Mining Giant Bitmain Posts $500 Million Loss in IPO Financial Filing

Mining hardware giant Bitmain lost about $500 million in the third quarter of 2018 amid an overall bearish market for cryptocurrency, CoinDesk has learned.

The Beijing-based company recently provided an update on its financial results to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which is reviewing Bitmain's application for an initial public offering first filed in September.

The update showed Bitmain earned around $500 million in the first nine months of last year, on slightly over $3 billion of revenues, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Bitmain previously disclosed it had grossed profits of $1 billion in the first half of 2018.

Subtracting that from a $500 million profit for the first nine months leaves it with a net loss of roughly $500 million for the third quarter.

Bitmain declined to comment for this article, citing its pending IPO application.

Bitmain had already signaled it had fallen on harder times with layoffs and office closures around the world beginning at the end of the last year that affected almost every unit of the company.

Further, the update provided to HKEx showed Bitmain's crypto holdings dropped in value from more than $800 million as of June 30 to less than $700 million at the end of the third quarter, the source said.

The company's IPO application, filed in late September, indicated that Bitmain mainly held bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, litecoin and dash, although it did not provide a breakdown of how much it held of each asset.

The nine-month financial update will not be revealed to the public unless Bitmain can proceed to a listing hearing with approvals from the HKEx before the six-month window closes on Mar. 26, the source said.