(Yicai Global) Oct. 15 -- China’s Ebang International Holdings is to acquire a licensed financial firm in New Zealand to set up a local digital asset financial service platform as part of the leading Bitcoin mining machine producer’s aggressive overseas expansion plan.

The unnamed New Zealand company offers wholesale and generic financial brokerage and wealth management services, Hangzhou-based Ebang said yesterday.

Ebang has opened units in Singapore and Canada in the last two months. The Canadian subsidiary is already in possession of a money service business license which will permit it to handle foreign exchange and digital currency trading in the country, the firm said on Sept. 16. The unit will set up a digital asset financial service platform with a focus on foreign exchange and digital currency transactions.

This comes a month after Ebang founded a subsidiary in Singapore so as to better position itself in the global cryptocurrency exchange sector.

Ebang’s revenue halved in the first half from the year before to USD11 million, mainly due to the halving of Bitcoins, where the return for miners is cut by half, leading to a huge slump in the demand for mining rigs and pressure on prices. However, its net losses for the same period narrowed by 65.7 percent to USD6.2 million, according to the company's semi-annual report.

Ebang [NASDAQ:EBON] closed down 3.62 percent yesterday at USD9.85.

Editor: Kim Taylor