On December 25, the Japanese Internet giant GMO Internet Group announced that it was leaving the bitcoin mining equipment manufacturing sector, citing "extraordinary losses".
(http://cryptoconsulting.info/ru/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GMO.jpg)
Referring to the report of the company for the fourth quarter of this year, GMO, which began its activities in mining in 2017, said that it will no longer "develop, produce and sell" miners, specifying:
Taking into account the changes in the current business environment, the Company expects that it will be difficult for it to recover the carrying value of business assets associated with cryptocurrency mining, and therefore it was decided to stop unexpected losses.
The document also reports that GMO will further transfer its mining activities "to the region, which will provide a cleaner and less expensive energy supply."
The consequences of the bear market for miners
This news makes GMO the latest victim of the bearish bitcoin market (BTC) in 2018, when falling prices affect the profitability of mining.
As we wrote earlier, in China, private miners massively sell equipment, followed by news of layoffs and the closure of offices from the largest producer of ASICs - Bitmain.
According to the documents, consolidated losses of GMO for the 4th quarter amounted to 35.5 billion yen (320 million dollars), while non-consolidated losses will amount to about 38 billion yen (334.5 million dollars). However, the company stated that the losses did not affect its "financial integrity".
Link to the source of information (Russian) - https://altstake.io/news/gmo-prekraschaet-proizvodstvo-bitkoin-maynerov