Bitmain Loses $500 Million In Latest IPO Filing

By Rishma Banerjee

It seems that the beginning of 2019 has been quite nightmarish for Bitmain is living as it has released a public report that said the company had lost about half a billion dollars in the last quarter of last year.

Bitmain, which is better known as the world’s biggest manufacturer of mining equipment and the main force behind the popularity an of bitcoin antminers. However, the company’s reputation has not saved it from being swept along with other crypto-oriented companies following the prolonged bearish market that has prevailed since the winter of 2019.

The giant mining company has tried several ways to tackle the loss, including laying off most of its staff. Bitmain was reported to have laid off more than 50 percent of its staff following a hard year, streamlining its workforce to about 1500.

Bitmain had made no secret of their planned Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), but their recent struggles might make the difficult dream of an IPO for a cryptocurrency-affiliated company even less attainable.

This is the first public release that elaborately reveals Bitmain’s reversal in fortunes and a subsequent sharp decrease the huge revenues it had been raking in. Bitmain which holds mostly digital assets—Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Dash—saw the value of many of the cryptocurrencies crash down to less than 50 percent of their values. This has prompted HKEx to question Bitmain’s sustainability and planning.

HKEx has been cautious and so some extent rather unwilling to accept petitions from cryptocurrency affiliated companies, and this Bitmain’s new release might just help in proving them right. Bitmain’s valuation originally was more than $800 million, in crypto holdings, but has in the next two months dropped by $100 million. This inconsistency and knee-jerk response of Bitmain to lay off staffs due to the cryptocurrency market’s volatility have raised some questions. It remains for time to tell what HKEx makes of Bitmain’s new update.

Rishma Banerjee

Rishma is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and has a special place in her life for sifting through all sorts of random trivia, thank you very much.

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