Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.
Bitmain allegedly fired staff after salary complaints
Bitcoin application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) mining manufacturer Bitmain has allegedly fired three of its employees for speaking to the media regarding the withholding of salary payments by their employer.
According to local news reports on Oct. 17, citing an alleged internal Bitmain memo, the company accused three staff members of breaching various clauses in their employment contracts for sharing their remuneration on social media platforms. The note reads:
“The EMT [Executive Management Team] has decided: (1) Employee Li of product operations and circuit development, is to be fired immediately and blacklisted. (2) Employee Xie of product operations and circuit development, is to be fired immediately and blacklisted. (3) Employee Ding, administrative intern at strategic development PMT, is to be fired immediately and blacklisted. The intern’s post-secondary institution shall also be informed of the incident.”
“In addition, the company reserves the right to pursue legal action against the individuals above,” Bitmain allegedly wrote. “Without authorization by the company, nothing can be said, nothing can be given [to outsiders!]”
Bitmain’s alleged layoff notice (BlockBeats)
On Oct. 9, Cointelegraph reported that Bitmain allegedly paused September salary payments for its staff members as the company “has yet to achieve a net positive cash flow, especially in the orders of [new] ASICs.” In addition, employees allegedly face a 50% cut to their base salary, with all bonuses and incentives being removed.
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 the previous bull market that ended in 2021. The firm’s Antminer ASIC series currently leads the industry in terms of hash rate…
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