From auto finance to Bitcoin mining farms: a Chinese concept stock's bizarre transformation and an eight-year brewing capital chess game

The higher the mountain, the higher the devil.

In 2010, a car finance company called Cangu was established in Shanghai. With its founder bringing over a decade of industry experience, it targeted the long-tail market of small city car loans, quickly rising to prominence. In 2018, it listed on the NYSE, and that year, the auto transactions facilitated through its platform accounted for 3% of the national auto finance market, ranking first.

However, after the peak comes a long downhill. In 2022, its stock price fell from $11 at listing to $0.5, with annual losses exceeding 1.1 billion yuan. Declining traditional auto sales and the impact of the new energy direct sales model left Cangu, which was attempting to shift from finance to auto trading, unable to turn the tide.

By the end of 2024, the company announced a shocking transformation: to completely abandon the auto business and invest $400 million in mining machines, rapidly becoming one of the top three Bitcoin mining companies globally by hash rate. In this deal, new mining machines worth $256 million with a total hash rate of 32 EH/s were directly purchased from Bitmain.

Why could a low-profile auto finance company so decisively and smoothly cross into a completely unfamiliar field? This seemingly smooth transition is actually the result of long-planned capital operations.

The story’s other main character is the mining giant Bitmain. In 2018, it attempted to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with a peak valuation of $50 billion but failed due to the crypto bear market, internal power struggles, and a lack of convincing stories about its “AI chip transformation.” Going public became a thorn in its side.

With the direct listing route blocked, a backdoor listing became an option. The clue started in 2022 with a company called Antalpha, which mainly provided supply chain financing for miners and was dubbed “Bitmain’s core financing partner.” In May 2025, Antalpha successfully listed on Nasdaq.

Just one month before Antalpha’s listing, Cangu agreed to sell its auto business in China to a company called Ursalpha Digital for $352 million. Public records show that Ursalpha shares the same Hong Kong office address as Antalpha, with highly overlapping directors.

Meanwhile, another company called EWCL facilitated the sale as an introducer and aimed to acquire a large B-share stake in Cangu (each share with 20 voting rights) to gain control of the company. Documents show that the director of EWCL is actually the ultimate controller of Antalpha.

The picture is gradually becoming clear: through related companies, they acquired Cangu’s old business and control rights, injecting Bitcoin mining assets. But that’s not enough; to make this “shell” useful, they also need to shed the “Chinese concept stock” status.

Shortly after Antalpha’s listing, Cangu announced it would apply to cancel its “Chinese concept stock” status, citing that its core business had shifted to global Bitcoin mining. Subsequently, the company transitioned to directly trading Class A shares on NYSE.

This series of operations drew the attention of US lawmakers, who questioned whether Bitmain and Cangu were using complex structures to evade regulatory transparency. In response, all parties stated they strictly comply with US laws.

Perhaps to test the regulatory bottom line, Bitmain has been particularly cautious. In December 2024, EWCL increased its stake in Cangu to 49.61%, just 0.39% short of absolute control. This restraint of 0.39% is highly significant.

Another detail confirms that “backdoor listing” is not just a fantasy: in March 2025, Cangu mined 530 BTC. Based on the total network hash rate, its operational hash rate is at least 29 EH/s. This means the mining machines purchased from Bitmain were almost all in operation and deployed in mining farms.

However, even with a successful listing, a pure Bitcoin mining story alone cannot support Bitmain’s former high valuation. Analysts point out that the market needs new narratives, such as leveraging mining farm electricity resources to support AI large models. But the key is to have real orders, not just empty talk.

Currently, mining companies with genuine AI computing power orders can be valued at hundreds of billions of dollars. For Cangu, with a market cap of about $500 million, this represents a 30-fold growth potential. Whether Bitmain can give its investors from eight years ago an explanation still depends on whether it can tell and execute a compelling new “AI computing power” story.

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