According to CoinDesk, Bitcoin financial services firm Swan Bitcoin has decided to withdraw its plans to go public, discontinue its managed mining unit, and reduce staff across several departments. Swan CEO Cory Klippsten announced the changes in a social media post, stating that the company will continue to offer Bitcoin financial services and free Bitcoin education. Klippsten explained that without the expectation of significant near-term revenue from the Managed Mining unit, the company is pulling back from its IPO plans and reducing its accelerated spending on core financial services, which unfortunately includes staff cuts across many functions.
The decision comes as the mining landscape has become increasingly competitive following the recent Bitcoin halving, which reduced block rewards by half. Additionally, the availability of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has deterred many investors from the mining industry, limiting access to capital for miners. As a result, many miners are struggling to maintain profitability and are pivoting some of their infrastructure to serve artificial intelligence and cloud computing-related services.
Despite the challenges posed by the Bitcoin halving, several private miners are still aiming to go public following Bitcoin's record high earlier this year. Among them are Genesis Digital Assets, formerly backed by FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried, and two units of Northern Data, which are reportedly planning IPOs. Earlier this year, Swan had announced plans to go public within the next 12 months and had 160 megawatts (MW), or 4.5 exahash per second (EH/s), of computing power operational in its mining unit. The firm also mentioned that the mining business had been funded by institutional investors with over $100 million and aimed to raise more capital to expand its operations.
