It's been an exciting time recently in China, with lots going on in particular with Bitcoin mining. Let's take a quick dive into it and cover some hightlights.
Jihan Wu leaves Bitmain
For a year now, Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu has been in a power struggle with other co-founder Micree Zhan over the ownership of Bitmain. According to Investopedia, Bitmain has been valued at around $40-$50 billion. The struggle between the two has gotten pretty bad over the past year, but thankfully it seems they have come to an amicable agreement on how to settle their disagreements over Bitmain.
Wu wrote in a cryptic letter this week, that he is stepping down from the mining giant and that Zhan has purchased nearly half of the company shares owned by Wu to the tune of $600 million. As part of the settlement, Bitmain will spin off it's mining farm operations under the Bitdeer brand where Wu will be chairman. Bitdeer is a well known mining operation that supports various cryptocurrencies such as BTC, BCH, ETH, ZEC, and others.
Wu has been somewhat of a prolific person in the crypto space over the years, from being at the top of a mining giant worth many billions, to being an intrical part of the Bitcoin block size scaling debates, to supporting Bitcoin offshoot Bitcoin Cash.
Bitcoin mining industry takes a hit with chip shortage
In other Bitcoin mining news, the reduction of semiconductor chip production caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a chip shortage around the world. Major chip manufacturers, such as TSMC and Samsung Electronics, have been prioritizing their chips for automobiles and consumer electronics, as opposed to cryptocurrency mining rigs.
Due to this, the prices of mining rigs in China has gone up 60% and smaller miners are being priced out of the market.
