Antalpha IPO, mining and financial company, Interpretation: The key move of Bitmain's financial chess game?

Author:Frank , PANews

Recently, a fintech company called Antalpha submitted a prospectus to Nasdaq, planning to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) under the code "ANTA". Antalpha is a financial solution provider in the field of Bitcoin mining. However, the close ties with mining giant Bitmain disclosed in its prospectus and the inextricable connections with Bitmain co-founder Zhan Ketuan make this IPO full of meaning worth exploring. In addition to the appearance of listing of financial technology companies, is it a key step in the expansion of Bitmain's financial territory?

The "financial blood transfusion" behind Bitcoin mining

Antalpha was founded in 2022. It has little introduction to itself on its official website, but it only focuses on the strategic cooperation relationship with Bitmain. According to its prospectus and public information, Antalpha's core business is to provide financing, technology and risk management solutions for digital asset institutions, especially Bitcoin miners. The goal is to help miners scale their operations and enable them to better manage the impact of Bitcoin price fluctuations by providing financing options, such as supporting miners’ “HODLing” strategies.

Antalpha's core products and services are mainly implemented through its technical platform Antalpha Prime. The platform allows customers to initiate and manage their digital asset loans and monitor collateral positions in near real-time. Its main source of income includes two aspects.

First, supply chain financing, which is reflected in "technical financing fees" and is the main revenue pillar of Antalpha. Specifically, it includes: mining machine loans, financing for the purchase of Bitcoin mining machines (usually listed mining machines purchased from Bitmain), and using the purchased mining machines as collateral. Computing Loans: Provide financing for mining-related operating costs (such as custody fees), and collateral is usually mined Bitcoin. According to data disclosed by Antalpha, as of December 31, 2024, a total of US$2.8 billion in loans have been facilitated, of which approximately 97% of supply chain loan customers’ loans are BTC guaranteed.

In addition to providing financing loans directly, Antalpha's other main business is Bitcoin loan matching services: this part of the revenue is reflected in "technology platform fees". Antalpha provides Bitcoin margin loan services to its non-US customers through the Antalpha Prime platform. It is worth noting that the funds for these loans have historically been provided primarily by their affiliate Northstar. In this mode, Antalpha plays the role of a technology and service provider, earns platform fees and does not assume the credit risk of these loans.

Financial data shows that Antalpha's total revenue in the most recent fiscal year (as of December 31, 2024) reached US$47.45 million, a year-on-year increase of 321%. Among them, the technology financing fee was US$38.7 million, an increase of 274% year-on-year; the technology platform fee was US$8.8 million, an increase of 859% year-on-year. The company also successfully turned losses into profits, achieving a net profit of US$4.4 million, compared with a net loss of US$6.6 million in the previous fiscal year.

In terms of loan size, as of December 31, 2024, Antalpha's total loan book size reached US$1.6 billion. Among them, the supply chain loan portfolio (mining machine loans and computing power loans) issued by Antalpha increased from US$344 million at the end of 2023 to US$428.9 million, a year-on-year increase of 25%. The scale of Bitcoin loans it serves for Northstar has grown rapidly from US$220.8 million at the end of 2023 to US$1.198.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of up to 443%. In terms of geographical distribution, its loan business is highly concentrated in Asia. As of the end of 2024, 77.4% of loans (about US$1.26 billion) have flowed to Asian customers.

Bitmain's "Financial Special Forces"

In its prospectus, Antalpha did not shy away from its close relationship with Bitmain, calling itself "Bitmain's main lending partner." The two parties even signed a memorandum of understanding, agreeing that Bitmain will continue to use Antalpha as its financing partner, and both parties recommend customers to each other, and that as long as Antalpha provides competitive terms, Bitmain grants Antalpha to serve its preferred acquisition rights to customers seeking financing.

This priority acquisition right means that Antalpha can prioritize access to Bitmain’s huge mining machine purchasing customer base, thereby greatly reducing customer acquisition costs and obtaining a continuous stream of business. The prospectus also mentioned that Antalpha and Bitmain work closely together at all levels from sales to operations to senior management, which is an indispensable part of Bitmain's sales and business initiation process.

