Fernhill is Pleased to Provide the following Corporate Update
Firstly, we want to say to our shareholders that we have been listening to your comments and appreciate your feedback. Quite honestly, we expected to be further along towards our goals at this point, but we can assure you that this is what drives us. We remain highly focused on our objectives and overarching responsibility to create shareholder value, and wanted to update you on a few initiatives.
Sometimes, we feel like the late, great Kobe Bryant , who famously said, “When fans boo, actually I love it. I thrive on it...That has become a source of motivation.”
HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2023
Web3 and Crypto are back on the upswing.
2023 was an interesting year for Fernhill, which had its ups and downs. However, we want to extend our continued excitement about what is in store for the Company, particularly in light of the recent trends in the crypto, blockchain and Web3 industry.
Settled Lawsuits:
As the Plaintiff in 2 lawsuits, Fernhill was able to settle them both favorably. Having found ourselves entrenched in these lawsuits during most of 2023, this took a toll on our firm on multiple levels, from having to divert some of our focus away from building the business to losing our largest source of revenue. While we expended considerable resources, time and effort in this case – we felt that the resulting settlement was reasonable given that we were able to write off over $300,000 in debt and liabilities and finally put that issue to bed.
Rebuilt Technology:
While the crypto winter was in full swing, we felt it was an opportune time to re-evaluate our technology and fortify it for what we believed would be a recovery and a renewed interest by the larger institutional firms wanting to finally get into Bitcoin, crypto and Defi markets. We spent the better part of 2023 reprogramming and rearchitecting MainBloq, our digital asset trading platform and OEMS. We have essentially completed the majority of that work with additional improvements and add-ons still to be made. What came of this effort was new technology designed on a more nimble and flexible microservices basis, which provides much stronger positioning for scale, integration with third party services, and significantly reduced overhead. We also perfected new proxy-service management and scaling technology to manage the connectivity with numerous trading platforms and exchanges on an institutional grade level.
Given the dynamics of 2023 as mentioned earlier, the lack of growth-oriented resources and the fact that we spent the better part of the year re-engineering MainBloq, our 2023 sales suffered dramatically and were off considerably from the prior year. Going forward, we have recently begun to initiate outbound sales initiatives and intend to significantly exceed the prior year's sales for 2024.
Crypto Spring, the Halving and the Start of the Next Bull Run.
Coming out of the crypto winter and seeing Bitcoin hit over $70,000 for the first time was a clear indication that the crypto winter is over and we’ve now moved into crypto spring and the new bull run. The recent launch of multiple Bitcoin futures and spot Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) created a whole new demand cycle and interest level in Bitcoin and the Web3 industry. With the recent halving that took place a few days ago, newly mined BTC supply on the market has been cut in half, which creates additional tailwinds for Bitcoin. These events have renewed interest and helped maintain BTC’s price near its ATH and the market as a whole. We also believe the potential exists for BTC to hit over $1,000,000 in the next 5-10 years. With that being said, Fernhill and its current platforms are designed to participate and benefit from this huge market upsurge.
Industry is Growing Rapidly:
A quick glimpse of some industry statistics show that this market is here to stay and experience dramatic growth, just as we believe Fernhill can become a major player in the industry:
- The Web3/Metaverse industry is expected to grow to over $3 Trillion by 2030
- Tokenization of Real World Assets will become a $10 Trillion market by 2030
- 96% of financial service experts believe blockchain has achieved mainstream adoption
- Over 52% of experts believe blockchain will be essential to verifying customer identity in the future
The digital asset economy is part of a new way of life that puts the power of business and commerce back into the hands of the people, and disintermediates away the centralized banks, credit card companies and financial institutions that want to control your data and your money. This Money 3.0 creates new freedoms for people and businesses, breaks down barriers, and sets the stage for massive value creation, just as the internet did over its first 20 years.
As far as Fernhill is concerned – we wholeheartedly plan on being a major software and services provider to businesses and institutions that want to participate in this industry and ride the growth that is in front of us.
Challenges and Lessons Learned
We would be remiss if we did not share some of the trials, tribulations and lessons learned during the past year. While we would love for all of this to be roses and cotton candy – the fact of the matter is that no business success or major growth story comes without its challenges and obstacles.
Running and building a startup is not for the faint at heart, however, when it comes to building a software business as a microcap public company – it can be next level challenging at times. When it comes to building a business there are three key issues one has to consider – cashflow, cashflow and cashflow. Cashflow is king and any startup requires proper capitalization and/or sales growth to really push things to the next level. Without that, it's going to be a slog and take much longer to get where you want to be. With that said – we are entirely focused on improving our cashflow by way of increasing sales, improving capitalization, and making accretive acquisitions that have sustainable revenues and are profitable.
As a software company – your software code, documentation and architecture defines your ability to scale and grow. As painful as it was to take 2023 to rebuild practically everything in MainBloq – we believe the investment in that initiative will pay for itself for years to come. The integrity and manageability of the codebase and architecture it runs on can make or break a company and we decided a full refresh was needed if we wanted to go big in 2024. So, here we are!
