Inside story of Bitmain’s Zhan Ketuan’s silence: may involve embezzlement of company property

Reporter | Lin Teng

After the “palace fight” at Bitmain, the mystery surrounding Zhan Ketuan was gradually solved.

A core executive of Bitmain told Interface reporters: "Bitmain is investigating the misappropriation of company positions and property by Jihan Wu and his team. We speculate that this is the core reason why Zhan Ketuan has remained silent after Bitmain's Jihan Wu sent an email saying that he would remove Zhan Ketuan from all positions."

Jiemian News called Zhan Ketuan's phone number to try to verify the matter, but after nearly an hour of continuous calls, Zhan Ketuan's phone was always busy.

Bitmain responded to Interface News and declined to comment.

On October 29, Bitmain founder Jihan Wu sent an email to company employees, saying that he would remove Zhan Ketuan from all positions in Bitmain.

The email stated: "No employee of Bitmain is allowed to execute the instructions of Zhan Ketuan or attend meetings convened by Zhan Ketuan. If there is any violation, the company will consider terminating the labor contract depending on the severity of the circumstances. If the company's economic interests are damaged, the company will pursue civil or criminal liability in accordance with the law."

After Wu Jihan's email was sent, it immediately caused an uproar, but even so, what was surprising was that Zhan Ketuan had disappeared after the incident and had not responded to the matter to the public.

"When Wu Jihan controlled the company's accounts and checked the accounts, he may have found evidence of Zhan Ketuan's embezzlement of company assets, including wanton squandering of company assets and financial misappropriation. Because they were caught with evidence, Zhan Ketuan and his team had to remain silent," said the above person.

The above-mentioned person added: "Zhan Ketuan once bought buildings and islands in Fujian and donated the company's assets to local classmates and friends."

According to public information, Zhan Ketuan is from Minhou, Fuzhou, Fujian. He graduated from Shandong University in 2001 and obtained a master's degree in microelectronics and solid-state electronics from the Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2004. He then worked as a research and development engineer at the Institute of Information Technology, Tsinghua University.

According to the 2018 Hurun Rich List, 39-year-old Bitmain co-founder Zhan Ketuan ranked 95th in wealth, becoming the only blockchain industry figure to rank among the top 100 wealthiest people and the richest man in the blockchain industry.

According to previous reports by Jiemian News, due to strong differences on whether to develop AI chip business, Wu Jihan and Zhan Ketuan had peacefully separated in the first half of the year, and Wu Jihan has distanced himself from the management of Bitmain.

After the separation, Bitmain's business mainly focused on AI chips and mining chips, which were fully managed by Zhan Ketuan, and Wu Jihan no longer participated. Wu Jihan brought some core technical personnel to establish a new company dedicated to the construction of blockchain infrastructure, Matrixport, whose business includes digital currency exchanges, mining pools, etc. Bitmain invested in Wu Jihan's new company, and Wu Jihan continued to hold shares in Bitmain.