Chinese mining company Ebang intends to raise $ 100 million through an IPO in the USA
Chinese mining equipment manufacturer Ebang International Holdings on Friday notified the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of its intention to raise up to $ 100 million in an initial public offering (IPO). Renaissance Capital, an investment consulting firm, reported.
The company plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker EBON. It will list Class A common shares at HK 0.001 or USD 0.00013 per IPO.
As noted by Renaissance Capital, Ebang was the leading manufacturer of Bitcoin mining equipment in terms of computing power in 2019. Nevertheless, last year its revenues decreased by 66% (from $ 319 million to $ 109.1 million), and gross profit went into the negative zone by 28%. Most of the revenue in 2019 came from the sale of devices from the E12 and E10 lines.
“The fall in the price of bitcoin in 2018 and the first quarter of 2019 was reflected by a significant decrease in the volume and average price of sales of equipment for bitcoin mining. Although the price of bitcoin began to recover in the second quarter of 2019, our performance generally lagged behind bitcoin, ”the company writes.
Ebang acknowledges that going forward, the behavior of the bitcoin market will also be a determining factor for its business: “Our performance is largely determined by the fluctuations in the price of bitcoin; in particular, they are strongly and negatively affected by the sharp drop in the price of bitcoin. Bitcoin's price tends to have a direct impact on the demand for our hardware, both in terms of price and quantity. We expect this trend to continue. "
The company also notes the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the price of bitcoin, coupled with its own business, and allows it to remain for the foreseeable future. Thus, the restrictive measures associated with the pandemic lead to a shortage of raw materials, reduce production capabilities, increase the risks of customer insolvency and delays in the supply of equipment.
In June 2018, Ebang already tried to conduct an IPO in Hong Kong, but then the exchange did not miss its application. Canaan Creative, another Chinese mining hardware company, raised $ 90 million last November through an IPO on the Nasdaq. Since then, its share price has dropped by more than 50%.
Fiat exchange provider Kraken leaked user data
Etana Custody, a crypto-custodian startup, leaked user data on April 18, writes The Block.
According to service representatives, an unauthorized person gained access to the client interface and, presumably, some data elements. User assets were not affected, the company stressed.
“Internal security systems were activated, including the protocols for processing client requests for transfer of funds, which allowed to neutralize the interference,” explains Etana.
The list of data that could be in the hands of an outsider includes customer names, email addresses, physical addresses and telephone numbers. Leakage of documents, such as driver's licenses and passports, is ruled out in the company.
Etana provides services to the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange to fund accounts with five fiat currencies (USD / EUR / CAD / GBP / JPY).
The trader who drew attention to the incident noted that Kraken did not contact customers about this. “I don’t know why Kraken didn’t contact me, given that the unique identifier of my account on the exchange was leaked,” he said.
“Our clients' funds remain safe. Soon we will contact clients directly, ”said a representative of the exchange.
BitMEX Announces Launch of ETH / USD Quanto Futures Contracts
The BitMEX cryptocurrency derivatives exchange announced the launch of a new product - ETHUSD quantum futures contracts with leverage up to 50x and settlement in bitcoins.
The launch of the new type of products will take place on May 5, the expiration date of the first contracts is in June, in the future, like all other contracts on BitMEX, they will be calculated quarterly.
In the vocabulary of traditional exchange traders, quantum futures contracts refer to contracts with a guaranteed exchange rate. Such contracts give investors the opportunity to participate in foreign assets and indices without being exposed to exchange rate risk. There are simple quantum futures and quantum options, and sometimes quanto traits are added to exotic options or to fixed income instruments such as obligations associated with ordinary shares.
The launched contracts will have a fixed multiplier in bitcoins, regardless of the price of ETH to USD.
This will allow traders to open long or short positions on ETH / USD rates without touching either of these two assets - the margin is calculated in XBT, they also earn or lose money in bitcoins.
Over the past 24 hours, BitMEX has ranked 4th in terms of futures trading volume, behind Binance, Huobi and OKEx.
As a reminder, this week the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a permit to work as a recognized participant in the futures market for the cryptocurrency derivatives platform Bitnomial.
Offering regulated futures and leveraged bitcoin futures and options, Bitnomial will enter a market that already has players like CME, Cboe, Bakkt, ErisX and LedgerX.
Impressive