This article was first published on July 24, 2020, on the WeChat public account LatePost, by Wang Hailu

It takes about 2 to 3 months for a ship carrying letters to travel from Beijing to the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. If it is a regular letter rather than a registered one, you only need to affix 4 yuan in postage and drop it into a mailbox by the roadside. The logistics are untraceable, lost items are not compensated, and no signature is required.

On November 13, 2019, Wu Jihan, the founder of Bitmain, held a "special shareholders meeting" at the Beijing headquarters. According to the company's articles of association, he notified the shareholders 8 days in advance.

He had many ways to choose from, such as phone calls, emails, or air express. But Wu Jihan's approach was to send the letters to the shareholder agency established in the Cayman Islands via the slowest sea freight.

At that shareholders meeting, where many shareholders were absent, Wu Jihan abolished the 10-fold voting rights corresponding to Bitmain's Class B shares. This also led to the loss of absolute control over the company by Bitmain's other founder and chairman, Jian Ketuan.

According to the prospectus, Jian Ketuan is the largest shareholder of Bitmain, holding 36% of the shares. Wu Jihan is the second-largest shareholder, holding 20.25%. Since Bitmain implements AB shares, the Class B shares held by Jian and Wu correspond to 10-fold voting rights, so Jian Ketuan had a total voting power of 59.6%. In theory, even if all other shareholders joined forces, they would have no chance of ousting him.

But that’s exactly what happened.

Due to not receiving the notification, Jian Ketuan was absent from the shareholders meeting. Not only him, but Jian Ketuan's overseas lawyer later verified with all external shareholders, and 5 claimed they had never received the notification, while one stated that their Hong Kong office received "a letter related to Bitmain forwarded from the Cayman Islands agency," but that was several months after the shareholders meeting.

According to Cayman law and Bitmain's articles of association, changes to shareholder resolutions require voting by attending shareholders, with more than 75% approval for passage. Shareholder resolutions are only registered, not verified.

"At the United Nations General Assembly, Ukraine proposed to cancel Russia's veto power, only to be vetoed by Russia on the spot." Six months later, Jian Ketuan's lawyer Wang Xi (pseudonym) recounted this widely circulated joke to LatePost.

He believed it resembled the conflict between Jian and Wu, only the protagonists of the story rewrote the rules: to prevent Jian Ketuan from vetoing, Wu Jihan never gave him a chance to show up.

For nine months, the power struggle between the two founders cast a shadow over Bitmain, the "mining giant." Bitmain was once one of the most influential companies in the global digital currency field, with layouts across the entire industry chain of chips, mining machines, mining farms, and mining pools. Born in 1986, Wu Jihan holds dual degrees in economics and psychology from Peking University and is revered as the "Bitcoin evangelist" for translating Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin white paper in his early years. Jian Ketuan, seven years older than Wu Jihan, graduated from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-founded the company with Wu Jihan in 2013, responsible for research and development.

The complementary abilities of the founders were once Bitmain's greatest advantage. But now, they are changing legal persons, seizing business licenses, deceiving shareholders and employees, and transferring company assets… all of this has yet to end.

The idealistic spirit leader of the cryptocurrency circle, who believes in Hayek's ideals and Nakamoto's decentralized values, is playing out the most primitive barbaric story in the utopia he built.

I. Seizing Power

In early November 2019, Wang Xi met Jian Ketuan for the first time at the law firm. He sat in the corner of the conference room, looking very unwell, hardly speaking throughout the meeting, letting his assistant explain the background. Wang Xi felt that Jian Ketuan was still trapped in the pain of being ousted from the company.

A few days earlier, Jian Ketuan attended the Antminer Conference in Shenzhen, where Bitmain launched a smart server. The next day, his co-founder Wu Jihan, holding the company seal, changed the legal person of the company from Jian Ketuan to himself.

Wu Jihan first sent an email to all employees, "removing" Jian Ketuan from all positions in the company. That afternoon, he organized an all-hands meeting, with over 1,300 employees gathering via video across various floors. According to employees present, Wu Jihan was passionate, detailing Jian Ketuan's mismanagement and claiming that Bitmain was facing serious problems. "I must come back to save this company," Wu Jihan said.

Upon receiving the news, Jian Ketuan rushed back from Shenzhen to Beijing, only to find that the security guards had already been replaced and his fingerprint could no longer open the access control.

