Nvidia crypto mining opportunities likely to persist in 2018: analyst

Analysts at RBC Capital Markets think that Nvidia Corp. will continue to benefit from the mining of cryptocurrencies in 2018, even if the Ethereum blockchain moves past the use of graphics-processing units as Bitcoin has. The analysts pointed out that there are plenty of newer cryptocurrencies for which miners could use GPUs, including monero, bitcoin gold and ethereum classic. "The near-term dynamics remain positive and without a material change to the algorithm we find it highly unlikely the opportunity goes to zero next year," they wrote in a note to clients Tuesday. "Importantly, even if the algorithms change to proof of stake long term, we believe that the need to build out a decentralized world computer will command material compute power benefiting companies such as Nvidia," they added. Susquehanna analyst Chris Rolland made a similar point about Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. in a Tuesday note, pointing out that Ethereum joining Bitcoin as an ASIC-driven mining task would be a "modest negative" for those two companies. Nvidia shares have gained 75% so far this year, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is up 36% and the S&P 500 is up 19%.

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