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Bitmain's Board Makes Decision Ousting Co-Founder Ketuan Zhan

As reported by Utoday, crypto mining giant Bitmain ousts its co-founder and executive director after Jihan Wu, another co-founder and now chairman, sent an email announcing Ketuan Zhan would be dismissed from his position.

Zhan, a major stakeholder holding 36.5% of the company will immediately stop all operating and internal procedures. This announcement comes with shock to employees of Bitmain.

Bitmain has changed its company structure in the registration filing with government agencies. Leading to Wu becoming executive director and legal representative of the company.

It is not clear if Zhan’s 36.5% was bought out and liquidated by other members of the board, but as of writing there has been an immediate reaction in the price of Bitcoin Cash, climbing more than 10% in value.

Wu is known as a strong follower of the Bitcoin fork, while Zhan was against Bitmain’s heavy involvement, which is why we may be seeing this climb.

In recent years, Wu has been growing into the crypto space, so it is no surprise that the billionaire is continuing his forward march. With Bitmain and Wu branching out into more than just software, the take over of mining in hardware and the cloud are all on the table. Wu surely has more plans for Bitmain, aiming to make it the world’s global business for hardware in crypto.

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Chinese Police Put MicroBT CEO Under Microscope Over Alleged Dispute With Bitmain

As stated by a local news outlet, the Chinese Police have just resumed its investigation of intellectual property infringement involving Yang Zuoxing, CEO of Shenzhen Bit Microelectronics Technology and Bitmain.

In the course, Yang was being arrested to help in the investigation of the patent of Bitmain he allegedly infringed upon and if found guilty, would be sentenced to prison.

The news about his arrest was revealed by insiders who were around when the police took hold of him on the basis of intellectual disputes in Bitmain.

Bitmain, a Chinese-based privately-owned company located in Beijing, which designs technology for bitcoin mining, was founded by Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan in 2013.

Yang was once staff in the company; working as the director of processor design, he developed the Antminer S7 and S9 models. However, Yang exited the company when the talk over equity stake was a debacle.

Zealous about having a mining firm, he raised funds to start Shenzhen Bit Microelectronics Technology, MicroBT. Since then, Bitmain and MicroBT are being seen as a rival company.

Following from this, Bitmain took MicroBT to court alleging that Yang has infringed upon their patent.

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Bitmain-Backed Digital Assets Company Matrixport Extends Its Crypto Services into Europe

Matrixport, a Singapore headquartered and Bitmain-backed crypto company that offers trading, lending, and custody services, extends its services into Europe through the establishment of its new Zurich office. However, for now, Matrixport will not offer its payment services in Europe. Instead, it aims to apply for a Swiss banking license.

Matrixport is backed by Bitmain, the Chinese crypto mining company, and it has plans to set up a European operations center in Switzerland. By joining other crypto firms based in Switzerland, it aims to reach out to cryptocurrency enthusiasts and institutional investors such as private banks, family offices, and asset managers who always welcome being exposed to cryptocurrency.

As stated by the report, Matrixport’s Chief Operations Officer in Switzerland, Hui Wang said that the company plans to enlist close to 10 staff in the space of two years.

“We will start on a modest scale initially as we establish our name in Europe and establish a pool of clients. We don’t intend to act as a channel for our Singapore HQ, simply referring clients to Asia. We will service our European clients from Switzerland.”

Matrixport is registered under the name of Chaintech in Switzerland and is presently a member of the self-regulatory body QVF, which is looked after by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority.

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Coronavirus Measures in China Delay Crypto Hardware for MicroBT and Bitmain Customers

The coronavirus is causing mass disruption throughout Asia and has now been declared a ‘global health emergency’ by the World Health Organisation. The Chinese government has taken drastic isolation measures, and over 40 million people are effectively on lockdown.

One of the leading manufacturers of crypto mining hardware, MicroBT recently notified customers via WeChat that their shipments would be delayed at least a week because of the coronavirus quarantine in China. One of the preliminary measures by Beijing was to extend the Chinese New Year holidays to keep citizens at home.