It is understood that Wu Jihan was able to change the legal person by utilizing his position as the executive director of the Hong Kong company. In 2016, Bitmain set up an offshore structure for its IPO, establishing a parent company in the Cayman Islands, with the Cayman holding shares in Hong Kong, which in turn held shares in Beijing, where the operating entity is located. As the largest shareholder, Jian Ketuan was both the chairman of the Cayman company and the executive director, legal person, and general manager of the Beijing company. However, the executive director of the Hong Kong company was Wu Jihan, who changed the legal person of the Beijing company in the name of the Hong Kong parent company.

After Wu Jihan "seized power," he replaced key position holders, including HR. Two months later, Bitmain laid off 35% of its workforce, with Jian Ketuan's R&D department being the hardest hit, as nearly two-thirds of his AI team was cut.

The research unit where Bitmain employee Liu Guang worked previously had twenty to thirty people, but after this round of adjustments, only three or four remained. Some of his colleagues were reassigned to Bitmain's cloud computing platform "BitDeer." When Jian Ketuan was still around, he had planned to integrate the three mining farms under Bitmain into "BitDeer," which was opposed by Wu Jihan's former subordinates.

After Wu Jihan returned, "BitDeer was dismantled," Liu Guang said. The original team was disbanded, the person in charge was changed, and R&D was divided into two other mining pools under Bitmain. However, the project was still retained, with employees pulled from other departments to continue working on it.

LatePost received a response from Wu Jihan's side confirming that he returned to turn around Bitmain's cash flow crisis and rectify the company's atmosphere.

"Since 2016, the arrogant attitude and pathological desire for autocratic power have begun to corrode the company from top to bottom, and the company's culture has gradually fallen into darkness… The company's business decisions have repeatedly made fatal mistakes, hovering on the brink of survival twice," Wu Jihan's side stated.

II. Jian Ketuan Sues

North of the Olympic Forest Park, there is a technology park where Bitmain's Beijing headquarters is located. After Wu Jihan "seized power," a tourist bus and a van were parked in the park for a long time, with "a car full of security guards."

Liu Guang speculated that these security guards might be for Jian Ketuan. Wu Jihan had previously issued a statement saying that Jian Ketuan might "take the opportunity to act recklessly" and "storm the Beijing Bitmain office."

But for several months afterward, Jian Ketuan seemed to have vanished into thin air. He only wrote an open letter in early November, stating that he had been "stabbed in the back by the partner he once trusted the most, a brother who fought together."

Jian Ketuan's lawyer Wang Xi described that Jian Ketuan, unable to enter the company, went home to "silently daze for a few days," then began looking for a lawyer to defend his rights. Before him, Jian Ketuan had visited several law firms but was not satisfied.

Wang Xi's legal advice to Jian Ketuan was: do not file a civil lawsuit, but pursue an administrative review. The former would be a lawsuit against Wu Jihan, with a higher chance of winning, but it would take a long time. The first instance would take at least a year, and the second instance six months. After a year and a half, the company would have changed beyond recognition. The latter would involve suing the market supervision bureau, pointing out the enforcers' mistakes. Suing the government is more challenging, but results can be obtained in 60 days. Wang Xi believed this was why Jian Ketuan ultimately chose him.

"I am considering the company's survival," Wang Xi said, "the company cannot withstand turmoil; if it goes on like this, everyone will perish together."

In November 2019, Wang Xi, representing Jian Ketuan, filed an administrative review with the Haidian District Market Supervision Administration. His reason for the review was that there was a modification in the "Shareholder Decision" submitted by Wu Jihan's side to the market supervision bureau, where the original text was crossed out and stamped, damaging its authenticity, and the registration authority did not conduct effective verification.

"The success rate of administrative reviews is very low; we must find out where the problem lies. Fortunately, we found it on our first try," Wang Xi said.

In January 2020, the Haidian District People's Government supported Jian Ketuan, requiring the market supervision bureau to revert Bitmain's legal person back. However, while waiting for the judicial result, Bitmain's legal person was changed again from Wu Jihan to Bitmain's CFO, Liu Luyao, who was a high school and college classmate of Wu Jihan.

