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How Chinese Lending Firm Cango Became a Bitcoin Mining Powerhouse

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The bitcoin (BTC) mining industry was shaken up in the last months of 2024 by the sudden entrance of a new player: Cango (CANG), a Chinese firm that specializes in providing loans to automobile buyers.

Based in Shanghai and valued at $363 million on the stock market, Cango is in the process of acquiring 50 exahashes per second (EH/s) worth of mining power, meaning that the auto lending platform will become one of the largest bitcoin miners in the world once its entire fleet goes online.

“I guess it’s surprising for people in the [bitcoin mining] industry because nobody has ever heard of Cango before,” Juliet Ye, the company’s senior director of communications, told CoinDesk in an interview. “But the history of Cango is a history of adaptation. We’ve diversified into different areas at least two or three times [since the firm was established in 2010].”

Getting such a large bitcoin mining fleet isn’t cheap. Cango paid $256 million in cash for the first 32 EH/s worth of computing power, which it purchased from bitcoin mining machine manufacturer Bitmain. It will be issuing $144 million worth of shares for the remaining 18 EH/s, which it is acquiring from Golden TechGen — a firm owned by former Bitmain Chief Financial Officer Max Hua — as well as other undisclosed mining machine sellers. Once the transaction is settled, Golden TechGen and these other sellers will end up owning approximately 37.8% of Cango.

The diversification into bitcoin mining is already bearing fruit. Cango’s stock finished 2024 at $4.56, up more than 362% from the start of that year. Even better, Ye said, this new bitcoin mining strategy has catapulted Cango into the spotlight.

“It’s been really hard for us to gain traction around the company, as a small- to mid-cap listed Chinese firm in the U.S.,” Ye said. “All of a sudden, a lot of people are very much interested in Cango. The buzz around the company — we’ve never seen this before in the past.”

50 EH/s

Cango is more used to helping Chinese banks issue loans for people looking to buy cars. But the firm, which went public in 2018, was already diversifying its operations years before acquiring its bitcoin fleet.

Cango started facilitating car exports from China to other parts of the world and has invested in Li Auto, a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer. Following that investment, Cango explored business opportunities in the renewable energy sector, including high-compute power projects related to AI, before venturing into on bitcoin mining.

“Bitcoin mining is a very good way to rebalance energy grids,” Ye said, referring to the fact that bitcoin miners can easily switch their rigs off and on again. Some jurisdictions, like Texas, take advantage of that ability by encouraging miners to operate in periods of low energy consumption, and paying them to shut down their machines when local demand surges, like during heatwaves or blizzards.

With Bitcoin’s hashrate now hovering at 823 EH/s, Cango will be providing roughly 6% of the total computing power behind Bitcoin once the firm’s 50 EH/s fully come online. For reference, MARA Holdings (MARA), the largest publicly traded miner in the world, owned a little over 47 EH/s worth of computing power as of November, per TheMinerMag data. CleanSpark (CLSK) and Riot Platforms (RIOT), the two next largest, stood at 32 EH/s and 26 EH/s respectively.

“The Bitcoin mining sector’s imperative for scaled operations was a pivotal consideration in our decision to enter this domain,” Cango’s management team told CoinDesk in an email.

“The current landscape is marked by industry consolidation, with larger-scale operations becoming increasingly dominant due to escalating mining difficulty and the necessity for state-of-the-art hardware.”

One major difference between Cango and other mining heavyweights is that Cango isn’t operating its own mining fleet right now. With machines spread out around the world — including in the U.S., Canada, Paraguay and Ethiopia — Cango is still relying heavily on Bitmain for facilities and infrastructure, and to make sure the sites run smoothly.

“Even though we enter the industry with a significant amount of computing power, we are still new here, and we need time to adapt to the norms, and get a better understanding of the tax situation and the rest of the market,” Ye said. “So at the beginning, we chose to work together with Bitmain and to use its operations teams.”

That situation is likely to change over time, Ye said, as Cango gains experience in the sector and seeks to make its bitcoin mining operations more economically efficient. Nurturing an in-house mining team would likely be cheaper than relying on Bitmain’s expertise in the long run.

As for what Cango plans to do with its growing bitcoin stash, that will depend on how the year unfolds, Ye said. “We don’t rule out the possibility of making some tactical reductions [to the bitcoin holdings] based on market conditions,” she said. Cango mined 363.9 BTC in November alone, a sum worth roughly $35 million at the time of writing.

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AVAX Surges 10.7% as Bullish Breakout Signals Strong Momentum

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Avalanche’s AVAX token has broken out of its multi-week correction phase, demonstrating remarkable strength despite ongoing geopolitical tensions affecting cryptocurrency markets.

