Following The Bitcoin Cash Saga, Bitmain To Replace CEO Jihan Wu And Co-founder Ketuan Zhan

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Bitmain played a major role during the Bitcoin Cash network update that led to a network split between Bitcoin Cash SV and Bitcoin Cash ABC. The mining giant invested a significant amount of money, time and resources in the fork but things didn’t work as planned. The price of Bitcoin Cash fell significantly after the fork. At some point, BSV had a higher market share and price than BCH. It was a complete disaster that affected the entire cryptocurrency market. Now, the market is settling and the heads are rolling.


Bitmain To Name A New CEO


According to a source familiar with the matter, Bitmain is making plans to replace Jihan Wu and Ketuan Zhan, it’s current CEO and co-founders. The report from South China Morning Post states that the company is planning on replacing both parties soon. While the name of the new CEO isn’t certain yet, an anonymous source said that a candidate for the post is Haichao Wang. Wang is currently the Engineering Director at Bitmain.


Bitmain is yet make any announcement regarding the dismissal of its co-founders or their choice for replacement. This is despite the fact that the company entered a leadership transition period in December 2018. In November 2018, Chinese media reported that Wu was demoted to a ceremonial figurehead who would no longer take part in making executive decisions. A month later rumors of the unavoidable replacement of Zhan and Wu reached the public.


So, far, no outsider knows when the power reshuffling will end. However, Wu and Zhan aren’t leaving the company completely. Both of them will become co-chairs. The new CEO will be responsible for daily administration. However, Wu and Khan will have a say in big decisions.
The post published by sources from SCMP stated that Wu and Zhan had a clash a while ago. Wu, also came under scrutiny due to the company’s bet on Bitcoin Cash. The shareholders believe that the Bitcoin Cash gamble wasn’t worth it. Zhan has less blame than Wu. He has been working on diversification efforts specifically into the AI industry.


What This Means For Bitmain


If all the reports are correct, then the upcoming CEO is going to be faced with a difficult task. Bitmain had a great 2017 and did pretty well in the beginning of 2018. However, in Q2 of 2018, the company started feeling the heat of the downtrend in the market. Bitmain suffered significant losses in the last two quarters of 2018. Even if the company is yet to release its Q3 financial reports, some sources claim the mining giant lost up to $740 million. A majority of the losses suffered was from expensive Bitcoin Cash hardware and inventory.


Toward the end of 2018, the news in circulation was that the company is making plans to lay off a large number of employees. It even fired its entire R&D department in Israel. The Bitcoin Cash development team under Bitmain was downsized as well.


A good way to solve the financial problem would have been generating funds. This is why Bitmain made plans for an IPO. However, it seems like this IPO will be impossible to achieve at this time. So, the new CEO will have a lot on his plate. Hopefully, he will be able to bring the mining giant back to its former glory.

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