Canaan - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Transcript

Speaker 4

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to Canaan Inc.'s second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the management's prepared remarks, we will have a question and answer session. Please note that this event is being recorded. Now I'd like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Ms. Gwyn Lauber, Investor Relations Director of the company. Please go ahead, Gwyn.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Operator. Hello everyone, and welcome to our earnings conference call. Joining us today are Chairman and CEO, Nangeng Zhang, and our CFO, James Cheng. Liang Wang, Vice President of Capital Markets and Corporate Development, and Xu Zheng, Senior IR Manager, will also be available during the question and answer session. Our CEO will start the call by providing an overview of the company and performance highlights for the quarter. Our CFO will then provide details on the company's operating and financial results for the period before we open up the call for your questions. Before I begin, I would like to refer you to our Safe Harbor statement and our earnings press release. Today's call will include forward-looking statements. These statements include, but are not limited to, our outlook for the company and statements that estimate or project future operating results and the performance of the company.

These statements speak only as of today, and the company assumes no obligation to revise any forward-looking statements that may be made in today's press release, call, or webcast, except as required by law. These statements do not guarantee future performance and are subject to risk, uncertainties, and assumptions. Please refer to the press release and the risk factors and documents we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent report on Form 20-F, for information on risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that may cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in such statements. In addition, during today's call, we will discuss both GAAP financial measures and certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are useful as supplemental measures of the company's performance. These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from GAAP results.

You can find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations with comparable GAAP results, in our earnings press release, which is posted on the company's website. Finally, please note that during the call, all dollar amounts refer to U.S. dollars. With that, I will now turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Nangeng Zhang. Please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Gwyn. Hello everyone, this is NG, CEO of Canaan. Welcome to our earnings call. Together with our CFO, James, we are in our Singapore headquarters to share our Q2 2025 business results and the latest updates with you. This past quarter marked the first anniversary since the most recent Bitcoin halving, and we are delighted to celebrate Bitcoin's all-time high price in recent days. We are pleased to report the strongest quarterly results in the current Bitcoin cycle, and also the best quarter in the past 10 quarters since Q3 2022. Quarterly revenue for Q2 reached $100.2 million, up 43% year-over-year, breaking the $100 million mark. Gross profit rose to $9.3 million, a significant increase from $0.6 million in Q1.

Operating loss narrowed to $27.1 million, EBITDA turned profitable at $1.68 million, and adjusted EBITDA reached $25.3 million, both hitting record high since we began reporting this metric in Q1 2024. We attribute our strong results this quarter to three main factors: the higher and stable Bitcoin price, our quick and effective response to the new tariff policy environment, and the rapid growth of our home-use Bitcoin mining product line. Throughout the quarter, Bitcoin remained strong, rising from around $75,000 at the start of the quarter to the peak of nearly $120,000 by late May, and then staying at a high level with some volatility. At the same time, total network hash rate also stayed high, which kept mining margins under pressure.

The hash price in Q2 moved up overall, from a low of about $48 per petahash per day to a peak of $58 per petahash per day in May. In addition, during this quarter, many countries were affected by the reciprocal tariff policy, which increased the import cost of equipment for U.S. mining customers and brought a lot of uncertainty to global trade. This led many U.S. customers to delay building mining sites or deploying hash rates. Facing these challenges, our sales, supply chain, and compliance teams worked closely together and focused on markets outside the U.S., delivering strong performance that offset the negative impact from the U.S. market's weaker business environment. Our product sales reached approximately $72 million, including $65.9 million from Avalon Industrial Mining Solutions and $5.7 million from the Avalon Home-Use Miner Series.

