Some call him 'the overlord of the Bitcoin world,' while others label him a 'terrorist.'
His story is crazier than the price of cryptocurrencies: 🧵
Born in 1986 in Chongqing, Wu Jihan excelled academically from a young age, attending the best high school in the area, Nankai High School, before entering the Economics Department at Peking University, where he also minored in psychology.
At Peking University, he was deeply influenced by the Austrian School, believing in free markets and opposing government intervention.
According to media reports, during his university years, he read many books on monetary theory and regarded Buffett as a life idol.
In 2009, Wu Jihan graduated from Peking University just as the global financial crisis was unfolding.
That year, the average loss in the Chinese stock market was 130,000 yuan, and the capital market was in despair.
He didn’t join a large investment bank but went to a little-known small venture capital firm—Huaxing Capital.
At Huaxing Capital, he witnessed the rise of the Chinese internet and first stumbled upon Bitcoin.
He was almost in love at first sight with this decentralized monetary system.
"This is a financial free port, a paradise for anarchists."
In 2011, he used the online name 'QQAgent' to become one of the earliest evangelists in the Chinese Bitcoin circle, also translating Satoshi Nakamoto's white paper into Chinese.
In the same year, he met an engineer from Guangxi, Liu Zhipeng, and the two partnered to build China's first Bitcoin information website—8btc.
However, what truly made Wu Jihan wealthy was not his preaching but his adventurous spirit in investing.
In 2012, a geek named 'Kao Mao' announced plans to make mining machines, raising 1 million yuan to develop ASIC chips.
Wu Jihan almost spent all his savings—15,000 Bitcoins—to become the largest investor.
He bet on this and won.
After the launch of Kao Mao's mining machine, its performance was astonishing, temporarily controlling over 50% of the network's computing power.
The community exclaimed about the risk of centralization, but it couldn't stop the market's enthusiasm.
Kao Mao's mining farm mined over 40,000 Bitcoins in a month, and Wu Jihan earned over ten million in just a few months.
This victory solidified his belief that 'mining machines are king.'
He quit his investment banking job and immersed himself in the mining industry.
He first reserved the Avalon miner developed by 'Pumpkin Zhang' from Beihang University, but the other party defaulted.
This made him realize:
Mining machines cannot rely on others; one must do it oneself.
He found Zhan Ketuan—a chip design expert.
Wu Jihan offered 60% of his equity in exchange for the technical team of Zhan Ketuan, with only one request:
To create the best mining machine chips.
In October 2013, Bitmain was born.
At the end of 2013, Bitmain launched its first Antminer S1.
In just a few years, it monopolized the global mining machine market and established a vertical empire of 'mining machines + mining pools + mining farms.'
AntPool became the world's largest mining pool, controlling over 20% of Bitcoin's computing power.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency world was facing a significant divide: the scalability debate.
Transactions became slower, fees rose, and the Bitcoin network was congested.
Is it an upgrade, or should we stick to Satoshi Nakamoto's minimalist approach?
Conflicts erupted within the global community.
Wu Jihan represented the scalability faction, dissatisfied with the conservative U.S. development team.
He directly led the fork on August 1, 2017, launching BCH (Bitcoin Cash).
This move shocked the world, being hailed by supporters as the 'new Satoshi Nakamoto' and criticized by opponents as a 'Jihad terrorist.'
That year, BCH was once very popular, and Bitmain took advantage of the bull market to push for an IPO.
In the first half of 2018, revenues were $2.8 billion, with a net profit of $740 million.
Wu Jihan's wealth surged, ranking 214th on the Hurun Report and 1511th on Forbes' global billionaire list.
But it was precisely at this peak moment that the crisis quietly began to sprout.
Wu Jihan wanted to continue betting on BCH, while Zhan Ketuan wanted to shift to AI chips.
The two had different philosophies, and internal conflict began to brew.
In 2019, Bitmain entered a period of division.
Wu Jihan made a strong return as CEO, launching a coup to remove Zhan Ketuan from his position.
Zhan Ketuan was kicked out of the company during a business trip and had a violent confrontation upon returning to Beijing.
In 2020, the legal person changed multiple times within a year, even involving seizing business licenses, fighting, and calling the police.
The capital market was stunned, as Bitmain's originally $80 billion valuation evaporated by $50 billion overnight.
Both sides suffered, but Wu Jihan and Zhan Ketuan eventually reconciled, with the former completely exiting and taking away the BTC mining pool and Bit Deer.
Wu Jihan poured all his efforts into Bit Deer—a company focused on overseas mining.
Initially valued at $4 billion, but due to the crash in cryptocurrency prices, it eventually shrank to $1.18 billion.
But he didn't give up and kept pushing for an IPO.
On March 28, 2023, Bit Deer went public on NASDAQ through a SPAC merger, becoming another crypto-listed company.
For Wu Jihan, this was the culmination of his more than ten years of adherence to liberal beliefs.
Now he is no longer high-profile, yet he still promotes the development of blockchain infrastructure.
Although BCH has been dormant for many years, he still hasn't given up; a decentralized payment system remains his obsession.
Wu Jihan's story is a classic case of two sides of the same coin.
He started from scratch, with a strong rebellious spirit; he could spend lavishly or bow his head to reconcile, being both a builder and a destroyer.
He once held up the entire mining community and nearly burned it to ashes.
Li Xiaolei said he was 'like a bloody warrior,' while his opponents in the crypto world called him a 'dictator.'
But whether loved or hated, no one could ignore him.
He was the first person to translate the Bitcoin white paper into Chinese and also the first to publicly challenge the American Bitcoin Core developers.
Wu Jihan's legend is not just about mining machines, BCH, and the history of Bitmain.
This was also the first direct appearance of Chinese people in the crypto world.#比特大陆