Jump to content

Bitmain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 86.155.125.169 (talk) at 15:46, 16 June 2019 (avoid slang). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Bitmain Technologies Ltd.
Company typePrivate
Founded2013
FounderJihan Wu and Micree Zhan
Headquarters
Beijing, China
Area served
Worldwide
BrandsAntMiner, AntPool, Hashnest
Websitebitmain.com

Bitmain Technologies Ltd., or Bitmain, is a privately owned company headquartered in Beijing, China that designs application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips for bitcoin mining.

Company

It was founded by Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan in 2013. Prior to founding Bitmain, Wu was a financial analyst and private equity fund manager and Zhan was running DivaIP, a startup that allowed users to stream television to a computer screen via a set-top box.[1]

By 2018 it had become the world's largest designer of application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips for bitcoin mining.[2] The company also operates BTC.com and Antpool, historically two of the largest mining pools for bitcoin.[3] In an effort to boost Bitcoin Cash (BCH) prices, Antpool "burned" 12% of the BCH they mined by sending them to irrecoverable addresses.[4]

Bitmain was reportedly profitable in early 2018,[5] with a net profit of $742.7 million in the first half of 2018,[6] and negative operating cash flow.[2] TechCrunch reported that unsold inventory ballooned to one billion dollars in the second quarter of 2018.[7]

In June 2018, Wu told Bloomberg that Bitmain was considering an IPO for producing capital to expand its producing hardware.[8] The company completed its $1 billion pre-IPO registration with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in August,[9] and filed for IPO in September.[6][2]

File:ANTMINER-S9-14THS.jpg
Antminer S9

Bitmain Technologies filed for IPO on September 26th, 2018 with the Hong Kong regulatory agency and released their first public financial statement and ending the speculation on the company's plans at a time where Bitcoin prices have dropped 65% as compared to December 2017 which have hurt mining hardware sale that accounts 96% of their revenue. [10][11] Bitmain will use a dual class share structure. In Bitmain's case, this means the share held by company's founders would count as 10 votes. [11]

Bitmain's first product was the Antminer S1 which is a ASIC Bitcoin miner making 180 GH/s while using 80-200 Watts of power.[12]

Bitmain as of 2018 had 11 mining farms operating in China.[7]

Bitmain was involved in the 2018 Bitcoin Cash split, siding on the side of Bitcoin Cash ABC alongside Roger Ver.[13]

In December 2018 the company laid off about half of its 3000 staff.[citation needed] The company has since closed its offices in Israel and the Netherlands, while significantly downsizing its Texas mining operation.[citation needed]

In February 2019, Bitmain had lost “about $500 million” in the third quarter of 2018.[citation needed] Bitmain issued a statement saying “the rumors are not true and we will make announcements in due course.”[14]

On March 26, 2019, Bitmain’s application for a Hong Kong initial public offering lapsed, six months after it was filed, as investors were reportedly concerned about the fall in Bitcoin's value.[15] The company issued a statement saying it would “restart the listing application work at an appropriate time in the future.” Bitmain also announced that Haichao Wang would serve as its new CEO, while co-founders Micree Zhan and Jihan Wu will continue as directors.[16]

References

  1. ^ Wong, Joon Ian. "China's Bitmain dominates bitcoin mining. Now it wants to cash in on artificial intelligence". Quartz. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
  2. ^ a b c Lucas, Louise (2018-09-27). "China's crypto mining rig-maker Bitmain plans Hong Kong listing". Financial Times. Retrieved 2018-09-27.
  3. ^ "Chinese bitcoin mining giant Bitmain had revenues of $2.8 billion in the first half of the year". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
  4. ^ "Why a Cryptocurrency Mining Giant Is Burning Money in a 'Black Hole'". Motherboard. 2018-04-20. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
  5. ^ Cheng, Evelyn (23 February 2018). "Secretive Chinese bitcoin mining company may have made as much money as Nvidia last year". CNBC. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  6. ^ a b Hu, Bailey (2018-09-27). "Bitmain files for IPO in Hong Kong". TechNode. Retrieved 2018-09-27.
  7. ^ a b Yang, Joyce (October 2018). "Bitmain IPO concerns: the crypto giant recorded a big loss in Q2 2018". Techcrunch. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  8. ^ Schmidt, Blake (7 June 2018). "Crypto's 32-Year-Old Billionaire Mining King Considers an IPO". Bloomberg. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
  9. ^ Zhao, Runhua (2018-08-13). "World's largest bitcoin mining company Bitmain plans an IPO greater than Facebook's". TechNode. Retrieved 2018-08-13.
  10. ^ Patterson, Michael (September 26, 2018). "The World's Biggest Crypto Company Just Opened the Books for Its IPO". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-10-21. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  11. ^ a b John, Alun. "Cryptocurrency giant Bitmain chooses Hong Kong for IPO". U.S. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
  12. ^ "MANIC MINERS: Ten Bitcoin generating machines". Retrieved 2018-11-06.
  13. ^ Kharif, Olga (17 November 2018). "Bitcoin Cash Clash Is Costing Billions With No End in Sight". Bloomberg. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  14. ^ Ji, Qian. "比特大陆回应2018年Q3财报亏损约5亿美元:传闻不实_财经网 - CAIJING.COM.CN". m.caijing.com.cn. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  15. ^ Lucas, Louise. "Plans for world's largest cryptocurrency IPO shelved". Financial Times. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  16. ^ FIoretti, Julia (26 March 2019). "Cryptocurrency miner Bitmain lets Hong Kong IPO application lapse". Reuters. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bitmain&oldid=902104397"