‘Bitmain? ‘Not to worry’

Construction at the Bit-main site in the former Alcoa smelter has stopped for a 45-day period but County Judge Dave Barkemeyer says “not to worry.”

Barkemeyer told The Reporter he has been assured the stoppage is not just at the Rockdale location but is nationwide and is tied in with Bitmain’s “going public” on the stock exchange.

“Once it’s done (going public on the stock market), they are going to start up again,” he said. “This is not something specific to us, it is nationwide.”

CONFIRMED—Libby Freeman, Bitmain spokesperson, confirmed the situation early this week saying:

“Construction has been temporarily paused. We remain committed to the development of our center and the community of Rock-dale, and look forward to resuming the project.”

MEETING—Bitmain’s tax abatement agreement will be discussed in a workshop session following a commissioners court meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday in the county courthouse.

While it’s not linked with the 45-day hiatus—“This is something we’ve had pending for quite some time,” Barkemeyer said—the judge said he does plan to bring up the new development in connection with the discussion.

The county approved a 10-year abatement for Bit-main in August but Barkemeyer said the company has expressed concern over some of the contract language in the later years of that pact.

“Their concerns are over what would happen if they were not able to fulfill some of their expenditures in those years, renewing equipment, things like that,” he said.

“The agreement as it now stands would require them to pay some taxes abated in previous years” he said. “We are going to take a look at that.”

Barkemeyer said, in light of the 45-day stoppage, he plans to ask the commissioners to delay any changes granted in the abatement agreement from going into effect until the 45 days is up.

“Of course, all I can do is ask,” he said. “That’s a matter to be decided by the entire commissioners court.”

He emphasized that Thursday’s meeting is not a special session to deal with Bitmain.

“We’ve been having these extra meetings monthly to deal with payroll and bill matters, as needed,” he said. “This is one of those. We will talk about the Bitmain tax abatements in a workshop session after the action part of the meeting has concluded.”

‘GOING PUBLIC’—Bit-main confirmed this fall it had an IPO—Initial Public Offering—plan.

That’s also generally known as a “stock market launch” or, simply, “going public.”

Bitmain plans to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. After that, its stock will be available for purchase and shares will be traded in the open market.

Analysts are hailing the move as a major step toward the cryptocurrency industry “going mainstream.”

Cryptocurrency prices have been falling but CNBC has reported Bitmain continues to make a substantial profit, $742.7-million in the first half of 2018.

That’s a ninefold increase from a year earlier, according to the financial network.

“Clearly by the numbers, they’re quite profitable,” said CNBC analyst Brian Kelly.