Softbank, Tencent refute reports on investment deal with bitcoin mining giant Bitmain

Bitcoin mining with the Raspberry Pi, using an AntMiner U2.

Softbank has refuted recent reports that suggested it participated in bitcoin mining giant Bitmain’s latest funding round, CoinTelegraph reported.

Earlier this month, reports floated in the media (which originally appeared on Chinese news outlet QQ) that Bitmain closed a pre- Initial Public Offering (IPO) funding round, which brought its valuation to $15 billion. Tencent, Softbank, and China Gold were some of the investors that reportedly participated in the round.

According to the latest report from CoinTelegraph, Kenichi Yuasa of the Corporate Communication Office of SoftBank Group Corp. denied any involvement saying:

“Neither the SoftBank Group Corp. nor the SoftBank Vision Fund were in any way involved in the deal.”

CoinTelegraph said that it received an anonymous tip that neither Tencent nor SoftBank were involved in any deal with Bitmain. Tencent has neither confirmed nor denied the investment deal.

Reports also suggested that Bitmain is planning to launch its IPO in September on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at an estimated valuation of $30 billion.

Blockstream CSO Samson Mow tweeted an image, reportedly from Bitmain pre-IPO investor deck, which showed that Bitmain was holding large amounts of Bitcoin Cash. In a series of tweets, Mow raises a number of questions on the company’s financial position and IPO plans:

Why is Bitmain raising capital so fast & only showing Q1 results to pre-IPO investors? We're well into Q3 now. The reason is Q2 was a disaster. Bitmain is sitting on a massive $1.24 billion USD in inventory & S9 prices dropped by ~85%! Q2 losses range in the $600-700 millions. pic.twitter.com/fVYcDRTvBp
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) August 13, 2018

From the Pre-IPO deck, it looks like Bitmain is valuing itself at $14 billion based on projections of $1.87 billion net profit for 2018. That projection is highly unlikely given expected Q2/Q3 losses. Will be interesting to see @KPMG's numbers for those quarters. #BitmainIPO pic.twitter.com/p3vvEVKHUP
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) August 15, 2018

From what I hear, Bitmain is still actively trying to raise $1 billion more, at that crazy $14B valuation, trying to ride exuberance about a potential IPO, and spreading rumors of Tencent & Softbank participating to try to trigger FOMO.
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) August 15, 2018

I have it on good authority though that both Tencent & Softbank passed, so the article from @coindesk is incorrect. Savvy investors will pass because: 1) illiquid $BCH bags, 2) massive unsold inventory, 3) lost their key chip designer, & 4) failed next gen chips. #BitmainIPO
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) August 15, 2018

Only the dumb money is investing in the #BitmainIPO. There is no SoftBank and no Tencent. Only investors with no crypto background & no experience investing in ASICs/mining are involved. Have fun being taken for a ride. https://t.co/DMA9wYMRWG
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) August 19, 2018

Update: According to the latest update on AAStocks, Tencent has also denied joining Bitmain's latest funding round.