Wang Xi believed that the other party changed the legal person at this time to delay, making it impossible to execute the judicial bureau's judgment. He took Jian Ketuan to the market supervision bureau several times for negotiations without success and had to file a second administrative review.

This time, he found a new loophole: Bitmain's articles of association stipulated that changes to the original articles required the signatures of both shareholders and the legal person, but the materials submitted by Wu Jihan's side had the shareholder's signature as Wu Jihan and the legal person's signature as Liu Luyao. At that time, Bitmain's legal person was Wu Jihan, not Liu Luyao.

At the end of April this year, the Haidian District People's Government once again supported Jian Ketuan, requiring the market supervision bureau to restore Jian Ketuan as Bitmain's legal person.

After winning the second administrative review, Jian Ketuan thought this nightmare would finally end. In the six months he was away, Wu Jihan had laid off nearly 500 people.

At the beginning of the year, Jian Ketuan issued an open letter stating that this was "an almost suicidal wrong decision," and then created a resignation group named "The First Snow of 2020," bringing in the laid-off employees one by one, hoping they wouldn't get lost.

In addition to layoffs, during the six months, Wu Jihan also cleared a batch of mining machine inventory at a low price and signed new sales agreements with some distributors. He registered a subsidiary called "Chongqing Silicon Valley" under Bitmain's Singapore company, organizing employees from Beijing Bitmain to switch their labor contracts to "Silicon Valley," promising that their options and years of service would remain unchanged.

After Jian Ketuan won the second administrative review, Liu Guang's department leader held a small group meeting, informing everyone that "President Jian might be coming back," allowing them to decide on-site whether to switch contracts.

The leader motivated the employees, and under pressure, all employees in the department agreed to switch. Loyalty seemed very powerless at this moment.

III. "Just Do It, Don't Be Cowardly"

In early May this year, Jian Ketuan sent a message in the "First Snow" resignation group, saying he would soon return to the company and would guarantee everyone's salary and options, "Bitmain is our home, and we won't leave."

On May 8, Wu Jihan took a screenshot of this message and sent it to the Bitmain group, responding, "What everyone has witnessed over the past three years is that Old Jian, as a founder, is respected, but he has destroyed the company's upward momentum and annihilated billions of dollars in value. Everyone, do not believe his nonsense… just do it, don't be cowardly."

That noon, Bitmain locked its doors. The security guard stood outside the glass door, saying the access control was broken. But Liu Guang clearly saw that a U-lock was hanging on the glass door handle. He initially thought Jian Ketuan would storm the office, but soon the lockdown was lifted, and nothing happened.

At that moment, Jian Ketuan was experiencing the most dramatic moment of his life.

That morning, the Haidian District Market Supervision Bureau notified him to collect the business license. When Jian Ketuan walked into the second-floor business hall of the market supervision bureau, he saw dozens of people sitting in the waiting area in the center of the hall. At that time, he hadn't noticed that most of these people were male, many wearing black plainclothes, some even with purple masks.

Among the crowd were Liu Luyao, the CFO of Bitmain who had sided with Wu Jihan, Wang Wenguang, the head of the mining center, and lawyers from the Fangda Law Firm hired by Wu Jihan.

Inside the office hall, there was a row of open cubicles where administrative staff sat inside, and those handling business sat outside. When the administrative staff called for Bitmain------according to several people present who recalled to LatePost------many people originally sitting in the waiting area "suddenly stood up."

Jian Ketuan and lawyer Wang Xi squeezed to the counter, and Wang Wenguang and Wu Jihan's lawyer also approached, standing one person apart from Jian Ketuan, speaking to the administrative staff.

At this moment, the staff of the market supervision bureau announced the restoration of Jian Ketuan as Bitmain's legal person and executive director, issuing him the business license. Just as Jian Ketuan was signing the receipt, Wang Xi heard someone shouting from behind: "I am the legal representative; the business license is mine!"

The scene instantly became chaotic, and suddenly, Wang Wenguang snatched the business license from the public official's hand and turned to leave. (Wu Jihan's side denied this claim.) Jian Ketuan wanted to chase after him, but people surrounded them, blocking them tightly.

That day, Jian Ketuan's group consisted of seven people, including two assistant lawyers brought by Wang Xi and Jian Ketuan's assistant Wu Jing, who called two private friends to act as "bodyguards." One of the friends even had some verbal altercations and pushing with the people surrounding them.

