Bitcoin mining stock Ebang hits all-time low, blames halving and COVID

Bitcoin mining stock Ebang collapses after posting poor earnings. This shows a man asking if the stock is still alive.

Bitcoin mining chipmaker Ebang is trading at all-time lows after an earnings report failed to meet expectations — again.

Ebang reported just $19 million revenue for 2020, down nearly 83% year-on-year.
The company sold 92% less computing power (its Bitcoin miners) than in 2019.
Ebang posted $32 million net annual losses, up 20% from $41 million in the year prior.

Ebang stock is currently trading at $3.70, 50% less over the year-to-date.

The Bitcoin mining stock that can’t catch a break

Ebang’s poor annual earnings follow lacklustre returns in 2020’s fourth quarter, and a visceral short report by Hindenburg Research in early April.

Hindenburg accused the Bitcoin mining firm — headquartered in China — of self-dealing and exaggerating the volume of its new crypto exchange Ebonex, among other allegations.

Ebang’s share price tanked 20% in the days following, wiping hundreds of thousands of dollars from its market value.

Ebang later denied Hindenburg’s claims and said it launched an internal investigation in response. The results of that review haven’t been made public.

Ebang blames revenue collapse on COVID and… Bitcoin halving?

Ebang also curiously blamed the Bitcoin halving (which reduced the BTC mining reward by 50%) for its poor performance.

The firm claimed the scheduled event “significantly affected the expected returns on Bitcoin related activities such as mining [… resulting] in much lower demand.”

Needless to say, COVID and the Bitcoin halving haven’t had the same dramatic effects on Ebang colleagues like Marathon Patent Group and Riot Blockchain.

In fact, every other top Bitcoin mining stock is up over the past year, in some cases by thousands of percent. Ebang is down nearly 30%.

Although, Ebang sells Bitcoin miners as opposed to generating crypto itself.

Speaking to Hindenburg’s Ebang position, the outfit told Protos: “We are still short. Blaming Covid for poor performance when the rest of the crypto sector is raging is nonsensical.”

We’ve reached out to Ebang, and will include any response in an update.

Edit 18:16 UTC, May 4: Added context about Ebang in paragraph 11.