What was to become the world’s largest cryptocurrency IPO, that of Bitmain, has been postponed. The cryptocurrency mining equipment maker, Bitmain, filed for an application for an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), but it lapsed, so the process is at halt.
According to news from Coindesk and from the HKEX webpage, the application of Bitmain has now been classified as “inactive”. Bitmain filed the IPO application in September, 2018.
One of the reasons is the following: According to a listing rule from the HKEX, “the latest financial period reported on by the reporting accountants for a new applicant must not have ended more than six months from the date of the listing documents.” The very last such filing made by Bitmain, however, was in the summer of 2018, a fact that breaks one of the rules of HKEX for public listing.
Another reason for the delay and the inactive status of the application is that HKEX is more or less hesitant to approve such filings by cryptocurrency-related companies, as the industry experiences huge volatility.
There is no clarity what will happen from now on with Bitmain’s plan to go public, but the company has published the following announcement on its website:
We will restart the listing application work at an appropriate time in the future.