The broader market gauge, CoinDesk 20 Index (DLCS), has demonstrated exceptional bullish momentum, surging from 1403.33 to 1461.17 in the last 48 hours, representing a 4.12% gain, while the overall range spans 95.56 points (6.97%) from the low of 1365.61 to the high of 1461.17.

The recent price action of AVAX shows accelerated momentum with the formation of a bull flag pattern and decisive breakout above $20.40, coinciding with significant institutional developments in the ecosystem, according to CoinDesk Research’s technical analysis data.

Technical Analysis Highlights

  • AVAX demonstrated remarkable strength, surging from 18.87 to 20.89, representing a 10.7% gain.
  • Price action reveals a clear bullish trend with higher lows forming a strong support trendline around 19.50.
  • After consolidating between 19.30-19.70 on April 20, AVAX experienced a significant breakout on April 21, with volume increasing substantially as the price pushed above 20.00.
  • The most recent 48 hours show accelerated momentum with the formation of a bull flag pattern and a decisive breakout above 20.40, suggesting further upside potential.
  • Key resistance at 20.90 now becomes the level to watch, with Fibonacci extension targets pointing to 21.50 as the next significant objective.
  • In the last 100 minutes, AVAX surged from 20.61 to 21.04, representing a 2.1% gain.
  • After consolidating between 20.50-20.60 during the 13:20-13:40 timeframe, price formed a solid base before initiating a powerful upward move.
  • The decisive breakout occurred at 14:40 with extraordinary volume (146,387 units), creating a strong support level at 20.80.
  • Multiple high-volume candles followed between 14:44-14:48, pushing the price through the critical 21.00 psychological barrier with the highest volume spike (142,112 units) at 14:47.
  • This breakout completes the bullish pattern established in the previous 48 hours, with Fibonacci extension targets now suggesting 21.50 as the next significant objective.

Disclaimer: This article was generated with AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy. This article may include information from external sources, which are listed below when applicable.

External References:

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Janover Buys Another $11.5M in SOL, Gets Renamed Amid Crypto Treasury Strategy Play

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Janover (JNVR), the real estate-focused fintech company with a Solana (SOL) treasury strategy, has been renamed to DeFi Development Corp and purchased another $11.5 million worth of SOL tokens, the firm said on Tuesday.

The move brings the company’s total SOL holdings to 251,842, including staking rewards, the company said. That’s valued at around $36.5 million, with SOL currently trading around $145.

JNVR shares were down 2.5% today at $38.3, well below last week’s peak just shy of $80. However, the stock is still up over 800% since adopting the crypto treasury strategy. SOL advanced nearly 5% over the past 24 hours, with the broader crypto market climbing higher.

The purchase was part of the Boca Raton, Florida-based company’s new crypto bet to position itself as the first U.S.-listed company with a treasury strategy centered on Solana and its native token SOL.

As part of the strategy, the firm seeks to accumulate SOL and operate one or more validators to secure the blockchain. The pivot happened after a team of former executives of crypto exchange Kraken bought a majority stake in the firm earlier this month.

Read more: Janover Takes Page From Saylor Playbook, Doubling SOL Stack to $20M as Stock Soars 1700%

The purchase was made using funds from a $42 million financing round the company completed earlier this year. Based on the latest figures, each share of the company represents 0.17 SOL, up 62% from its last crypto purchase, according to the press release.

The firm will also change its ticker to DFSV on the Nasdaq exchange at a future date to reflect its new name.

Last week, the company announced a strategic partnership with Kraken with plans to delegate part of the exchange’s SOL holdings to stake to validators operated by DeFi Development Corp. The firm also teamed up with BitGo to acquire locked tokens via over-the-counter markets.

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Arch Labs Raises $13M in Funding for Bitcoin-Based Smart Contracts

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Bitcoin decentralized finance (DeFi) developer Arch Labs raised $13 million in funding toward building «ArchVM,» which the developers say will provide smart-contract functionality on the original blockchain.

The funding round, which valued the company at $200 million, was led by Pantera Capital, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

Arch’s plans to enable decentralized applications and protocols natively on Bitcoin.

ArchVM will handle off-chain computations to enable «Turing-complete smart contracts at the Bitcoin base layer» and provide Solana-like transaction speeds, Arch Labs said in the announcement.

The goal of introducing smart contracts to Bitcoin began to gather steam in October with the release of the BitVM computing language.

Numerous projects are now using BitVM as the basis for bringing smart contracts to Bitvcoin via layer-2 networks or bridges. Arch’s aim is to avoid the need to bridge assets to layer-2s, which could present additional risks.

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