Wu Jing, standing at the back at that time, saw several people escorting Wang Wenguang, who had snatched the license, down the elevator and hurriedly chased after them. When she reached the first floor, she found that many people were there to assist them. She followed the "license-snatching team" all the way out the door, but the people disappeared.

Wu Jing later recalled the incident, saying, "My hands were cold."

Wang Xi was also shocked and trembling, immediately calling the police. Jian Ketuan stood beside him, leaning against the railing, repeatedly saying, "How could this happen."

Wang Xi was most worried not about the business license being snatched away but about the other party obtaining the license and immediately changing the legal person back. After two administrative reviews, Jian Ketuan had already been away for more than half a year.

He couldn't wait any longer and couldn't endure it.

For half a year, Wu Jihan's "iron-fisted" power grab, along with various rumors online, had been overwhelming. When litigation encountered problems, Wang Xi had prepared three plans for Jian Ketuan: one radical, one moderate, and one conservative. Jian Ketuan chose all conservative options, at most moderate ones.

For example, Wang Xi believed that posting the audio recording of the license-snatching incident online would help supervise the relevant departments to enforce the law fairly, but Jian Ketuan firmly disagreed. "He felt that doing this would not help and would not make his company better," Wang Xi said.

Over the past six months, Jian Ketuan had basically done only one thing besides writing a few letters to employees: fighting for administrative reviews.

"I never expected something like this to happen------to go to the market supervision bureau to collect a business license and have it snatched right in front of me------this is too subversive," Wang Xi said.

In April 2020, Li Guoqing snatched dozens of official seals and financial seals from Dangdang, which were taken from the Dangdang company. But Wu Jihan's people actually snatched the business license from a public official at a national agency. That day, the market supervision bureau also reported the incident to the police as a victim.

The Haidian District police station is only 1 kilometer away from the market supervision bureau. When the police arrived, they took Jian Ketuan, Wang Xi, and the staff of the market supervision bureau away together. In the afternoon, the police also called Liu Luyao, asking him to bring the business license over.

When Liu Luyao arrived, Jian Ketuan and Wang Xi were standing in the yard of the police station, waiting as different functional departments took turns questioning them. They saw Liu Luyao walk in from a distance, but neither side spoke.

Not long ago, Wang Xi called the Haidian District Public Security Bureau to follow up on the case's progress and learned that the case had been transferred to the procuratorate. The police later detained some of the main perpetrators, and Liu Luyao was "cooperating with the investigation" and released after a few days, while Wang Wenguang was detained for 37 days for "suspected picking quarrels and provoking trouble," and has now been released on bail.

IV. Prologue

Jian Ketuan could not understand why things had escalated to this point. Just two weeks before Wu Jihan's power grab, he had met with Wu in Germany. They attended the Digital Mining Conference held in Frankfurt together and even had drinks afterward.

In 2013, Jian Ketuan was still running a company that made set-top boxes. One time, a salesperson from his company was selling under a bridge when Wu Jihan happened to pass by, learned that the chip inside the set-top box was developed by them, and became very interested, thus getting to know Jian Ketuan through the salesperson.

At that time, Bitcoin had already become popular, but the network's computing power was lacking. Wu Jihan saw the huge demand in the mining machine market, talked with Jian Ketuan for two hours, and they hit it off, deciding to establish a mining machine company.

Jian Ketuan went to the industrial and commercial bureau to run the procedures, naming the company in a taxi------Bitmain.

In October 2013, Bitcoin entered its first bull market. Bitmain launched the Antminer S1, equipped with 55nm chips, and gained immediate fame for its low power consumption.

Regarding the first mining machine, Jian Ketuan and Wu Jihan had a betting agreement; a knowledgeable person told LatePost that if the two key technical indicators of the mining machine chip were met, Jian Ketuan would receive 60% of the company's shares.

Later, Jian Ketuan won. Because of this, his shareholding was higher than Wu Jihan's. Subsequently, Bitmain brought in external investments, and after several rounds of dilution, Jian Ketuan still held 36% before the IPO.

Bitmain's business involved mining and selling mining machines, with market demand fluctuating with the digital currency market. When the market was good, sales revenue from mining machines and the value of digital assets soared together; when the market was poor, Bitmain also weathered several crises.

