On Jan. 10, news emerged that Chinese Bitcoin mining giant Bitmain’s co-founders, Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan Ketuan, will step down as co-CEOs of the company. The move follows a streak of reports suggesting that Bitmain has been facing mass layoffs, class action lawsuits and difficulties related to its initial public offering (IPO) during the last quarter of 2018. So what exactly is happening with one of the world’s most influential crypto outfits?
Brief introduction to Bitmain, the world’s most powerful crypto mining giantBitmain was founded in 2013 by Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan Ketuan. Prior to that, Wu was a private equity fund manager who studied economics and psychology at Peking University, while Zhan, a graduate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was trying to raise funds for a startup that allowed users to stream television shows to a computer screen via a set-top box.