In Q2, we delivered a total of 6.4 million hashes per second of computing power, with an average selling price of $11.1 per terahash. Our Avalon Home-Use Miner Series product line delivered strong performance this quarter, generating $5.7 million in revenue, a sharp increase of 359% from $1.3 million in the previous quarter, and maintained a gross margin of 39%, which is higher than that of our institutional mining machines. This segment now accounts for over 5% of our total revenue. What is more remarkable is that this growth was achieved despite the challenges of high summer temperatures and rising electricity costs. Looking ahead, we will continue to rapidly expand the home-use mining market, especially in heating-related application scenarios, where energy that might otherwise be wasted can be turned into additional value. In Q2, our self-mining operations produced 284 Bitcoins, up about 9.4% from 259 Bitcoins in the previous quarter.

Benefiting from the rise of Bitcoin prices during this period, our mining revenue reached a record $28.1 million and an increase of over 15% from $24.3 million in Q1. At the end of June, our total installed mining capacity worldwide reached 8.15 exahash per second, with 6.57 exahash per second already in operation. Last week, we also released our July Bitcoin production and mining operations update, showing continued progress in our mining business. By the end of July, our Bitcoin treasury had reached 1,500 valued Bitcoins. This brings us to our next topic, our Bitcoin treasury. Historically, we have increased our Bitcoin treasury in three ways. First, by accepting Bitcoin as payments for mining equipment. Second, by earning Bitcoins through our mining operations. Third, by directly purchasing Bitcoins in the open market. Looking back at this Bitcoin cycle, we have steadily accumulated Bitcoins at all stages.

In recent quarters, our cash cost of mining has constantly been lower than the average market price of Bitcoin during the same period. While the cost of acquiring Bitcoins may fluctuate from quarter to quarter, its long-term value has continued to rise. This is why self-mining remains a profitable strategy for us, even during bear markets. At Canaan Inc., we are proud to be one of the few companies in the Bitcoin ecosystem that truly achieves vertical integration. Vertical integration is not just about mining Bitcoins. We design and manufacture our own ASIC chips and mining machines. We operate our mining business together with partners around the world, and we follow a displaced treasury strategy to accumulate Bitcoins at attractive price levels.

These three pillars work together to help us lower the cost of acquiring Bitcoins, reduce operational risks, and maintain strategic flexibility throughout the Bitcoin cycle, all while steadily building and enhancing our Bitcoin treasury. Since our founding, we have always believed that Bitcoin is both a global asset class and the foundation of the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem. Likewise, our business spans the globe and does not rely on any single country or customer group. Our ability to adapt flexibility across different markets and supply chains has helped us achieve steady improvements through market cycles and policy changes. We have built a strong reputation in many countries, especially in the U.S., which has earned us repeat orders from some of the most respected mining companies in the industry.

In R&D and supply chain, our A16 ASIC series is now in the chip packaging and testing stage and will soon move into full machine testing. We are making every effort to bring A16 ASIC series to market as quickly as possible. On the supply chain side, our manufacturing capability in the U.S. is now up and running, simply mentioning our existing capacity in Malaysia. This allows us to meet bulk delivery needs for U.S. customers with only a modest cost increase. This includes fulfilling part of the order from the listed company, Cypher, in Q3. Recently, we also secured a follow-on order from CleanSpark for our A15 emergent cooling model, showing strong customer recognition of our products and services. As a U.S. listed company committed to 100% compliance, our customers have great confidence in the compliance of our offerings.

In today's already volatile trade environment, reducing potential regulatory risks for our clients is more important than ever. Looking ahead, we will continue to follow our unique full-cycle strategy, our vertical integration, disciplined Bitcoin treasury management, and ability to flexibly shift between self-mining and Bitcoin purchase when market conditions are right, giving Canaan Inc. a clear edge at every stage of the Bitcoin cycle. By designing and producing our own hardware, operating mining under the most favorable conditions, and steadily building our Bitcoin strategy, we have established a clear competitive advantage, one that allows us to keep accumulating Bitcoins at a cost lower than the market price, even in challenging environments. Our ongoing commitment to build a company is both resilience and agility, leveraging the advantages of vertical integration to grow our Bitcoin assets, protect shareholder value, and seize every market opportunity.

