Author: Eric, Foresight News
Original Title: World's First Blockchain Stock Receives Another Delisting Warning, 'Selling Shovels' Is No Longer Appealing
On January 16, 2026, Canaan Technology announced that it had received a notice from the Nasdaq Exchange on January 14. The notice stated that Canaan's stock price had been below $1 for the past 30 consecutive trading days, triggering a warning. According to Nasdaq listing rules, if Canaan cannot bring its stock price back to $1 or above within 180 days (by July 13, 2026), it may face delisting.
Canaan Technology stated that, if necessary, the company will implement a reverse stock split to meet the requirement. A reverse stock split involves consolidating existing outstanding shares to reduce the total number of shares and increase the price per share. The author contacted Canaan Technology regarding the warning but had not received a response by the time of publication.
This is the second delisting warning Canaan has received in the past year. The first was in May 2025, after which the stock price rose above $1 due to an increase in Bitcoin's price, temporarily averting the crisis. However, the overall downturn in the cryptocurrency market in recent months has caused Canaan's stock price to fall nearly 30% over the past 30 trading days.
On December 13, 2025, Bitcoin treasury company Kindly MD received a warning for the same reason, while BNB treasury company Windtree Therapeutics was delisted in August 2025. Unlike cryptocurrency treasury companies, Canaan, as one of the leading players in the Bitcoin mining machine manufacturing sector, finds its current situation somewhat lamentable.
Canaan Technology went public on the Nasdaq in November 2019, becoming the world's first pure blockchain concept company to complete an IPO. After listing, Canaan's stock price remained below the offering price for over a year. However, with the arrival of the cryptocurrency bull market, its stock price began to recover steadily from late 2020, reaching a historical high of nearly $40 in March 2021, with a market capitalization exceeding $5 billion.
The good times did not last long. With the issuance of China's mining ban and the bear market that persisted throughout 2022, Canaan's stock price continued to decline, returning to pre-bull market levels. In the current cycle, although Bitcoin's price reached new highs, even nearly doubling the 2021 peak at one point, Canaan's stock price not only failed to rise but instead fell, dropping below $1 for the first time in April 2024.
Aside from objective market conditions, the industry and Canaan itself are also contributing factors to its poor performance in the capital market.
In the Bitcoin mining machine market, Bitmain is the absolute leader. Canaan held a steady second place until 2021, but after that, MicroBT rapidly rose with higher power efficiency, pushing Canaan to third place. According to a report released by Intel Market Research in December 2025, MicroBT's market share is 15% to 20%, while Canaan's is 10% to 15%.
Amid these multiple challenges, a sharp drop in demand became the final straw. According to analysis by MSX researcher Frank, the overhyped expectations of Bitcoin mining narratives and visibly intensifying competition have led many Bitcoin mining companies to transition to AI computing infrastructure. Although 'selling shovels' has always been a good business model, in the current capital market, Bitcoin's story is clearly not as certain as AI's, and capital has naturally voted with its feet, shifting towards AI-related companies.
In fact, Canaan Technology began developing AI chips nearly a decade ago. In 2018, it launched its first commercial edge AI chip based on the RISC-V architecture, Kendryte K210, primarily used for edge computing and supporting AI vision and audio processing. Over the next six years, Canaan released three more chips, each with significant innovations built upon the previous generation.
Although Canaan's chips had technical highlights and got an 'early start,' compared to giants like NVIDIA and Intel, Canaan lacked ecosystem support and large-scale demand. In 2024, its AI-related business revenue was only about $900,000, while operating expenses accounted for 15% of the entire company. In June 2025, Canaan Technology announced it would discontinue non-core AI semiconductor business and shut down its AI chip department. The related announcement stated that the company had been exploring the sale of its AI business since March 2022 but failed to find a buyer, ultimately deciding to abandon it to focus on crypto mining machines and the North American market.
Canaan Technology is a microcosm of the 'physical business' in the Web3 industry. Another listed Bitcoin mining machine manufacturer, Ebang International, has seen its stock price fall from nearly $450 at its 2020 peak to around $3, a drop of over 99%. For hardware manufacturers, there is a mature and fixed valuation model. If the industry they are in shows no clear growth prospects, it is easy to fall into a vicious cycle.
On the bright side, in late 2025, Canaan Technology first signed a large order for 4.5 MV in October, followed by completing a $72 million financing round in November. Clearly, some in the market still believe that the former 'Pumpkin Zhang' can overcome the difficulties. But to break free from the predicament, Canaan Technology may need a new story.
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