Bitcoin Mining Firm Canaan Makes Flat Wall Street Trading Debut

Shares of Bitcoin mining machine maker Canaan Inc. soared and fell in their trading debut before ending the day a penny below their offer price in its $90 million initial public offering.

Canaan’s American depository shares closed at $8.99 Thursday in New York trading. Earlier, the shares rose as much as 44% and fell as much as 8.8% after Canaan sold 10 million shares for $9 each Wednesday, pricing them at the bottom of the marketed range.

The Hangzhou, China-based company lost its lead underwriter, Credit Suisse Group AG, before the IPO, according to its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Canaan had earlier listed the size of IPO at as much as $400 million.

Twenty-nine companies based in China or Hong Kong have raised $3.34 billion in U.S. IPOs this year, about half the volume from the same period in 2018, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. This year’s listings have fallen 9.6% on a weighted-average basis. That compares with a 7% overall increase for all U.S. listings this year and a 15% increase in the S&P/BNY Mellon China ADR Index.

Canaan filed to list in Hong Kong before the city’s exchange indicated that it was “premature” for crypto-related businesses to go public in the Asian financial hub. While Bitcoin has more than doubled this year to more than $8,000 on Wednesday, its value is less than half of its all-time high in December 2017.

The offering was led by Citigroup Inc., China Renaissance Holdings Ltd. and CMB International Capital Ltd. The shares are trading on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol CAN.

Bloomberg