Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, has introduced Flop Labs, a project designed to utilize the computing power of consumer graphics cards for artificial intelligence tasks. The initiative aims to enable owners of gaming PCs to earn cryptocurrency by processing AI requests when their hardware is otherwise idle.
On November 8, 2026, a demonstration showed the FLOP mining process running on an Nvidia RTX 5080 graphics card. The test successfully completed 12 AI processing sessions. The setup utilized approximately 13GB of the card's 16GB video memory, aligning with the project's current requirement of at least 16GB of VRAM.
Despite the successful technical demonstration, the project is currently in its development phase. The tokens generated during testing hold no real-world value and cannot be cashed out. Hayes confirmed that current participants are not eligible for an airdrop, and actual rewards will only be available after the mainnet launch.
The project plans to conduct a 90-day testnet to determine future token allocations. Future earnings for participants will depend on several variables, including the market demand for AI processing, the cost of electricity, and the market value of the FLOP token. Flop Labs stated there will be no venture capital allocation or presale.