At the end of 2013, the world's largest trading platform Mt.Gox exposed a fraud incident, causing Bitcoin to plummet from nearly $1,200 to its original value. In 2014, the market continued to be sluggish, and mining machine manufacturers faced a reshuffle. At that time, Bitmain encountered a cash flow crisis, and during the most difficult times, suppliers blocked the doors of the chip factory in Shenzhen.

A person close to Bitmain revealed to LatePost that in the end, Jian Ketuan found familiar investors to guarantee a loan of 20 million to resolve this crisis.

In the second half of 2015, Bitcoin began to recover, and Bitmain, which had not stopped R&D during the winter, launched the fifth-generation Antminer S5, becoming the most competitive blockbuster in the market. According to the prospectus, that year, Bitmain not only revived but also achieved a net profit of 334 million yuan. In the following two years, Bitmain capitalized on the momentum, launching the Antminer S7 and S9 series, solidifying its position as the "mining giant."

2017 was Bitmain's peak period, but it was also a year fraught with crises. The discussions surrounding Bitcoin's scalability became increasingly heated. With Wu Jihan's support, Bitmain invested in ViaBTC, which "forked" Bitcoin Cash (BCH) from Bitcoin (BTC). A year later, "Craig Wright" forked Wu Jihan's BCH again.

The two forking crises plunged Bitmain into a quagmire. Mining machine revenue decreased, and digital assets faced significant depreciation. The prospectus showed that by 2018, Bitmain held nearly $900 million in digital currency, most of which was BCH.

It was also at this time that the two began to split. Wu Jihan was optimistic about digital currency and blockchain, investing heavily in BCH. In contrast, Jian Ketuan believed AI was the future and began investing in AI chip R&D.

Wu Jihan once stated that he lost $800 million on his BCH investment. However, he also pointed out that Jian Ketuan's investments in AI in 2017 and 2018, with his 16nm, 12nm, and 10nm chips failing four times in tape-out, led to a loss of $1.5 billion for the company.

A core employee from Bitmain's chip department believes that Wu Jihan's calculated losses were exaggerated by several times. $1.5 billion is equivalent to half a year's production capacity of a TSMC production line; moreover, failing to tape out successfully each time does not equate to a loss.

The issues with Bitmain's co-CEOs gradually became apparent. Both CEOs were consuming Bitmain's cash flow with what they believed were the right things. When business declined and cash flow tightened, they began to make trade-offs in resource allocation.

In September 2018, Bitmain submitted its prospectus. Three months later, before the hearing could be held, BCH encountered a second fork, further tightening cash flow. Wu Jihan proposed layoffs to reduce costs, which was opposed by Jian Ketuan. Some Bitmain employees believe that it was during this process that the relationship between the two gradually deteriorated.

V. Abdication

On December 16, 2018, while Wu Jihan was on a business trip to Hong Kong, Jian Ketuan held a management meeting. A person close to Jian Ketuan confirmed to LatePost that he gathered more than 30 core employees at the Fengdu Jiahe Hotel, two kilometers away from the company, proposing that Bitmain should end the dual CEO situation.

Upon learning this news, Wu Jihan immediately rushed back to Beijing for an all-night negotiation with Jian Ketuan.

The final negotiation result surprised everyone: both Wu Jihan and Jian Ketuan stepped down simultaneously, with Wang Haichao, a mid-level manager responsible for Bitmain's mining machine business, appointed as the new CEO. Jian Ketuan remained as chairman, while Wu Jihan became a director.

After Bitmain welcomed its new CEO, the long-delayed layoff plan was implemented. Teams in Beijing, Singapore, Taiwan, and Shanghai were laid off by more than 50%. The R&D center in Israel was closed, and the Shenzhen "New Species" technology company, acquired only ten months earlier, was also disbanded. Wu Jihan split off teams working on payment, wallets, security, etc., and, together with Ge Yuesheng, the head of Bitmain's investment and financing department, founded the cryptocurrency trading platform "Matrixport." Jian Ketuan also independently financed the AI terminal team.

The two founders thus parted ways.

That year, Bitmain's annual meeting was held at the Kempinski Hotel by Yanqi Lake in Beijing, with 70 tables set up. Wu Jihan and Jian Ketuan each prepared 800 yuan in red envelopes for every employee. Wu Jihan and Jian Ketuan sat next to each other, both drunk, embracing and crying.

