Hurun Research Institute’s rich list for this year has shown that five billionaires have joined the league of wealthiest Chinese for the first time through Bitmain’s market dominance on crypto mining. The Hurun Rich List now accommodates Bitmain’s founders, CEO and Vice President. The combined wealth of the five is close to USD 9 billion.
The highest shareholder of Bitmain being the co-founder Ketuan Zhan with 36 percent holding though Jihun Wu seems to be the most popular name, he is the second highest shareholder though having 20.25 percent, co-founder Zhaofeng Zhao owns 6.26 percent. Based on the Hurun Rich List; the highest shareholder is estimated at $4 billion while Jihun Wu is standing at $2 billion and two Bitmain executives namely; Yuesheng Ge and Yishuo Hu under $1 billion but using Chinese Yuan, they made it to this list.
Bitmain Dominates the Crypto Mining Market
The success story of Bitmain bitcoin mining market dominance started when Jihun Wu translated Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin white paper into Chinese and pitched the idea of developing ASIC miners to Zhan. Fast forward to 2013, Bitmain already has the monopoly on ASIC miners machinery as well as running Antpool; one of the most powerful mining pools that Bitcoin has.
About 75 percent of the global market is dominated by Bitmain’s monopoly, this amount to about 2 billion. Almost $800 million in funds have been raised by Bitmain since last year; the conglomerate has been witnessed spending significantly on deal and acquisitions such as the move to buy a stake in web browser Opera.
Financial Disclosure and IPO
This year alone, Bitmain has realized about $10 billion in revenue, and the company can be estimated to worth between $12 and $18 billion. As a part of the company’s pre-IPO tactics, Bitmain has initiated fundraising aimed at hitting $1billion. Though the plans of the coming public and listing on Hong Kong Stock Exchange has been a subject of debate. It seems as though the company is forging ahead with the IPO plan. Reportedly, the mining giant holds a balance of around $900 million in digital assets, a figure which is relatively high compared to just over $340 million in fiat currency.