According to Cointelegraph, Bitcoin application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) manufacturer Bitmain has reportedly paused employee salary payments for September and beyond. Multiple employees familiar with the matter claim that the company has cut all bonuses and incentives for its staff and has not paid remuneration due since last month. In addition, employees face a 50% cut to their base salary. A message allegedly from Bitmain states that the company has yet to achieve a net positive cash flow for the month of September, particularly in the orders of new ASICs.
Founded in Beijing, China, in 2013, Bitmain is one of the world's largest Bitcoin mining ASIC manufacturers, with an estimated 70% market share during its peak. The firm's Antminer ASIC series currently leads the industry in terms of hash rate computations for mining Bitcoin. In August, Bitcoin miner Hive announced the purchase of 2,000 Bitmain S19 XP ASIC miners for immediate deployment in its rigs. The S19XP ASIC miners have a listed price of $4,653 on Bitmain.
In 2021, Jihan Wu, co-founder of Bitmain, announced the settlement of a year-long ownership dispute with co-founder Micree Zhan. Under the agreement, Wu would resign as chairman and CEO of Bitmain, and sell his ownership stake to Zhan for $600 million. At the time, Bitmain planned for an initial public offering at a $5 billion valuation by late-2022. Such plans are believed to have been shelved due to the ongoing bear market.
