Jihan Wu

Jihan Wu is a Chinese entrepreneur and investor who is best known as the co-founder of Bitmain Technologies, a leading manufacturer of cryptocurrency mining hardware

Personal Stats

Age:	37
Source of wealth:	Entrepreneur
Residence:	China
Citizenship:	China
Marital status:	Single
Education:	Peking University

Education

After completing his secondary education at Chongqing Nankai Secondary School, he enrolled in Peking University. Wu earned dual degrees in economics and psychology, successfully graduating in 2009.

Career

After graduating, Wu started his career as a financial analyst in a private equity firm. It was in May 2011 that he first encountered Bitcoin, which sparked his interest. Wu gathered 100,000 yuan from friends and family, enabling him to purchase 900 bitcoins. Together with fellow Bitcoin enthusiast Chang Jia, he co-founded Babite, China's pioneer Bitcoin community site. Furthermore, Wu became the first person to translate Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin white paper into Chinese.

In 2012, Wu made an investment in ASICMINER, a bitcoin mining company co-founded by Friedcat that manufactured one of the initial ASIC devices used for global bitcoin mining. While initially successful, providing investors with significant returns on their investments, Friedcat faced technical challenges and eventually exited the business.

Understanding the importance of technical expertise, Wu reached out to Micree Zhan, a microelectronics engineer he had previously met, to co-found Bitmain in 2013. Zhan developed the company's first mining rig, the Antminer S1, in November 2013.

Although sales initially flourished, a setback occurred in 2014 when fraud was discovered at the Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, resulting in its collapse. However, Bitmain made a comeback in 2015 with the introduction of the Antminer S5, which became the best-selling mining equipment.

In 2019, Wu stepped down as co-CEO of Bitmain and founded Matrixport, a Singapore-based financial services company specializing in cryptocurrencies. This move allowed Wu to navigate around China's ban on cryptocurrency trading.

In 2021, Wu officially parted ways with Bitmain, announcing that the disagreements with Micree Zhan had been resolved amicably. As a result, the cryptocurrency mining pool BTC.com and mining cloud service Bitdeer spun off from Bitmain, with Wu assuming the role of chairman. Subsequently, BTC.com was sold to the public company BTCM.

Wu's notable wealth earned him recognition on Hurun Report's inaugural Blockchain Rich List in 2018, where he was ranked as the second richest cryptocurrency entrepreneur in China.