Shares of Chinese cryptocurrency mining hardware firm Ebang International Holdings has officially started trading on the NASDAQ. The company, which is trading under the ticker symbol "EBON," priced its initial public offering (IPO) at $5.23 per share. This translated to a total offering size of $101 million given the 19.3 million shares that were made available.
Ebang International Holdings is one of the world's leading developers of cryptocurrency mining hardware, offering state-of-the-art 10-nanometer chips to miners worldwide. The company, which was founded in 2010, claimed in its prospectus that it is the global leader in the production of Bitcoin mining machines as of 2019.
The company's founder, chairman, and chief executive officer, Hu Dong, mentioned in a statement that the IPO should allow Ebang International Holdings to further expand its operations and help accelerate its development of new technologies to meet the demands of the cryptocurrency market. He added that the proceeds of the share sale will be used to support its expansion strategy and the introduction of new mining machines. Part of the proceeds will also be used to fund its marketing activities and for general corporate purposed.
The launch of its IPO in the US comes at a particularly precarious time given the escalating tensions between China and the US. The country's market regulators have also recently ramped up their efforts to single out US-listed Chinese companies, following the breakout of the Luckin Coffee scandal. Investor confidence in Chinese companies listed in the US has remained resilient, but the risks involved in the geopolitical conflict have had a toll on overall investor sentiments.
After its debut on Friday, Ebang International Holdings, unfortunately, closed 4.4 percent lower. The company launched a total of 19,264,337 Class A ordinary shares. Underwriters have the option to exercise an overallotment option, which would allow them to issue additional shares depending on the demand. Ebang International Holdings granted its underwriters the option to purchase up to 2,889,650 additional Class A ordinary shares within 30 days of the IPO's launch. Prime Number Capital LLC, Loop Capital Markets LLC, and AMTD Global Markets Limited acted as joint bookrunners for the IPO.
As of last week, Chinese firms listed in the US had experienced marginal gains. The S&P U.S. Listed China 50 index, which tracks the performance of the 50 largest Chinese firms in US capital markets based on total market cap, edged upwards by 13.96 percent month-to-date to 4,016 points. The index has so far surged by 26.8 percent for its year-to-date returns.
