Micree Zhan Vows to Return to Bitmain Through Legal Actions

The drama around Bitmain continues with the co-founder of the mining giant, Micree Ketuan Zhan, saying that he was ousted from the company without consent.

The CEO of Blockstream, Samson Mow, tweeted on 7 November a statement from Zhan, originally posted on his WeChat feed, which stated that he was removed as a legal representative of the company without any consent or prior knowledge. Zhan also claimed that he would take legal measures to return to the company.

Last week private investor Dovey Wan posted an internal Bitmain email on Twitter, in which Jihan Wu, another co-founder of Bitmain and now chairman of the board, informed all Bitmain staff that Zhan had been dismissed, and that staffers should stop taking orders from him “or attend his meeting”.

Though Zhan did not issue any statement at the time, his Wednesday letter informed Bitmain staffers and shareholders that he will return to the company “as soon as possible”, and that he will use legal methods to combat “this very critical moment”.

His letter further reads:

“It was embarrassing that as a Bitmain co-founder, the biggest shareholder, and a registered legal representative, I got ousted without any knowledge in this coup while on a business trip. I didn’t realize until then that those scenes in TV shows, where you get stabbed on your back by those partners you trusted and ‘brothers’ you fought together with, can really happen in real life.”

Before all the drama around the mining giant started, Bitmain had confidentially filed an application for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) with the U.S. SEC. In order to increase its chance of a U.S. listing, the firm purportedly hired a former Nasdaq representative for China, Zheng Hua, as a consultant.