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Bitcoin, trapped in a more than year-long bear market, has lost some 80% in value over the last 15 months and caused many of those in the nascent industry to change or postpone their bitcoin and cryptocurrency plans.

The bitcoin price, after rocketing to an eye-watering near $20,000, fell back to around $4,000 late last yearwhere it has remained since the beginning of 2019.

Now, the long-awaited blockbuster initial public offering (IPO) of major bitcoin and cryptocurrency miner Bitmain Technologies appears to have been put on ice, causing consternationamongst the burgeoning cryptocurrencyindustry.

Bitcoin's rapid rise and subsequent price collapse resulted in some companies having to rethink their short-term strategies.

China's bitcoin mining giant Bitmain Technologies this week appeared to abandon its IPOambitions after it allowed its Hong Kong stock market proposal listing to lapsesome six months after Bitmain filed an IPO prospectus.

Bitmain did, however, say it plans to reapply at an appropriate time in the future.

"We do recognize that despite the huge potential of the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry, it remains a relatively young industry which is proving its value," Bitmain said on its website. "We will restart the listing application work at an appropriate time in the future."

Bitmain, which designs hardware and microchips for artificial intelligence as well as cryptocurrency mining, was aiming to raise some $3 billion in its IPO, according to a Reuters report, citing unnamed sources.

Bitmain posted a net loss of $395 million in for the second quarter of 2018, while there were reports the company spent $500 million on failed chips over the past 18 months.

The bitcoin price epic 2017 bull run triggered a surge of investment that evaporated as the bitcoin price collapsed.

Though the bitcoin price has been trading flat for a number of months now, bold bitcoin bulls have continued to talk up bitcoin and cryptocurrency prospects, with the founder and chief executive of crypto asset manager Galaxy DigitalMike Novogratz saying the next move bitcoin makes will be "higher."

Novogratz adds his voice to other bitcoin and crypto wealthy, including billionaireBinance chief executive Changpeng Zhao,EOS co-founder and BlockOne CEO Brendan Blumer, andthe billionaire Winklevoss twins of Facebook-founding fame, who went on to create the U.S. Gemini crypto exchange, who have said they still have strong faith in bitcoin and crypto despite the downturnand are betting prices will move higher.

The bitcoin sector is currently trapped in a long-running bear market, with some$400 billion in value wiped from the world's cryptocurrencies over the past 14 months.

Bitcoin's epic 2017 bull run was largely put down to expectations institutional investment and big bank support for bitcoin would soon arrive. As 2018 dragged on and that investment failed to appear many investors and traders got cold feet,bailing out of their bitcoin and cryptocurrency positions.

Many bitcoin investors and traders are however looking toward things likethe highly-anticipated Bakkt bitcoin platformand a U.S. bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to boost the price, though those expectations have been somewhat dampened lately as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissionfrets over potential price manipulation.

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Blow To Bitcoin As World's Largest Cryptocurrency IPO Is Iced