We believe this strategy will carry us through short-term volatility and deliver long-term stable and outstanding returns. It will also position Canaan Inc. as the leading institution in both technology, innovation, and Bitcoin treasury management. We will continue to focus on North America as our core expansion region, strengthening project execution and customer service, while closely monitoring geopolitical and policy changes to adjust our strategy, seize opportunities, and mitigate risks. In summary, based on the current situation, we remain cautiously optimistic for Q3 2025, with revenue expected to be in the range of $125 million to $145 million. This forecast is based on the present market and operational conditions, and actual results may vary given recent policy uncertainties and market fluctuations. This concludes my prepared remarks. Thank you, everyone. Now I will hand it over to our CFO, James.

Speaker 1

Thank you, NG, and good day, everyone. This is James, CFO of Canaan. I'm very glad to share our Q2 financial results with you today. As NG stated at the start of the call, we are firmly committed to vertical integration in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Our vertically integrated model encompasses the entire chain of R&D, manufacturing, and sales of mining equipment, self-mining operations, and cryptocurrency treasury management, positions us uniquely. With the cryptocurrency industry and Bitcoin ecosystem gaining increasing attention and support globally, we are confident that our forward-thinking strategic investment is demonstrating its sustained value potential. We are pleased to report record quarterly results, with both the peak of the current Bitcoin cycle and the highest performance in the past 10 quarters following Q3 2022. Let me give a quick summary of our financial performance.

First, we reported strong Q2 results with a total revenue of $100.2 million, not only exceeding our guidance but also reaching the $100 million quarterly milestone and representing a 40% year-over-year increase. Our product sales delivered robust performance with a revenue of $72 million, an increase of 23% quarter over quarter and up 17% year over year. In Q2, we experienced a softening U.S. demand under the pressure of tariff uncertainties. While continuously delivering some early-booked contract sales orders from U.S. customers, we were also working hard to expand our distribution channels in Asia. With all efforts, our average selling price, or ASP, increased to $11.1 per terahash per second, reaching a new quarterly high in the past two years.

Turning to the revenue from our Avalon Home-Use Miner Series, in quarter two, we delivered approximately 13,000 units of our Avalon Home-Use Miner Series products, contributing revenue of approximately $5.7 million and reaching a gross profit margin of 39%. As of August 13, unfulfilled orders and finished deliveries in quarter three totaled $9.5 million. Second, our mining business also recorded its best quarterly performance. Our mining revenue surged 202% year over year to $28 million. We mined 284 Bitcoins in the quarter, up 101% year over year. Our deployed hash rate expanded 23% from 6.6 exahash per second at the end of quarter one to 8.15 exahash per second at the end of quarter two. In quarter two, more than 10,000 mining rigs were newly deployed in our American projects, and the installed computing power in America reached 3.66 exahash per second at the end of quarter two.

Next, driven by the strong results of machine sales and mining operations, our profitability soared both sequentially and year over year. Gross profit came in at $9.3 million, compared with $0.6 million in quarter one, also setting a record high for the first time since quarter three 2022. Adjusted EBITDA achieved a gain of $25 million, a significant turnaround from the prior quarter's loss of $38 million. Our basic and diluted net loss per ADS narrowed to $0.03, representing the lowest loss in the past 10 quarters following quarter three 2022. Last but not least, we maintained a solid balance sheet with over 1,480 Bitcoins, with a market value of approximately $160 million at the end of quarter two. We continued to manage our Bitcoin reserves to generate sustainable outperformance. Turning to the expenses, our operating expenses totaled approximately $36 million, remaining flat sequentially.

As previously announced, we are steadily progressing with the exit of our AI business. Once completed, this is expected to significantly reduce operating costs. Although there will be a one-time expense related to organization optimization in the short term, the overall operating expense structure will become healthier. By the end of the second quarter, the price of Bitcoin increased to around $107,000 versus around $83,000 at the end of the first quarter. The increased Bitcoin price on the last day of the quarter resulted in an aggregate, unrealized fair value gain on crypto assets of $34 million.

