While blockchain is booming, Bitmain, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency mining machine manufacturers, has been hit by an internal conflict!

It is said that Wu Jihan, a big shot in the cryptocurrency circle whose status is second only to Satoshi Nakamoto and Vitalik Buterin, was once sidelined by Jihan Wu, chairman and founder of Bitmain. The fight between the two sides ended with Jihan Wu being eliminated.

Insiders revealed that Wu Jihan said emotionally at the staff meeting today: "I must come back to save this company." Zhan Ketuan has been banned from entering the Bitmain office. The news caused a sensation in the cryptocurrency circle. The two protagonists of this "big event" are both well-known, with a net worth of tens of billions and have been listed on the Forbes and Hurun rich lists many times!

Internal strife exposed

Multiple sources said today that Bitmain founder Jihan Wu issued an important notice to employees, saying, "It has been decided to remove Zhan Ketuan from all his positions in Bitmain, effective immediately. No Bitmain employee may execute Zhan Ketuan's instructions or attend meetings convened by Zhan Ketuan." At the same time, he also warned that "if there is any violation, the company will consider terminating the labor contract depending on the severity of the circumstances; if the company's economic interests are damaged, the company will pursue civil or criminal liability in accordance with the law."

Not only that, according to an insider close to Bitmain, Wu Jihan sent a second email to employees after the email, which was to dismiss the current HR director, reappoint the original HR director, and hold an employee meeting. It is reported that the dismissed HR director took office at the end of 2018 and was appointed by Zhan Ketuan. The reappointed HR director is a veteran employee who followed Wu Jihan to start a business.

Yang Haipo, founder of mining pool operator ViaBTC and exchange CoinEx, posted on social media at noon, saying that "due to some historical reasons, (Jihan Wu) was almost kicked out of the company he founded, and Bitmain also fell from the altar. At the most critical moment, he (Jihan Wu) used iron-fisted means to regain control of Bitmain", which also indirectly confirmed the "internal strife" in Bitmain.

In fact, just yesterday, Tianyancha showed that Beijing Bitmain Technology Co., Ltd. had changed its information, with the legal representative changed from Zhan Ketuan to Wu Jihan, and the executive director position was also taken over by Wu Jihan. This series of changes once aroused market suspicion yesterday, until today's email made the internal conflict completely public.

The timing of Wu Jihan's attack was quite sudden. Yesterday, Zhan Ketuan was representing Bitmain in Shenzhen to hold a launch conference for the third-generation intelligent server SA5.

Foreshadowing of the dispute between Wu and Zhan

Needless to say, Wu Jihan, who ranks high as the "Ace of Clubs" in the power list, was one of the first people in China to popularize the concept of blockchain. He translated Satoshi Nakamoto's paper himself and brought Bitcoin to China. He is known as China's "No. 1 Blockchain Guy."

Bitmain, founded by Wu Jihan, is also one of the world's three largest mining machine manufacturers. The three mining pools he owns: BTC.com, Connect BTC and Ant Pool, are said to have once occupied about 30% of the global computing power. It is common sense that once the computing power exceeds 51%, a cryptocurrency can be "manipulated" in theory.

In 2017, during the "route" dispute between Bitcoin miners and the founding technical team, Wu Jihan led the first hard fork in Bitcoin history, separating out another cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Cash, and launched a "computing power war" that caused significant congestion in transactions on the Bitcoin chain.

Despite Wu Jihan's fame, few people paid attention to Zhan Ketuan behind him.

In early 2013, Wu Jihan decided to start Bitmain. He found a technical expert named Zhan Ketuan who was born in Tsinghua University to develop Antminer. He promised him that he would not be paid but would get 60% of the company's shares after the development was successful. Zhan Ketuan developed the first generation of mining machine products in just half a year, and it was successfully listed at the end of 2013. He also got the shares as promised.

According to the prospectus, Zhan Ketuan initially held 61% of the shares, while Wu Jihan held 22.90%, which means that Zhan Ketuan was the undisputed actual controller in the early stages of the business.

According to former employees of Bitmain, Wu Jihan is more responsible for external business contacts, Bitmain's mining machine division, Bitcoin Cash and other businesses, while Zhan Ketuan is more responsible for technical business, such as AI chip research and development, mining machine chip research and development, etc.

Wu Jihan, who is standing in the front, is surrounded by halo. Can Jihan Zhan, another "creator" of Bitmain and a major shareholder, be content with this?

In late 2018, Bitmain submitted an IPO application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which exposed Bitmain's equity structure. Not only has Zhan Ketuan been the major shareholder since the early days of the company, but even after introducing external funds, Zhan Ketuan still holds 36% of the shares when the IPO application was submitted, while Wu Jihan only holds about 20%.

The cryptocurrency community suddenly realized at this point that it seemed that Jihan Wu was the one in control of Bitmain.

The IPO application documents show that Bitmain's revenue in 2017 was approximately US$2.5 billion and its net profit was more than US$1.1 billion. Analysts believe that the IPO valuation may reach US$30 billion to US$35 billion, and Zhan Ketuan's net worth was thus exposed.

At the end of 2018, Zhan Ketuan was ranked among the top 100 richest people in China and the richest person in the blockchain industry in the world. In the Hurun Rich List of that year, Zhan Ketuan ranked first in the global blockchain industry with a net worth of 29.5 billion yuan, far ahead of the second place Wu Jihan by about 13 billion yuan.

Brothers turn against each other

2017 was the last good time for Bitcoin, with the price exceeding $20,000 at the end of the year.

But as early as the end of 2016, Bitmain's product research and development progress had stalled. It can be said that it missed the entire Bitcoin bull market in 2017, and its products were caught up or even surpassed by competitors. It was also from that year that Ketuan Zhan, who had devoted himself to research and development in the past, began to appear in various public events and became the new spokesperson of Bitmain.

With so many advances and retreats, Wu Jihan had no time to run the company at that time.

The cryptocurrency world was in chaos throughout 2017. Serious disagreements arose between the mining pool owners led by Wu Jihan and the Bitcoin founding technical team. Ultimately, Wu Jihan led the first hard fork of Bitcoin, separating out the new cryptocurrency Bitcoin Cash, and invested a large amount of cash flow into Bitcoin Cash to compete with Bitcoin.

Insiders said that it was during that period that Wu Jihan was sidelined by Zhan Ketuan as a major shareholder, and the investors were inclined to let Zhan Ketuan take control of the company. Since then, Wu Jihan has rarely appeared in the name of Bitmain. At the beginning of this year, there was even news that "Bitmain founder Wu Jihan left the core", but it was quickly denied by company insiders.

Cryptocurrency has been in a slump since the bull run in 2017, and Bitmain has also fallen into a slump. Under the leadership of Zhan Ketuan, there has been no news about Bitmain's plan to go public in Hong Kong since then, and there is a subtle trend of gradual decline.

Admittedly, due to his technical background, Zhan Ketuan seems to lack the overall perspective of the entire industry compared to Wu Jihan.

In this cold winter, capital has long been impatient to wait. The policy has brought a rare ray of hope to the blockchain. Wu Jihan has regained support from all parties and has made a comeback. It is natural that Zhan Ketuan was "taken down".

In the ruthless capital market, brothers turn against each other again...