Although cryptocurrency markets are currently observing a bear market and authorities in Beijing have been curbing the spread of information relating to ICO’s, this hasn’t seemed to dull the enthusiasm of three of the largest bitcoin mining hardware manufacturers from looking to rack up funding from initial public offerings.
A report from Reuters details how the world’s largest crypto-mining rig makers, namely: Bitmain, Caanaan Inc. and Ebang International Holding, have set their sights on multi-billion dollar initial public offerings in Hong Kong.
The demand for mining hardware observed its peak back in late 2017 as the price of digital currencies went through the roof. Mining farms observed a boom, fastening up with the rate at which cryptographic puzzles were being solved to generate coins. Due to the rapid rise of these mining farms, the suppliers of the hardware behind these mining operations observed a peak in their profits.
Prior to the evolution of mining hardware, a majority of people mining did so via the graphics processing units (GPU’s) in their gaming PCs. But since the dip in cryptocurrency prices, GPU manufacturers such as Nvidia have reported a significant dip in their sales in comparison to peak observed back in 2017 and decided to exit the cryptomarket. Keeping this into account, the possibility of huge IPOs being feasible seems to have been brought into question.
The CEO of financial services consultancy Quinlan & Associates, Benjamin Quinlan, chimed in on the subject and said “The marked decline in the price of Bitcoin since the start of the year is likely to weigh on investors’ interest in these companies. The fall in the price of Bitcoin from its peaks has not been matched by an equivalent fall in the numbers of people mining it.”
By holding an estimated 70-80% share of the hardware and mining pool market, Bitmain has crowned itself as the dominant player in the market. The Chinese monopoly is set to file the plan for an IPO next month via which it is expecting to raise over $3 Billion USD.