The non-cash accounting treatment for the fair value change of the preferred shares hit our quarter two bottom line with $17 million, consisting of $8 million from the Series A1 preferred shares converted during this quarter and $9 million from the remaining unconverted Series A and Series A1 preferred shares at the quarter end. In order to represent our performance more accurately and more comparably, we have excluded the impact of this accounting treatment for our non-GAAP measures. Turning to our balance sheet and cash flow, in quarter two, we paid $41 million to secure our wafer supply, $62 million for production and operation, and $5 million prepaid for our share repurchase program. The cash outflow aforementioned was offset by cash inflow of $66 million from sales, $7 million from export VAT refunds, and $4 million from ADI program reimbursement.

Consequently, at the end of quarter two, we held a cash of $66 million on our balance sheet. Now turning to our Bitcoin assets, Bitcoins held as our own holding asset increased in the quarter, reaching a record high of 1,484 Bitcoins as of June 30. This is 76 more than 1,408 at the end of the first quarter. On June 30, 2025, the fair market value of our own Bitcoins totaled around $160 million, and our hold-on gain was approximately $82 million, higher than the original value of the Bitcoins that we gained from mining or other operations. As of July 31, our total Bitcoin treasury increased to 1,511, as already disclosed. As announced recently, by the end of July 2025, all series A1 preferred shares have been converted into ADSs and sold.

As of the date of the earnings, we have cumulatively repurchased approximately 3.6 million ADSs for approximately $2.4 million under the share repurchase program. With rebounding customer demand and proven local manufacturing in North America, we will maintain our strategic focus on this core market. Concurrently, we will continue to be agile in response to geopolitical and policy shifts, seizing opportunities while mitigating risks. Given these developments, we expect the revenue for the third quarter to be in the range of $125 million to $145 million. This concludes our prepared remarks. We are now open for questions.

Speaker 4

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. As a courtesy to other investors and analysts who may wish to ask a question, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you have any additional questions after the Q&A session, the Investor Relations team will be available after the call. For the benefit of all participants on today's call, if you wish to ask your question to management in Chinese, please immediately repeat your question in English. To ask a question, you will need to press *11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question coming from the line of Mike Gondal with Nordlund Capital Markets. The line is now open.

Speaker 0

Hey, guys. This is Logan on for Mike. Thanks for taking our question and congrats on the quarter. First, it was nice to see the 6.4 exahash sold and ASP up $11.10. Is there anything to call out on current market dynamics, pricing strategy, and demand for A15s you guys saw in July and August? Thanks.

Speaker 2

Hi, Mike. Yeah, in Q1 this year, first I give some, yeah, first I give some three factors about the numbers. Bitcoin price now rises to new heights, and the demand of A15 today looks somewhat different from when we issued our first-year 2025 guidance in January. In Q1, I think the ASP for Q1 is $10.5 per terahash, and Q2's ASP has risen to $11.1 per terahash. Yeah, this is at the ASP side. In Q2, there's, you know, because of the tariff policy, which has increased the overall cost for our U.S. customers, and I think the estimated impact is roughly from like 15% to 25%, and it remains fluctuant. As a result, many customers in the U.S. are still taking wait and see. Several U.S.

orders we announced recently, especially from public listed miners, shows that through joint efforts, customers are gradually adapting the tariff changes, and their willingness to purchase is coming back. Yes, and also we have opened our production facilities in the U.S., and now we can deliver machines from the U.S. and Malaysia to avoid the tariffs, some of the tariffs, to improve the overall user experience, improve service. I think in the last three quarters, our ASP is increasing, and also the ongoing demand outside, especially outside the U.S., for high-performance miners is also growing. Another thing is because for A15s, the manufacturing advantage process is improving, and the performance is increasing, and the cost is slightly lower and lower. It's supported our ASP and gross margin. Thank you.

