SoftBank: We didn’t participate in Bitmain’s last round

SoftBank, in an official response to what Bitmain, a cryptocurrency miner maker, announced last week that it has received investments from SoftBank among other high-profile backers, denied the claim saying “neither SoftBank nor the Vision Fund has taken part in the investment in any forms”.

Tencent, which was also named as one of the backers, declined to comment. However, SoftBank’s rebuttal still raised doubts of the authenticity of all announcements made recently by the company, which might even affect its Hong Kong IPO plan, which sets to happen in September at a valuation of more than US$30 billion, according to the company’s CEO Wu Jihan.

 Takeaways

– Bitmain is a Beijing-based crypto unicorn specializes in making cryptocurrency miners

– It accounts for 7 out of the 10 miners on the planet and claimed an operating profit in 2017 of $2.5b

– SoftBank’s rebuttal cast a shadow over the company’s planned Hong Kong IPO

Editor: Ben Jiang