Chinese Crypto Mining Giant Bitmain Valued at $12B in New Funding Round
Chinese cryptocurrency mining equipment producer Bitmain has been valued at approximately $12 billion following a Series B funding round. The company is also reportedly mulling a pre-IPO funding round “in the future”.
Chinese cryptocurrency mining equipment producer Bitmain has been valued at approximately $12 billion following a Series B funding round, local news outlet Caixin reported on Friday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
Bitmain has reportedly raised between $300 million to $400 million from Sequoia Capital subsidiary Sequoia China, US hedge fund Coatue and Singapore-based governmental investment fund EDBI.
This latest round of funding was considerably larger than last September’s $50 million raised in a Series A funding round, led by Sequoia China and IDG Capital.
Pre-IPO funding round in sight
Last month, Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu told Bloomberg he is “open” to plans to conduct an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in Hong Kong. According to Caixin’s recent publication, the company is also mulling a pre-IPO funding round “in the future”. No specific details have been revealed, however.
Should it go ahead with its IPO plans, Bitmain will join the ranks of rival mining firms Ebang Communication and Canaan Creative, which have both applied to list their shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Founded in 2013, Bitmain is a privately held company that develops Bitcoin mining hardware and ASIC chips. According to analysts, the company is likely to have made around $4 billion in operating profit last year. Estimates also indicate that Bitmain held 70-80 percent of the mining equipment market in February 2018.
Additionally, Bitmain owns AntPool and BTC.com, which combined have nearly 35% of the flagship cryptocurrency network’s hashrate. It also holds shares in ViaBTC, which controls 12.6% of the hashrate.
As reported by Cryptovest last week, public documents have revealed that Bitmain will buy $50 million in shares from Opera, the company behind the popular web browser of the same name.
