Parties solicited to invest in the pre-initial public offering (IPO) funding round for Bitmain Technologies, Ltd., the leading maker of cryptocurrency mining software and hardware, received pitch decks falsely suggesting the company had secured financial backing from Digital Sky Technologies Global and GIC Private Limited, an investigation by CoinDesk has found.
The question is who put those misrepresentations into the pitch decks. Of the three versions identified and reviewed, CoinDesk was unable to verify their authenticity independently of their recipients. Bitmain has not responded to inquiries concerning the production and dissemination of the pitch decks, even though all of them printed the company name and a confidentiality warning on each slide, and two versions prescribed deadlines and methods on bank wiring instructions.
One version of the pitch decks, originally written in Chinese and translated into English by CoinDesk, described Bitmain as having "recently completed a $400 million Series B round of financing from Sequoia Capital, DST and GIC, with a pre-investment valuation of $12 billion" and was forwarded by someone claiming to have access to the deal and knowledge that Bitmain created the pitch deck without offering proof, says a source who came into possession of the copy.