Shanghai-based auto dealer Cango Inc. has added Bitcoin (BTC) mining to its portfolio, announcing the acquisition of 32 exahash per second (EH/s) mining hardware from Bitmain Technologies for $256 million.

The company mined 363 BTC worth about $36 million in November without selling any assets, making it one of the leading players in the global Bitcoin mining industry.

The move makes Cango the fifth-largest public Bitcoin miner by realized hashrate and the third-largest by deployed hashrate, according to The MinerMag. Its output accounts for 4% of the daily BTC mined worldwide, a major achievement considering the firm is a newcomer to the sector.

Cango’s expansion into BTC mining is bolstered by strategic acquisitions. The initial purchase from Bitmain, including the rack-mounted miners, is reportedly being housed in the US, possibly Georgia, under an 18-month colocation agreement.

Such a contract allows the company to host its hardware with a service provider in a secure and managed environment without having to maintain its own data centers. This is especially important given that cryptocurrency mining was officially banned in China in May 2021 due to concerns about financial risks, energy consumption, and environmental impact.

Interestingly, even after the ban, Chinese mining pools still control a huge portion of the global BTC hashrate, estimated by some experts to be around 55%.

Cango is also planning to acquire another 18 EH/s from Golden TechGen, a company owned by former Bitmain CFO Max Hua. The deal, which is expected to close by the end of March 2025, includes a $144 million common stock offering, potentially bringing the NYSE-listed auto dealer’s total hashrate to 50 EH/s. This would put Cango on par with industry leaders like Marathon Digital Holdings .

Rumor has it that the hardware in question will include Bitmain’s Antminer S19XP rigs, purchased at a relatively competitive price of $8 per terahash per second (TH/s).

Bitcoin Bet Pays Off

With BTC prices hovering around the $100,000 level and the network hashrate jumping to $63 per petahash per second (PH/s), Cango’s foray into crypto is looking lucrative. While this also marks a dramatic shift away from the company’s roots as a provider of automotive transaction services, it is in line with the firm’s ongoing reinvention of itself.

Founded in 2010, it initially focused on vehicle financing before pivoting to car trading due to regulatory pressure in China. Earlier this year, it further diversified by launching AutoCango.com, a platform offering used Chinese cars to buyers around the world.

Cango has acknowledged, however, that its new BTC mining operation could dominate its revenue streams in the near term, especially given that its initial mining revenue was many times its third-quarter revenue of $3.84 million. The performance pushed the company’s share price from $3.41 to $6.91, increasing its market cap to $500 million.

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