{"id":15232,"date":"2021-08-09T19:25:48","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T19:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci028a42d6000025a3"},"modified":"2025-10-01T15:32:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T20:32:49","slug":"bitmain-prepares-for-public-listing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/business\/bitmain-prepares-for-public-listing","title":{"rendered":"Bitmain And The Institutionalization Of Bitcoin Mining Manufacturers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It seems that the ground under Bitcoin businesses is shifting daily, first with a major shutdown and hash migration out of China<\/a>, then with some wobbly prices and now with an attempt to legislate bitcoin in the U.S. Congress<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Compass Mining,<\/a> a full-service mining host and equipment provider, recently released a detailed mining report that included a look at what it calls \u201chardware manufacturer institutionalization,\u201d another major shift in the Bitcoin space.<\/p>\n

The ultimate in \u201cinstitutionalization\u201d may be public listing, which brings a massive new avenue for investment, while also bringing regulatory and shareholder scrutiny. <\/p>\n

\u201cMiners are looking at public markets as a way to get access to robust capital markets to fuel their growth,\u201d explained Ethan Vera, the COO of Luxor Technologies, who added that more than 16 exahashes of mining capacity is controlled by publicly-listed companies. \u201cIn the current market, public vehicles are the best way to grow a mega mining company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mining equipment manufacturers Canaan and Ebang have both achieved listings on the NASDAQ exchange. Meanwhile, MicroBT is reportedly<\/a> planning a U.S. IPO. But this institutionalization is especially significant for Hong Kong-based Bitmain<\/a>, the largest ASIC manufacturer in the world, which easily outpaces the other major companies in the space (in its 2017 prospectus, Bitmain said it had 77%<\/a> of the bitcoin mining equipment market share).<\/p>\n

So, how is Bitmain embracing the growing institutionalization of the industry that it has pioneered?<\/p>\n

The Miner\u2019s Journey From Startup To Institution<\/h2>\n

In its report, Compass Mining makes the case that mining equipment manufacturers have evolved from once shady or opaque businesses, with stories about equipment getting lost or being used and then sold as if new.<\/p>\n

\u201cManufacturers mining with hardware before delivering it to customers is an unconfirmed but widely believed facet of the early-stage Bitcoin ASIC manufacturing industry,\u201d per the report.<\/p>\n

But now, with the potential of drawing public investment, many of these businesses have opted to take a more professional approach, particularly Bitmain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith two of the five major hardware manufacturers after publicly listing, and the market leader Bitmain working towards an IPO, such purported practices are quickly becoming anachronistic as professionalism improves among the major manufacturers,\u201d according to the report. \u201cThe reality of being a publicly traded company servicing a multi-billion dollar annual market starkly contrasts the conditions facing a 2013 Chinese startup that is venturing into a high-risk market with immensely uncertain prospects.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Motivations For Bitmain\u2019s Corporate Restructurings<\/h2>\n

That reality also likely influenced one of the most significant corporate restructurings Bitcoin has ever seen, as Bitmain significantly altered its structure and leadership at the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n

In January 2021, Bitmain cofounder Jihan Wu announced that a longstanding feud with fellow Bitmain cofounder Micree Zhan had been resolved through his resignation as CEO and chairman, according to a timeline of control over the company compiled by Compass Mining<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The battle for control between Bitmain\u2019s cofounders has been a major storyline within the Bitcoin space and its resolution saw cloud mining platform BitDeer spun off as a separate entity, controlling mining facilities in the U.S. and Norway, with Wu as its chairman, while major bitcoin mining pool AntPool was also spun off, falling under the control of Zhan. <\/p>\n

Regarding the spinoff of AntPool, a recent blog<\/a> post from Bitmain explained that this will allow it to focus on \u201cthe R&D and sales of computing power chips and servers relying on its technological advantages in chip design, hardware R&D and manufacturing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the spinoff might also have been motivated by regulatory considerations as the company prepares for a public listing. In an interview with Bitcoin Magazine<\/em>, Compass Mining\u2019s Will Foxley commented on Bitmain\u2019s divestiture of AntPool.<\/p>\n

\u201cMining pools are an obvious attack surface for regulators given their centralized nature,\u201d Foley said. \u201cIt’s unclear if regulators \u2018like\u2019 or \u2018dislike\u2019 pools, but rather it seems they wish to enforce old regulatory regimes on newer financial entities. Public companies do use mining pools here in the U.S. and will have to navigate this process with legal experts.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Compass Mining\u2019s report phrased it, these changes have set the stage for realizing public ambitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Bitmain has yet to IPO, a corporate restructuring in January 2021 has set the tone for an IPO in 2021,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n

Regarding the likelihood of a successful public listing for Bitmain, Foxley emphasized that the company\u2019s previous experience in this realm may offer key lessons and, ultimately, success this time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cBitmain tried listing in Hong Kong in 2018\/2019 but eventually pulled its application,\u201d he said. \u201cAs they plan to go public with a more streamlined, manufacturing-only approach, I’d expect them to seek a Hong Kong listing, given most of their core business operations still reside in China.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitmain\u2019s path toward a public listing can tell us a lot about the institutionalization of the Bitcoin mining industry at large.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2916,"featured_media":7570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[719,189,907,197,347,2641,2799],"class_list":["post-15232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-antpool","tag-bitcoin-mining","tag-bitdeer","tag-bitmain","tag-china","tag-compass-mining","tag-ipo"],"author_data":{"id":2916,"name":"Jessie Willms","nicename":"jessie-willms","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34e39b2d2b80d0f1b4eaf183ca23eff71d1e903536d749658f27936a80197dee?s=96&d=robohash&r=g"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/will-this-vulnerability-finally-compel-bitmain-to-open-source-its-firmware.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2916"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}