As some of you freaks may know already, Bitmain's IPO prospectus was released a few days ago. Bitmain has been a huge news item for well over a year now, as they have attempted to wield their influence on the Bitcoin protocol. These attempts have culminated in their material support of Bitcoin Cash, which is evidenced by the amount of BCH they are currently holding on their balance sheet. For the last few months, there have been swirling rumors of Bitmain's failing business (some of which I have propagated in this rag) which revolve around losses stemming from their BCH holdings, bunk batches of miners that they had to write off, and overall disarray at the controversial mining hardware company as the chip design team decided to up and leave.
The ultra high-quality team from Bitmex research was kind enough to give us an update on Bitmain as they approach their IPO, and it looks like things may not be as bad as previously rumored. It looks as if they have more cash on deck than people thought, which gives Bitmain some cushion to make up for past mistakes and attempt to right the ship. With that being said, there are still parts of their business that may be irreparably damaged, mainly their chip design team and the ground their losing with the ongoing delay of the release of their 7nm chip products.
On top of this, it's important to note the relationship Bitmain and other manufacturers have with TSMC, one of four (I believe) semiconductor manufacturers in the world that mining companies depend on. The mining companies rent out space on TSMC's manufacturing floor to produce the chips they design. They must rent this space out in advance and only have the allotted time they've scheduled to bang those puppies out. If they show up to the manufacturing floor with a shitty, or worse - no, design, they are shit out of luck. So definitely keep this in mind as Bitmain scrambles to find a new chip design team. It would be pretty impressive if they were able to hire new talent that was able to turn around a profitable chip design after the drama of having their current team just get up an leave, but I am not holding my breath for this.
As always, we here at the Ƀent will be following Bitmain as it approaches it's IPO. As I type, the price of BCH is surging towards the end of the quarter. I'm sure this is a natural market movement and not an attempt from Bitmain to manipulate the market up so their Q3 numbers look better for the IPO. Definitely just a coincidence.
Final thought...
Nothing like the first crisp Fall morning of the year. I bid the farewell Summer, my friend.
