With the New Year only hours away, news reaching Ethereum World News indicate that the giant Bitcoin mining and ASIC manufacturing company of Bitmain might be undergoing some radical top management changes.
According to reports by both Cointelegraph and Odaily, Jihan Wu and the Jenke Group will soon be retiring as CEOs of the company.
Odaily went to name a single successor with a surname of Wang. The report went on to state that Bitmain is in a transitory period as the changes are implemented.
Earlier Reports of Jihan Wu Losing Executive Power at Bitmain
The unconfirmed reports of major changes at the top leadership at Bitmain come a month after similar rumors surfaced that Bitmain had undergone a massive board reshuffle. In the restructuring, Jihan Wu had lost his seat as the board’s executive director and was now serving as a supervisor. His position at Bitmain had been replaced by Zhan Ketuan.
Possible Shut Down of Mining Operations at the Mining Giant
Odaily went on to add that the firm could also wind down all mining operations carried out by Bitmain. In addition, the firm will sell all its currently operational Antminer S9s. Once again, we would like to remind our readers that this are unconfirmed reports.
Layoffs Already Underway
Only one week ago, Ethereum World News had indicated that Bitmain was laying off up to 50% of its staff as part of streamlining operations due to the cryptocurrency bear market. With a staff count of over 2,000, the Bitmain layoffs might shake the crypto-verse further if they are accompanied by the aforementioned ceasing of mining activities. Such an event would shift the balance of mining operations and open the doors for a reentry of small scale miners into the BTC network.
A Continual Domino Effect
Earlier on in the month, we had analyzed why the Bitmain IPO would probably not be approved by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX). A summary as to why the HKEX would be reluctant to list Bitmain is as follows.
- $740 Million in Q3 losses excluding cost of financing Hash Wars
- $10 Million in combined costs from both BCH camps for financing the hash wars
- Bitmain allegedly liquidating its stash of BCH to pay off supplier debts
- Lawsuit against Bitmain and BCHABC supporters for allegedly hijacking the BCH blockchain
- Earlier rumors of Jihan Wu losing Executive powers at Bitmain
Conclusion
Summing it up, the rumors indicating that Bitmain might be in financial trouble have continued to pile up from around the third quarter of 2018. What remains, is official confirmation from Bitmain that all is not well at the ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) chip manufacturer and crypto mining company.
