Canaan Inc. has secured an additional 180 days to bring its American Depositary Shares back into compliance with Nasdaq’s minimum bid price rule, giving the Bitcoin mining hardware maker until January 11, 2027, to avoid a potential delisting.
The company said on July 15 that it had received formal notice from Nasdaq granting the extension after its ADS traded below the required $1 minimum bid price for 30 consecutive trading days. Canaan’s shares closed at $0.29, leaving the company with a market value of about $217 million and placing the stock more than 90% below its 2019 peak.
The extension gives Canaan temporary relief, but it does not remove the central risk facing the company. If the ADS does not regain compliance by the new deadline, Nasdaq could begin delisting proceedings. A delisting would likely push the shares into over-the-counter trading, where liquidity often declines sharply and access to large pools of capital can become more limited.
To regain compliance, Canaan generally must maintain a closing bid price of at least $1 for a required period, typically at least 10 consecutive business days, though Nasdaq can apply a longer review period depending on circumstances. The company may also consider a reverse stock split if the share price does not recover naturally before the January deadline.
Compliance clock moves to January
Canaan has been under Nasdaq compliance review since May 2025, when it first received notice that its ADS had fallen below the exchange’s minimum bid price requirement. The company briefly regained compliance after a rebound in the cryptocurrency market lifted related shares, but the stock weakened again in early 2026 and fell back under the $1 threshold.
On July 1, Canaan transferred its listing from the Nasdaq Global Market to the Nasdaq Capital Market, a tier with less restrictive listing requirements. That move allowed the company to request an additional compliance period before its initial grace period expired on July 13. Nasdaq approved the request two days later.
The transfer to the Nasdaq Capital Market is a common step for companies attempting to preserve their listings while working through financial or share-price pressure. However, it also signals that Canaan’s public market position has weakened significantly since its earlier years as one of the best-known publicly listed manufacturers of Bitcoin mining machines.
For traders, the new deadline creates a defined window in which Canaan must either lift its market value through improved performance, benefit from a broader recovery in crypto-related equities or take corporate action to raise the nominal price of its ADS. A reverse split would not change the company’s underlying value, but it could raise the per-share price enough to satisfy Nasdaq’s listing rule.
Financial strain deepens
The extension comes as Canaan continues to report heavy losses, falling sales and shrinking cash reserves.
In the first quarter of 2026, total revenue fell 24.3% from a year earlier to $62.7 million. The company’s net loss widened to $88.7 million, compared with a loss of $86.4 million in the same period a year earlier.
The company also reported a gross loss of $22.9 million for the quarter. That figure included a $25 million non-cash inventory write-down tied to unsold mining machines, showing that some older devices can no longer be sold at expected prices in the current market.
Cash holdings fell sharply as well. Canaan ended the first quarter with $43.5 million in cash, down from $80.8 million at the end of 2025. The company said the position was partly offset by $42 million in receivables collected in April, but the decline still underscored pressure on liquidity.
The outlook for the second quarter pointed to further weakness. Canaan projected revenue between $35 million and $45 million, well below levels seen during stronger periods for mining equipment demand. The forecast suggests that the company continues to face a difficult sales environment as mining operators limit spending on new hardware.
Canaan’s Bitcoin holdings remain a major part of its balance sheet. At the end of March, the company held 1,807.6 Bitcoin, valued at about $142 million at the time. More recent data showed the balance rising to 1,915 coins, while the estimated value declined to about $120 million because of changing market prices.
That exposure gives Canaan potential upside when Bitcoin rises, but it also adds volatility to corporate finances. A lower Bitcoin price can reduce the value of reserves even if the number of coins increases. For a company already dealing with operating losses and listing pressure, that link to crypto market swings adds another layer of uncertainty.
A retreat from AI chips
Canaan’s current difficulties follow a major strategic shift. In June 2025, the company halted its artificial intelligence chip division and refocused on Bitcoin mining hardware and self-mining operations.
The discontinued AI chip business generated only $900,000 in revenue during fiscal 2024 while producing $21.4 million in operating costs. That contributed to a full-year net loss of $249.8 million.
Management’s decision to exit the AI chip segment reflected the high cost of competing in a market dominated by much larger semiconductor companies. Canaan returned its attention to the business that made it known globally: application-specific integrated circuit, or ASIC, machines built for Bitcoin mining.
But returning to the core business did not solve the company’s problems. During the second quarter of 2025, Canaan’s total mining equipment sales capacity reached 6.4 million terahashes per second, up 3% from a year earlier. By the first quarter of 2026, however, product revenue had fallen to $42.9 million from $164.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2024.
That steep drop showed how quickly demand can weaken in the mining hardware market. Buyers typically become more cautious when Bitcoin prices soften, network difficulty rises or mining margins shrink. They also tend to favor the most efficient machines, leaving older models harder to sell without deep discounts.
