OKX Blockchain 60 Lectures | Episode 43: The Rise of the Mining Circle (Part 2) — The Rise of Bitmain

Hello everyone, I'm Xiao K Jun. Today we're going to talk about: "The Rise of the Mining Circle (Part 2) — The Rise of Bitmain."

In the last lesson, we talked about two people who opened the door to capital and commercialization in the mining circle: one was Pumpkin Zhang—Zhang Nangeng, and the other was Fried Cat—Jiang Xinyu. Although they jointly ushered in the golden era of the mining circle, the person who truly pushed the mining industry to its peak was someone else, and that person's name is Wu Jihan.

Compared to the early entrepreneurial environment of blockchain, Wu Jihan can be said to be a model of elite entrepreneurship. After graduating from Peking University, he entered the investment banking field and spent two years rising from an investment analyst to an investment manager. By all logic, such a person should have nothing to do with mining, but due to a chance encounter in 2011, Wu Jihan discovered Bitcoin on a BBS and fell in love with Bitcoin.

Wu Jihan said that when he was reviewing Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin whitepaper, he wrote: "Bitcoin was a beacon to me at that time. I knew my life would eventually change because of it, and I looked forward to it rewriting my life's trajectory. I would break out of all my existing frameworks to achieve true ideals and future." He certainly didn't expect that a line written casually at the time would actually become reality many years later—Bitcoin really did change his life.

Going back to 2013, when the mining industry was emerging and it was the early days of the mining machine war, with large amounts of capital and talent entering the industry. What about Wu Jihan?

He had met Fried Cat back in 2012, just as Fried Cat was returning to China to start a business. On one hand out of love for Bitcoin, and on the other hand because Wu Jihan himself came from an investment banking background, he invested in Fried Cat's company when most people couldn't understand it. Six months later, with the mass production of ASIC mining machines, Fried Cat became the first "mining tyrant" in the Bitcoin world, and Wu Jihan obtained nearly a thousand times in returns.

In addition, Wu Jihan was the first person in China to translate the "Bitcoin Whitepaper" into Chinese, making him one of the earliest blockchain evangelists in the country. Against this background, Wu Jihan naturally would not be satisfied with just being an investor. Out of infinite optimism for this track, he decided to personally participate in this mining machine game.

Wu Jihan first found Zhan Ketuan, who was doing chip research at the time through his classmate directory, and described his understanding of Bitcoin in an email. After reading it, Zhan Ketuan considered it carefully and finally agreed to Wu Jihan's request, co-founding the later famous mining giant—Bitmain.

After half a year of development, the first generation of Antminer was released. Because Bitmain's mining machine had extremely low power consumption, it gradually gained a foothold in this mining machine battle.

However, winter was approaching. At this time, no one realized that the external environment was quietly changing. In 2014, due to policy reasons and the hacking of the largest cryptocurrency exchange at the time, Bitcoin welcomed its first bear market in history. Facing the constantly declining market, the entire mining industry was in mourning, with a large number of mining machines shutting down and mines closing down. The previous two industry giants, Zhang Jiageng chose to temporarily withdraw from the market and turn to chip research, while Fried Cat completely disappeared from the mining circle during this bear market, becoming one of the biggest mysteries in the industry second only to Satoshi Nakamoto.

At this time, Wu Jihan chose to persist in this great depression. By continuing to develop new mining machines, he took over the vacant market left by the former giants to welcome that unknown bull market. Heaven rewards the diligent. After two years of long decline and silence, the market finally regained its vitality.

Thereafter, Bitmain officially rose. Through two years of accumulation, Bitmain almost monopolized the entire mining machine market. With the release of Antminer S9, Bitmain pushed computing power to a new level. At its peak, its Antpool and BTC.com mining pools occupied nearly 50% of the entire network's computing power. Thus, Wu Jihan became the new generation "mining tyrant" after Fried Cat, leading the entire mining circle to the next glory...

Thanks to Uncle Xiao Ma for his help and guidance with this episode.

Sina Weibo: @BlockChen Uncle Xiao Ma

"OKX Blockchain 60 Lectures" is a blockchain science animation video co-produced by OKX & Sina Technology. Targeting zero-basis blockchain users, through series articles, science animations and other forms, from the perspectives of concepts, technology, and applications, through 5 major sections and 60 knowledge points, it vividly explains blockchain concepts. This episode's course content was guided by Xiao Ma, founder of BA Capital.

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This article may contain product-related content that is not applicable to your region. This article is intended to provide general information only and does not assume responsibility for any factual errors or omissions therein. This article represents only the author's personal views and does not represent the views of OKX. This article is not intended to provide any of the following advice, including but not limited to: (i) investment advice or investment recommendations; (ii) offers or solicitations to purchase, sell or hold digital assets; or (iii) financial, accounting, legal or tax advice. Holding digital assets (including stablecoins) involves high risk, may fluctuate significantly, and may even become worthless. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding digital assets is suitable for you based on your financial situation. For questions about your specific situation, please consult your legal/tax/investment professional. The information appearing in this article (including market data and statistics, if any) is for general reference only. Although we have taken all reasonable precautions in preparing these data and charts, we assume no responsibility for any factual errors or omissions expressed herein. © 2025 OKX. This article may be reproduced or distributed in its entirety, or excerpts of 100 words or less from this article may be used, provided that such use is non-commercial. Any reproduction or distribution of the entire article must also prominently state: "This article is copyrighted © 2025 OKX, used with permission." Permitted excerpts must cite the article name and include attribution, such as "Article Name, [Author Name (if applicable)], © 2025 OKX". Some content may be generated or assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Derivative works or other uses of this article are not permitted.

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