The notice said that customers of Shenzhen based mining hardware manufacturers should expect delays in “the production, delivery, after-sales service, and send and receive documents and other arrangements.”

In an article published yesterday by CoinDesk, Artem Eremin, Product Manager, 3Logic said that Bitmain and Canaan had also notified himself and other customers of similar delays.

Coronavirus Could Disrupt Entire Crypto Market

Traditional markets have been suffering since the discovery of the Coronavirus on Dec. 1. As previously reported by Blockchain.News, crypto research firm Chainalysis believes that the outbreak of the virus could have ripple effects throughout the crypto market. China is a notable crypto investment hub, as it houses the most crypto exchanges in the Asia-Pacific region, which has 40 percent of the world’s top 50 exchanges.

Jason Wu, the CEO of crypto lender DeFiner, admitted to canceling a dozen meetings with his crypto clients in China after the outbreak. He said, “We planned a 10-city tour to talk with potential clients in China. Nobody wants to attend any crypto-related conferences or any meetings at all because of the virus. We have to rearrange everything.” The coronavirus’ potential disruption of business may have an impact on crypto prices, as professionals such as Wu are concerned.

The coronavirus has reportedly killed 213 people so far, with more than 9,817 infected worldwide.

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Matrixport Partners with Simplex to Allow Buying Crypto Using Credit Card

SINGAPORE – Matrixport, the Bitmain spin-off and a leading financial service provider for digital assets, today announced a partnership with the leading payment process company Simplex, enabling users to purchase cryptocurrencies using their credit cards directly and securely on Matrixport.

With Simplex’s support of more than 20 fiat currencies, including USD, EUR, RUB, GBP, JYP, CAD, AUD, and KRW etc., users from anywhere in the world are now able to buy cryptocurrency and enjoy the high returns offered by Matrixport’s popular investment products with ease. In one stop on Matrixport’s mobile app, users can easily buy crypto with their Visa or Master cards, invest their crypto into products such as Dual Currency products and Dip Hunter, and start earning 20-100% annualized returns or buy bitcoin at a discount. In addition to convenience, Simplex guarantees Matrixport users the highest possible degree of security for credit card purchase.

“At Matrixport, our mission is to make crypto easy for everyone. Partnering with Simplex is an important step towards it.” says John Ge, co-founder & CEO of Matrixport and also co-founder of Bitmain. “I’ll give you one example. Dual Currency – USD is one of our most popular products as people can invest in USDT/USDC and earn returns way higher than what they can get from banks deposit and most funds. Previously, our users had to purchase USDT/USDC somewhere else and transfer it to our platform. The support of Simplex has greatly streamlined the process, making these attractive returns at your fingertip. Under the current global environment of unlimited QE, people around the world are showing stronger needs for investment products with relatively high returns to counter inflation, and with the help of Simplex, we are able to provide more people with equal access of investment opportunities.”

“We are excited to partner up with Matrixport to enable our leading on-ramp solution and make the purchasing of crypto an easy, fast and safe experience globally,” says Ari Last, the VP of Business Development at Simplex.

In order for more people to enjoy the convenience, Matrixport offers to reward 4 USDT to each user for their first credit card purchase, for a minimum order size of no less than USD100 (or equivalent). For more details of the event, check out Matrixport’s website or app.

About Matrixport

Matrixport, span off from the crypto giant Bitmain and officially established in February 2019, is a one-stop crypto financial services platform offering digital currency trading, institutional custody (branded as “Cactus Custody”), lending as well as asset management to both institutional and retail customers. The digital currencies traded on its platform include bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, litecoin, Ripple, Tether, USD Coin and many others. Matrixport was co-founded by Jihan Wu and John Ge, who were both mining industry veterans and co-founders of Bitmain.

Matrixport has 150+ staff globally with global headquarters in Singapore and offices in Hong Kong, Zurich, and Moscow. With rich industry resources and leading technology capabilities, Matrixport aims to make crypto easy for everyone and create the next generation digital financial service experiences. Matrixport’s vision is to enable a more open and equal financial system using blockchain technologies.

