The crypto mining equipment company is having difficulty paying its bills
Bitmain, a manufacturer of Bitcoin application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), has suspended paying employee salaries for September and later.
Multiple Bitmain employees familiar with the matter have cited that the firm has allegedly cut all staff “bonuses and incentives” and hasn’t paid wages due since last month, according to recent news reports. Employees also face a 50% base salary cut.
A message supposedly from Bitmain states,
"For the month of September, the company has yet to achieve a net positive cash flow, especially in the orders of [new] ASICs. The Executive Management Team, therefore, decided that salaries for the month of September will be paused, to be reviewed after October 7 after the holiday."
Bitmain was founded in 2013 in Beijing and is one of the largest Bitcoin mining ASIC manufacturers worldwide, holding about a 70% market share during its height. The company’s Antminer ASIC series is currently the industry leader in Bitcoin mining hash rate computations.
Bitcoin mining company Hive announced in August that it had purchased 2,000 Bitmain S19 XP ASIC miners for quick deployment in its rigs, which are listed for $4,653 on Bitmain. Hive said that after the mining rigs are integrated, it will generate $80 per megawatt hour in combined revenue, including its old and non-Bitmain miners.
Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu announced in 2021 that the company settled a year-long ownership feud with co-founder Micree Zhan. The agreement would see Wu resign as chairman and CEO while selling his $600 million ownership stake to Zhan.
At that time, Bitmain had planned for an initial public offering at a $5-billion valuation by late 2022. However, those plans are believed to have been abandoned due to the current bear market.
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