Canaan Creative IPO: China Cryptocurrency Mining Giant Files $400M Public Offering

One of China's major crypto mining companies, Canaan Creative, is seeking funds from the U.S. market in a third shot at going public.

Canaan has just filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Oct. 28 to become a publicly-traded company in the United States. It intends to get listed on NASDAQ with the ticker symbol CAN and is looking to raise $400 million.

The maker of the Avalon Bitcoin mining chip series' SEC filing showed that the company earned $394 million in total revenue and pocketed $8.3 million in net income in 2018. However, in the first six months of 2019, the filing revealed that the company only generated $42.1 million in revenue, which is nowhere near half of what they earned last year. They're also at a net loss of $45.8 million.

Third times a charm?
The U.S. filing is also the company's third trial in going public. The first attempt was in mainland China where Shandong Luyitong, an electrical equipment manufacturer, planned to acquire Canaan for ¥3.06bn ($433 million), but the Shenzhen Stock Exchange blocked it due to uncertainties.

The second was in Hong Kong, where it initially planned to raise $2 billion but abandoned the plan when their filing exceeded six months since the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) was disinclined to approve companies in a volatile industry.

Chinese Mining Rival
Canaan is second only to Bitmain as the world's largest Bitcoin mining machine maker, and both companies are actively pursuing stock exchange listings.

Bitmain's HKEX filing also lapsed in March and shifted to the U.S. in June, a month ahead of Canaan's confidential filing in July. Bitmain's IPO documents unveiled that the company could have made a $500 million loss in the third quarter of 2018, which further demonstrates how last year's disinterest in cryptocurrencies hampered mining companies.

Texas Mining Farm
Bitmain is also making significant moves in the U.S. as it opened a mining facility in Texas that would challenge Peter Thiel and Shasta Ventures-backed Bitcoin mining company Layer1 for the title of the world's largest mining farm.