Speaker 0

Great. Thanks for the cover there. One follow-up from us. Congrats on the Cypher and CleanSpark order during the quarter. Can you guys just provide an update now with the, I think you said the U.S. production facility? How is Canaan viewing its strategy for penetrating the North American market? Is there any updates for how you guys see to grow market share there?

Speaker 2

First, I will say something about the Cypher's orders. Maybe James will add some color after that. I think we have always believed that actively expanding the North America market is the right decision, at least in the long term, and fully in line with our long-term strategy. I think the U.S. continues to send strong policy signals. The reason is the signals supporting the cryptocurrency industry, and also America has the world's most mature crypto community, and it's the home to the largest number of publicly listed mining companies. It also has abundant and diverse power resources, including wind and solar, renewable energy that can support very large-scale deployments. America's culture of innovation and its capital markets ecosystem provide a very strong foundation for institutional miners. Yeah, so for us, because the institutional miners always have set habits in site operations, equipment purchasing.

For us, the key to gain more market share in the U.S. is to get more customers to try our products first. Our machines must have very clear performance advantages, so customers have good reasons to test our new models. Second is our service quality must be the highest in the industry standard. I think in 2024, North America already contributed about 40% of our total mining machine sales revenue. On the mining side, we already have deployed 3.67 exahash per second for mining hash rate in this region. In Q2, our mining revenue in North America reached the record high of $28 million. This year, we, as I mentioned, we also established manufacturing capacity in the U.S. This is all solid for long-term growth in North America.

In the short term, I think the changes in business environment and policies early this year slowed our expansion pace in the U.S. We make adjustments, and I think the most challenging period is now behind us. Key metrics are recurring, and we remain confident in the long-term potential of the North American market. Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I will add some color on this because the U.S. market is so important for us. In our annual report, we have mentioned like 40% of our revenue in 2024 has come from the U.S. market. Recently, we got orders from Cypher and CleanSpark. In the Cypher order, it's the first time we start to have, you know, use the manufacturing factory in the United States as a new alternative. Although the cost is a little bit higher, I think it's beneficial to our customers, it's close to them, and, you know, they recognize our product performance. We would like to improve the delivery capability and overall cooperation experience for them. I think that also shows our execution to the strategic thinking from the CEO just mentioned that we really value our customers in the United States, and the U.S.

strategy is one of the most important strategies in our whole integrated system. I think the new orders are mutually beneficial to both us and also Cypher. We also have the immersed cooling orders from CleanSpark as well. I think now is the better time compared to, you know, the early stage of the tariffs come out after liberation days. U.S. customers tend to slow down their orders. Now we get back our customers, and we start to have some orders. I believe we will have a chance, have the opportunity to have more. Thank you, Mike.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Edward Engel with Compass Point Research. The line is now open.

Speaker 0

Hey, everyone. This is Abdullah the Lover on for Ed. Can I just ask, have you seen any changes in customer ASIC demand since May, and has sentiment rebounded back towards our Q1 levels, for example?

Speaker 2

Let me see. I think since July this year, we have indeed seen some positive changes in the market demand recently. We have, you know, we have announced several new orders from institutional customers in North America, showing that local customers are gradually adapting the new tariff environment, and their willingness to purchase is returning. I think it's important to note that the direct impact of the tariff policy is concentrated mainly in the U.S. During Q2, we saw very active demand in Asia and other regions, where we secured a large number of orders this quarter. The company delivered over $100 million in revenue with more than $70 million for mining machine sales, and most of these orders did not come from the U.S. This shows that the overall global demand remains healthy and resilient.

You know, because in July, Bitcoin prices have also reached the new all-time high several times, which has been an important driver for miners to increase purchases. That said, because the U.S. tariff policy is still not settled, uncertainty remains. I think the demand from U.S. customers has not fully returned to levels before the tariff policy was announced. I think I need to talk about some indirect impacts because it's more complex. Restrictions on mining machines imported into the U.S. have created a very rare situation in this industry, maybe in the past 10 years, where mining is still profitable or very profitable. Due to supply-demand imbalances, machines originally intended for the U.S. market had to be sold to other regions at discounted prices. This created the buyer's market during a bull cycle, something not seen over a decade.

