Canaan with AvalonMiners to Become the First Blockchain Company to IPO in Hong Kong

Canaan Inc., a Chinese bitcoin mining company, applied to list on Hong Kong Stock Exchange on May 15.

SEE ALSO: 9 Chinese provinces issue blockchain guidance

In its prospectus to the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX), it reads the company’s operating revenue in 2017 reached 1.3 billion yuan ($0.2 billion), with an over fourfold increase year-on-year. Its net profit was 360 million yuan ($56.61 million) the same year, achieving a year-on-year increase of 6.9 times.

In previous years, the revenue of Canaan Inc. was 47.7 million yuan ($7.5 million) in 2015, 316 million yuan ($49.69 million) in 2016, and 1.31 billion ($206 million) in 2017— 27 times that of 2015.

With the profit of 1.51 million yuan ($0.24 million) for the year of 2015, and 52. 54 million yuan ($8.26 million) for 2016, Canaan Inc. saw a sudden rose to 361 million yuan ($56.77 million) in 2017, equivalent to over 230 times the performance in 2015.

Canaan Inc. was established in April 2013 by the now 35-year-old Dr. Zhang Nangeng, also known in the industry as “Pumpkin Zhang”. Zhang designed AvalonMiner, the world’s first ASIC bitcoin miner in 2011, also marking the end of computer mining.

From then on, the Chinese bitcoin mining industry as represented by AvalonMiner began to top the world.

Canaan Inc. now has the second-largest market share in the world, following Bitmain, another Chinese bitcoin mining company who dominates about 60% of the world’s total computing power. According to the prospectus, the total computing power of Canaan’s ASIC miners accounted for 19.5% of the combined total power of all bitcoin mining products in the market in 2017.

If Canaan successfully goes public on HKEX, it will be the first HK listed company with blockchain as the main business.