From decrypt by Mat Di Salvo

Sustainable energy company VivoPower this week announced that its crypto subsidiary is moving into the world of mining Dogecoin and Litecoin.

An announcement by the company said that Caret Digital, which it owns, would start mining the two cryptocurrencies in January. 

Nasdaq-listed VivoPower (VVPR) said that Caret Digital could earn annual revenues of $25 million and cash earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of up to $12 million.

VivoPower’s stock has risen more than 50% over the past month. Over the past 24 hours, however, it has dipped by nearly 14% following a Thursday rise on the Dogecoin and Litecoin news, with shares currently priced at $1.16.

“Execution of this strategy will allow Caret Digital to take advantage of the current profitability of Dogecoin mining to generate revenues and free cashflows for VivoPower as a group,” the announcement said. 

“Caret Digital does not intend to hold most of the Dogecoin that is mined, but will sell or forward sell them as appropriate,” it added.

The virtual coins will be mined in renewable-powered hosting facilities in Wisconsin and Oregon, the statement said. And Caret Digital will work on developing up to 55MW of its own renewable-powered mining capacity to be used for mining the assets.

VivoPower sells solar panels, electric cars, and batteries. It owns Caret Digital, which sets up solar farms. 

Litecoin is the 25th biggest digital coin, with a market cap of little over $10 billion. Dogecoin is the seventh-largest, boasting a market cap of $63.7 billion.

Both cryptocurrencies are proof-of-work assets, meaning they need energy-intensive mining operations to run.  

As the price of Bitcoin has shot to new all-time highs, many altcoins have also climbed in value, including Dogecoin. The asset was created as a joke 11 years ago today, but developed a cult following—and huge market cap—after the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, started talking about the cryptocurrency on X (formerly known as Twitter).

This week, American Bitcoin miner BIT Mining said that it is making more money mining Dogecoin and Litecoin than simply minting Bitcoin alone.