To address this, I think what we can do is we must continue to work on the ways to get the machines into the U.S. at a lower cost. I think our U.S. manufacturer is already operational. While it's still very complex because components entering the U.S. still face tariffs, overall, I think the setup helps us to lower the cost and speed up the supply for the U.S. market to solve the previous question. I think it will help us to gain more local orders. Thank you.

Speaker 0

Great. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Kevin Cassidy with Rosenblatt Securities. The line is now open.

Speaker 0

Yeah, congratulations on the great results, and thanks for taking my question. Can you describe the effect that Bitcoin miners, you know, with them pursuing the AI and HPC colocation hosting agreements, is that slowing the demand for the Bitcoin mining rigs?

Speaker 2

Oh, yeah. Morning. Yes, we have seen some miners in recent quarters. They are shifting a part of their power and the facilities to AI HPC colocation projects. Some have done so very successfully, often leveraging their experience in Bitcoin mining and access to energy resources. We see AI HPC and Bitcoin mining as complementary for two reasons. First is AI HPC projects typically have longer sales cycles and a capital recovery period than Bitcoin mining. When Bitcoin price is high and the network demand is strong, mining continues to offer higher and more predictable returns, which is why many companies are pursuing both. Second, from an energy standpoint, there is no direct competition for resources. Bitcoin mining is a usually flexible power consumer. Over the long term, it can quickly secure large volumes of energy at very low cost, enabling rapid scaling rather than waiting years for traditional projects.

Over structured time frames, down to a year or even days, its load profile allows it to absorb intermediate renewable or surplus energy, helping stabilize supply for AI HPC workloads. Many large energy projects now plan for both mining and potential HPC customers together, improving overall energy utilization. Overall, our customers include large institutional miners, distribution partners, and home use around the world. With a flexible product portfolio and global delivery capabilities, I think we can meet a wide range of deployment needs. We expect Bitcoin mining equipment to remain the core driver for our business. Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 0

Okay. Maybe just as a follow-up, can you give us an update on the next-gen ASICs, the A16s? You know, are you seeing a trend for more liquid-cooled and immersion systems than in the past?

Speaker 2

First, I will answer the liquid-cooled and the air-cooled question. Yes, I think currently water-cooled systems have been growing steadily, but now air-cooled models still account for most of our miner sales. I think the reason is because they have lower deployment requirements. It's more simple to install and maintain and can be quickly rolled out across a wide range of global markets, especially for customers who value flexibility and low operating costs. For a water-cooled system, because it performs very well in high-density computing environments but requires stricter standards for water quality and operations, they are mainly used by large mining farms with fixed infrastructure. Since July, we've seen growing demand in Asia from customers who want to use the heat output for water heating. Many of them start with small batches for around tens to several hundred machines, while they prepare for larger deployments later in winter.

Emergent cooling is growing very fast, particularly in North America and parts of the Middle East. Large institutional miners like CleanSpark are choosing emergent for its strong performance, high density, low noise, and very stable. These projects often involve higher customization, long-term capital investment, which also strengthens customer retention. For the next generation, we will offer all three different cooling options, and we will optimize designs for different markets or even different customers for different energy conditions. For example, I think in higher temperature regions, emergent cooling, water cooling may be more attractive, and some distributed sites are a smaller size. Air cooling may be continuing to deliver strong cost effectiveness. I think because the energy efficiency and the next-gen ASIC miners' requirements and the larger and the larger scale operators, emergent and water-cooled models will become more and more common. Thank you.

Speaker 0

Thank you.

Speaker 2

Oh, sorry. I think you asked about the A16. The A16 now is at the stages for chip assembly and testing. It's only maybe one or two weeks before we will have the full machine testing results. After that, we will have a product launch. When the full system testing is complete, we will officially introduce this A16 series to the market. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of John Todaro with Needham & Company. The line is now open.

