Cangos Bitcoin Mining Venture: A Strategic Move Towards Bitmain’s Dominance

Cango has agreed to sell its Chinese auto financing business for $352 million to a firm affiliated with a subsidiary of Bitmain, as noted by TheMinerMag.

According to a press release, the buyer is Ursalpha Digital Limited. The deal includes an upfront payment of $210.6 million, along with additional payments contingent on achieving tax obligations and reducing credit risk associated with the acquired entity.

Cango, which is publicly traded, stated that it entered the Bitcoin mining sector in November 2024. Shortly thereafter, the company became the third-largest public miner globally, boasting a hash rate of 32 EH/s. The equipment generating this hash rate, supplied by Bitmain, was valued at close to $300 million.

Journalists noted that as of September 30, Cango had less than $100 million in liquid assets, against total assets of $560 million.

In March, the company received a non-binding acquisition offer from Enduring Wealth Capital Limited, which is clearly linked to Bitmain’s financial arm, Antalpha, as reported by TheMinerMag.

This raised speculation that Cango’s mining initiative was originally designed to serve as a «proxy» for the leading ASIC miner manufacturer in the cryptocurrency mining industry. This would explain both the substantial amount of mining equipment the auto financing company amassed and the fact that it predominantly consisted of Antminer S19 XP models, while larger miners are increasingly offloading such devices in favor of the more efficient S21 series.

Investigative reporters found that Ursalpha Digital Limited, which is formally registered in the British Virgin Islands, shares a corporate address in Hong Kong with Antalpha. The founding director of the firm is Chiu Chang-Wei from Taiwan, who is also the CEO of Bitmain’s Singaporean financial division.

«Theoretically, Bitmain could list its Bitcoin mining assets publicly by first selling Cango’s deployed capacity of 32 EH/s and then using its subsidiary Antalpha for a dual absorption: one entity would acquire Cango’s cryptocurrency mining business, while another would take on its original auto financing division,» TheMinerMag suggested, outlining a possible strategy.

It is worth noting that due to the introduction of «protective» tariffs by U.S. President Donald Trump, all Bitmain factories in Southeast Asia are expected to suffer, industry experts have predicted.