The Chinese daily Caixin reported on July 6 that one of the world's largest Bitcoin mining companies (BTC), Bitmain, is now valued at $ 12 billion after a series B roundtable.
In early June, the company's CEO, Jihan Wu, declared himself "open" to plans to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong. Wu said an IPO in the region would be an appropriate way for early investors to cash in their funds.
Founded in 2013, Bitmain Technologies is a private company that develops Bitcoin mining equipment and ASIC chips. The company owned 70-80% of the Bitcoin mining equipment market in February 2018. Bitmain also operates one of the largest Bitcoin mining pools, Antpool. Earlier this year, the company was involved in the development of the Ant Creek mining centers in the United States.
In May, one of China's leading Chinese-based Bitmain competitor, Canaan Creative, announced that it would launch an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in July. In an interview with Reuters in April, Canaan co-president Jianping Kong said, "We ... prefer to register outside Mainland China because we are in a global business".
According to Caixin, Bitmain raised between $ 300 and $ 400 million from Sequoia Capital subsidiary Sequoia China, US hedge fund Coatue and Singapore-based public investment fund EDBI. In September 2017, Beijing-based Bitmain received $ 50 million from a Sequoia Capital and IDG Capital Series A round.