Bitmain Technologies, is the biggest producer of cryptocurrency mining chips. The company is now planning to launch an IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The IPO is worth the $ 3 billion.
The founder of the company is Jihan Wu who is also a very powerful individual in the cryptocurrency world. It is expected that he will be filing the IPO application in the month of September. Bitmain is currently a private company. At the last funding round, it was valued at around $ 15 billion. However, all of this information is not officially available.
The IPO would be first, related to the cryptocurrency industry. Many investors are looking to invest in the cryptocurrency industry but have not got the opportunity to do so. On the other hand, investing in cryptocurrencies directly is proving to be a huge risk. Bitcoin has fallen by more than 75% from the start. If indeed, the IPO is able to launch successfully, it will be hugely positive for the cryptocurrency industry. As a result, the IPO industry will be coming into the mainstream.
Currently, Bitmain has a market share of 80%. That is why it is a pretty large player when it comes to cryptocurrency chips. With the help of this IPO, Bitmain will be able to gain more credibility in front of the investors. It is also branching out into various other areas like artificial intelligence as well. According to the co-founder, the company is trying to branch out to other technologies in order to diversify.
Last time Bitmain has made an announcement about its investment in building Blockchain Datacenter in Texas. This investment cost was about $500 Million USD.
Currently, they predominantly make the integrated circuits which are used for cryptocurrency mining. According to the co-founder, last year revenue of Bitmain was around $ 2.5 billion. It remains to be seen whether, in the last few months, the revenue has increased or decreased.
While the details are not out yet but many people are worried due to the fall in cryptocurrency prices, there might not be a significant amount of appetite for this IPO. That is why there can be some backlash as well.
It remains to be seen whether the mainstream investors accept cryptocurrency companies or not. If indeed, the response is huge, it will become easier for the other cryptocurrency companies to raise money as well. This will open up new doors for them which will help them raise capital in easier fashion from the mainstream investors without having to look at alternative investment sources.
