The power struggle between the two co-founders of Bitmain, Micree Zhan and Jihan Wu, seems to have reached new heights as Zhan appears to be re-routing its financial flows to entities fully controlled by him.
This is part of a public service announcement posted on Bitmain’s Weibo and WeChat pages, which notified customers that Bitmain’s payment credentials and email have changed. These appear to be pointing to accounts controlled by Zhan.
However, according to BlockBeats reporting, Wu issued a statement claiming that these actions are due to compromised WeChat and Weibo accounts that are reporting false information.
According to the statement, “anomalous activity” on Bitmain’s accounts have resulted in the pages issuing false statements on behalf of the company since June 10. The announcement once again reiterated that legal proceedings will be used to put a stop to the spread of “false information.”
Wu appears to be losing
The long-running struggle has been closing in on a resolution in the last few months. Zhan appears to have gotten in several hard blows to Wu’s authority, which began with Zhan attempting to steal the company’s official seal in May.
Since then, in June, Zhan used private guards to enter Bitmain’s Beijing office and take over the role of legal representative. Wu retained control of outside entities, crucially Bitmain’s Hong Kong-based holding.
Zhan’s reach extended to Shenzhen as he reportedly blocked deliveries of ASIC miners to customers.
It remains unclear as to who is currently in control of Bitmain, with some making analogies to a “Schrödinger’s Bitmain." It is likely that due to its legal structure, neither party can conclusively oust the other.
As Cointelegraph reported on June 24, Zhan offered Wu to purchase his and other investors’ stakes for $4 billion, which could signal the beginning of negotiations for a peace treaty between the co-founders.
In the meantime, the company still appears to be operating as new contracts are being signed.