Micree Zhan, the former executive director of Bitmain Technologies Ltd., is yet poised to achieve his goal of ‘restoring order’ in the crypto mining firm. Standing adamantly by his social media post in November last year – when the news of his ousting came out – Zhan is ready to give war to whoever wants war.
“If someone wants war, we’ll give them war,” he posted at the time. And the war just got fiercer.
Apparently, the harshly-ousted executive and co-founder filed a summon in December last year, urging the court to revoke the decision of Bitmain’s co-founder and CEO Wu Jihan that led to his removal from the company.
While the exact cause of the drama is still mostly unknown, report has it that there was a secret shareholder meeting, arranged while Zhan was out on a business trip. The resulting effect of the meeting led to the removal of Zhan as co-CEO, and not less important, the revocation of Zhan’s voting privileges in the cryptocurrency mining giant.
Zhan has been known as one of the largest shareholders in the firm. As a matter of fact, a 2018 IPO prospectus stated categorically that the now-removed ex-CEO held up to 4 million of Bitmain’s class B shares. This gigantic number of shares shot him up to the position of CEO at the respected crypto mining firm.
During his time in the firm, Zhan shared the CEO position with another major shareholder and co-founder, Wu Jihan. Both big shots steered the CEO wheel together until Wang Haichao, whom Zhan himself handpicked, was appointed as his replacement by Wu Jihan.
Secret Shareholder Meeting to Alter Voting Shares
Unfortunately, the secret meeting held in Zhan’s absence saw shareholders agreeing to a new policy that converted the Class B shares from 10 votes per share to 1 vote per share. This greatly shrank Zhan’s power in the mining giant firm, leading to his dismissal as CEO.
Since his dismissal, Bitmain’s present CEO Wu Jihan is now back on the steering wheel, paddling the day-to-day events at the firm, consolidating his power along.
Zhan isn’t going down without a fight, apparently. In fact, he is not planning to go down at all. He vowed to fight the case to whatever legal level possible until he restores order in the firm.
In the summon, Zhan was cited asking the court to restore the voting power per share to what it used to be – that is, 10 votes per share.
We are yet to learn if that is legally possible or not. However, we do know that an in-house fighting is never good for any firm. The 15-billion-dollar crypto mining giant could get more than it has bargained, as competitors are already gaining momentum due to the fight.
