[2018-12-25] Bitmain: Bitcoin Mining Giant to Sack 50% of Its Workforce

[cybersofts]

Bitcoin mining giant Bitmain is going to sack almost half of its staffers by the end of this week, sources from the Chinese media reported.

The Beijing company today laid off a team which was working on the development of Bitcoin Cash client. The news broke to the wire when Samson Mow, Blockstream Chief Strategy Officer, and former BTCC Chief Operational Officer, tweeted about it. Mow claimed:

    Bitmain has quietly laid off their entire Copernicus team. Only 1-week notice. Some had just joined the company. Layoffs just in time for Christmas.

Rumors gained more credibility as people, claiming to the ex-employees of Bitmain, started sharing their exit stories on LinkedIn.  Dovey Wan, managing director at Danhua Capital, brought the matter to notice via her series of tweets.

    ⚠️⚠️⚠️

    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

Sanyan Finance, a Chinese media outlet, also reached out to Bitmain employees for further confirmation. While they confirmed that the human resource team at Bitmain was speaking to employees about “something,” they refused to add anything more to their claims that could prove that these employees are certainly getting canned.

Global Layoff?
Before the layoff rumor took off, Bitmain had already suspended its operations in the State of Israel. As a local daily reported, Bitmaintech Israel, a development center Bitmain had founded just two years back, fired its entire team, including vice president Gadi Glikberg, citing losses incurred during the latest crypto crash.

    “The crypto market has undergone a shakeup in the past few months, which has forced Bitmain to examine its various activities around the globe and refocus its business by the current situation,” Glikberg confirmed.

In November, the cryptocurrency market cap lost $70 billion worth of investments after Bitcoin Cash fork threatened the stability of the entire crypto space. Bitmain, which supported one of the Bitcoin Cash camps led by Roger Ver in its quest to attain lead over the other, reportedly suffered millions of dollars worth of losses while diverting Bitcoin’s surplus hash power to its ally. The extent of their overall damages, including depreciation incurred during a year-long crypto bear market and by the drop in mining equipment sales, could have led Bitmain to go on a firing spree.

Although it is currently not known whether or not it is a global layoff, Beijing layoffs are already active, reported 36kr.

Bitmain had almost 2,000 employees working across its mining and blockchain development verticals. It is expected to drop to 300 by the time the reported sacking concludes.


Reference: https://www.ccn.com/bitmain-bitcoin-mining-giant-to-sack-50-of-its-workforce/

[figmentofmyass]

Bitmain had almost 2,000 employees working across its mining and blockchain development verticals. It is expected to drop to 300 by the time the reported sacking concludes.

well i'll be damned. looks like bitmain is finally paying the price for all their missteps. i honestly thought the rumors about bitmain going broke were exaggerated and just being pushed by the coingeek crew and other usual haters......but it sure seems like the narrative is taking hold now.

i'd love to see them go bankrupt.

[Lucius]

If there is truth in this news, then we can talk about really big problems for Bitmain - when you send away 1700 employees from 2000 in total, it looks like the end is near or let's save what we can save. There are a lot of calculations on the profitability of BTC mining, and it seems like lately costs become bigger than earnings.

Profitability of mining is different across the globe, and by some research in China it was around 3000$ per 1 BTC (May 2018), and in South Korea cost is 26 000$+. This is clearly not a good time for mining nor for the sale of mining equipment, and in the capitalist world when earnings drop, the first to feel the consequences are workers.

[Harlot]

This is the sad truth for any business dependent on their income coming from assets that is volatile in nature. I am surprised that it took them this long to decide on sacking more than 50% of their employees I never thought that they would go on until the 4th quarter of 2018. Let us remember that most of the employees here got hired because of last year's crypto bull run which only means that prices really do matter when it comes to the workforce of a cryptocurrency mining company. This layoffs will still continue not unless we see a big recovery for Bitcoin.

[stompix]

Bitmain had almost 2,000 employees working across its mining and blockchain development verticals. It is expected to drop to 300 by the time the reported sacking concludes.

Ok, at this point they are just blowing it out of proportion.... 300 from 2000 means an 85% cut, let's be real..

I think some are overexaggerating this and it may be possible that the so-called layoff is, in fact, people moving between the satellite companies bitmain is running, one example would be bitdeer.

I don't doubt the fact that bitmain is in trouble, they bet on the wrong horse, kept on betting on it, their gear is no longer the dominant factor on the market, profits from minings are down a lot but even so they do have a lot of money and their mining operation are still profitable so we won't see an apocalypse too soon.

And to be honest, as much as I would love to see bitmain bankrupt the thought that this might let to somebody acquiring mining gear capable of hundred of PH/s at recycled aluminum prices is a bit unsettling.

[InvoKing]

I doubt Bitmain will keep going with such few number so this news should not be considered very accurate for the moment.
Bitmain is a big company and it can hold even with a lower bitcoin price...

[Coin-1]

Bitmain had almost 2,000 employees working across its mining and blockchain development verticals. It is expected to drop to 300 by the time the reported sacking concludes.

Ok, at this point they are just blowing it out of proportion.... 300 from 2000 means an 85% cut, let's be real..

I'm wondering how this company will develop and manufacture new ASIC models if so many employees are laid off. Bitmain looks like an innovative company, so many technical and economic specialist are working on creating the modern S15 miner with hashrate = 34 TH and power = 1500 watts.

Bitmain seems to have problems with their business model. Perhaps some news reporters exaggerate these temporary troubles.

[figmentofmyass]

Bitmain had almost 2,000 employees working across its mining and blockchain development verticals. It is expected to drop to 300 by the time the reported sacking concludes.

