Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan, the co-founders of Bitmain, have agreed to a $600 million compensation for the crypto miner maker operations.
It has been reported that Wu will exit the company taking the BTC.com mining pool as well as Bitmain’s overseas mining centers, and Zhan will be left with the Antpool mining pool and Bitmain’s China-based mining farms.
However, the deal also sees Zhan left in charge of the artificial intelligence (AI) division and the mining rig hardware manufacturing enterprise. Zhan will temporarily mortgage his shares to raise the $600 million required to buy out Wu’s stake in the company.
The report said that Sequoia Capital will act as the middle regulator in the negotiations with the deal expected to be ratified at the upcoming shareholders’ meeting slated for December 28. The current terms of the agreement could change in the interim.
While the move represents a settlement of the current dispute, the splitting of Bitmain’s assets does pit both co-founders as competitors going forward.
Likewise, Zhan will reportedly complete an initial public offering in the US before the end of 2022.
It has been analyzed that the company’s first IPO attempt elapsed back in March 2019 and likely sparked off tensions between both co-founders. Both figureheads stepped down from running the company but Wu returned in October and ousted Zhan in a shock move.
Thus, a month later, Zhan declared his removal from the company as illegal and threatened legal action.
Source: Cointelegraph