To learn more about Matrixport, go to https://www.matrixport.com.

About Simplex

Simplex is an EU-licensed financial institution, providing the fiat infrastructure for the crypto industry. Simplex processes crypto-to-credit card payments with a 100% guarantee – in case of a fraud chargeback, the merchant gets paid by Simplex. Simplex’s cutting-edge fraud prevention solution and state-of-the-art AI technology blocks fraudulent users and allows legitimate users to complete payments with ease, increasing conversion rates and enabling merchants to focus on their business growth. To learn more about Simplex go to www.simplex.com

Bitmain Responds to Former Co-Founder Claims of Holding 36% Company Stock as Baseless

The world’s largest crypto mining rig supplier Bitmain recently issued a statement, condemning fired co-founder Micree Ketuan Zhan’s efforts to regain control of the company. Bitmain strongly condemned the former CEO after a court sided with Zhan in an ongoing lawsuit.

Bitmain faces an uphill battle

After his dismissal as the CEO of Bitmain, Zhan resorted to legal actions to regain his position at the company. So far, he has filed two lawsuits against Bitmain and its subsidiary Fujian Zhanhua Intelligence Technologies.

In March 2020, China’s Changle district court made a ruling that favored Zhan to freeze out 36% of Fujian Zhanhua’s shares owned by Bitmain. Fujian Zhanhua is entirely owned by Bitmain Technologies Holding, of whom Zhan is the shareholder with the largest stake of 36%.

But on 27th April 2020, Bitmain claimed in their latest statement that the case that Zhan had submitted has no proof that he (Zhan) owns such stake in the company, which makes the claim as baseless for a legal ruling. The crypto company stated that the court’s ruling is only a procedural, jurisdictional rule, saying that the case is still ongoing, and the final judgment is yet to be released.

In an effort to maintain people’s trust in the company, Bitmain said that the outcome of the case would not affect the company’s operation or production. The statement reassured that Fujian Zhanhua would be under the complete control of Bitmain.

“Zhan said he holds 36% of the equity of Fujian Zhanhua, with no facts and legal basis. The result of this case will not have any impact on Bitmain’s normal production and operation, nor will it affect Bitmain’s absolute controlling interest in Fujian Zhanhua.” Bitmain representative said in a statment.

The company has not been performing at its best since October last year. The fate of the firm appears murky because of ongoing legal complications and company politics.

Bitmain’s board makes decision ousting co-founder Zhan

In an email last year in October, co-founder Jihan Wu revealed that he was firing his Bitmain chairman and partner Micree Zhan. He also released a strict warning that all Bitmain employees not attend meetings with or contact Zhan. Bitmain changed its company structure in the registration filed with government agencies. As a result, Wu becomes the legal representative and executive director of the company. Wu, the billionaire, has been growing into the crypto space and continuing his forward march in recent years. He has more plans for Bitmain, focusing on making it the world’s global business for hardware in crypto. However, it remains to see the outcome of the final ruling of the ongoing lawsuit.

China's Bitmain shows Bitcoin Mining remains Profitable After Posting $300 Million in Revenues

Bitmain, one of the largest mining equipment makers globally, has reported revenues of $300 million thus far in 2020. While its business has faced turmoil in recent times, the core strategy continues to reap benefits.

Bitcoin Mining Proves Profitable

As per a report on Chinese daily Weixin, Bitmain enjoyed a successful first quarter even as businesses faltered around the globe due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The firm is said to have launched four new mining farms this year and saw increased hash rates on two older facilities.

Bitmain’s new A.I.-centered unit has also grown rapidly. In 2019, the firm announced diversifying from bitcoin mining as the field turned increasingly competitive and resource-intensive. The mining maker now produces proprietary A.I. chips to power systems and processes, with the report stating a significant chunk of revenue was attributed to Bitmain’s A.I. division.