However, Antalpha's connection with Bitmain is not just about the business cooperation level. A deeper connection is with Bitmain’s co-founder Zhan Ketuan.

The prospectus introduces the complex relationship between Antalpha and Northstar. Northstar has historically provided almost all of its funding for loans issued by Antalpha and has provided Bitcoin margin loans to non-U.S. customers through the AntalphaPrime platform. The key is that Antalpha and Northstar were originally sister companies, and both belonged to a parent company that was eventually controlled by Zhan Ketuan.

After the "reorganization in 2024", Antalpha was spun off and transferred to the current listed entity Antalpha platform holding company. Subsequently, the original parent company disposes its entire interest in Northstar. Currently, Northstar is owned by an irrevocable trust, and the group is the principal and beneficiary of the trust and is managed by a professional trust company. The prospectus emphasizes that Zhan Ketuan does not participate in Northstar's operations.

Despite the restructuring, Northstar remains an important funding provider for Antalpha’s Bitcoin loan service business. As the ultimate beneficiary of Northstar Trust, Zhan Ketuan still has indirect but important connections with Northstar's business performance and even the business scale of Antalpha.

Therefore, although Antalpha platform holding company may have been different from Zhan Ketuan's direct control in legal form, from the perspective of business logic, capital flow and strategic coordination, Antalpha can still be regarded as an important part of Bitmain's financial territory. It is more like a carefully designed and spun off "financial special forces", focusing on providing financial ammunition to Bitmain's mining machine empire.

Bitmain's strategic chess piece in the post-halving era

The deep strategic significance of Antalpha's listing is closely related to the industry environment faced by Bitmain after the Bitcoin halving in 2024 and its own strategic adjustments.

The Bitcoin halving in April 2024 has compressed the block rewards of miners as scheduled, posing a direct challenge to the profitability of the entire mining industry. For Bitmain, this means that the market demand for its products will focus more on high efficiency and low power consumption. In the past year, in order to consolidate its leadership in the field of mining machine hardware, Bitmain has accelerated the launch of a new generation of high-efficiency mining machines represented by the AntminerS21 series. A S21 series mining machine procurement agreement signed with partners such as BitFuFu and Hut8. By continuing to deepen cooperation with large mines, Bitmain strives to ensure large orders for its latest mining machines.

On the one hand, the mining industry has become increasingly popular after the halving. In order to maintain profits, miners must improve the performance of mining machines, and therefore significantly increase operating costs. For Bitmain, this is a potential future business growth risk. On the other hand, as the price of Bitcoin rises, more and more external companies and even listed companies have begun to join the mining industry, which has also brought new opportunities to Bitmain, but this opportunity also depends on the price changes of Bitcoin. Therefore, Antalpha provides loan support for Bitmain customers to purchase new generation mining machines such as S21. It can not only directly promote Bitmain's sales performance, but also indirectly help the miner group to successfully overcome the capital difficulties caused by equipment iteration.

Antalpha's IPO also attracted some well-known investors, among which Tether expressed interest in subscribing to $25 million in Antalpha common stock at the issue price in the IPO. If calculated at the midpoint of the issue price range of US$12 per share, this investment will account for approximately 54.1% of the total amount of shares issued in this basic issuance, equivalent to approximately 2.08 million shares. According to the prospectus, Antalpha's loan business is usually settled in USDT, and this investment is another move for Tether's multi-line layout. However, the prospectus also states that this intention "is not a binding purchase agreement or commitment."

In addition, Antalpha mentioned in its prospectus the plan to explore financing solutions for GPUs needed in the AI ​​field. For Bitmain, Antalpha's expansion capabilities are also a barbell configuration that resists the uncertainty risks of the crypto industry. If Antalpha can succeed in new fields such as AI GPU financing, its own growth will indirectly enhance the resilience of the entire Bitmain ecosystem.

Therefore, Antalpha's IPO is not a simple listing of a financial technology company, but more like a key step for Bitmain to consolidate its mining empire, optimize its financial tools, and reserve strength for its long-term strategic development in the later halving era.