FRISCO, Texas — The global crypto currency market cap has soared more than two trillion dollars in the last five years alone. Investors and financial institutions have pushed the current crypto market cap to just over 2.6 trillion in US dollars. Just five years ago in October of 2016 the market cap was less than 15 billion USD.
As the digital currency market rapidly expands, Frisco-area siblings have decided to invest in the market too, in a tech savvy manner. 14-year-old Ishaan Thakur and 9-year-old Aanya Thakur have started their own crypto mining business, called Flifer.
The two first got started after watching a series of YouTube videos on crypto mining, before dismantling Ishaan's gaming computer and turning it into a mining machine.
"Like most of my friends do they just play video games all summer, but we wanted to make a difference," said Ishaan, the co-founder of Flifer. "We wanted to start a new business venture, a new company and make some money while we're at it too."
After taking out a loan from their parents, the brother and sister team have been able to scale their operation exponentially. Daily, after school the two make their way inside the garage of their home to configure graphics cards into problem solving mathematicians, and check the status of their operations.
"On our first day, we only made three dollars," said Ishaan. "Now, we're making over $40,000 a month."
The PC graphics cards the siblings utilize function like TNT when it comes to traditional mining. The energy consumption of the computers working together "detonates" or produces a crypto token reward after a digital equation is correctly solved. The majority of the energy taxing work is conducted at a data center the two use in Dallas.
"Slowly we bought more mining rigs, we updated our setup and with the support of my parents we've come this far,” said Ishaan.
Profits from the business go towards paying for the increase in electricity consumption, purchasing more mining equipment, and for future college savings. Ishaan estimates his parents’ energy bill has increased at least five times the normal monthly amount, but that's not stopping the brother and sister duo from getting more venturous.
"We're also making a crypto coin, called Flifer coin, and we plan on launching it at the beginning of next year," said Aanya.
The two want their coin to be produced on 100% renewable energy. Ishaan said without the support of his little sister, they wouldn't be where they're at today.
"Something that definitely keeps me up, and wakes me up every morning is my sister," said Ishaan. "She is a really nice business partner and honestly without her, there's no way I would've come this far."
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misidentified the name of Flifer, the mining company. That has been corrected. (October 27, 2021)