It’s been a real rough time for Bitmain, the Bitcoin Cash (BCHABC) mining operation, as they’ve seen nothing but problems in the past several months. In an effort to potentially turn things around, now rumors are surfacing that they will restart their plan to have an initial public offering (IPO).
Quoting anonymous sources, Bloomberg reports the Chinese mining company is preparing to file for an IPO in the U.S. They are currently preparing paperwork for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and may have shares for sale in the second half of 2019.
Bitmain is reportedly hoping to raise as much as $300 million to $500 million from the sale. Bloomberg’s reporting suggests that Bitmain might be trying to take advantage of the suddenly surging state of cryptocurrency markets, but a closer reading of the facts reveals a last ditch effort to secure some funds for a failing operation.
The last time Bitmain applied for an IPO, they were seeking to raise as much as $3 billion. Part of the reason that didn’t push through was the sudden struggles of the company, with revenue losses, lawsuits and massive layoffs.
Part of the reason that IPO didn’t push through was that they failed to progress in the IPO process with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), likely because they didn’t want to reveal all of their financial information. Now that they are asking for 10% of what they previously wanted, Bloomberg explained that it was likely due to the now understood volatility of cryptocurrency markets, while also taking advantage of the surging prices of cryptos.
That doesn’t add up though. Their previous IPO only expired in March, three months ago, and the volatility of the market was known at that time when they wanted to get $3 billion out of it.
What makes a lot more sense is that Bitmain now desperately needs cash, and even $300 million will help them stay alive a little bit longer. If they will push ahead with this listing, they’ll need to reveal exactly how healthy their business currently is. That will make for a very interesting story.
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