Another mining company lining up for listing? Foreign media reports Bitfury considering applying for IPO in Europe

It seems that the mining industry is really short of money this year.

While the three major domestic mining companies are still waiting for the final push at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, another mining company on the other side of the ocean, Bitfury, is also queuing up for its IPO.

Cryptocurrency mining startup Bitfury is considering strategic options, including an initial public offering (IPO), Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

People familiar with the matter said Bitfury has approached investment banks to seek an IPO in Amsterdam, London or Hong Kong as early as next year. The company is exploring a range of options and may decide to raise funds through debt or sell a minority stake. If Bitfury can go public within two years, its valuation may be between $3 billion and $5 billion, which is expected to be the industry's first large IPO in Europe.

Bitfury declined to comment.

In fact, as early as 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported that Bitfury would be listed on the New York Stock Exchange as early as early 2015, and was expected to become the first publicly listed company in the digital currency mining equipment industry. At present, it is obvious that the result has failed.

If this listing is successful, it will not be the first blockchain stock in Europe. In August this year, Argo Mining, a mining company based in the UK, was successfully listed on the London Stock Exchange and successfully raised 25 million pounds, or about 32.5 million US dollars, through IPO.

However, Bloomberg cited people familiar with the matter as saying that some investment banks have refused to provide advisory services on IPOs in the industry, given the uncertain future of cryptocurrencies and the lack of unified regulation.

Meanwhile, large financial institutions remain open to investing in the sector. This month, Fidelity Investments announced the launch of a new company for its institutional clients, Fidelity Digital Asset Services LLC, to manage digital assets for hedge funds, family offices and trading firms.

According to public information, Bitfury was founded in Russia in 2011. In the early days, it was an ASIC bitcoin mining chip R&D team. Now it has transformed into blockchain basic data services and transaction processing services. It has established management offices in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Hong Kong, Amsterdam and London, and has also opened a bitcoin mining center in Norway, and established mining data centers in Iceland and the Republic of Georgia.

Bitfury, which is majority owned by Chief Executive Officer Valery Vavilov and co-founder Valery Nebesny, had revenue of about $450 million in the 12 months to March, according to a spokesman.

In March this year, Bitfury participated in Coca-Cola's blockchain project in cooperation with the US State Department; in July, BitFury signed a cooperation agreement with Bitcoin mining company Hut8, announcing a project to build the largest cryptocurrency mining farm in North America.

In the process of Bitfury's globalization, Bitfury has also had many collaborations with China. In 2016, China's listed company Credit Holding Co., Ltd. (China Credit, stock code: 8207) announced an investment of approximately 6.38% of BitFury's equity and established a joint venture with BitFury in China to promote blockchain technology and develop blockchain-based Internet financial business. In 2017, Bitfury Group announced a strategic partnership with the electronic signing platform Shangqian.