The drama surrounding one of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining equipment manufacturers, Bitmain, continues. According to recent reports, exiled co-founder Micree Ketuan Zhan used private guards to storm in the company’s Beijing offices today.
The controversy around Bitmain’s leadership continues with full force. A video showing several uniformed men marching in an office building is all over crypto Twitter.
According to Dovey Wan, a popular cryptocurrency commentator, it displays private guards hired by Bitmain’s exiled co-founder Micree Ketuan Zhan who used ‘brute force’ to storm in the company’s offices in Beijing, China.
Wan, who’s also a founding partner at Primitive Ventures, says that the information is verified by a popular Chinese news outlet. Supposedly, the ousted executive “tried to take back the control” over the company after being kicked out by Jihan Wu – another co-founder of Bitmain Technologies.
Back in March 2019, Jihan Wu stepped down as the co-CEO of the company following its failed IPO. At that time, it was Micree who assumed control.
However, as CryptoPotato reported at the time, Wu released a company email, dismissing all roles of Micree effective immediately.
“Bitmain’s co-founder, chairman, legal representative, and executive director, Jihan Wu has decided to dismiss all roles of Ketuan Zhan, effective immediately. Any Bitmain staff shall no longer take any direction from Zhan, or participate in any meeting organized by Zhan. Bitmain may, based on the situation, consider terminating employment contracts of those who violate this note.” – Read the email.
Earlier in 2020, Zhan won a legal victory, appealing the decision that allowed CFO Luyaou Liu to be registered as the legal representative of the company’s Beijing Branch. Even though Zhan wasn’t instituted as the representative, he blocked Liu out of it.
The events unfold a few days after Bitmain announced the launch of its new Antminer T19. It’s a new Bitcoin mining ASIC designed to deliver a hash rate of 84 TH/s. The machine bears similarity to the custom-built chips found in the higher end Antminer S19 and S19 Pro.
It’s interesting to see if Bitmain will follow up on its intentions to file for an IPO as it has continuously lowered its targets since the first time it did.
In any case, it’s unlikely that the company will be anywhere near getting a public listing unless the internal struggles are somewhat resolved.