Bitmain delays delivery of Bitcoin miners as co-founders fight for control of the company

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Bitmain has delayed shipments of its Antminer bitcoin mining machines by three months as the fight between co-founders, Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan Ketuan, for control of the company intensifies.

According to a post on Bitmain’s official Wechat account, the Beijing-based bitcoin miner manufacturer said customers whose orders were due for delivery in June and July will have to wait until September and October.

The equipment is usually ordered three months before delivery. This means that the delayed shipments may have been ordered around March, making this six-month wait expensive for interested bitcoin miners.

Bitmain said in Thursday’s announcement that the delay is the result of “outside interference on the company’s management”. The Jihan Wu faction is reportedly in control of the company’s Wechat account.

The company offers two options to its customers as compensation for delays. First, customers can write to Bitmain requesting that deliveries be accelerated. If they do not receive the equipment after 60 days of submitting the request, customers can request a refund.

The second option is cash coupons equivalent to theoretical mining revenues between now and the actual delivery date. These coupons could be used to pay for future orders. The two options cannot be exercised together.

Wu and Micree Zhan are currently engaged in a bitter struggle for control of Bitmain. The two co-founders ran the company together for many years, but Zhan was kicked out of the company by Wu last October under controversial circumstances.

In June, a Chinese court ruled in Zhan’s favor, allowing him to return to power. Zhan, who owns a 37% stake in the company, has now taken control of Bitmain’s Shenzhen-based operations.

However, the feud is evidently starting to have a negative impact on Bitmain’s operations. In July, approximately 10,000 Antminers, worth approximately $ 10 million, were reportedly “stolen” from a company-owned mining facility in Inner Mongolia. Some reports say that the equipment was “illegally transferred”.

In the wake of the latest operational bottlenecks, Thomas Heller, global business manager at bitcoin mining pool F2pool, solicited miners to switch to machines run by Bitmain’s competitors like Microbt and Canaan.

What do you think of Bitmain’s delayed shipments? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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