From a failed IPO attempt to massive layoffs and shutting down many mining operations, China-based cryptocurrency mining giant Bitmain experienced difficult times during the second half of 2018 which witnessed the crypto market downturn. The Beijing-headquartered company now seems to bet on a new initiative— a computing power-sharing platform—to shore up its struggling mining business, Chinese local media reported on Jan.23.

BitDeer, which is hailed as the world’s leading computing power-sharing platform that allows global users to rent mining power to mine Bitcoin and other proof-of-work tokens without requiring technical knowledge, has reportedly been owned by Bitmain, not just in a cooperative relationship with the mining giant’s two flagship mining pools, BTC.com and AntPool.

Although the two parties have not confirmed the relationship between them, evidence abounds that BitDeer is an inseparable part of Bitmain’s business framework. A banner ad about Bitdeer has been shown on the homepage of Bitmain’s official website, which can be directly linked to the project’s website. In addition, users can directly enter Bitmain’s website after registering on or logging into BitDeer.

In December 2018, BitDeer announced in-depth cooperation with Antpool and BTC.com, the world’s largest bitcoin mining pools and started to use Bitmain’s Antminer series mining rigs. The  computing power-sharing platform has demonstrated impressive achievements in less than one month since its launch, including 1.2 million page views, 50,000 daily active users (DAU),and large orders accounting for 58% of total orders placed. Without Bitmain, could BitDeer achieve such eye-catching results in such a short period of time?

As the crypto winter drags on well into 2019 and mining profitability hits a all-time low , Bitmain has suffered a lot from a declining revenue and a user base. However, the emergence of BitDeer offers the mining juggernaut a solution to take advantage of unsold mining machines and to attract more smaller miners, because BitDeer is able to save the trouble of operation, configuration, and power purchase and equipment handling while renting idle computer power to users.

It is too early to say whether BitDeer will rescue Bitmain from tough losses, but the mining giant has decided to cut self-run pools and proprietary mining business. For the past month, Bitmain closed Amsterdam and Israel offices and halted its mining operations in Texas. The undisputed king of all cryptocurrency startups shared its outlook for 2019 in a recent blog, saying it will continue to produce hardware and software, as part of its commitment to contribute towards the security and stability of a multitude of cryptocurrencies.