Wu said blockchain: Bitmain chose to continue to appeal, the first instance of the currency printing three people need to pay 2.1 million

Wu Blockchain learned that in the case of Bitmain suing Pan Zhibiao and three others of Biyin, according to the first-instance judgment, Biyin's Pan Zhibiao, Zhu Yu, and Li Tianzhao should pay Bitmain approximately 2.1 million yuan in compensation. Bitmain was dissatisfied with the amount and chose to continue to appeal.

In addition to the compensation and liquidated damages for the three persons, Bitmain's initial claim also demanded 26.32 million yuan in losses caused by the breach of contract, which is the handling fee earned by Biyin from operating the Bitcoin business, totaling nearly 40 million yuan. According to people familiar with the matter, Bitmain believes that the total compensation of 2.1 million yuan in this judgment is not enough to offset the losses caused by the breach of contract, so it chose to appeal.

Pan Zhibiao, Zhu Yu, and Li Tianzhao were originally core members of Bitmain’s BTC.com mining pool. Later, due to differences in the concept of Bitcoin fork, they left Bitmain and founded the CoinIn mining pool. They were later sued by Bitmain for violating the non-compete agreement.

The People's Court of Haidian District, Beijing, believes that the three persons have indeed violated the obligation of non-competition and should pay liquidated damages, with a total amount of about 2.1 million yuan. The market share of CoinIn's Bitcoin mining pool rose sharply in 2019, once occupying the first position, and currently ranks second, with the profit from handling fees at the level of tens of millions of US dollars. Industry insiders said that the rise of CoinIn had a significant impact on Bitmain, taking away many customers.

After the judgment in January, Biyin saw personnel changes. In March, Zhu Yu, who held 10% of Biyin's shares, withdrew from the ranks of Biyin's shareholders and no longer held shares (or was held by others on his behalf). Zhu Yu responded that it was a business adjustment and he did not leave Biyin. At present, it is still unknown why Zhu Yu withdrew from the shareholders. There are speculations that it may be related to avoiding non-compete agreements.

The mining pool industry is currently highly competitive. There are not only the old-fashioned F2Pool, the mainland mining pool, the emerging CoinIn, but also the three emerging exchange mining pools. Currently, the top ten Better Mining Pools have basically withdrawn from Bitcoin mining. After the Bitcoin halving, the mining pool industry will usher in greater reshuffles and changes.