That night may have been the last moment of warmth between Wu Jihan and Jian Ketuan.

Six months later, no one expected that the departed Jian Ketuan would return to the company. A core employee from Bitmain's R&D department believed this was due to some issues with Bitmain's mining machine R&D progress.

During the six months Wang Haichao served as CEO, Bitmain did not release a single mining machine. Prior to this, Bitmain would produce a version of chips every two to three months, and then launch a mining machine within a month, capable of producing 4-6 mining machines a year.

"Everyone was saying that Old Jian tore up the agreement with Little Han; in fact, Old Jian can't be considered back in the company. We had some delays in hardware R&D, and he did participate in some technical discussions," the employee stated.

In addition to R&D, Jian Ketuan also began making some adjustments to Bitmain's organizational structure, involving the interests of some "entrepreneurial veterans," including Jian Ketuan's plan to replace CFO Liu Luyao, who had a close relationship with Wu Jihan. A core employee believed this might have been the trigger for Wu Jihan's return.

Wang Xi has represented many equity disputes, each one being an unclear and ambiguous "Rashomon." But he believes that Bitmain's uniqueness lies in the fact that Wu Jihan's attempt to oust Jian Ketuan felt like a sneak attack.

"It is very normal for all shareholders to decide to replace someone. But doing it through a sneak attack definitely has problems," Wang Xi said. He believes that even if successful, it would have a negative impact on the reputation of the founders.

In 2017 and 2018, Bitmain brought in financial capital from IDG, Sequoia, Innovation Works, etc., but these shareholders' equity stakes were not high. After the two founders tore apart, the investors collectively chose to remain silent.

VI. Returning Home

On June 1, the Haidian District police station returned the business license to the market supervision bureau, and Jian Ketuan went to collect it. Having learned from the previous lesson, this time he brought bodyguards, and Wang Xi also brought several more lawyers to tightly surround Jian Ketuan.

Jian Ketuan collected the license, hugged his backpack to his chest, and went straight to the car to get a new company seal, not daring to linger for a moment.

Wang Xi also had him put 10,000 yuan in cash in his backpack. "Snatching a business license might not be taken seriously, but snatching cash is a different matter."

After seven months, Jian Ketuan was eager to return to the company as soon as possible. Wang Xi originally wanted to plan how to handle assets and appease employees first. He was worried about conflicts between Jian Ketuan and the security personnel hired by Wu Jihan. Jian Ketuan said he wouldn't bring anyone, and Wang Xi then worried about his safety.

While the plan was still being drafted, Jian Ketuan told him he had already returned, saying, "I'm at the company gate." Wang Xi said, "We haven't made a plan yet; he ran back by himself."

On the morning of June 3, Jian Ketuan contacted the locksmith company registered with the police station and pried open the back door to enter the company.

He finally returned.

Waiting for him was an empty office building. Wu Jihan had already allowed employees to work from home, and the security had been withdrawn.

Jian Ketuan informed employees in the "First Snow" resignation group that he had returned to the company. He called them back, saying he wanted to give red envelopes to the employees who returned to work first, 10,000 on the first day and 5,000 on the second day.

Liu Guang received a big red envelope from Jian Ketuan. He lived nearby and rushed over upon hearing the news. Jian Ketuan was chatting with several employees in the office area, "spirited and energetic."

He greeted Jian Ketuan, saying, "President Jian, I'm here to work."

Jian Ketuan smiled and said, "Good, focus on your work."

When giving out red envelopes, Liu Guang noticed that Jian Ketuan presented them with both hands, "very sincerely."

According to a Bitmain insider, some people from Wu Jihan's side also went to collect Jian Ketuan's big red envelope that day. That employee took the money and never appeared in the company again.

Wang Xi went to find Jian Ketuan the day after his return. Jian Ketuan took him around, going to his office for tea and chatting. For the first time in months, he had never seen Jian Ketuan so relaxed.

Jian Ketuan, a Fujian native, enjoyed drinking tea, and there was a tea table in his office. He also liked eating peanuts and, while making tea for Wang Xi, pulled out several large bags of peanuts that had been sitting around for months.

