/biz/ - Business & Finance

>Chinese Miners

>David Pan
Thu, August 11, 2022 at 9:43 AM·3 min read
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Crypto Lender Tied to Chinese Rig Giant Throws Miners a Lifeline
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(Bloomberg) -- Chinese Bitcoin mining rig giant Bitmain Technologies Ltd. has been selling machines to miners for about nine years. Now it’s helping to keep them afloat during the cryptocurrency market downturn through its ties with industry financier Antalpha.

>itmain and its Antpool mining spinoff are working with Singapore-based Antalpha to offer low-interest loans to miners to help them reduce borrowing costs and repay nearly $4 billion in loans backed by equipment which have fallen in value along with the price of Bitcoin since it peaked in November.

Antalpha, which calls Bitmain and Antpool “strategic partners,” will use proprietary data from these two companies to enable it and other crypto lenders to evaluate financing risks, Max Liao, managing director of business development at Antalpha, told Bloomberg. Antpool is the second-largest Bitcoin mining pool in the world.

Bitmain has been one of the largest beneficiaries of the crypto-mining boom in North America after China banned it in May 2021. The mining-machine manufacturer and consultant, which is still based in China while operating subsidiaries overseas, continues to have strong pricing power. It has the lion’s share of the Bitcoin mining hardware market with as much as $5.6 billion in revenue over the last year, according to an estimate by crypto-mining company Luxor Technologies Corp. based on purchase orders and rig prices.