In recent Chinese cryptocurrency news: Chinese bitcoin miner manufacture Canaan disclosed its 2019 financial results with $148.6 million losses; crypto community is somewhat quiet in face with the big event of the week – BCH halving; multinational companies are seeking blockchain opportunities in their business by registering blockchain patent applications in China; crypto OTC transactions via WeChat Pay has seen a big drop…

Chinese bitcoin miner manufacturer Canaan disclosed 2019 financial results

The latest unaudited financial statements from the Nasdaq-listed bitcoin miner mega-seller revealed that it lost $148.6 million in 2019. Its total net revenue for 2019 is reported at $204.3 million – approximately half of the $384 million it earned in 2018.

The financial figures for Q4 and 2019 of the mining giant are not inspiring after its listing on the U.S. traditional capital market. Canaan attributes its loss to factors such as crypto market downturn, inventories and prepayments in Q4 2019, high administrative expenses, etc.

Impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, the company said they have lowered their expectations in 2020. What’s worse, the company has recently been hit by a class-action lawsuit for allegedly misleading investors in its initial public offering filing.

On the other hand, Canaan seems to be lagged behind of its competitors Bitmain and MicroBT in producing competitive mining rigs. Earlier this year, Bitmain has rolled out its latest machine S19Pro which could offer a maximum hash rate of 110 TH/s at 29.5 J/TH energy efficiency ratio; Last November, MicroBT revealed its 81 TH/s M30S at 38 W/T.

Despite the disappointing financial figures in 2019 and the fact that miners have been turning to other mining rig makers who produce more profitable machines, people in the crypto space are still expecting high on Canaan as the company is the first Chinese crypto-related company float on the U.S. traditional capital market.

Chinese crypto community on BCH halving

A big event in this past week is the first halving of the world’s fifth-largest cryptocurrency and bitcoin’s most famous offshoot.

Jihan Wu, co-founder of mining giant Bitmain, describes the BCH halving as “a really huge milestone” in a livestream on the halving day. The BCH advocate talked little about coin prices, but stressed that it is essential for BCH to build a booming ecosystem if it is to make a success. From wallets to various other applications built on Bitcoin Cash, Wu called it a “full ecosystem” and said it is poised for another “new wave” of new users and applications to enter the ecosystem.

Jiang Zhuoer, another big advocate and BCH influencer in the country who are always bullish on BCH, sticks to his belief saying that the halving will act as a long-lasting bullish signal, and commenting that the coronavirus outbreak is a big bull for the crypto market and makes cryptocurrencies more valuable.

While investors and traders in the country are somewhat indifferent to the big event with small price fluctuations and discussions about it.

35 multinational companies register blockchain patents in china

The first quarter of 2020 has seen 212 blockchain patent applications filed by 35 foreign-funded companies in China, according to Global Times. Most of them are big names like MasterCard, Sony, Panasonic, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, etc.

The move that these multinationals have their blockchain patents registered in China indicates their blockchain ambitions and preparation for potential opportunities in their business scope in the country.

Apparently, local Chinese companies are no less impressive than their foreign counterparts are. As previously reported by 8btc, China has filed over 12,900 blockchain-related patent applications as of October 2019, accounting for 53.6% of the world’s total, with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba topping the list of blockchain patents filers for years.

Bitcoin OTC transactions via WeChat see significant drop

Bitcoin OTC (over-the-counter) transactions via WeChat Pay have seen a significant drop, according to local financial outlet Caijing. At present, only 7.35 percent of merchants on the three major exchanges’ (Huobi, OKEx, Binance) OTC desks support WeChat Pay, while 50.34 percent support Alipay and 60.22 percent support bank transfer.

Many associate the drop with WeChat’s opposition to crypto trading. Earlier in 2018, both WeChat Pay and Alipay has issued statements prohibiting all use for bitcoin trading in response to Beijing’s bitcoin crackdown. While the restrictions are hard to enforce on OTCs which are done directly between two parties without the supervision of an exchange. Transfers related to crypto transactions between two individuals on Alipay and WeChat Pay are hard to be detected as long as they keep the transfer under a certain amount and frequency.