Jihan Wu: From Whitepaper Translator to Bitmain Co-Founder

Jihan Wu is a Chinese-born entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of Bitmain, once the world’s largest Bitcoin mining chip company, and as the current chairman and CEO of Bitdeer Technologies Group, a NASDAQ-listed crypto mining company.

Who Is Jihan Wu?

Jihan Wu was born in 1986 in Chongqing, China. He graduated from Chongqing Nankai Secondary School before attending Peking University, where he earned dual bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Psychology in 2009.

After graduating, Wu worked as a financial analyst at a private equity firm. In May 2011, he discovered Bitcoin and raised 100,000 yuan, then worth about $15,373, from family and friends to purchase 900 Bitcoins. He co-founded Babite, China’s first Bitcoin community site, with fellow enthusiast Chang Jia, and in late 2011 became the first person to translate Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin whitepaper into Chinese.

For profiles of other builders shaping the Web3 industry, visit our crypto personalities page.

Jihan Wu’s Career and Contributions

In 2012, Wu invested in ASICMINER, one of the earliest companies producing application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) hardware for Bitcoin mining, alongside co-founder FriedCat (Jiang Xinyu). The investment initially returned more than a thousand times its value to investors before FriedCat ran into technical difficulties and exited the business. Wu also lost money on a separate hardware purchase from Canaan Creative.

In 2013, Wu partnered with microelectronics engineer Micree Zhan to co-found Bitmain. Zhan developed the company’s first mining rig, the Antminer S1, in November 2013. Sales slowed in 2014 following the collapse of Japanese exchange Mt. Gox, but recovered in 2015 with the Antminer S5, which became the best-selling mining rig as Bitcoin’s price rose. By 2017, Bitmain had become the world’s largest Bitcoin mining chip company, reporting $2.5 billion in revenue that year. As of 2018, Wu held 20% of Bitmain’s shares, with Zhan holding 36%.

Wu became a vocal advocate for increasing Bitcoin’s transaction capacity, which was then limited to roughly 7 transactions per second by the 1-megabyte block size. After two years of debate within the Bitcoin community, a Shenzhen-based mining company called ViaBTC, which Bitmain had invested in, orchestrated a hard fork that created Bitcoin Cash in August 2017. Wu’s critics have accused him of masterminding the fork, giving him the nickname “Jihad” as a play on his given name, though Wu has denied that he or Bitmain held that level of influence over the outcome.

In 2019, Wu stepped down as co-CEO of Bitmain and founded Matrixport, a cryptocurrency financial services company based in Singapore, to operate outside mainland China’s trading restrictions. In 2021, he left Bitmain entirely, describing his earlier disagreement with Zhan as resolved amicably.

The mining pool BTC.com and cloud mining service Bitdeer spun off from Bitmain as part of that separation, with Wu becoming Bitdeer’s chairman starting in January 2021. BTC.com was later sold to the public company BTCM. Wu became Bitdeer’s CEO in March 2024, according to the company’s investor relations page, and he also serves as chairman of Matrixport. In 2022, through Bitdeer, Wu acquired Le Freeport, a high-security storage vault in Singapore, from Yves Bouvier for roughly $28.4 million.

Jihan Wu’s Views and Positions

Wu has consistently positioned himself as an advocate for scaling Bitcoin’s transaction throughput rather than preserving its original block-size limits, a stance that has placed him at the center of the Bitcoin Cash fork debate. He has publicly pushed back against characterizations of himself as the driving force behind that split, arguing that neither he nor Bitmain held disproportionate control over the outcome.

Readers interested in the mining hardware that built his early fortune can find more details in our guide on Bitcoin mining rigs, and our ongoing coverage of the Bitcoin mining industry tracks how the sector has evolved since Bitmain’s early dominance.

Jihan Wu’s Net Worth in 2026

No verified net worth figure for Jihan Wu has been published since 2020. Hurun Report’s 2018 Blockchain Rich List placed his net worth at 16.5 billion yuan, then about $2.39 billion, ranking him the second-richest cryptocurrency entrepreneur in China and the 204th richest person in China overall, while Forbes’ China Rich List, last updated for Wu on November 4, 2020, listed his net worth at $1.8 billion.

Wu’s earlier fortune traced back to his 20% equity stake in Bitmain as of 2018, a private company that has not disclosed a current valuation since his departure in 2021. Today, his wealth is tied to his leadership roles at Bitdeer and Matrixport. Bitdeer is now a NASDAQ-listed public company, meaning his stake could, in principle, be valued at its share price, but no such calculation has been published.

Frequently Asked Questions

Need a refresher? Here are the questions readers most often ask about Jihan Wu.

Who is Jihan Wu?

What is Jihan Wu’s net worth?

No verified net worth figure for Jihan Wu has been published since 2020, when Forbes listed him at $1.8 billion. An earlier estimate from Hurun Report in 2018 placed his net worth at approximately $2.39 billion.

Why did Jihan Wu leave Bitmain?

Wu stepped down as co-CEO of Bitmain in 2019 to found Matrixport, then left the company entirely in 2021 after resolving a disagreement with co-founder Micree Zhan. The mining pool BTC.com and cloud mining service Bitdeer spun off from Bitmain around that time, with Wu becoming Bitdeer’s chairman.

Did Jihan Wu create Bitcoin Cash?

Wu was a leading advocate for increasing Bitcoin’s transaction capacity, and a company Bitmain had invested in helped orchestrate the hard fork that created Bitcoin Cash in August 2017. Critics have accused Wu of masterminding the fork, but he has denied that he or Bitmain held that much influence over the outcome.

What is Jihan Wu’s role at Bitdeer today?

Jihan Wu has served as Bitdeer’s chairman since January 2021 and became its Chief Executive Officer in March 2024, according to the company’s own investor relations page. Bitdeer is a NASDAQ-listed cryptocurrency mining company headquartered in Singapore. Wu also serves as chairman of Matrixport, the financial services company he founded in 2019.