Share this article
Bitcoin Mining Giant Invests $1.6 Million in Trading Platform
Beijing-based mining giant Bitmain has invested $1.6m in bitcoin data and trading services provider BitKan.
By Pete Rizzo
Updated Sep 11, 2021, 12:13 p.m. Published Apr 14, 2016, 8:08 p.m.
Make us preferred on Google
Beijing-based mining giant Bitmain has invested $1.6m in bitcoin-focused data and trading services provider BitKan.
Bitmain
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
was the sole investor in the Series A round, which follows an angel round investment from Lanqi Venture Capital Investment last November. Based in Shenzhen, BitKan offers bitcoin data and pricing services, and recently launched an over-the-counter (OTC) bitcoin trading service.
Founded in 2013, BitKan was launched by former employees of China-based IT giant Huawei. The firm offers Google Play and iTunes apps, and the startup hopes to leverage its existing reach to encourage trading on its platform.
The firm said in statements that the investment and the new trading feature represent a formal change in the company’s business strategy, one that positions it more as a competitor to existing peer-to-peer bitcoin trading services.
A spokesperson told CoinDesk:
"The new feature, when leveraging BitKan's existing user base and news and price charting functionality, holds great potential that has already been demonstrated by services with similar functionality such as LocalBitcoins."
In addition to manufacturing mining hardware, Bitmain also operates Antpool, the world’s largest bitcoin mining pool at press time with 28% of the network’s hashrate.
The investment finds Bitmain becoming increasingly willing to invest its funds in the wider bitcoin ecosystem, following its participation in a March funding round for smart contract platform Rootstock and its February investment in Israeli payments service Simplex.
Image via BitKan
More For You
Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale.
What to know:
Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token.
The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility.
More For You
HYPE token's 30% surge is a story of crypto-traditional market convergence, treasury firm says
HYPE has surged 30%, outperforming bitcoin, ether and the CoinDesk 20 index by a big margin.
What to know:
- Hyperliquid's HYPE token has surged more than 30% to $33, far outpacing bitcoin, ether and the broader crypto market, as trading activity on the platform accelerates.
- The token rally represents the merging of traditional assets with the crypto world, according to Hyperion DeFi, which is a HYPE treasury company.
- Originally a crypto perpetuals exchange, Hyperliquid has expanded into tokenized trading of equity indices, individual stocks, commodities and major fiat pairs via its HIP-3 upgrade.
Top Stories
