Chia Network says it submitted IPO registration to SEC after leadership shuffle

The green blockchain company revealed no details of the proposal; the new CEO said the IPO would probably occur next year.

The Chia Network blockchain said on April 14 that it had submitted a proposal for an initial public offering (IPO) to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The size and price range of the offering have not been determined, the company said. The proposal was submitted confidentially, and the announcement was made under a Securities Act of 1933 rule to allow limited information to be released to measure investor response.

The Chia Network is a decentralized smart contract platform that uses a novel consensus protocol based on data storage space. It claims the network has lower energy consumption than blockchains that use proof-of-work consensus and can re-utilize worn storage hardware. BitTorrent founder Bram Cohen created the Chia Network in 2017.

Despite some questions about the network’s green claims, the company raised $61 million in a funding round in 2021 with backers that included Andreessen Horowitz, Richmond Global Ventures and other venture capitalists. The company was reportedly valued at $500 million at that time.

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Cohen served as Chia Network CEO until January when he transitioned to the roles of chairman and chief technology officer. Cohen was replaced as CEO by Gene Hoffman, who moved up from chief operating officer.

Hoffman told Bloomberg at the time of his promotion that the company would file for an IPO “soon,” but he did not foresee the offering taking place this year. “This market is not going to be open for us,” he said.

$XCH is continuing to trade above the #MA50...

The last time #Chia had this momentum we continued to ~$50 pic.twitter.com/ENJu2ht9Ns

— .\chiamojo.xch (@chia_mojo) April 12, 2023

The crypto market reacted positively to the Chia Network announcement, with the native Chia (XCH) token rising from $40.68 at the beginning of the U.S. workday to $45.35 at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap.

Meanwhile, Singapore-based crypto miner Bitdeer made its premier on Nasdaq on April 14 in a much-delayed move that has been in the works since 2021. Bitdeer shares fell 18% in trading by 9:33 am Eastern Time that day.

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