Bitmain Denies Reports That CEO Jihan Wu Was Ousted From Its Board

Bitcoin mining giant Bitmain has denied widely circulated reports that its co-CEO, Jihan Wu, has been ousted from the board of BitMain Technologies Holding Company, the entity currently seeking to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The news first emerged on a Chinese cryptocurrency media site on Monday, which suggested that Wu and several other executive directors had left their positions at a different entity, Beijing Bitmain Technology Limited.

Various media reports have subsequently cited the news and alleged that Wu is no longer at the board of the holding company and hence has no voting power on the firm's management.

Based on a Chinese business registration database, Beijing Bitmain Technology did record board changes on Nov. 7.

Responding to a CoinDesk enquiry a Bitmain representative said the board change was solely at the subsidiary company.

Regarding BitMain Technologies Holding Company, the representative said: "To be clear, there is no change in the board structure there."

At the same time, Wu's role has changed from board director to supervisor, while other directors including Zhaofeng Zhao and Yuesheng Ge are no longer on the list of board directors, as per the database.

"As is standard listing practice, Bitmain is restructuring its board and group structure, to ensure it meets regulatory requirements on its road to IPO. This is to simplify the board structure to facilitate its management. There have been no board departures and co-founder Jihan Wu will continue to lead the company as co-chair, together with co-chief executive officer, Micree Zhan.".

Based on Bitmain's draft IPO prospectus, there are currently seven members of the holding company board.

Based on Bitmain's draft IPO prospectus, for now, both Zhan and Wu seem to be far from losing any voting power, as claimed in some reports.