That day, more than a dozen Bitmain employees returned to work. Jian Ketuan ordered dishes and red wine that night, having a "reunion dinner" with them in the conference room.

The AI and chip teams gradually returned to work, while sales, IT, finance, and mining machine R&D still stood with Wu Jihan. Bitmain's internal systems, OA systems, emails, official website, access control, and even Wi-Fi could not be logged in normally. Financial accounts had also been moved away.

The access control fingerprint entry terminal was still there, but the technicians on Wu Jihan's side could see the records on the backend server. Liu Guang entered his fingerprint three times, and the technicians on that side deleted it three times.

After Liu Guang returned to work, his original department and colleagues created a new WeChat group, not adding him in. They stood with Wu Jihan. Even so, they would sometimes assign him some tasks, and he would still do them. "I'm still drawing a salary; since there's a task, for the company's good, I'm still willing to work," Liu Guang said. Jian Ketuan never stopped employees from doing work for Wu Jihan's side.

However, not long ago, for some unknown reason, Liu Guang's access to the internal system was also deleted. Like Jian Ketuan, he was treated as a resigned employee by Wu Jihan's IT and had his account deactivated.

Employee Zhou Ke understood those who stood with Wu Jihan. When Wu Jihan was in charge of the company, they had all switched contracts to Silicon Valley, and now that the boss had changed, they might not dare to return easily. "They also need to see many people returning before they dare to follow back."

Since the security company hired by Wu Jihan was paid for by Bitmain, Wang Xi renegotiated with them and had already terminated contracts with four companies.

The old official seals and business licenses were still being used by Wu Jihan, sending letters to Bitmain's suppliers to stop cooperating with Jian Ketuan. Wang Xi's law firm also received similar letters, requesting him to no longer represent Bitmain. The letters bore Wu Jihan's signature at the bottom right, stamped with the voided official seal. Meanwhile, the real official seal and business license were locked in his law firm's safe.

That day, after Jian Ketuan left the market supervision bureau and had the new seal made, worried about being "taken all at once," he handed the seal and business license to Wang Xi for safekeeping for a while.

There were also some more serious matters that were going through judicial procedures. For example, after Wu Jihan returned, he transferred one of Bitmain's subsidiaries to Chongqing Silicon Valley, along with the collection accounts. He also signed new procurement agreements with some distributors, who paid Wu Jihan's accounts but could not get goods from Jian Ketuan's factory.

In response, Wu Jihan's side stated that the purpose of establishing Chongqing Silicon Valley was to "expand the southwest market," and "Wu Jihan did not receive any payments from customers. In reality, customers paid the Bitmain Group, but Jian Ketuan refused to deliver the goods."

"Now the futures for June have not been fully delivered, and there are no deliveries for July at all. We have some mining machines already distributed to end customers, and many customers are complaining to us," a Bitmain distributor told LatePost.

In May this year, Bitcoin halved for the third time, and the network's computing power dropped by 16%, making mining harder to profit from. Mining machine companies faced a new round of arms races. But before fully combating external enemies, Bitmain's internal war had not yet ended.

After Wu Jihan abolished Jian Ketuan's voting rights, he resubmitted the prospectus to the SEC in the United States, with the board members being Wu Jihan, Ge Yuesheng, and Liu Luyao. After losing the 10-fold voting rights, Jian Ketuan was also kicked out of the board.

Recently, LatePost learned that Jian Ketuan and Wu Jihan are in talks. Jian Ketuan is attempting to acquire the options held by shareholders and employees at a valuation of $4 billion. He currently holds 36% of the shares, and if he buys more than 14% of the shares, regardless of the outcome of the Cayman lawsuit, he can regain control of Bitmain.

Zhou Ke returned to Bitmain in early July. At first, he felt "a bit apprehensive," observing for a while, and seeing that the earlier employees had stabilized before reporting to the company. HR reissued him an offer.

He felt this was a very bizarre experience in his life, "like the college entrance examination being washed away by a flood, postponed for a day."

But for Bitmain, after experiencing these absurd nine months, the once-passionate ambitions and honors of wanting to change the world have long gone.

(Wang Xi, Liu Guang, Zhou Ke, and Wu Jing are pseudonyms. The factual information in this article has been confirmed with both Wu Jihan and Jian Ketuan's teams. Wu Jihan himself declined an interview with LatePost.)