Another Bitcoin Miner Maker Is Seeking to Go Public in Hong Kong

Ebang Communication, one of the largest bitcoin mining chip makers in China, is seeking to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX).

The company filed an application for an initial public offering with the HKEX on Monday, document shows. Since the application is still in draft form, it's unclear at this stage the valuation of the Zhejiang-based company or how much it intends to raise.

The filing confirmed an earlier report from Reuters which indicated in May that the firm was in talks with advisors for the move. According to the report at the time, Ebang was looking to raise as much as $1 billion, which, if true, could be the largest IPO in the cryptocurrency industry.

The filing also comes just a month after Ebang's rival bitcoin miner maker Canaan Creative submitted an IPO application to the HKEX, which was also reportedly aiming to raise $1 billion.

In addition, Ebang's filing today offered fine details on the firm's business operations.

Based on a financial statement included as part of the IPO filing, Ebang raised 925 million yuan ($141 million) in revenue in 2017 alone, marking a 17x year-on-year growth compared with 2016.

Similarly, the firm said in the document it recorded 380 million yuan (or $60 million) in net profit in 2017, which is 34 times more than that in the year before.

Founded in 2010, Ebang Communication started by manufacturing hardware products for the telecommunication industry. The firm later moved into the cryptocurrency mining business by launching its own Ebit miners in 2016 to compete with Chinese bitcoin mining giant Bitmain and Cannan Creative.

Notably, the financial document shows that in 2017, 94.6 percent of Ebang's revenue was generated from the sale of bitcoin miners. That number has also grown significantly from just 31 and 42 percent in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

According to the document, Ebang is also in the process of making its own 7nm bitcoin miners. As previously reported by CoinDesk, Japan's IT giant GMO Internet has already launched the world's first bitcoin miner equipped with a 7nm chip.

Bitcoin miner image via Shutterstock