The three top stories from the Chinese cryptocurrency sphere this past week includes: a Chinese blockchain security firm identified the sender of the absurdly high-fee Ethereum transactions; mudslides coming along with the rainy season swallowed bitcoin mining farms in Sichuan; Ebang’s U.S. IPO is imminent.

Alleged Ponzi scheme sent the $5 million in Ether gas fees

A South Korean crypto exchange named Good Cycle is allegedly the sender of the recent absurd Ethereum transactions at a cost of $5.2 million in fees, reported Chinese crypto analytics firm Peckshield on June 16.

While the platform, according to Peckshield, shows all the signs of a Ponzi scheme. Due to its relying on a pyramid scheme, it makes sense why it has not come out to claim their losses as that would lead to a run on the exchange and subsequently collapse the venture.

Later the day after Peckshield published their findings, the exchange got in contact with the mining pools, by sending two transactions to SparkPool and Ethermine signed with a message stating “I am the sender”.

However, since the sender failed to reach out to the pools in time. Ethermine has already decided to distribute the funds to miners, and SparkPool pledged to begin the process the day as it promised to miners.

Mudslides coming along with the rainy season hit Sichuan

The rainy season has begun in China’s Sichuan province – the world’s bitcoin mining capital. While the mudslides caused by lasting heavy rains have reportedly caused great damage in some mining farms.

In addition to the positive aspects of the rainy season such as increased access to cheap hydroelectricity, there also come negative sides as the dreaded floods damage mining facilities. Last year, heavy rainfall that began in mid-August lasting for several days caused massive floods and mudslides that destroyed several mining operations.

According to the latest local information, the mudslides that occurred in a town in Sichuan province last week have destroyed several mining farms. More than 20,000 people have been evacuated from the region and two people were missing. It is stated that the severity of the precipitation and damage caused are worse than in previous years.

If more hydro power plants shut down due to damages from the floods, dozens of mining operations could see the access to their main source of electricity shut down. As Bitcoin’s hashrate hasn’t suffered much in the days since the floods began. We are yet to see how this will affect the hashrate in the long term, as raw data from Blockchain.com showed that it has been in decline since June 12th.

Ebang to go public in U.S. on June 26

Chinese bitcoin miner manufacturer Ebang is set to go public on the U.S. soil on June 26, according to insiders.

According to its updated prospectus filed with the SEC on June 17, Ebang has applied to list on the Nasdaq exchange and anticipates its IPO launch price to range between $4.5 and $6.5 for each of the 19.3 million Class A ordinary shares to be offered in total.

With that range, Ebang would command a market value of around $800 million and is targeting a raise from $86 million to $125 million – generally in line with the company’s initial plan published in April.

If all goes well, the Hangzhou, China-based company will become the second bitcoin miner maker floating in the U.S. after Canaan, which made its Nasdaq debut last November and raised $90 million with an offering of $9 per share. But since then, Canaan’s stock has been on a downward trend and recently hit a record low below $2.

As its prospectus shows, Ebang estimates a $2.5 million loss for Q1 2020, and Canaan reported a net loss of $5 million for the same period. After witnessing those bumps its competitor Canaan has suffered including the COVID-19 outbreak, market sluggish, sued by investors over violating industry laws… where EBON will go after listing is worth to be seen. Considering it comes at a subtle timing as the tension between China and the U.S. grows as well as market uncertainties, will it be wanted by ventures or follow the route of Canaan? It remains to be seen.