Bitmain staff now have to make a decision: whether to go back to the office and which executive to take orders from.
An alleged counter-coup
Micree Zhan Ketuan, the Bitmain co-founder who was expelled with a coup by his rival Wu Jihan last October, sent a letter addressed to Bitmain employees via his WeChat feed on June 4, informing them that he was returned to the Beijing office from June 3.
He also asked Bitmain staff members to return to join him and said he will "lead the company to complete an Initial Public Offering as soon as possible and push Bitmain's market capitalization to over $ 50 billion in the next 3-5 years. "
Due to the impact of the coronavirus epidemic, most Bitmain staff in Beijing have been working from home since the beginning of this year. A video circulating online and verified by the Chinese source specialized in the crypto sector BlockBeats shows that Zhan led a group of private guards and entered forcefully into the Bitmain office in Beijing on June 3.
According to a Bitmain employee, who spoke to the media on condition of anonymity, Zhan also distributed cash bonuses worth 10.000 yuan (quotation $ 1.500) to those who returned the same day and $ 5.000 yuan ($ 700) to those who arrived the next day.
The news marks the latest turning point in Bitmain's bitter internal struggle that raised doubts among investors and customers about the management of the world's largest producer of bitcoin mining machines.
The company seems to split
Following Zhan's letter of June 4, there also appears to have been a "fork" of the company's official seal, so there should now be two. In China, the official seal of a company is as important as the role of the legal representative in terms of signing an existing company decision. Forging an official seal is a crime under Chinese criminal laws.
After the brawl at the government office, Bitmain discussed with staff the transfer of their employment contracts from Beijing Bitmain to another parallel branch, Beijing Guiyuan Dalu, according to a source close to the facts.
The new entity is wholly owned by Bitmain Technologies Hong Kong and was officially registered on May 26th. But Beijing Guiyuan Dalu's legal representative is not Zhan. The company also claimed to have the actual official seal with serial number 1101070056574 and that no employee should follow Zhan's directions or be involved in lawsuits.
However, Zhan's June 4 letter carries a different official seal for Beijing Bitmain with a serial number of 1101081651178. Zhan also issued a statement on June 3 saying that the previous seal - which ended in 6574 - had been canceled.
