Bitmain Co-Founder Dismissed Of All Roles In Unexpected Decision

In what is an unexpected move, the Beijing-based bitcoin mining giant Bitmain has ousted the co-founder and executive director Micree Ketuan Zhan.

According to an internal email sent to staff, another co-founder, and now chairman of the board of Bitmain, Jihan Wu sent an email with the subject matter of “important notice” to all staff, saying:

“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.”

One staff member of Bitmain said that under anonymity of the internal email, that it is the second version of Dec 17, in reference to its major layoff in late 2018. Furthermore, another source close to the firm stated that the crypto miner is currently undergoing an urgent all-hands meeting as staff were shocked by the sudden notice.

The companies spokesperson said that the firm hasn’t got any comments to make at the time of writing. 

As per CoinDesk:

“The email follows news on Tuesday morning that Bitmain has changed its corporate structure in the registration filing with government agencies. Based on new update, after the change, Wu has taken over the roles of executive director and legal representative of Bitmain from Zhan.”

Nevertheless it is unclear as to how Bitmain’s board reached the unexpected decision or if Zhan was possibly bought out of his shares. In September 2018 Bitmain filed for an IPO application, however, it did not see the results it aimed for. At this time, Zhan was still a big shareholder of Bitmain with 36 percent of Bitmain’s holding company while Wu owned 20 percent.

It will be interesting to see how this situation plays out. For more news on this and other crypto updates, keep it with CryptoDaily