From the first blockchain IPO to the brink of delisting, Canaan Technology enters “a desperate fight to the death”

By: Maher, Foresight News

On July 15, Canaan Technology issued an announcement saying it had received a written notice from Nasdaq granting an additional 180-day grace period, extending the deadline to January 11, 2027. Previously, its ADS share price had remained below $1 for 30 consecutive trading days, triggering a compliance alert for failing to meet Nasdaq’s minimum bid requirement.

The market response was muted. As of the close, Canaan Technology was at $0.29, with a market cap of approximately $217 million, down more than 90% from the peak market value at the time of its IPO in November 2019. Once crowned as the “world’s first blockchain stock,” the company is now standing on the brink of delisting.

180-day countdown to delisting

Canaan Technology’s standoff with Nasdaq’s compliance department began in May 2025. At that time, the company first received a delisting warning due to its share price staying below $1 for a sustained period. It then temporarily defused the crisis with a rebound in Bitcoin’s price. However, the good times did not last. On January 14, 2026, Nasdaq issued another notice: Canaan Technology’s ADS closing price had been below $1 for 30 consecutive trading days. The company needed to achieve compliance by July 13, meaning the closing price must be at or above $1 for 10 consecutive trading days.

On July 13, the initial grace period expired. Canaan Technology failed to meet the requirement. On July 1, the company urgently moved its listing segment from the Nasdaq Global Market to the Nasdaq Capital Market, which has comparatively lower thresholds, and submitted an application to seek an additional 180-day extension.

On July 15, the application was approved, and the new deadline was set for January 11, 2027.

Under Nasdaq rules, if the company still cannot restore compliance at that time, Canaan Technology may face the fate of a final delisting. The company said it would consider implementing a reverse stock split to raise the share price if necessary, but this is usually viewed by the market as a weak signal.

2026 Q1 earnings report: total revenue down 24.3%, net loss $88.7 million

Canaan Technology’s lackluster stock performance is not without reason. Its latest financial report shows the company is bleeding heavily.

On May 19, 2026, Canaan Technology released its unaudited first-quarter financial results: total revenue was $62.7 million, down 24.3% year over year, and down 68% quarter over quarter. Net loss was $88.7 million, expanding further versus the same period last year ($86.4 million). The company recorded a gross loss of $22.9 million, including approximately $25.0 million in non-cash inventory impairment—meaning Canaan Technology had to write down the value of its mining rig inventory on a large scale, reflecting a sharp contraction in market demand.

More seriously, the company’s revenue guidance for the second quarter was only $35.0 million to $45.0 million, indicating that performance will remain under pressure in the near term. As of March 31, 2026, the company had cash on hand of $43.5 million, down significantly from $80.8 million at the end of 2025. However, in April the company collected approximately $42.0 million in customer accounts receivable, providing some relief to liquidity.

Notably, despite losses from its core business, Canaan Technology’s cryptocurrency reserves hit a historical high. At the end of the first quarter, the company held 1,807.60 BTC, worth $142 million. These digital assets provide some hedging on the balance sheet, but they also tightly link the company’s performance to BTC price volatility.

According to the latest data, Canaan Technology’s Bitcoin reserves have risen to 1,915 BTC, but its total value has fallen to $120 million.

A shattered AI chip dream and a “shovel-selling” predicament

Part of Canaan Technology’s predicament stems from an expensive strategic misjudgment.

On June 24, 2025, the company announced it would terminate its non-core AI chip business and fully return to Bitcoin mining rigs and self-operated mining. Its several-year “second curve” exploration ended in failure. According to publicly available information, in fiscal year 2024 Canaan Technology generated only about $0.9 million in edge-computing product revenue, but operating expenses for that business were as high as $21.42 million, accounting for 15% of the company’s total operating expenses for the year. Under pressure from a net loss of $249.8 million in fiscal year 2024, this “burning money without producing returns” segment was decisively cut.

However, returning to its main business did not make things easier for Canaan Technology. The mining rig industry is facing unprecedented competitive pressure. Compared with rivals such as Bitmain, Canaan Technology’s market share has continued to be squeezed. In the second quarter of 2025, the company’s total sales hash rate was 6.4 million TH/s, up only 3% year over year. By the first quarter of 2026, product revenue had fallen to $42.9 million, a steep drop from $164.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Canaan Technology founder: Zhang Nangeng

The essence of mining rig manufacturers is “selling shovels”—their fate is closely tied to the Bitcoin cycle. When the coin price is high and mining profits are rich, miners’ appetite for capital expenditures is strong. Once the coin price is weak and competition in network hash rate intensifies, demand for mining rigs cools off quickly. Since 2025, even though Bitcoin prices have shown strength during some periods, the mining industry overall has entered a low-marginal-reward stage of the “post-halving era,” dealing a severe blow to Canaan Technology’s traditional business model.

Facing dual pressures from delisting risk and losses, Canaan Technology management is trying to transform from a pure hardware seller into a “hashrate infrastructure service provider,” seeking a lifeline through vertical integration and energy deployment.

Self-operated mining has become a key lever. By the end of the first quarter of 2026, Canaan Technology’s total hash rate across 10 global joint mining projects reached about 11 EH/s, up 66% year over year and up 10.7% quarter over quarter. The company expanded its strategy by acquiring 49% of the equity in Cipher Mining’s Texas ABC Projects. In addition, the company launched a 3 MW mining pilot project in Canada, exploring the use of waste heat from mining rigs for greenhouse agriculture. It also signed a 4.5 MW contract with a Japanese electrical engineering company to participate in grid load balancing.

On the capital side, in November 2025, Canaan Technology received strategic investments totaling $72 million from institutions including BH Digital and Galaxy Digital, to strengthen its balance sheet and expand infrastructure. In December of the same year, its board approved a $30 million share buyback plan, attempting to convey confidence to the market.

However, its stock price performance suggests the market is not buying the story.

Summary

Canaan Technology’s predicament is a snapshot of the entire crypto mining industry’s winter.

Since 2025, global capital markets have significantly shifted their narratives around the crypto sector. With the surge in demand for AI compute power, much of the capital that previously flowed to mining rigs and mining has moved to AI data centers and high-performance computing. Miners have started migrating compute power to AI projects, directly compressing the demand space for Bitcoin mining rigs.

A deeper challenge lies in the sustainability of the business model. As an ASIC chip design company, Canaan Technology needs continuous investment in R&D to maintain product competitiveness.

From a broader perspective, Canaan Technology is undergoing a brutal deflationary cleansing. When it went public in 2019, the company enjoyed inflated valuations thanks to the “first blockchain stock” concept. Today, the market no longer values the concept; it demands tangible cash flow and profitability.

Until the next Bitcoin bull-cycle arrives, miners’ profitability will continue to face pressure. Canaan Technology must prove within 6 months that it can survive the cycle.