HIVEblockchain.com. Follow @HIVEblockchain on Twitter and subscribe to HIVE's YouTube channel.

On Behalf of HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd.

"Frank Holmes"
Interim Executive Chairman

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Forward-Looking Information

Except for the statements of historical fact, this news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation that is based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. "Forward-looking information" in this news release includes, but is not limited to, statements regarding the increase in newly minted Ether coins and recent Ethereum network upgrade having a positive impact on HIVE's revenues from Ethereum mining as well as gross mining profit; increasing adoption of the network; the potential increase in the price of Ethereum and, the Company's future plans and growth opportunities.

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, recent upgrades and increased minted Ether coins may not have a positive impact on HIVE's revenues, or gross mining margin; the Company may never realize more efficient operations, a lower cost structure, or greater flexibility in operations; and other related risks as more fully set out in the Filing Statement of the Company dated September 13, 2017 and other documents disclosed under the Company's filings at www.sedar.com.

The forward-looking information in this news release reflects the current expectations, assumptions and/or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this news release, the Company has made assumptions about the positive effects of recent upgrades and increased minted Ether coins. The Company has also assumed that no significant events occur outside of the Company's normal course of business. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein.

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1} Source: www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/se/Documents/risk/DI_2019-global-blockchain-survey.pdf
² Sources: Ethereum.org and cmegroup.com/education/courses/introduction-to-ether/defining-ether-and-ethereum.html

SOURCE HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd.

Frank Holmes, Tel: [phone]