Chinese Bitcoin Mining Firm Canaan Creative To List On Nasdaq

A bitcoin mining company in China is looking to raise capital in the neighborhood of $400 million and is aiming to file on the Nasdaq for an IPO, in what would be at least its third attempt to do so.

Reuters is reporting that Canaan Creative, one of the largest makers of hardware for bitcoin mining machines, previously failed to go public in both Hong Kong and China.

In its prospectus, the Hangzhou-based company says it is the second-largest mining machine designer and creator in the world. Canaan Creative needs the money to aid with artificial intelligence (AI) research and for debt repayment.

The company did not reveal the reasoning behind its decision to file again. When it listed in China about three years ago, it attempted to do a reverse merger with the purchase of an electric equipment company based in Shandong. After that didn’t work, the company filed for a Hong Kong float, which also failed over concerns of business viability and future prospects.

Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke about how he wanted blockchain technology in the country to continue to flourish and stressed the importance of China’s involvement. His message sent shares of cryptocurrency, blockchain and bitcoin itself on a healthy upward trajectory.

In 2017, Beijing stopped firms from bitcoin mining, and earlier this year it said it wanted to stop the practice altogether, which doesn’t bode well for Canaan Creative. Media in the country has also reported that innovation in the blockchain field shouldn’t be a way to drive speculation of cryptocurrency.

Founded in 2013, Canaan Creative makes, manufactures and sells high-performance circuit boards. The company has also created the bitcoin mining systems known as the Avalon series. Credit Suisse, Citigroup, China Renaissance and CMB International are all working on getting Canaan’s Nasdaq-aimed IPO off the ground.