blockmanity.com
Beijing based Crypto mining giant, Bitmain, has recently laid off its whole team of developers working on Bitcoin Cash Go client (BCH). This is the same team that had once known as Bitmain’s Copernicus team.
With a strong workforce of 2,500, the cryptocurrency mining company has plans to downsize its operations by reducing the headcount up to 50 percent. Amid low prices across Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoin markets, Bitmain has also closed its development center ‘Bitmaintech’ in Israel. This blockchain development lab was founded in 2016 and housed 23 employees and subsequently resulted in the loss of 23 jobs.
Dovey Wan, founding partner at Primitive took on Twitter to claim that as much as 50% of the staffers have could be laid off. She cited sources from an insiders post on Chinese Linkedin.
Dovey Wan Tweeted:
⚠️⚠️⚠️
there’s post on Chinese Linkedin (usually very high accuracy, posted by employees themselves) saying Bitmain will start a layoff the coming week … 😳😳😳
A separate rumor said the plan is for more than 50% of its headcount ???! pic.twitter.com/b0ZSBuPX4d
— Dovey Wan 🦖 (@DoveyWan) December 23, 2018
According to the Chinese Blockchain media outlet Deepchain, Bitmain is planning to let go 700 employees. Apparently, Deepchain interviewed an employee from Bitmain who confirmed that at least 700 employees were being laid off by the Chinese mining giant, the employee also revealed that the company will only keep 300 employees in its Beijing office which currently houses over 1000 employees.
Founded in 2013 by Micree Zhang and Jihan Wu, the China-based Bitmain is the biggest manufacturer of crypto-mining chips. According to the prospectus filed with HongKong Stock Exchange, the crypto mining manufacturer recorded revenue of over US$ 2 billion and a profit of US$ 1.22 billion in 2017. And, following this crypto boom, Bitmain officially applied to go public in Hong Kong Stock Exchange in September this year. Witnessing the current bearings of the largest manufacturer of Bitcoin mining equipment, the executives of Hong Kong’s stock market may be circumspect to approve the IPO application of the company.
However, this impulsive business move by Bitmain is going to prove devastating for the whole crypto ecosystem of blockchain industry, though the company is yet to officially comment on the staff layoffs or IPO progress.
The crypto bear market blues has not only affected Bitmain but a number of other leading crypto-centric start-ups. Steemit, the private company that created decentralized crypto media platform had undergone a shift in its business operations while ConsenSys, the Ethereum development studio, had purged 13 percent of its employees.