Ok, at this point they are just blowing it out of proportion.... 300 from 2000 means an 85% cut, let's be real..

I'm wondering how this company will develop and manufacture new ASIC models if so many employees are laid off. Bitmain looks like an innovative company, so many technical and economic specialist are working on creating the modern S15 miner with hashrate = 34 TH and power = 1500 watts.

Bitmain seems to have problems with their business model. Perhaps some news reporters exaggerate these temporary troubles.

maybe the news is exaggerated but it's looking increasingly dire by the day. i think everyone has been caught off guard because the consensus was that bitmain was making obscene profits because of their position in the market. at their scale, they should have the cheapest chip production in the world. they've built mines around the world where electricity is cheap. they mine with customer equipment before shipping and on initialization.

but if the rumors are true about their recent losses, maybe those aren't the best assumptions. a $740 million quarterly loss given their past profitability suggests a faulty business model and bad risk management. companies have collapsed into bankruptcy from less.

[gentlemand]

What is it about BTC and hubris? An awful lot of people seem to be drawn into it only to crucify themselves.

If they managed to stay modest, hungry and beneficial rather than harmful they could profit for decades rather than falling for megalomaniacal fantasies and going down with the ship. The sooner everyone acknowledges that this will forever be bigger than they are the quicker and more constructive progress will be.

[Slow death]

These news channels need to improve their news and sources.

almost and rumor are very frequent words in the channels of news of bitcoin, something that later these news channels do not try to confirm with the credible source, talking about the article.

Bitcoin mining giant Bitmain is going to sack almost half of its staffers by the end of this week, sources from the Chinese media reported.

In other words, nobody knows the precise number and the source of this news is not Bitmain, so it is not a source that is 100% credible

A separate rumor said the plan is for more than 50% of its headcount ! pic.twitter.com/b0ZSBuPX4d

If Bitmain dismisses 50% of his officials, then they are close to bankruptcy and they will turn to the public to talk about the matter

Bitmain had almost 2,000 employees  working across its mining and blockchain development verticals. It is expected to drop to 300 by the time the reported sacking concludes.

Oh in another news channel they speak of 2900 employees

Bitmain Bins BCH Division

As per a report on SCMP on Dec. 26, Bitmain’s impressive year saw the mining giant make revenues of over $4 billion, grow its staff to 2,900 employees, attain a valuation of $8 billion, and work towards a listing on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEX). But the riches are failing to prove sustainable for floating Bitmain’s formidable workforce, in particular, its BCH division.

[reactorjuno]

This is the document that "leaked":



I would be careful here. In addition to the fact that this document is not official, it should also be remembered that it is a document dating from August. I mean it is very possible that Bitmain has already sold some of its cryptocurrency assets to start paying off debts.

However, even if only a part of those rumors should prove to be accurate, Bitmain's IPO at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange seems to be permanently compromised 

[gentlemand]

This is the document that "leaked":

Crypto 'journalism' is so fucking mediocre and there are so many liars, blaggers, nutters and bitter people that there's no way of telling what's true and what isn't until/unless it actually happens.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was originally put out by Calvin Ayre's outlet and the brain dead picked up and spun it hoping for more clicks.

[figmentofmyass]

This is the document that "leaked":

Crypto 'journalism' is so fucking mediocre and there are so many liars, blaggers, nutters and bitter people that there's no way of telling what's true and what isn't until/unless it actually happens.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was originally put out by Calvin Ayre's outlet and the brain dead picked up and spun it hoping for more clicks.

me neither. until the layoff rumor broke last week, coingeek has been the only source for the rumors of bitmain's demise (going back months). and they're heavily incentivized to make bitmain look weak. they'll do anything they can to pump their SV fork.

it's not the most legit looking document either. easily doctored.

[reactorjuno]

This is the document that "leaked":

Crypto 'journalism' is so fucking mediocre and there are so many liars, blaggers, nutters and bitter people that there's no way of telling what's true and what isn't until/unless it actually happens.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was originally put out by Calvin Ayre's outlet and the brain dead picked up and spun it hoping for more clicks.

I cannot disagree, it could absolutely be fake.
Not only pro journalism is dying day after day, but manipulating in this field is so damn easy.
It's been proved countless of times in the past.

Hope we'll get more news about this soon.

[Kemarit]

This is the document that "leaked":

Crypto 'journalism' is so fucking mediocre and there are so many liars, blaggers, nutters and bitter people that there's no way of telling what's true and what isn't until/unless it actually happens.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was originally put out by Calvin Ayre's outlet and the brain dead picked up and spun it hoping for more clicks.

I cannot disagree, it could absolutely be fake.
Not only pro journalism is dying day after day, but manipulating in this field is so damn easy.
It's been proved countless of times in the past.

Hope we'll get more news about this soon.

Agree. And what makes it worst is that you can't really pinpoint any source whatsoever. And even if you wanted to dig more and verify it yourself you can't find any. Some even have been lost in translation. So yes, it might be true so its better to be safe and take everything with a grain of salt.

[stompix]

These news channels need to improve their news and sources.

almost and rumor are very frequent words in the channels of news of bitcoin, something that later these news channels do not try to confirm with the credible source, talking about the article.

This reminds me about the 2013 "ban".
We had a chinese section, we had thousands of chinese investors but for weeks nobody was able to translate correctly the damn notice from the PoBC.

I highly doubt that anyone had real numbers, those could only be known by the people pretty high up in the pyramid and those had close to 0 interest in leaking those numbers.


There is even the possibility that all those rumors are started by somebody who really wants to harm bitmain before the IPO...and there is one person who is really interested in doing so and has the means of doing it.
Oh, no, it's not Satoshi! 

[Churck]

Seems that crypto winter has hit them the hardest.