From Peking University Elite to Blockchain Controversy Figure: Wu Jihan's 8-Year Fortune Legend

Jihan Wu went from starting from scratch to a net worth of over 10 billion in less than ten years, a rare speed in entrepreneurial history. This native of Chongqing and Peking University top student built an enterprise empire that influences the global cryptocurrency market, but he also became a highly controversial figure in the industry.

The Transformation of the Academic Investor: Jihan Wu’s Entrepreneurial Spark

Born in 1986 in Chongqing, Jihan Wu graduated from Nankai Middle School in Chongqing before entering Peking University’s School of Economics. By 2009, upon graduation, he had earned dual degrees in Economics and Psychology—an uncommon achievement among his peers. During college, Wu immersed himself in monetary theory, idolized Warren Buffett, and his favorite movie was The Matrix, all reflecting his obsession with numbers, code, and the future.

After graduation, Wu entered venture capital as an analyst. In 2011, when he first encountered Bitcoin, this young man who had built his career on investment analysis immediately began systematic research. Unlike others who hesitated, Wu invested 100,000 yuan as a practitioner—buying 900 bitcoins. Although this seemed reckless at the time, two years later it provided his first startup capital—by 2013, Bitcoin had risen to $750, and Wu’s paper wealth easily surpassed one million dollars.

Bitcointalk Forum and White Paper Translation: Wu Becomes a Bitcoin Evangelist

After achieving financial freedom, Wu chose to start a business rather than continue investing. In 2013, he met Chang Jao, an engineer from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the two decided to collaborate due to their shared passion for cryptocurrencies. They rented a server and founded BitcoinTalk—China’s first Bitcoin forum.

More importantly, Wu translated Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, becoming the first to translate this groundbreaking document into Chinese. This decision earned him labels like “Bitcoin evangelist” and “Nakamoto believer.” His translation remains the most widely circulated Chinese version, influencing an entire generation of Chinese blockchain practitioners.

Mining Chip Dream: Wu Wu and Jihan Tan’s Bitmain Empire

With the booming cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin mining machines became a new business opportunity. Wu keenly realized: whoever controls the mining chips controls the power in the Bitcoin world.

He first invested in “Kao Mao,” a Bitcoin chip R&D company, which yielded substantial returns and made him his first multimillionaire. But this reliance on others’ R&D was not his style. In 2013, Wu teamed up with Jihan Tan, a chip designer from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to establish Bitmain, a tech company focused on high-speed, low-power custom chips.

In November 2013, Bitmain launched its first Antminer S1. Successive models like S2, S3, S5, and S7 kept upgrading, and Wu and Jihan successfully built Bitmain into the world’s largest miner manufacturer. By 2017, Bitmain’s revenue reached about $2.5 billion (roughly 15.8 billion RMB), and Wu was named one of Coindesk’s top ten most influential people in blockchain.

Bitmain’s business extended beyond miners to include mining pools like AntPool and BTC.com, as well as investments in AI chips. These ventures made Wu and Jihan formidable forces in the industry.

Hard Fork Decision: Behind Wu Wu’s Push for BCH

In May 2017, Bitcoin’s price broke $2,000, and on-chain transaction volume surged, causing network congestion and skyrocketing fees. Wu believed it was time to scale. However, the Bitcoin Core development team insisted on maintaining the 1MB block size limit and advocated for second-layer solutions.

The dispute over technical routes was fierce. Wu believed scaling was correct and decided to implement a hard fork—duplicating the original Bitcoin chain’s data and increasing the block size limit from 1MB to 8MB, theoretically boosting network efficiency eightfold.

On August 1, 2017, ViaBTC, supported by Bitmain, announced the completion of the hard fork, and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was born. Bitmain’s AntPool quickly enabled hash power switching between Bitcoin and BCH, allowing miners to switch seamlessly based on profitability.

This decision made Wu a “public enemy” in the Bitcoin community—while many users didn’t oppose scaling itself, they couldn’t tolerate actions that might split Bitcoin. Wu earned nicknames like “renegade” and “terrorist,” and Coindesk even called him a “villain.” Yet within the BCH world, Wu became a ruler, able to set rules and command the scene.

Internal Strife and Breakup: The Fission of the Bitmain Empire

The good times didn’t last. In late 2018, as prices plummeted and competitors flooded in, Bitmain’s mining hardware business was hit hard. More critically, Wu and Jihan’s strategic disagreements deepened—Wu, with a background in finance, wanted to focus on blockchain and financial services, while Jihan, with a technical background, aimed to develop AI chips.

By 2019, these strategic differences erupted into a public “internal conflict.” In July, Wu wrote an internal letter revealing the company faced a cash shortfall of $300 million by October. This was followed by a series of dismissals, disputes over business licenses, and lawsuits. The two finally reached a settlement in 2020. Wu publicly stated he “enjoyed 2,815 days of the journey” and wished Jihan and Bitmain well.

New Chapter for Bitdeer: Wu Wu’s IPO Path

In January 2021, Wu resigned as CEO and Chairman of Bitmain. The company was split, with Bitdeer and overseas mining farms spun off. Wu announced the founding of Bitdeer Group and became its chairman, while Jihan bought out Wu’s and other founders’ shares for $600 million, continuing to lead Bitmain.

Meanwhile, BCH, which Wu had single-handedly supported, gradually lost its shine. Even during the 2021 bull market, BCH’s gains lagged behind mainstream coins, eventually relegated to the second or third tier of old coins.

In contrast, Wu’s Bitdeer focused on blockchain infrastructure. On April 14, 2023, Bitdeer listed on NASDAQ, with a current market cap of about $870 million. Though smaller than the former Bitmain, this is a successful example of Wu’s independent management.

Talent and Controversy: How to Evaluate Wu Wu’s Blockchain Life

Looking back over more than a decade, Wu Wu’s journey shows him as both a visionary entrepreneur and a highly controversial industry figure. Compared to Li Xiaolai’s “seasoned veteran” and Sun Yuchen’s “deliberate maturity,” Wu appears more straightforward and impulsive—like a protagonist in a fantasy novel, gifted but sometimes arrogant.

Because BCH “stole” hash power from Bitcoin, Wu earned a bad reputation in the Bitcoin world. His opponents even coined new nicknames—some called him the “renegade” of Satoshi Nakamoto, others derived “JIHAD” (holy war) from his English name “Jihan” as a mocking term.

But regardless of evaluation, from starting from nothing to founding Bitmain and then seeing Bitdeer go public, Wu has indeed risen to the top of wealth lists through his efforts. He not only provided miners with efficient hardware, enabling them to earn Bitcoin faster, but his industry evangelism also objectively promoted the entire blockchain ecosystem. Such experiences and achievements are thought-provoking—sometimes the line between hero and villain is just a matter of one thought.