The crypto market is pumping, and mining monolith Bitmain is riding the wave. According to Bloomberg, the company is eyeing another initial public offering (IPO), this time in the United States.
Its first attempt to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange lapsed earlier this year amidst reported financial troubles stemming from the bear market and its holdings in bitcoin cash, which were cleft in half following the Bitcoin SV chain split.
But the market is bouncing back and Bitmain has been suffused with new financial life. The company has been consulting advisers and prepping documents to apply for an IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This filing could hit the commission’s desk by July 2019, and sources say that the IPO could go live before 2019 ends.
With a valuation of $15 million granted in its Hong Kong IPO process, Bitmain was seeking $3 billion in funding during its first go around. Now, however, the firm is reportedly chasing a more modest $300–500 million (though this figure is not final).
The U.S. might offer a more favorable investment landscape for the company. In its coverage, Bloomberg cites a South China Morning Post article that argues that regulators and exchange operators view IPOs by cryptocurrency companies as too “premature” to expose to retail investors.
For what it’s worth, this hasn’t stopped them from trying. Two of Bitmain’s Chinese competitors, Canaan Creative and Ebang, have both filed for IPOs on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, though Canaan Creative eschewed these plans, and Ebang’s two filings, like Bitmain’s own, expired. Canaan Creative is reportedly mulling over an IPO in the U.S. as well, Bloomberg reports.
If Bitmain and/or Canaan Creative were to succeed, they would become the first Bitcoin-related companies to take their businesses public to be traded on traditional markets. A representative for Bitmain had not returned Bitcoin Magazine’s request for comment by the time this story was published.
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