MicroBT Sets Up First Offshore Bitcoin Miner Factory to Expand US Market Share

Chinese bitcoin miner manufacturer MicroBT is looking to grab a bigger slice of the U.S. market by setting up its first overseas production center.

The company said on Friday that it has partnered with New York-based Foundry Digital LLC and a Southeast Asian company in order to improve supply chain efficiencies for North American buyers of its flagship bitcoin mining equipment.

The Southeast Asian listed company – which MicroBT declined to name – is contracted to produce and deliver MicroBT's WhatsMiner equipment to U.S. investors, who would otherwise pay an additional 25% tax if they receive shipments directly from China due to U.S. tariffs.

The strategy is similar to that adopted by Beijing-based Bitmain, which contracts a production factory in Malaysia responsible for overseas manufacturing and shipments.

As part of the deal, Foundry, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG) that provides miner financing and procurement for institutions in North America, will be the first to receive new batches of MicroBT's WhatsMiner M30S equipment produced in the Southeast Asian facility.

DCG, which wholly owns CoinDesk, previously said it plans to invest more than $100 million into its Foundry business through 2021 to provide loans to bitcoin mining clients as well as buying equipment for them in bulk.

“With our collaboration and MicroBT’s upgraded production capabilities, we look forward to continuing to facilitate the timely procurement and delivery of the latest generation bitcoin mining hardware for our clients, who are institutional cryptocurrency miners in North America,” said Mike Colyer, CEO of Foundry.

The move also underscores MicroBT's effort to keep challenging Beijing-based Bitmain's dominance in the bitcoin miner market, both domestically and overseas.

MicroBT managed to boost its market share by selling some 600,000 WhatsMiner units worth more than $500 million in 2019. This coincided with Bitmain's ongoing internal turmoil, which has caused notable production and shipment delays.

“The Foundry team’s in-depth understanding of the mining business and regional expertise have already helped us in making the initial tests of this new supply chain a success,” said MicroBT's COO Jiangbing Chen. “We will continue working closely with Foundry to provide the highest quality of machines and after-sale services to our customers in North America."

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