Speaker 0

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Two for you. One, if we could just dig a little bit more into the Bitcoin treasury strategy and kind of your thoughts on some of the Bitcoin treasury companies out there. Is there a possibility you could start getting a premium into the stack similar to those types of companies? As a follow-up, as you do think about your Bitcoin stack, and apologies if I missed this, any ways to generate yield off it, derivative strategies, anything like that, like some of your peers where they're able to generate a yield on that Bitcoin holding?

Speaker 1

Thank you, John. This is James speaking. I would like to introduce a little bit. Although we are still in the early stage of doing a Bitcoin treasury strategy, I think our approach to do this Bitcoin treasury management, the first thing is to build up a kind of, you know, conservative foundation with the goal to make sure our holding is quite safe. Also, we would like to increase the long-term value and the liquidity. I think that's the purpose of doing this. First of all, we have the, you know, already demonstrated a way of doing this collateralized financing. In a kind of rising Bitcoin market, we can pledge part of our Bitcoin to access low-cost capital for high-return projects, such as, you know, miner production and also self-mining expansion for our operation. I think when the financing term ends, we usually can, you know, repay the principal.

Also, we can generate additional financing. You know, this can also improve the efficiency of our capital use. I think that's the first method. Secondly, I think we can also place some of the Bitcoin in short-term interest-bearing accounts. You know, as you said, you know, earning a modest yield. Also, make sure it's safe and compliant. In addition, we can also evaluate selective derivative strategies to manage price volatility or capture extra returns under certain market conditions. I think that's also important. Overall speaking, we have a kind of vertical integrated model. This model is quite interesting. We can grow our Bitcoin reserves through multiple channels. You know, for example, accepting Bitcoin as payment for miners. Also, we can mine coins at a kind of a cost below market average. Also, we can directly buy Bitcoin in the secondary market when the prices are more attractive.

I think although we are still in the early stage, our Bitcoin treasury has already reached, you know, 1,511 coins by the end of July. It's a new record. Over time, I believe the market will see us not only as a kind of hardware maker or mining machine provider or computing solutions. The whole market will also look at us as a, you know, capable Bitcoin treasury company. Thank you. Thank you, John.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Kevin Cassidy with H.C. Wainwright. The line is now open.

Speaker 0

Hi, NG. Hi, James. I'm curious to dig in a little bit deeper, following up on John's question. Would you consider using the Bitcoin treasury to help fund operations? It wasn't really clear, James, if that was part of the intention. I apologize if I messed that up.

Speaker 1

Kevin, to find different operations like, you know, mining sites expansion and also in certain stages, we also order wafers by utilizing, you know, Bitcoins as a pledge to get loan. Does that answer your question, Kevin?

Speaker 0

That helps very much. Appreciate it, James. I'm also curious about the geographies that you're finding the greatest demand for the Avalon Home-Use Miner Series and how you intend to market that effort.

Speaker 2

Yes, I think the company is, we sell the Avalon Home-Use Miner Series globally. There's many, many different countries. I think the primary region is still the U.S. I think we have the home miner, we have very good metrics in quarter two. In quarter three, it's only a little more than one month, and we have much better performance than quarter two. I don't have the exact numbers, but it's roughly much better than quarter two. The interesting thing is we are trying to sell more heaters in summer, and still it's getting a very good result. I think the home miner is a very new production line for the whole industry. We are working and learning. This is what we are doing.

For my personal view, I think the home miners today can get a good, it's already reached a good level for the product if the target customer is miners. For traditional consumer markets, we still need to enhance everything, including the user experience, cost, and the quality, everything to reach the requirements for traditional consumer markets. This is what we need to do next. We are building a very special team to work on the product itself. I hope this answers your question. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Given time constraints, we ask that you please, at this time, limit your question to one question only. Our next question is coming from the line of Mark Palmer with The Benchmark Company. The line is open.

