Swan Bitcoin Abandons IPO Plans, Closes Mining Unit

Bitcoin investment company Swan Bitcoin has abandoned plans to go public soon and intends to shut down its managed mining operations.

In an X post on Monday, CEO Cory Klippsten said the company is scaling back its increased spending plan for its core financial services business. This rollback includes staff reductions across various departments, although he did not detail the exact number of job cuts.

“The Swans we’ve had to let go in our staff reduction this week are some of the best Bitcoiners on Earth, and I would gladly work with each and every one of them in the future,” he said.

ANNOUNCEMENT – @Swan is unlikely to continue with our Managed Mining business in the near term. Without the expectation of significant near-term revenue from our Managed Mining unit, we are pulling our plans to IPO in the near future.

Accordingly, Swan is pulling back from our…

— Cory Klippsten 🦢 #Bitcoin is for everyone (@coryklippsten) July 22, 2024

Swan Bitcoin Saw Team Double, Revenue Boom

In January, Swan disclosed that it had been developing a Bitcoin mining arm since mid-last year. The company also mentioned that it was considering a Series C funding round and aimed to go public within the next year.

Klippsten had said that Swan’s objective was to evenly distribute its mining rigs between the US and foreign locations. Still, he chose not to reveal the locations of most rigs. Additionally, Swan stated that its miners operate at 4.5 exahashes per second (EH/s), with plans to increase this output to eight EH/s by March.

Last year, Swan experienced substantial growth, doubling the size of its team and generating more than $125 million in annualized revenue.

Swan Scraps IPO as Competition Heats Up

Swan’s ditched IPO plans comes amidst a more challenging landscape for miners. The recent Bitcoin halving, which slashed block rewards in half, intensified competition.

Also, the emergence of spot Bitcoin ETFs has lured investors away from directly participating in mining, making it harder for miners to secure funding. This double whammy is forcing many miners to diversify beyond pure-play mining. They are increasingly using their infrastructure to offer services in artificial intelligence and cloud computing to stay profitable.