Chinese companies are racing to raise funds and enter into or expand their existing operations in the Bitcoin space, largely thanks to Bitcoin's recent price action.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that Chinese Bitcoin mining application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) producer Ebang based $170 million in two separate funding rounds last month, after also conducting an offering in November and launching its shares on Nasdaq in June. Guo Yi, the chief operating officer at Univest Securities, said:
Ebang’s growth story is very attractive to institutional investors [...] fundraising by all industry players is getting busier thanks to the Bitcoin bull.
Code Chain New Continent, a local waste recycling firm, raked in $25 million from investors through a share placement last month, to fund its Bitcoin mining operations. The company's CEO David Feng said that it had bought 10,000 mining ASICs since Bitcoin’s price presented the firm with “a unique opportunity to establish mining operations.”
Managing partner at Hong Kong-based blockchain venture capital firm Kenetic Capital Jehan Chu commented that the number of projects launched in this industry in China increased in part thanks to initiatives conducted by major local firms like insurance giant Ping An and financial services behemoth Ant Financial. He added that "competition is white-hot and filled with sharp elbows. [...] Every good-quality funding round is oversubscribed within a week of it being announced."
The situation is further inflamed by ongoing developments in the United States market. Jiang Changhao, the co-founder and chief technology officer of Chinese crypto custodian Cobo said that the recent announcement of major American Bitcoin exchange Coinbase going public will probably make the atmosphere even more intense:
Everyone can feel this euphoric atmosphere in the market, and Coinbase’s listing would lift the mood further. [...] The market is bullish and our business is growing very, very rapidly.