Ebang, China’s Top Bitcoin Mining Firm Prepares For HK IPO

Bitcoin has taken a beating since the start of the year as its value has plummeted in the last 6 months.

However, that hasn’t stopped Asian bitcoin companies from expanding services and being confident about the future of the volatile cryptocurrency.

Recently, Canaan Creative, one of China's biggest bitcoin mining companies, announced that they had plans for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HSE).

Their rivals at Ebang Communication have now taken the same route as they announced that they will also proceed with an IPO on the HSE.

Ebang Communication has filed a draft application for an IPO on the HSE to confirm its plans. The draft application did not provide any details on how much the company hopes to raise or the current valuation of the company's assets.

This move has actually been in the works for some time now. Early rumors of the IPO were heard in May, with Ebang in talks with financial advisers about what they could potentially raise from the IPO. Those market rumors suggest that the company was look to raise $1 billion but there has been no official confirmation from the company as to their market estimate.

Should Ebang Communication succeed in raising $1 billion, then it could become the biggest IPO in the crypto market. Canaan is also hoping to raise a similar amount, so it will be interesting to see how each IPO turns out. Ebang's filing did reveal a bit about the company's internal processes.

Ebang Benefits From Cryptocurrency Venture

Ebang started operations back in 2010 and focused on the manufacturing of hardware for the telecommunication industry. The company which is based out of Zhejian decided to venture into bitcoin mining back in 2015. They fully moved into the cryptocurrency industry when they started releasing their own Ebit miners in 2016. Their main competitors are Bitmain and Canaan Creative.

Their move into crypto turns out to have been a good one as their application document show. Ebang recorded revenue of $141 million in 2017 which is 17 times more revenue than what came in during 2016. As for profits, the company earned $60 million in 2017 – 34 times their profit in 2016.

Ebang’s revenue is expected to continue to grow as the company experiments with making 7nm miners. Based on a new chip, these miners promise to deliver more hashing power for lower electricity consumption. The Japanese have already started making strides in this direction and Ebang will look to capture a piece of this new market.