500.com Ltd, a U.S.-listed Chinese sports lottery company, announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire bitcoin mining machines in a transaction valued at $14.4 million. Rather than paying in cash, the company said it plans to settle the purchase by issuing 11,882,860 Class A ordinary shares at a price of $1.21 per share. The seller was identified only as a non-U.S. party.
Mining Fleet to Include Bitmain and Microbt Models
According to the announcement, the mining package includes several widely used machine models, including the M20s from Microbt and S17, T17, and S9 units from Bitmain. These models represent a mix of newer and older-generation bitcoin mining hardware, indicating that the acquisition is focused on quickly establishing a meaningful operating footprint in mining rather than waiting for a single model type or a future hardware batch.
The company said the agreement remains subject to the seller satisfying the relevant closing conditions. If completed as planned, 500.com expects the full transaction to be finalized before the end of the first quarter of 2021. It also said the machines are expected to be installed within four weeks after closing, signaling an accelerated deployment schedule.
Target Hash Power of 918.5 PH/s
Once the machines are installed and operational, 500.com estimates that its total hash power capacity will reach 918.5 PH/s. That would give the company a significant entry point into industrial-scale bitcoin mining, especially for a business previously known for its sports lottery operations.
The company further stated that it expects to begin generating revenue from mining activities in the first half of 2021. While the announcement did not provide detailed projections for output, energy costs, or profitability, the stated timeline suggests management was moving to capitalize on favorable market conditions and strong investor interest in listed companies with bitcoin exposure.
Stock Jumped After the Announcement
Investors responded positively to the news. Shares of 500.com rose by more than 11% following the announcement, reaching a new yearly high of $13.94. The market reaction underscored how strongly public equity investors were rewarding companies that announced expansion into bitcoin mining during that period.
At the time, public markets were assigning premium valuations to firms building positions in bitcoin infrastructure. The response to 500.com’s mining plan appeared consistent with that broader trend, where announcements tied to hash rate growth, machine procurement, and crypto-adjacent revenue opportunities often translated into sharp share-price gains.
Part of a Wider Corporate Mining Trend
500.com’s move did not happen in isolation. The report pointed to several examples of companies scaling up bitcoin mining operations in 2020. Riot Blockchain, one of the best-known publicly traded bitcoin miners in the United States, reached a market capitalization of $1 billion by the end of that year. That milestone reflected growing investor enthusiasm for listed mining companies as bitcoin prices and mining economics improved.
Another example cited was Cleanspark, a microgrid software company that announced on December 22, 2020 that it would purchase 1,000 bitcoin mining machines. The deployment of those S19 Antminers was expected to increase Cleanspark’s mining capacity to 300 PH/s. The report also noted that Cleanspark’s shares had climbed 100% between December 11 and the end of 2020.
Against that backdrop, 500.com’s decision to pivot into mining appears to reflect a larger corporate pattern: companies outside the traditional crypto-native sector were increasingly seeking direct exposure to bitcoin infrastructure. For some, that meant acquiring bitcoin itself. For others, especially public companies looking to build a narrative around growth and digital asset participation, mining equipment purchases offered a way to enter the ecosystem with a tangible operational strategy.
A Traditional Business Expands Into Crypto Infrastructure
For 500.com, the announcement marked a notable strategic development. As a company associated with sports lottery operations, its planned mining expansion suggested a meaningful diversification into the digital asset economy. By targeting nearly 918.5 PH/s in total computing power, the firm was not signaling a small pilot program, but rather a sizable initial commitment.
Still, the transaction remained conditional, and the announcement stopped short of providing details on hosting arrangements, electricity sourcing, mining pool participation, or the geographic footprint of its planned installations. Those operational variables are important in evaluating the long-term economics of any mining operation. Even so, the scale of the proposed purchase made it one of the more attention-grabbing examples of a non-mining public company moving into bitcoin production during that period.
Overall, the agreement highlights how rapidly the bitcoin mining landscape was evolving, with listed firms from varied industries exploring ways to gain exposure to the sector. In 500.com’s case, a $14.4 million stock-based equipment deal could become the foundation for a new line of business centered on generating revenue from bitcoin mining in the months ahead.