Cango has agreed to sell its Chinese auto-financing business for $352 million to a firm affiliated with a Bitmain subsidiary, according to a report by TheMinerMag.

The buyer is Ursalpha Digital Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands. The deal includes an upfront payment of $210.6 million, with additional payments based on tax compliance and the acquired portfolio’s credit risk.

Cango, a publicly traded company, entered the bitcoin mining sector in November 2024, and quickly became the third-largest public miner with 32 EH/s. The mining equipment, sourced from Bitmain, cost nearly $300 million.

However, as of September 30, 2024, Cango held less than $100 million in cash, with total assets of $560 million.

Suspicions of a “Proxy Setup”

In March, Cango received a non-binding acquisition offer from Enduring Wealth Capital Limited, linked to Antalpha, Bitmain’s financial arm. This fueled speculation that Cango’s mining venture may have been planned as a proxy structure for Bitmain to indirectly enter public markets.

This would also explain how an auto-financing firm rapidly acquired a fleet of Antminer S19 XP rigs — hardware that top miners are currently phasing out in favor of more efficient S21 models.

Who Is Behind Ursalpha?

Reporters discovered that Ursalpha Digital Limited shares a Hong Kong address with Antalpha. Its director, Chiou Chang-Wei, is also the CEO of Antalpha’s Singapore branch.

“Essentially, Bitmain may be taking its mining assets public: first by selling 32 EH/s of capacity to Cango, and then using Antalpha subsidiaries to absorb both its mining and auto-financing divisions,” TheMinerMag suggested.

Context: Trump’s Tariff Impact

As a reminder, Donald Trump’s new import tariffs are expected to impact all Bitmain factories in Southeast Asia, according to industry analysts. This makes public market maneuvers via proxy entities like Cango a potentially strategic move for Chinese ASIC manufacturers.