World’s first bitcoin miner IPO draws near for Bitcoin Group
The world’s first bitcoin mining IPO is drawing near, as Australia’s Bitcoin Group Limited launches a “pre-IPO”.
After two failed attempts to list, could it be third time lucky for the company? Bitcoin crowdfunding platform BnkToTheFuture has launched a fund to invest in the firm, with less than a month to go until its flotation.
Bitcoin Group, Australia’s biggest bitcoin mining companies, is one of the first cryptocurrency firms in the world to list on a major stock market, and the first bitcoin miner to do so. BnkToTheFuture’s chief executive Simon Dixon said:
Stock exchanges around the world have a long history in listing gold and oil mining stocks, but Australia will become the first ever to list this new form of mining stock.
The fund has already raised some £1.9m since it was launched yesterday, and Bitcoin Group’s chief executive Sam Lee called the upcoming float a “milestone”, saying it would be “bringing clarity and accountability” around the benefits of bitcoin.
The miner has already tried to list twice, but was thwarted both times by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The third attempt, however, was approved in September this year.
The company mined almost £950,000 of the digital currency last year, with bitcoin’s wildly varying price putting revenue projections for the year ending June 2016 between £10-30m.
Bitcoin and blockchain firms are growing rapidly, and earlier this summer Coinsilium became the first public bitcoin company in London, when it floated on the junior market Aim.