Antminer shipping faces delay as Bitmain founders’ row continues

ASIC hardware manufacturer Bitmain has delayed the shipping of its block reward miners. An announcement posted on WeChat by the Antminer Sales Team—allegedly under the control of Jihan Wu—confirmed that the Chinese company has delayed all shipments by roughly three months due to “external interference over the company’s management.”

To compensate for the shipping delays, Bitmain is offering its customers one of two compensation packages. Customers can send Bitmain a written request to expedite the delivery of their digital currency mining hardware. If the customer does not hear back within 60 days of submitting their written request, then they will be eligible to receive a refund on their purchase from Bitmain.

Alternatively, they can also wait for their mining equipment to be delivered to them, however long that may take. In addition, the customer will receive a ‘coupon equivalent’ that is equal to the amount of revenue that they theoretically would have received if their mining hardware shipment was not delayed and they had been mining all along. The Antminer Sales Team says that this coupon could then be used on the customer’s future purchases with Bitmain.

Are lawyers involved?

The Antminer Sales Team’s recent announcement indicates that the battle between Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan for control of Bitmain might be being resolved by lawyers. When it was rumored that Micree Zhan was blocking Antminer shipments to Bitmain customers, Jihan Wu’s immediate response was that he would be solving the problems created by Zhan through “legal channels.” With the Antminer team saying that there is currently external interference over the company’s management, it may very well be the case that the battle for control is now being settled in court.

The confirmation of the delayed shipping is the latest development to take place in the on-going feud between Zhan and Wu.

You can read about all of the other developments in the battle for control of Bitmain, such as Wu’s employees allegedly trying to rob Zhan, and Zhan regaining control of the Bitmain office with the assistance of several security guards, by looking through our complete coverage of the Bitmain saga by clicking here.