Canaan, one of the world’s biggest crypto mining rig makers, has filed a lawsuit against two companies in China over patent infringement.
A Chinese unit of the Nasdaq-listed rig manufacture is suing Shenzhen HighSharp Electronic Technology and Sichuan Yinbimei Technology, and has demanded that they stop selling products that Canaan claims to have infringed on its rights, as reported by local media outlet Yicai.
Canaan is also requesting the duo to pay a total of 90 million yuan (US$14 million) for its economic losses and relevant costs.
Founded in 2016, HighSharp is a chip design partner of AGM Holdings, a software company that in August pivoted into Bitcoin ASIC chip research and development. In July, AGM appointed Chenjun Li as co-CEO, who was previously chief technology officer of HighSharp.
Since the beginning of October, AGM has announced orders of at least 65,000 units of its mining machines.
In a strategic partnership between AGM and HighSharp, the latter agreed to provide its ASIC chip technology to AGM as a priority until March next year, while AGM will help generate orders worth US$100 million during the period.
Canaan has also been making attempts to boost its sales. It said last month that it has secured a follow-on purchase order for 6,500 units of mining machines from Vancouver-based crypto mining firm HIVE Blockchain Technologies, following the previous orders from Hive for 6,400 units and 4,000 units in January and August, respectively.
Meanwhile, the clampdown on crypto mining within China continues. Beijing municipality on Monday issued a notice about energy saving, where it pledged to take serious approaches to crack down on crypto mining activities. The city’s Commission of Development and Reform said it is strengthening monitoring of power consumption for data centers as well as working to identify abnormal electricity use that could be related to crypto mining.
In the wake of the stepped-up ban in China, many crypto miners are moving to more regulation-friendly shores, and the U.S. has appeared to be benefiting from the exodus.
The U.S. has overtaken China’s leading position in cryptocurrency mining, according to the latest data from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. At the end of August, the U.S. accounted for 35.4% of the global hashrate share — which refers to the level of computing power required to mine — representing a significant surge from 16.8% at the end of April.