Altcoins

Bitcoin Cash Jumps as Jihan Wu Takes Charge of Bitmain

from Trust Nodes 4 years ago 0 0 681

Bitcoin Cash has risen by about 10% from $264 to $284 following news a power struggle at Bitmain has been settled in favor of Jihan Wu, the prominent BCH supporter and the one now running the biggest bitcoin mining operation.

A change was made to Bitmain’s corporate structure on October 28th, making Jihan Wu executive director and legal representative of the mining giant. An email to staff earlier today said:

“Bitmain’s co-founder, chairman, legal representative and executive director Jihan Wu has decided to dismiss all operating positions of Ketuan Zhan with immediate effect.

Any Bitmain staff shall no longer execute any direction from Zhan, or participate in any meeting organized by him. Bitmain may, based on the situation, consider terminating employment contracts of those who violate this note. If violators damage Bitmain’s economic interests, the company will pursue civil or criminal liability according to law.”

Micree Ketuan Zhan and Jihan Wu are cofounders of Bitmain and were co-CEOs until last year when the latter was ousted with the aim of changing Bitmain’s direction to focus more on AI chips and the like.

That apparently did not go too well, with Bitmain losing $625 million in the first two months of 2019 ahead of a planned IPO in the United States where they hope to raise $1-$1.5 billion on a valuation of $13-$15 billion.

The company is to now focus back on the crypto space with Bitmain stating to local media:

“We believe that under the leadership of Mr. Wu Jihan, Bitian China will return to its original heart, focus on its main business, develop in an orderly and horizontal manner, and become a world-class technology company.”

Haipo Yang, founder and CEO of crypto mining pool ViaBTC and crypto exchange CoinEx, said on Chinese social media:

“Wu is one of the earliest blockchain preachers in China, pioneered the translation of the bitcoin white paper [into Chinese] and is the founder of Bitmain. It is under his leadership that Bitmain grew into a big-name company.

Yet for some historical reasons, as it has happened many times in history, he was almost driven out of the company that he founded, and Bitmain dropped since then.

At the hight of the crisis, he took iron-fist measures to regain control of the company. I hope he, like Jobs, can lead the company back to its glories. Bitmain is the second largest shareholder in ViaBTC and CoinEx and one of my strongest allies.”