Having announced a radical switch in December from making iced tea to blockchain technology, the former beverage corporation now plans to go into the bitcoin mining business. Along with several other companies riding the blockchain bandwagon, stock prices for Long Blockchain saw a rapid 200% rise in value when the pivotal change of purpose was announced, but the purchase of mining equipment will support the company\'s new direction.

An Agreement filed on January 5th with America\'s SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) shows that the newly renamed Long Blockchain Corp is set to purchase (from an undisclosed vendor) 1,000 units of AntMiner S9 bitcoin mining rigs, which are manufactured by a Chinese company called Bitmain. The press release issued by Long Blockchain states that the facilities to be purchased would be in a \"Nordic country,\" but the purchase Agreement filed with the SEC specifically mentions Iceland as the location for delivery of the mining equipment.

According to the Agreement the purchase price of $4.2m includes $2.9m in cash, together with 260,000 shares of Long Blockchain\'s common stock. This stock will be part of a 1.6m public share issue, at $5.25 each share, by which the company hopes to raise some $7.7m. Only if they can do this will the Agreement be concluded on January 31st 2018.