The most successful businesses are those that are nimble, flexible, and can adapt to changing times, economic conditions, industry trends, and client demand. This reaffirms some of the focused changes that we previously mentioned over the past year, plus some new changes we plan on implementing during 2024. With DIGX, we always had the vision to pursue tokenization of real world assets as alternative investments in the future and thought that was going to be a great growth opportunity (just read our original white paper). Well, the future is now! We plan on integrating DIGX with several partners with which we’ve established relationships in the securities industry that will enable us to offer fully registered tokenized real world assets that will also have the capability to be traded on a secondary marketplace.
Regarding MainBloq – our plans for the platform still remain the same, however, we’ll be adding institutional grade services that complement digital asset trading and provide more enterprise level capabilities that financial institutions are looking for by adding Custody and Treasury Management Services by partnering with a well known industry leader.
Building Shareholder Value
At the beginning of 2021 when we first started to pursue the Crypto and Web3 industry, we began with negative shareholder’s equity of ($412,593). As of the Year End 2023 we now have a positive Shareholder's Equity of $10,694,133 for a massive increase of $11,106,726. This means that over the past three years we’ve increased shareholders equity by 29X for a 2,900% improvement. This was all accomplished on a shoe-string budget and included over a year of the Crypto Winter. Just imagine what we can do during this next bull run and having the proper resources to capitalize on this incredible industry?!
We also reduced debt on our balance sheet by approximately $700,000 during 2023, which was primarily due to writing down the vast majority of the MainBloq acquisition debt, in addition to having some debts convert to equity. The end result being an improvement to our balance sheet and shareholder’s equity.
We also strongly believe that making carefully selected acquisitions will help to elevate and multiply our shareholder value. We’ve also taken the stance that companies that are not directly in crypto, blockchain or web3 can be great targets to consider if they a) operationally or strategically help our platform companies; b) have a sales trajectory that is positive (preferably with at least $1M in trailing twelve month revenue), and c) are profitable and have a history of profitability. Adding diversification is a key element to improving risk adjusted returns and creating alpha, and we also believe this applies to making acquisitions that can make Fernhill and its platforms a stronger, more sustainable company.
As our stock currently sits at a 52-week low, we honestly believe that it is significantly undervalued and a rare opportunity that will not last much longer. If you look at private companies with less established technology and with a much less mature team that has not had multiple successful exits, has never taken companies public on Nasdaq or raised hundreds of millions of dollars like our team has, these companies are getting valuations 5X – 10X our current market cap. With Fernhill – we strongly believe the sky's the limit and you’re either going to be a part of it, or you won’t.
Fernhill Future:
- Fernhill Uplisting - Last but not least is our stated goal of uplisting. This still remains one of our core focus areas and what drives us each day to improve and build Fernhill. Uplisting takes our company to an entirely new level, and we’re 100% confident that we can do it. It's all a matter of time, going through the process, and having the fortitude and resources to get there. We all have a very strong vested interest in making this happen, as we are all major shareholders.
- Adding a New Board Member - We plan to announce the addition of a new Board Member within the next 30 days.
- Signing an LOI for a new acquisition to enhance MediaBloq, our Media and Marketing Subsidiary. We plan to announce having an acquisition under LOI within the next 45 days.
2023 was a crazy year. While it was challenging for the most part, we feel great about what we endured, the challenges we overcame, and where we stand at one of the most critical times in our industry. We are truly grateful to all of our shareholders and the trust and faith that you’ve placed with us as a team.
In parting - Our focus still remains the same – to build an incredible company that you can be a proud shareholder of, one that you were with in its early stages of growth in one of the greatest industries in the history of the world.
About Fernhill:
Fernhill Corp is a Software and Technology Services firm, currently delivering cloud-based enterprise platforms for Web3, Digital Assets and Data Aggregation services globally. Fernhill is a Signatory Member of the Crypto Climate Accord (CCA), a Principal Member of the Metaverse Standards Forum, and Corporate VIP Member of the International Security Token Association.
For all official Fernhill corporate information, please refer to our filings, news and updates on the following resources:
MainBloq Website: www.mainbloq.io
MainBloq Facebook
Company Contact Information: info@fernhillcorp.com
Any other links are not official & should be taken as such nor have anything to do with Fernhill Corp or its subsidiaries.
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Forward-Looking Statements
This release includes ‘forward-looking statements' within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Certain statements set forth in this press release constitute ‘forward-looking statements.' Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, any statement that may predict, forecast, indicate, or imply future results, performance or achievements, and may contain the words ‘estimate', ‘project', ‘intend', ‘forecast', ‘anticipate', ‘plan', ‘planning', ‘expect', ‘believe', ‘will likely', ‘should', ‘could', ‘would', ‘may' or words or expressions of similar meaning. Such statements are not guaranteeing of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results and financial position to differ materially from those included within the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the Company's ability to grow its business. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the Company's limited operating history, the limited financial resources, domestic or global economic conditions, competition, changes in technology and methods of marketing, delays in completing various engineering and manufacturing programs, changes in customer order patterns, changes in product mix, continued success in technological advances and delivering technological innovations, shortages in components, production delays due to performance quality issues with outsourced vendors, services or components, and various other factors beyond the Company's control.