China-based Bitmain, a leading bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer which owns a large portion of the flagship cryptocurrency’s hashrate, has reportedly been valued at $12 billion in its latest Series B funding round.
According to local news outlet Caixin, the round brought in between $300 and $400 million, and was led by various notable companies, including US-based hedge fund Coatue, Singapore government-backed investment fund EDBI, and Sequoia Capital China.
Per Caixin’s report, the funding round stands out as Bitmain’s Series A funding round saw it raise $50 million in July of 2017. This time the company, which last year is said to have raked in $3 billion in revenue, was valued at $12 billion.
The outlet’s report restated that the company is looking into conducting its own initial public offering (IPO), with a pre-IPO funding round set to come in the future. No specific details, however, were presented.
The bitcoin mining giant is notably not the only bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer looking to conduct an IPO, as one of its competitors, Caanan Creative, has confirmed in May it applied for an IPO worth around $1 billion with the Hong Kong Stock exchange.
Bitmain is notably seen as one of the most powerful companies in the cryptocurrency space. Led by 32-year-old Jihan Wu, it was recently named one of the 21 EOS block producers (BPs) – just like Genesis Mining – and sells its own mining machines.
@JihanWu on the current #ICO hype, the unfortunately dishonest parts about it and the importance of working closely with regulators. pic.twitter.com/aWc6kdclML
— BITMAIN [Not giving away ETH] (@BITMAINtech) May 18, 2018
Along with a high sales volume, Bitmain owns AntPool and BTC.com, which combined have nearly 35 percent of the flagship cryptocurrency network’s hashrate. It also holds shares in ViaBTC, which controls an additional 12.6 percent of the hashrate.
In theory, Bitmain could pull a 51 percent attack on bitcoin, but its co-founder and CEO Jihan Wu argues the move would be foolish, as it would lead to economic losses for him and his company.
As reported, the company is set to invest $50 million in the IPO of Opera, the company behind the popular Opera browser, which is said to have over 320 million active monthly users.
