Cango Exits Auto Business in $352M Deal to Mine Bitcoin for Bitmain

Cango is moving a step closer to becoming a Bitcoin mining proxy for Bitmain by agreeing to divest its Chinese auto-financing business for $352 million to a firm linked to Bitmain’s affiliate, Antalpha.

In a press release, Cango announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Ursalpha Digital Limited—a buyer introduced by Enduring Wealth Capital Limited (EWCL)—to sell its operations in China as part of a full pivot into Bitcoin mining.

Last month, Cango received a letter of intent from EWCL, which offered to take control of Cango’s mining business and assist in finding a buyer for its legacy auto-financing division. As previously reported, EWCL is tied to Antalpha, which is owned by Antpool and ultimately controlled by Bitmain Chairman Micree Zhan.

While Cango noted in Thursday’s release that Ursalpha Digital is registered in the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong corporate records show that Ursalpha Digital and Antalpha Digital Limited share the same corporate address and founding director—Chiu Chang-Wei, a Taiwanese national who also serves as a director of Antalpha’s Singapore entity.

According to Cango, the deal includes an upfront payment of $210.6 million from Ursalpha, with additional installments contingent on meeting tax obligations and reducing credit risk exposure of the divested entities.

Effectively, Bitmain could be bringing its proprietary Bitcoin mining assets into the public market by first selling 32 EH/s of on-rack hashrate to Cango, then using its Antalpha affiliate to orchestrate a two-pronged takeover: one entity acquiring Cango’s mining business and another acquiring its original auto-financing arm.

Cango mined 530 BTC in March and held 2,475 BTC at the month’s end. That production equates to a realized hashrate of 29.13 EH/s, placing Cango among the top five publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies.