Bitcoin ASIC Manufacturer Bitmain Pauses Employee Wages: Report

Bitcoin application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) manufacturer Bitmain has stopped paying employees for September and beyond.

According to recent local news reports, citing several Bitmain employees familiar with the matter, the company has cut all “bonuses and incentives” for its employees and still hasn't paid them since last month. In addition, the employees will reduce their basic salary by 50%. A message purportedly from Bitmain reads:

“For the month of September, the company was unable to achieve a net positive cash flow, especially in orders [new] ASICs has therefore decided that the executive team will consider September's salary freeze after the October 7 holiday.

In the year Founded in Beijing, China in 2013, Bitmain is one of the largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining ASIC manufacturers in the world, with an estimated 70% market share at its peak. The stable Antminer ASIC series currently leads the industry in terms of hash rate calculations for Bitcoin mining.

In August, Bitcoin miner Hive announced that it had purchased 2,000 Bitmain S19 XP ASIC miners for immediate deployment in its equipment. The S19XP ASIC miners are priced at $4,653 on Bitmain. After the merger, Hive said the company's mining rigs, including older and non-bitmine models, will generate $80 per megawatt hour.

In the year In 2021, Bitcoin founder Jihan Wu announced the resolution of a year-long ownership dispute with co-founder Mikri Zhan. Under the deal, Wu will step down as Bitmain's chairman and CEO and sell his ownership stake to Jean for $600 million. At the time, Bitmain planned an initial public offering in late 2022 at a valuation of $5-billion. Such plans are believed to have been put in place due to the ongoing bear market.

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