Bitmain Delays Antminer Shipments Amid Internal Conflicts

Bitmain, the world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining hardware company, is postponing its product orders amid ongoing internal conflicts.

As officially announced on Aug. 6, Bitmain will be delaying their June and July 2020 Antminer orders by at least two or three months due to “external interference on company operation.” According to the announcement, the orders will be postponed until September or October 2020 “at the earliest.”

Bitmain drama is to blame

While Bitmain is citing “external interference,” some industry experts are confident that the delay is caused by internal issues at the company.

Dovey Wan, founding partner of blockchain investment firm Primitive Ventures, tweeted that the delay was triggered by the ongoing conflict between Bitmain’s co-founders — the ousted Micree Ketuan Zhan and current CEO, Jihan Wu. This series of controversial events started in October 2019 when Bitmain’s largest shareholder, Zhan, was dismissed by Wu. Zhan subsequently pursued legal action in his bid to regain control over Bitmain and publicly opposed layoffs at the company.

The drama at Bitmain took another twist in late July when Zhan publicly accused Wu of stealing thousands of Antminers. In a Weibo post, the ousted Bitmain co-founder accused Wu of “illegally” moving 10,000 mining hardware devices from a company-owned mining facility in Mongolia.

As the Bitmain co-founders’ battle continues, Wan tweeted:

“Bitmain Drama hampers its normal business finally [...] Bitmain pre-sales team just post an announcement today saying "due to external interference on company operation .." their June/July orders have to postpone to Sep/Oct the earliest [...] Imagine you are Bitmain pre-IPO investor now.”