Founder of rival Bitmain company arrested in China for embezzlement

</span>theft&#8221; src=&#8221;/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/5bd217201abffd931545d98942b9246f.jpg&#8221; alt=&#8221;The founder of a competitor company Bitmain was arrested in China on charges of embezzlement&#8221; /></p>

Yang Zuoxing, founder and CEO of mining company MicroBT, was arrested on charges of embezzlement of $15,000, local publication Caixin reported.

The arrest comes amid an ongoing race between mining giant Bitmain and its rival MicroBT, which has been able to challenge Bitmain's market dominance this year.

According to Caixin, the arrested is reallyfounder and CEO of MicroBT, which produces WhatsMiner miners with a market share of about 40%. The statement said that the estimated amount of theft is 100,000 yuan, or about $ 15,000.

Notably, Yang was detained by police after Jihan Wu regained control of Bitmain. ousting its rival co-founder and chairman Mikri Zhan.

Although the prosecutor did not specify whether this appliesThe alleged embezzlement to Ian's own company or his former employer Bitmain, the article says, follows Bitmain's escalation of a failed civil lawsuit against Ian.

Yang previously held a leadership position at Bitmain, responsible for the development of the flagship AntMiner S7 and S9 models around 2016.

Ian left the company and created MicroBT afterhow he couldn’t come to an agreement with the co-founders of Bitmain on the distribution of the company’s share capital. In 2017, Bitmain filed a civil case against Yang and MicroBT, alleging that he had violated a patent issued to Bitmain for Bitcoin mining equipment.

In October 2018, Yang's team successfully invalidated the patent issued to Bitmain, and hence the civil case was dismissed.

Recall last week MicroBT released its latest WhatsMiner M30 product, which has a processing power of 88 Th / s.