Cango Inc., a Chinese automotive services company that trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has quietly become one of the largest public bitcoin miners in the world.
According to an unnoticed Cango press release from November 15, Cango purchased 32 EH/s of Antminer ASICs (~4% of the Bitcoin network hashrate) from Bitmain for $256 million in cash, and it has another 18 EH/s under contract with a company owned by Bitmain’s former CFO, Max Hua. If the 18 EH/s deal closes, Cango would operate 50 EH/s, putting it on par with MARA in terms of self-mining hashrate.
Cango’s 32 EH/s purchase consists of actively-hashing units hosted at facilities operated by Bitmain in the United States. For the second, pending acquisition of 18 EH/s, Cango is currently under contract with Golden TechGen Limited in an all-stock transaction for $144 million. Notably, the ex-CFO of Bitmain, Max Hua, owns 100% of Golden TechGen Limited.
Cango and Golden TechGen are expected to close their deal on March 31, 2025, according to an SEC filing for the sale agreement. Per the agreement, Hua has the ability to appoint two members to Cango’s board of directors, so long as his stake in the company exceeds 5%.
With a market capitalization of $500 million, Cango shares were up 54% week-over-week and 584% year-to-date as of market close on December 17. For Q3, Cango reported $3.8 million in revenue and a total outstanding balance of financing transactions of $685.7 million. The company reported that it mined 363.9 BTC in November, all of which it currently holds and which is worth $38.76 million at the time of writing.
A source close to the matter, who asked to remain anonymous, said that Cango’s initial fleet consists entirely of Antminer S19 XPs. Given the deal’s $256 million price tag – and assuming the fleet does in fact consist solely of S19 XPs – Cango purchased the units for $8 per terahash. Those numbers square with recent figures from Luxor’s ASIC Trading Desk data shared with Blockspace from the week of November 11 – 15, 2024, which show that S19 XPs selling at $7.5 per terahash for orders greater than 500 units.
The sale comes at a time of flux for Bitmain. As reported by Blockspace at the end of November, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency has been holding Antminer S21 and T21 units at ports of entry into the United States at the request of the Federal Communications Commission. Bitmain also announced that it has opened a manufacturing center in the United States to assemble S21 series ASICs.
In its service agreement with Bitmain, Cango will host the ASICs at Bitmain-operated facilities for 18 months. The hosting terms include a clause that will allow the facility owners to purchase the hosted ASICs. At least a portion of the 32 EH/s fleet seems to be located in Georgia, according to a sales agreement with Bitmain subsidiary Bitmain Technologies Georgia Limited, which also lists Georgia as its relevant jurisdiction.
