There appears to be a growing trend of Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturers unable to sustain their IPOs this year as evidenced by a number of large mining Bitcoin mining firms.
During the first half of 2018, there has been a growing number of mining companies moving to go public, with Bitmain, Canaan Creative, and Ebang filing IPOs in Hong Kong despite the nearly year-long bearish trend across the crypto markets. However, as the year comes to another end, it would appear that these filings are destined to remain up in the air, as Canaan creative, along with other similar companies with ICO plans seem to have allowed their filings to expire.
A recent report published by the Nikkei Asia Review suggests that there is a chance that Bitmain and Ebang might follow in Canaan’s footsteps, allowing their IPO filings with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) to elapse.
As eToro Shanghai managing director Jasper Lee commented on the prevailing trend:
“There is a very high chance that Ebang’s IPO application will lapse. Fundamentally, there is no big difference between Canaan and Ebang. If Canaan couldn’t respond to questions regulators have had, I don’t see how Ebang would be able to do so.”
News of Canaan creative’s reported IPO application expiration emerged last week, and while the mining firm has yet to release any official statement on the matter, it would appear that a number of issues on disclosure and prevailing market conditions were largely the reason behind the company’s decision.
While Canaan has already dropped its crowdfunding target from $1 billion to $400 million, this still wasn’t enough for the firm to push through with its slated IPO. Given the crypto market’s steady price drop throughout the year, it is possible that Canaan was not able to prepare an updated valuation in time for the IPO application deadline.
There have also been speculations among the crypto community that regulators might not be too keen on crypto firms leaning towards launching IPOs.
As Hong Kong’s Bitcoin Association president Leonhard Weese stated:
“I can imagine that regulators are putting a lot more scrutiny on cryptocurrency companies than they would on business models they understand. The sentiment is still that this is just a fad, and why allow companies to IPO that they believe will go bankrupt soon?”
All things considered, launching an IPO in 2018 would be highly improbable, at least for now.
