500.com to acquire bitcoin mining machines
The Chinese company expects to begin generating revenue from bitcoin mining in the first half of 2021.
China.- The Chinese sports lottery services provider 500.com has entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire bitcoin mining machines worth US$14.4m as it moves ahead with plans to enter the cryptocurrency arena.
In a press release, the firm stated that the hash power capacity of the machines acquired in the transaction is estimated to be approximately 918.5 petahashes (quadrillion hashes) per second.
The company will issue 11,882,860 Class A ordinary shares valued at $1.21 per share to fund the purchase from an unnamed non-US seller – not a minor detail considering the current tensions between China and the US.
The purchase includes S17, T17, M20s and S9 machines which are expected to be up and running within four weeks of the acquisition.
This transaction is expected to close in the first quarter subject to the completion of conditions. The company said it expects to begin generating revenue from Bitcoin mining in the first half of the year.
Cryptocurrency venture
The sports lottery service provider had announced in December that its board of directors intended to explore business opportunities in blockchain and cryptocurrency.
With that in mind, the board appointed Xianfeng Yang as the chief executive officer and Bo Yu as the chief operating officer.
The company described Yang as an executive with “extensive experience in the cryptographic digital virtual currency industry” after leading the construction and operation of Loto Interactive’s big data centre.