Founder Zhang has overseen the company’s effort to evolve from a hardware supplier into a broader computing infrastructure provider. As of March 2026, Canaan’s total hash rate from self-operated and partnered mining sites stood at approximately 11 exahashes per second. That represented a 66% increase from a year earlier and a 10.7% rise from the previous quarter.
The expansion shows that Canaan is attempting to capture more revenue directly from mining instead of relying only on equipment sales. However, self-mining also exposes the company to Bitcoin price fluctuations, electricity costs, network difficulty and operational execution risks.
Mining market pressures hardware demand
The wider mining industry has become more difficult for hardware manufacturers. Since 2025, capital has increasingly moved toward AI-focused data centers, which compete with crypto mining for power capacity, infrastructure and financing attention.
At the same time, Bitcoin mining competition has intensified. The total network hash rate recently crossed 929 exahashes per second, a level that reflects the vast amount of computing power competing to earn block rewards. As the network grows stronger, mining difficulty generally rises, making it harder for older and less efficient machines to generate profit.
That dynamic weighs directly on companies such as Canaan. When mining becomes more competitive, operators demand machines with better energy efficiency and higher output. Older units in inventory lose value faster, and equipment manufacturers may be forced to mark down unsold stock.
Industry revenue conditions also remain tight. Daily revenue estimates for mining operators have recently sat near $31 per petahash of computing power. Low hashprice levels limit how much mining companies can spend on new machines, especially when electricity and site operating expenses remain high.
For traders tracking mining-related equities, these operating conditions help explain the pressure on hardware suppliers. Canaan is not only dealing with company-specific losses and Nasdaq compliance issues. It is also facing a market in which many mining operators are delaying upgrades, demanding lower prices or shifting capital toward energy infrastructure and data center opportunities with broader use cases.
The company’s stock volatility reflects that pressure. Market data shows Canaan’s beta at about 2.58, indicating that the shares have moved more sharply than the broader market. High-beta stocks can rise quickly during favorable conditions, but they can also fall deeply when sentiment weakens.
Balance sheet actions offer limited relief
Canaan has taken steps to strengthen its financial position, though the share price has remained under pressure.
In November 2025, the company secured a combined $72 million strategic investment from institutional backers. The funding was intended to improve the balance sheet and support operations during a difficult period for the mining equipment business.
The following month, Canaan’s board approved a $30 million share repurchase program. Buybacks can signal confidence from management and reduce the number of shares outstanding, but they also require cash at a time when the company is reporting losses and facing an uncertain revenue outlook.
The company has also continued to build operating partnerships outside China. Its expansion included the purchase of a 49% stake in Texas-based ABC Projects. In Canada, Canaan developed a 3-megawatt pilot facility that repurposes heat from mining machines for agricultural use. In Japan, a separate 4.5-megawatt agreement with an energy company involves grid-balancing services.
These projects show an effort to connect Bitcoin mining with energy management and heat reuse, areas that could help miners improve site economics. Still, such projects remain relatively small compared with the scale of Canaan’s financial losses and the size of the global mining market.
The company’s move toward operating infrastructure may provide more recurring exposure to mined Bitcoin, but it also requires disciplined capital spending. Mining sites need reliable power contracts, efficient machines, cooling systems and steady uptime. Any weakness in Bitcoin prices or increase in energy costs can quickly compress margins.
What Canaan must do next
Canaan’s most immediate challenge is straightforward: it must lift its ADS above Nasdaq’s minimum bid threshold before January 11, 2027, or risk losing its listing. The company can try to achieve that through improved operating results, a recovery in crypto-linked shares, a reverse stock split or a combination of those steps.
The deeper challenge is more complicated. Canaan must prove that it can generate stronger revenue from hardware sales or mining operations while controlling costs and preserving cash. The first-quarter results showed lower sales, heavy losses, inventory pressure and reduced liquidity. The second-quarter outlook suggested that the downturn had not yet bottomed.
The company also needs to manage the volatility created by its Bitcoin holdings. While those reserves may support the balance sheet during periods of rising prices, they can also weaken reported asset values when the market falls. That makes Canaan’s financial position sensitive not only to its own operations but also to broader crypto market swings.
For the mining hardware business, product competitiveness remains crucial. As an ASIC chip designer, Canaan must continue spending on research and development to keep pace with efficiency demands. Falling behind in chip performance would make it harder to sell machines at profitable prices, especially as customers focus on energy costs and payback periods.
The Nasdaq extension gives Canaan time, but not much comfort. The company has avoided an immediate move to over-the-counter trading, preserving its access to a major U.S. listing for now. But the six-month period ahead will test whether management can stabilize the business, restore market confidence and keep the shares listed while the Bitcoin mining industry remains under pressure.
Facing delisting risk and crypto volatility? Learn to navigate downturns with our guide here.
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