Internal Struggle at Bitcoin Mining Giant Bitmain Escalates to Physical Confrontation

After Micree Ketuan Zhan, the exiled co-founder of Bitmain, moved to reinstate his position after another partial legal victory over his former employer, tensions reportedly escalated into a physical brawl.

According to a source close to Zhan, who was ousted by his rival co-founder Wu Jihan last October, the former executive was recently granted the right to recover his status as the legal representative of Beijing Bitmain Technology by the Beijing Haidian District Justice Bureau.

On Friday morning local time, as Zhan attended the bureau to collect his new registration license as part of the recovery process, he was surrounded by dozens of men including Bitmain’s chief executive officer Liu Luyao, according to the source, who was at the scene at the time.

According to a report by Chinese news source Caixin on Friday, as officials from the Justice Bureau attempted to hand over the updated license to Zhan as the firm’s new legal representative, Liu abruptly took possession of the…