Samsung Electronics has revealed it is making chips designed specifically to harvest crypto-currency coins.
The firm made the disclosure in its latest earnings report, where it said the activity should boost its profits.
The report also confirmed that the South Korean company overtook Intel to become the biggest chipmaker last year.
And it forecast strong demand for its forthcoming Galaxy S9 smartphone, which is due to be revealed on 25 February.
Samsung Electronic's fourth quarter net profit totalled 12.3tn won ($11.5bn; £8.1bn), which was roughly in line with analysts' expectations.
But its shares jumped nearly 9% after the company revealed that it was splitting its stock 50-to-1, which should encourage trade in the asset.
For now, Samsung is providing little detail about its new crypto-currency business.
"Samsung's foundry business is currently engaged in the manufacturing of crypto-currency mining chips," it said in a statement given to the BBC.
"However we are unable to disclose further details regarding our customers."
Mining, in this context, refers to solving complex mathematical problems as a means to verify crypto-currency transactions - a task for which the owners of the computers involved are rewarded with new digital tokens or "coins".