Speaker 0

Yes. Good morning, and congratulations on the resilience demonstrated here in the quarter. I wanted to see if you could address the company's current capital deployment priorities. Given where the share price is, how inexpensive the stock certainly appears, it seems like buybacks would be very much in order. I know that there were some executed during the second quarter. How are you thinking about capital deployment writ large, where buybacks fit into the mix versus alternative uses of capital? Thank you.

Speaker 1

Yeah. Thank you, Mark. I think we have already completed the $100 million preferred shares financing in March. After that, we have not used our ATM program. We have paused the ATM program since February 20 to avoid putting additional pressure on the market, especially after our share price fell below $2, I think, in early February. Instead, in May, we have announced an up to $30 million share repurchase program. In June, both CEO and myself personally purchased like 817,000 shares. I think in the current stage, we believe our shares are significantly undervalued. Buying back stock at the current level is a better use of capital than issuing equity. So far, we have already purchased like 3.6 million ADSs. I think that's something we have already done. Also, in using the fund, recently, the demand in Asia remains strong.

I think the customers' interest on expanding their mining fleets from North American customers is steadily recovering. It seems like the overall market demand is going up, and we got healthy orders and sales growth. Every quarter is better than the previous one quarter. This allows us to prioritize using the capital from the operation to do the operation. Of course, we can also do some self-mining, although it's not as fast as previously. Still, we are growing our mining fleets. I think that's something we are trying to do. We will continuously maintain flexibility in capital allocation. We can make all kinds of spending decisions based on the actual business needs. We should balance the allocation of miner inventory between sales and self-mining. Usually, we follow a kind of strategy to build to order, keeping some delivery capacity in reserve.

I think for the capital used in the operation, we always do the allocation in between different business needs to make sure we have the sufficient funds for the future. Of course, we will also do some stock repurchase recently, and we.

Speaker 4

are not starting any kind of fundraising immediately. I think I hope I answered your question, Mark.

Speaker 3

Thank you. Our next question, coming from the lineup, Hador Shabelin with Beverly Securities. Your line is now open.

Speaker 2

Thank you very much, Operator. Hello, everyone. G and James, maybe my question is the kind of summary and follow-up of what's being asked regarding your North America plans. Given that many, many miners kind of postponed their expansion plan due to HPC AI initiatives, how do you see the evolution of average selling price, let's say, by the end of 2025 and maybe going forward in 2026? Thank you very much.

Speaker 4

Yeah, I think because I think I just mentioned the global market is quite active currently because, you know, I think I mentioned a number, which is the hash price for how many dollars per petahash per day. Now, today, I think it's about $58 per petahash per day. There is an experienced number. If this number is higher than $55, then it's a bull market for the miner market. If it's lower than $55, it's maybe a bear market. Currently, it's $58. Technically, it's a bull market for the miner market. Still, because the unbalanced cost by the tariff policy fluctuations in North America, currently, I think the ASP for the miners is lower than it should be. This is what we are facing today. We are talking higher ASP.

The method for us is to reopen the channel to send more or manufacture or produce more miners in the U.S., then the supply and demand imbalance could be solved. I think for the U.S. market, because the tariff stuff, the ASPs may be higher than what we expected, but, you know, because the cost is higher, we need to sell the machines at a higher price. It's not a healthy ASP growth, I think, but it will happen. Also, most of the orders, it happens outside the U.S. in Q2. In Q3, more and more new customers coming, which is coming in Q1 and Q2, are making deals with us. We are in, I think, personally, we are in a very cautious optimistic for the ASPs in late 2025.

Because the machine's performance is higher, and we have a 16th following, so we have better machines, then the ASPs should be higher than should also higher. Yeah. Any? Okay. So, yeah, this is my comment on the ASP session. Thank you.

Speaker 3

Thank you. If there are no further questions in queue, now I'd like to turn the call back over to the company for any closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Thank you, everyone, for joining us on the call today. If you have any further questions, feel free to reach us directly or through the contact information that you can find on our website. Thanks.

Speaker 0

That concludes the conference call for today. Thank you, everyone, for attending, and you may now disconnect.