Jihan Wu, co-founder and CEO of Chinese mining giant Bitmain, believes the next Bitcoin (BTC) block reward halving may not lead to a bull market, but the coin’s price will grow in the long term.

According to Chinese industry news outlet 8BTC’s report published on Oct. 11, Wu made his remarks during the World Digital Mining Summit held in Frankfurt.

Bulls may be late this time

Per the report, Wu explained that the crypto market moves in cycles and this time the next bullish phase may not start after the halving. He is also confident that in a long-term perspective crypto enthusiasts should invest in mining hardware, adding:

“There are many uncertainties, but now is a good time to invest in crypto mining. If I were a miner, I would not stop mining but continuing to invest in mining equipment. We are currently in a short-term correction of price. Having a long-term perspective is significant. If bitcoin’s price remains unchanged after halving, the efficiency of existing equipment must be improved to balance efficiency and computing power.”

Long-term perspective

Wu also promised that the company’s five nanometer mining application-specific integrated circuits will enter mass production in early 2020 while three nanometer chips are already in production. Furthermore, he stated that the firm has set up repair centers which are expected to reduce repair time to three days by the end of 2019.

Wu also confirmed that Bitmain will launch the World Digital Mining Map, a service which will connect mining hardware owners with mining farm owners, and the Ant Training Academy — its mining training service.

As Cointelegraph reported on Oct. 9, Bitmain announced two new series 17 Bitcoin mining machines.