Canaan Creative, the world’s second-largest producer of bitcoin mining hardware, has recently submitted an application for an initial public offering (IPO) worth around $1 billion.
According to those in the know, the Chinese company would like to begin trading as early as July, despite the fact that the size and timing of the IPO have not yet been publicly announced.
Speaking on its earnings, Canaan Creative’s parent company, Canaan Inc., which is based in the Cayman Islands, revealed on Tuesday that the group had revenue of around $203.8 million, with its profit surging six-fold in 2017.
If Canaan Creative’s bid for the IPO is successful, this will make it the first Hong Kong IPO from the cryptocurrency industry. Some major backers appearing on the filing including Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and Deutsche Bank.
We have no time to put our eyes on that since everyone knows that it's coming back. : ) We are always looking for long-term business, just like our machine's reliability.
Just work hard and get ready for the second half of 2018, cheers! pic.twitter.com/cYjAfJOUgr— Canaan (@canaanio) May 15, 2018
Founded in 2013, Canaan sells equipment under the guise of Avalon. Specializing in fast, customized chips that help users mine cryptocurrencies by solving complex problems, it holds a 15 percent share of the global market in its sector, with its Chinese rival Bitmain just pipping it to the post.
Growing from 50 million yuan (about $7.8 million) in 2013 to 7.3 billion (roughly $1.1 billion) yuan in 2017, the country’s ASIC-based cryptocurrency mining hardware market is expected to continue expanding in the years ahead, with forecasts suggesting that its value will reach 28.8 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) by 2020.
Despite this, Canaan has no intention of simply consolidating its successes. Announcing last year that it also plans to develop dedicated chips for use in artificial intelligence applications, the company looks set to expand its market dominance further.
Prior to pursuing this Hong Kong IPO, Canaan prepared to list itself on China’s National Equities Exchange and Quotations, an over-the-counter market known as the New Third Board, last year.