Here's What's Happening With HIVE Blockchain Technologies (TSXV:HIVE) (OTCMKTS:PRELF)

This week has been a pretty interesting one for HIVE Blockchain Technologies (TSXV:HIVE) (OTCMKTS:PRELF).At the start of the week, IIROC issued notice that it was halting trading of the company's stock. A few hours later, the halt was lifted and trading resumed.Fast forward to Wednesday and we saw exactly the same situation materialize – a halt followed by a trading resumption in a matter of hours. PRELF Daily ChartEach time, alongside the halt notice, IIROC noted that the halt was put in place based on the principle that all investors should have the same timely access to important company information. This, in turn, suggests that some major news or event was expected from the company.On both occasions, however, we didn’t see anything in the way of news or noteworthy operational activity from Hive.So what's going on?Well, we can only speculate at this stage, given that the wires have been pretty quiet as relates to Hive and its operations. With that said, however, the speculation needn’t be total guesswork – there's plenty of clues available as to what might be going on behind the scenes and – running in parallel – what we might expect going forward near term.This is a company that we have looked at on a couple of occasions in the past and it's one of our favorite bitcoin plays right now. Hive is a bitcoin mining company at core and it's developed a technology that allows bitcoin miners to monitor their mining operations and, by proxy, to improve the efficiency of the activity in question.It's also, and this is the real reason we like the stock, associated with a company called Genesis, which is a big hitter in this sector right now.Anyway, the most recent development (outside of the halts, that is) relates to an expansion of the company's current mining facility to include a mining data center in Sweden. The Sweden Data Centre will be a newly constructed GPU mining facility with an anticipated completion date of December 2017 and, on completion, Hive's mining capacity (or hash power) is expected to increase by approximately 175%.That's a big deal and not only is it a positive development from an expansion perspective, but the company will almost certainly be picking up this fresh facility at a discount rate because it's Genesis, not Hive, that's footing the bill.As per the press release announcing the news, the facility will be constructed by Genesis for consideration of an estimated $22 million and the latter will be responsible for hosting, maintenance, and related services for a monthly fee. Sweden is a major player in the cryptocurrency space right now, with the nation's government proving accommodative to the sector and a number of startups are choosing to establish themselves there.So how does all this play into our speculation as to what comes next?Well, we think there's going to be some news relating to this center hitting press over the coming week or so and that – when it hits – said news could really get this stock running. The company is up more than 2,000% since mid-September but, over the last day or two, has taken a bit of a hit on a correction from highs.This presents an opportunity for a trader or an investor to jump into the markets on a discounted entry and – in turn – to benefit from a near-term turnaround that's going to happen if and when we see the news we are looking for from Hive.Keep in mind that this is a volatile sector right now and with the ongoing hard fork situation relating to bitcoin (and nearing a climax in November), stocks associated with crypto are going to be a bit of a rollercoaster.Check out our previous coverage of this one here. We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on PRELF, sign up below!Image courtesy of BTC Keychain via FlickrDisclosure: We have no position in PRELF and have not been compensated for this article.