Everyone seems to have gone wild over Chris Dixon’s book Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet. Some of the biggest hitters in business have given it their thumbs up. It’s an essential read if you’re interested in owning the best blockchain stocks.
“Chris Dixon has always been someone who sees the future with clarity and practicality. He does this once again in Read Write Own, making the case for blockchain technology as the fundamental building block of the future and clearly laying out where the internet is going,” statesNike (NYSE:NKE) CEO John Donahoe about the book.
I have not read the book, but I should. I’ve always felt the success or failure of any cryptocurrency has to do with its utility. Blockchain technology is the most obvious way to do that.
At the end of January, Fortune contributor Leo Schwartz wrote an interesting piece discussing Dixon’s fresh blockchain case.
“The first era of the internet, facilitated by early protocols and innovations like the web browser, allowed us to consume—read—information. The second, driven by corporate networks like Facebook and Apple, allowed us to create—write—our own content. The third, driven by blockchain, will put us in charge, from making decisions to reaping the proceeds—own,” Schwartz writes.
Here are three of the best blockchain stocks to ride the internet’s third era.
Nvidia (NVDA)
Nvidia logo seen on smartphone which is placed on pile of US dollar bills. Concept. Selective focus. Stocks to buy like Nvidia
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I feel bad for including Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) in the best blockchain stocks. But if you’re not keen on holding small-cap companies, the chip maker’s stock is an excellent backdoor play into blockchain technology.
In October, Reuters reported that Voltage Park, a non-profit backed by Jed M McCaleb—a co-founder of three cryptocurrency companies including Ripple, the people behind XRP (XRP:BTC)—had paid $500 million for 24,000 of Nvidia’s H100 AI chips. It plans to deploy in clusters in Texas, Virginia and Washington.
The move is intended to help make machine learning accessible to all, which is excellent news for smaller startups. When it comes to machine learning, all roads come through Nvidia.
Forbes reported that Bitcoin miner, Northern Data, is renting out the H100 AI chips to AI startups who need more computing power. Although critical of crypto miners in the past, the pivot by companies in the crypto and blockchain world will undoubtedly benefit Nvidia AI chip sales.
NVDA stock is relatively expensive at 40x sales, about double its average five-year P/S ratio.
Applied Digital (APLD)
An abstract concept image for blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
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Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) is a Texas-based operator of digital infrastructure. Its webpage indicates two business segments: next-generation data center colocation services and AI GPU cloud services (under Sai Computing).
Its goal is to provide ultra-low-cost infrastructure for high-performance computing (HPC) applications, including blockchain technology.
I’d be lying if I said I was an expert about Applied Digital, far from it. However, infrastructure owners are often the best bets because they’re agnostic about who wins and who loses. They’re just concerned about getting paid their rent.
The company announced in January that it had signed an anchor tenant for its Ellendale, North Dakota facility, which would see Applied Digital provide 100 megawatts (MWs) of data center capacity for 10 years, with a total contract value (TCV) of $2.2 billion. While it still needs to secure project financing for Ellendale, it’s a big step in the right direction.
While it’s not making money just yet—a $15.6 million operating loss on $78.5 million in revenue in the first six months of 2024—it does make money on an EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) basis.
Further, the seven analysts that rate its stock all give it a Buy, with a $13 target price. At $4.85, as I write this, it looks like a potential winner in the making.
Iris Energy (IREN)
An image of a hand holding a cell phone with several visualizations of digital building blocks floating above it. representing sto platforms
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Iris Energy (NASDAQ:IREN) is an Australian Bitcoin (BTC:USD) miner with three facilities in British Columbia and one in Texas. All powered by 100% renewable energy, its current capacity is 6.2 EH/s (exahash per second), with it expected to rise to 20 EH/s by the end of 2024.
It makes money in two ways. The first, more traditional revenue stream of bitcoin mining, comes with an electricity cost of $14,000 per bitcoin, and AI cloud services, which charge approximately $2.50 per hour for GPU (graphics processing unit) computing.
While its Bitcoin revenue remains its primary revenue stream, Iris announced on Feb. 14 that it had acquired an additional 568 Nvidia H100 GPUs for $22 million. They are the gold standard for AI high-performance computing. That brings its H100 GPUs to 1,384. These machines will enable it to triple its AI cloud services business.
At the same time, it reported Q2 2024 earnings and announced that it had rebranded the company’s official name from Iris Energy to IREN to reflect its next-generation data center business. Choosing the stock symbol as your official name is a bad idea. I guess we’ll see.
In Q2 2024, its Bitcoin mining revenue was $42.0 million, 204% higher than Q2 2023. Its operating loss declined to $2.22 million from $128.0 million a year earlier. If you exclude the 2022 impairment of assets ($105.2 million), the decline is more moderate, at 90%.
Its other income was $527,000 during the quarter, up from zero a year earlier. This revenue is from its Emergency Response Service (“ERS”) program with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (“ERCOT”) to mitigate rolling blackouts.
Bad name aside, the seven analysts covering its stock rate it a Buy with an $8 target price. This is 10% higher than its current share price.
It’s the riskiest of the three, so govern yourself accordingly.
On the date of publication, Will Ashworth did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
Will Ashworth has written about investments full-time since 2008. Publications where he’s appeared include InvestorPlace, The Motley Fool Canada, Investopedia, Kiplinger, and several others in both the U.S. and Canada. He particularly enjoys creating model portfolios that stand the test of time. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
