Jihan Wu announced his departure from Bitmain.
Bitmain co-founder Micree Zhan regained control of the largest bitcoin mining conglomerate after fellow co-founder Jihan Wu tweeted a coded message explaining the end of their power struggle.
Wu said he is leaving the company after a lengthy power struggle which even saw Wu regain legal representative status in September. But now he’s leaving.
Wu wrote:
“The disagreement between Micree and myself, the two co-founders of Bitmain, has been finally settled in an amicable and, more importantly, a constructive manner. I have resigned from the CEO and Chairman of Bitmain as of today.”
The coded message also included confirmation that Bitdeer and Antpool will be spun off from Bitmain. Wu will be chairman of Bitdeer. These changes “will be highly streamlined which will make it much easier to go for an IPO,” Wu said.
As Bitmain starts a new chapter without him, Wu ended the note saying he “give[s] my most sincere blessing” to the company and its leadership.
For a chronological timeline of the Bitmain battle for control, see our previous post here.
F2Pool put Elon Musk's tweet on Bitcoin’s blockchain.
Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk stirred the cryptocurrency community’s metaphorical pot on Twitter again, but this time – instead of dogecoin – it was about bitcoin.
Musk changed his previously empty Twitter bio to simply read: “#bitcoin.” Predictably, screenshots of his account and similar bio changes rapidly proliferated across Twitter, Reddit, and elsewhere.
But Musk also tweeted a cryptic message shortly after the bio change, which read, “In retrospect, it was inevitable.” What exactly this was in reference to is unclear, but lots of his followers were eager to interpret it as a companion message for his bio change.
F2Pool embedded the tweet in block 668,197 later that day.
All the ruckus over this event seemed silly to some people, but it coincided with a nearly 20% spike in bitcoin’s price. Over the weekend, bitcoin rapidly retraced its price movements, but Musk’s bio stayed the same.
Other Highlights
Bitcoin price stabilizes around $35,000
- Bitcoin is trading around $35,000 again after dropping to nearly $32,000 following its nearly 20% jump to above $38,000 on Friday following social media frenzy over Elon Musk’s previously blank Twitter bio changing to simply read, “#bitcoin”.
Blockstream buys a lot of ASICs from MicroBT.
- Blockstream bought $25 million worth of ASICs from MicroBT as part of its plan to “aggressively” expand its mining operations in 2021.The machines will be deployed throughout the U.S. and Canada. (CoinDesk)
Marathon funds a Bitcoin Core developer.
- Marathon (MARA) gave Bitcoin Core developer Jonas Schnelli a $96,000 grant to continue his work. Marathon’s support comes shortly after Bitmain decided to halt funding for Schnelli and one other developer. (The Block)
Hut 8 throws shade at Marathon.
- After Marathon bought $150 million in bitcoin, Dutch entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs criticized the decision on Twitter, saying it “shows weakness.” Toronto-based mining company Hut 8 seemed to agree. They quoted van der Chijs’s tweet with a simple message: “#accurate.”
