Bitmain has announced a new ASIC mining chip that offers improved power and energy efficiency, ahead of a new range of Antminers to be released later this year. The announcement of this next generation chip comes as reports emerge of huge losses towards the end of 2018 that could have a significant impact on the company’s IPO application.
Bitmain Introduce the BM1397
Bitmain’s new chip, the BM1397, was announced by the mining giant Monday and comes with claims that it “achieves new feats in performance, chip area, and energy efficiency”. Aimed at miners of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash using the SHA256 algorithm, the chip boasts a 28.6% power efficiency increase in comparison with their most recent chip, the BM1391. The BM1397 chip will feature in new Antminer S17 and T17 models that will be announced by Bitmain at a later date.
The firm claims that their innovations “enable anyone, anywhere to mine and benefit from cryptocurrencies”. While this may be technically true, unless you have the capacity to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on mining equipment, storage and cooling there really is little point in getting into the ASIC miner game.
We’re proud to announce the BM1397, our all-new 7nm ASIC to mine cryptocurrencies using the SHA256 PoW, thus far our most efficient ASIC. Learn more: https://t.co/cW3Sh2IgNL
Follow @Antminer_main and stay tuned for #AntminerS17 and #AntminerT17.#BitcoinCash #Bitcoin— BITMAIN [Not giving away ETH] (@BITMAINtech) February 18, 2019
$500 Million 2018 Q3 Loss
Bitmain’s announcement comes at a time when their finances have come under scrutiny again, following the revelation that their balance sheet for Q3 of 2018 showed a near $500 million loss. The results, calculated by CoinDesk, came after Bitmain provided an update on its financial results to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which is reviewing their application for an initial public offering (IPO). If confirmed, these results would come as no surprise given the torrid time the company has endured since the crypto bubble burst this time last year, with layoffs, shutdowns, and lawsuits to contend with, and would confirm rumors that began in December that they were facing huge losses. How these numbers will affect their IPO, and their $12-$14 billion valuation remains to be seen, but the fickle nature of cryptocurrency may yet hit Bitmain harder than any determined HODLer.