As a means of rewarding loyalty, Bitmain paid “millions in bonuses” to long-term and dedicated employees. Up to $10,000 (70,000 yuan) per employee was distributed, presumably on criterias such as rank and seniority. All payouts will be processed on May 1, 2020, the report said.

After the Unrest, Revenues a Surprise

The report turns eyeballs for those following the crypto market since 2017. In the past, Bitmain had been increasingly vocal about diminishing margins and was even considered as one of the “biggest victims” of the multi-year bear market.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which first hit China in early-January, struck miners and traders globally as businesses were forcibly shut down as investors largely moved to cash. Bitmain’s revenues were forecast to be hit greatly, with some critics even seeing a business demise.

Executive unrest at Bitmain further brought down Bitmain’s revenue projections. As Blockchain News reported, last year’s dismissal of co-CEO Micree Zhan preceded an ugly court battle, alongside several dire predictions for the future of Bitmain.

Bitmain has seemingly ridden the tide successfully, especially if the revenue report is considered. However, not remains well for the company. The upcoming Bitcoin halving, regarded as one of the pioneer cryptocurrency’s most historic events, will see block rewards cut in half to 6.5 BTC, meaning miners like Bitmain hit by reduced profits and forced to diversify to additional business.

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Crypto Miners Allege Chinese Bitcoin Mining Giant Delivered "Defective" Product

Ahead of Bitcoin’s much-awaited halving event on May 12, a group of miners alleged Bitmain’s latest “Antminer” deliveries were defective and led to losses for investors.

Bitmain runs into trouble

Arseniy Grusha, head of US-based mining firm Wattum, noted multiple issues with the February batch of purchased Antminers, as per a LinkedIn post on May 4. One in three units were found “defective” – with 32 units returning software errors and 99 units working on just single “hash boards.”

Grusha later explained in a chat group with his followers, that he had purchased over 400 Antminer S17+ miners from Bitmain in February 2020, after an initial month-long delay due to the ongoing pandemic at the time. But one month into operation, 30 percent of the mining machines threw up various hardware and software glitches. Some sixty units did not work “straight out of the box.”

The entrepreneur noted a “defect rate” of up to 5 percent of the total order is accepted and even expected in the mining business. However, such a botched order has never occurred previously.

Woes just before halving

Grusha’s woes come right before Bitcoin’s halving event on May 12, with the entrepreneur presumably losing a significant amount of money in block rewards. On the Telegram group, he confirmed sending a mail to Bitmain requesting repair of defective units and a possible refund.

At the time of writing, the Telegram group has over 170 members, most of them miners who faced similar issues. Mike Hamilton of mining startup Griid placed a mammoth order of 1800 mining units, noting over 700 machines had “at least one hash board down” after three months.

Chris Wallin, whose company was not disclosed, indicated all 26 ordered units operated at 500 Th/s, less than half of the required 1900 Th/s to mine Bitcoin. Husam Wadi, another miner who faced burnt hash board issues, said: “This is the last time I am buying from Bitmain.”

Despite the troubles, Bitmain posted impressive revenues for Q1 of 2020. As Blockchain.News reported earlier, the mining giant earned over $300 million this year, with growth in both its bitcoin mining and A.I-centric businesses.

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June 1: Sell in May Postponed to Sell in June?

Trading Crypto with Eugene is a series of daily commentary of market analysis and trading advice shared by Eugene Ng of Matrixport, a veteran trader with 10 years of experience in top-tier global investment banks. If you like the article, please follow us here on Blockchain.News so you won’t miss our future publications.

