Bitmain, the Chinese company widely regarded as the most dominant player in the world of cryptocurrency mining, is currently being scrutinized by market analysts and investors as serious questions about its planned investment public offering have come to light. In recent days, three major investors have denied participating in early funding rounds of Bitmain. At least two popular websites that cover the cryptcurrency news beat have confirmed that neither DST Global, Tencent or Softbank took part in the initial $400 million round of funding that Bitmain allegedly received a few months ago. Softbank is a highly respected Japanese technology and investment banking firm. Tencent is a Chinese company that competes directly against Softbank. DST Global is a major Wall Street players. To have these three investors deny involvement with Bitmain does not bode well for the IPO, and the company will have to clear the air in the following days. As can be expected, Bitmain's IPO plans are bound to suffer considerably once the aforementioned news stories achieve wider circulation. Even though Bitmain's cryptocurrency mining operations brought considerable profit to the company in 2017, the current state of the digital currency markets and the fall of Bitcoin are making this investment appear very risky. Aside from mining cryptocurrency tokens, Bitmain also manufactures ASIC chips that can be installed in mining rigs. When the company announced its IPO plans earlier this year, Bitmain executives explained that they intended to expand their chip manufacturing operations to serve the artificial intelligence development community. Bitmain's IPO strategy changed from microchips to betting on the future of Bitcoin Cash a few weeks ago. Prospective IPO investors were informed that Bitmain planned to go long in its Bitcoin Cash mining and development plans, but this may not have been the best announcement to make at a time when the cryptocurrency market is going through a major correction. In the end, time will tell whether Bitmain can make it through the recent controversies and the abysmal cryptocurrency market. There is some hope insofar as Bitcoin Cash achieving wider circulation than Bitcoin in the future, but this is still a matter of speculation.