Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu is out. 2018 has been a rough year for cryptocurrency, and it’s been a particularly brutal year for miners. Bitmain hasn’t escaped the drama. Jihan Wu, along with his co-CEO Micree Zahn, are reportedly calling it quits with Bitmain.
Odaily Planet Daily reported this news first, saying that the two executives “will simultaneously resign as CEOs” of Bitmain. Their replacement is a man named Wang, who has been with Bitmain “for some time.” A source told Odaily Planet Daily that Wang is “currently in the transition period of the handover”.
Zhan and Wu were identified as co-CEOs on Bitmain’s IPO documents that were submitted to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in September of this year. Zhan was described as the leader of Bitmain’s chip R&D division “with nearly 15 years of managerial and operational experience in the IC industry.”
Zhan’s experience, however, seemingly hasn’t bolstered his ability in management. As Odaily’s source puts it: “since 2015, Zhan has expressed doubts about his management ability, and now he has finally taken action for the better survival of Bitmain.”
Not much is known about Wang, the purported successor of Zhan and Wu, other than the fact that he “was originally an outsider” but has been with Bitmain “for some time.” Speculation is abound as to the exact identity of this figure, with Haicho Wang, the current director for product engineering at Bitmain and ally of Zhan, leading the guesses as to who “Wang” really is.
As for Jihan Wu, this could be the opportunity to regroup, refocus, and rehash that he’s been waiting for. The c-suite executive was recently demoted from his board director position to a “supervisor” in November, and is currently the target of several lawsuits.
Wu and Zhan’s forthcoming resignations comes as we’ve discussed Bitmain’s intent on Firing large amounts of staff as part of its efforts “to build a long-term, sustainable, and scalable business.”
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