BTC shot up by $400 to make a high of $9,720 over the weekend with the trendline resistance capping it from making any further grounds. While volume was quite robust for Bitcoin, it was ETH that really outperformed (+12%) in the past 48 hours, driven by record ETH options ($20mil) traded on Saturday. For the past few weeks, there has been quite a bit of talk/shill/promoting of ETH, and I think largely driven by a combination of factors that I’ve described earlier (i.e., growing daily active addresses, more than 60 billion gas being used, $7bn in stablecoins and Greyscale’s ETH demand). Other protocol tokens such as Cardano, Zilliqa, and NEO also followed the ETH move, albeit less exaggerated. I still have my doubts on whether an ETH-led or ALT-led rally somewhat lift all boats, my view is that this is a technical retracement from Bitcoin Dominance, re-allocation by funds from BTC to ALTS and new capital inflows (an example: a16z raising their mega $515mil round last month – where will they be allocating some of that capital to?). Besides, this month has plenty of macro event risks (Riots, China/US situation, Reopening risk, Jun 10 FOMC, Jun 18 EU summit, Jun 30 Fed US bank stress, and Fed purchase to decline from $2.4bn to $0.6bn per hour in coming months). Strategy? For those who have got your offers hit at $9.7k good on you, keep that on with a tight stop. There is obviously the risk of a scammy wick through to $10.5k, so you want to avoid that. Keep that short, and I think we should be targeting back to $9.2/$9k/$8.8k. For those chasing the vol move, as mentioned on Saturday morning, I’ve managed to add some vol and would start to cover and turn short once IV hits around 80-90%. Good luck.BTC could break $9,700 decisively to trade for $10,300 and $10,500.. My bias is that we don’t have that volume for BTC to trade through those levels. I still think we head back down lower before a move higher…

A closer look shows you we are just bouncing up and down in this wedge… will be exciting when the bulls or bears can break either side, otherwise respect it until it breaks..

BTC dominance chart shows that ALTs are likely to have more room to run, but how much more? Maybe when BTC hits 63% or so…

Implied vol looks to be traded against the trendline support from earlier this year, which is why I bought some vol over the weekend…

DisclaimerOpinions expressed are solely the analyst’s own and do not represent the views of Matrixport the company.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the view of Blockchain.News.

Bitmain Launches Cheaper Mining Machines After Bitcoin Halving and Losing Market Share to MicroBT

Bitmain has launched a cheaper version of a Bitcoin mining machine, Antminer T19, compared to its more pricy predecessor Antminer S19.

Bitmain has been losing its market share to its rival, MicroBT, which launched its M30S++ Bitcoin miner in April this year.

The Antminer T19 has a hashrate/ mining power of 84 terahash per second (TH/s), and power efficiency of 37.5 joules per terahash (J/TH). The price of this new mining machine is around $1750, while the S19 costs around $1785.

According to F2Pool, the new mining model can generate a profit of around $3.14 per day, while the S19 could generate around $3.95 per day.

Manufacturing delays have been caused by the coronavirus outbreak, causing a reduction in growth in Bitcoin’s computing power. Bitmain has been dominating the cryptocurrency mining hardware industry since 2017, and has even tried to file an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States.

Canaan Creative, another Bitcoin mining titan, as well as Bitmain have failed during the crypto winter in 2018 to conduct the offering. However, Bitmain has discreetly filed an application with the US SEC in late 2019, and anonymous informed sources according to a Tencent report has revealed that Deutsche Bank may have been sponsoring the application.

Bitcoin halving

The latest Bitcoin halving took place in May 2020. Each time Bitcoin halving takes place, the number of Bitcoins entering circulation every 10 minutes, also known as block rewards, will fall to half, to 6.25 from 12.5 in May.

As the amount of supply of the crypto is decreasing, the demand most likely will stay the same, but possibly lead to an increase in Bitcoin’s price. Experts believe that there will be less Bitcoin available in the market if the miners will be selling less of the cryptocurrency.

MicroBT CEO alleged dispute with Bitmain

The Chinese Police have just resumed its investigation of intellectual property infringement involving Yang Zuoxing, CEO of Shenzhen Bit Microelectronics Technology, and Bitmain.

In the course, Yang was being arrested to help in the investigation of the patent of Bitmain he allegedly infringed upon and if found guilty, would be sentenced to prison.

The news about his arrest was revealed by insiders who were around when the police took hold of him on the basis of intellectual disputes in Bitmain.

Following from this, Bitmain took MicroBT to court alleging that Yang has infringed upon their patent.

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