Crypto mining company Bitmain files for Hong Kong IPO; draft filing shows $2.8B in revenue as of June 30 and $422.05M raised in funding round that ended Aug. 7
per new @Globalcoinrsrch story — that's a big drop from Q1's $1.1B profit on $2B in revenue and doesn't exactly give momentum for IPO https://techcrunch.com/... Francis Pouliot / @francispouliot_ : Dispite the new special taxes on electricity for miners (price up to 0.15$ CAD/kWh), Bitmain IPO docs reveal they are contemplating construction of mines in Quebec because of “cheap rates” Special deal with government prior to new rates increase (as rumors suggest), or B.S.? https://twitter.com/... Aaron Pressman / @ampressman : So someone is making a ton of money from Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency miner Bitmain filed for an IPO revealing 2017 revenue of $2.5 billion and first half 2018 revenue of $2.8 billion. Profits were $1.2 billion and $1.0 billion. Nice work if you can get it. https://www.coindesk.com/... Jon Russell / @jonrussell : But there's a huge question mark around 2018 since it has only released H1 numbers. The crypto market really tanked in Q2 and, if the impact most companies have felt is true for Bitmain, the business might have had a very tough quarter. Kate Rooney / @kr00ney : Secretive Chinese bitcoin mining giant Bitmain revealed a little bit more of itself on Wednesday with its first-ever public disclosures, showing IPO plans & profits despite slump in #crypto. https://cnb.cx/2N72rxc Jon Russell / @jonrussell : For one thing, it didn't see the slump coming and was left with $1 billion in additional (unsold) inventory — a fact it had to explain in the IPO prospectus: https://techcrunch.com/... pic.twitter.com/CvNY0XRI49
Context & Ripple Effects
This filing turns August's leaked prospectus targeting an $18B raise at a $40B-$50B valuation into a formal document — and the disclosed numbers undercut the pitch. The $2.8B revenue figure through June 30 implies Q2 came in well under Q1's $2B run rate, and the relationships note $1B of unsold inventory sitting on the books.
The filing also hands public-market investors their first audited look at numbers Bitmain had been shopping privately: the FT later reported the company told Series B investors it earned $1.25B in 2017 profits while the prospectus says closer to $700M — a gap that frames how much diligence this IPO will need.
First-order effects
- Investors in the $422.05M round that closed Aug. 7 now hold stakes priced off pre-IPO claims that the prospectus itself contradicts on 2017 profitability, while Hong Kong underwriters must market an offering with visibly decelerating revenue and $1B in unsold mining hardware.
Second-order effects
- The documents show Bitmain contemplating mining construction in Quebec despite new special electricity taxes pushing rates toward CAD $0.15/kWh — a bet that legacy cheap-rate access survives, and a signal to other large miners hunting subsidized power jurisdictions.
Third-order effects
- The pattern that follows — confirmed layoffs affecting possibly half of headcount by December and the Hong Kong application ultimately lapsing without listing — points to crypto hardware makers discovering that public markets demand disclosure cadences their cyclical, bitcoin-price-dependent businesses can't smoothly meet.
The trend: Crypto infrastructure champions are colliding with public-market scrutiny just as the 2018 downturn exposes the gap between private fundraising narratives and audited financials.