Micree Zhan or Zhan Ketuan (; born 29 January 1979) is a Chinese

electronics engineer Electronics engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering which emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current fl ...

and businessman. He is the co-founder and CEO (with Wu Jihan) of

Bitmain Bitmain Technologies Ltd., is a privately owned company headquartered in Beijing, China, that designs application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips for bitcoin mining. History It was founded by Micree Zhan and Jihan Wu in 2013. Prior to ...

, the world's largest computer chip company for

cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It i ...

mining. In 2018,

Hurun Report Rupert Hoogewerf (born 1970 in Luxembourg), also known by his Chinese name Hu Run (), is the chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report, a research, media and investments business, best known for its Hurun Rich List, a ranking of the wealthies ...

named him the richest cryptocurrency billionaire in the world. In 2019, Bloomberg ranked Zhan as the world's 9th richest self-made billionaire aged 40 or younger, with a net worth of US$5.2 billion.

Early life and education

Zhan Ketuan was born on 29 January 1979 in

Minhou County Minhou County (; Foochow Romanized: Mìng-âu) is a county in the eastern Fujian Province, China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Fuzhou, the provincial capital. The Min River flows in a southeast direction through ...

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

, China. After graduating from Minhou No. 1 High School, he entered

Shandong University Shandong University (, abbreviated as Shanda, , English abbreviation SDU) is a public research comprehensive university in Jinan, Shandong with one campus in Weihai, Shandong and one campus in Qingdao, Shandong and is supported directly by ...

, where he earned a bachelor's degree in electronics engineering in 2001. He then earned his master's degree in microelectronics engineering from the Institute of Microelectronics,

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republ ...

in 2004.

Career

After earning his master's degree, Zhan worked as an engineer at the Information Technology Research Institute at

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...

. He later started his own business making

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of sign ...

es for television. In 2013, Zhan met up with Wu Jihan, an enthusiast for

. After hours of discussion and research, Zhan agreed to start

with Wu. The company quickly grew into the world's largest computer chip company for

bitcoin mining The bitcoin network is a peer-to-peer payment network that operates on a cryptographic protocol. Users send and receive bitcoins, the units of currency, by broadcasting digitally-signed messages to the network using bitcoin cryptocurrency ...

, reporting US$2.5 billion in revenue in 2017. As of 2018, Zhan owns 36% of Bitmain, and Wu 20%. In

's inaugural Blockchain Rich List 2018, Zhan was named the richest cryptocurrency entrepreneur in the world, with an estimated net worth of 29.5 billion yuan (US$4.3 billion), while Wu was ranked second. In February 2019, Bloomberg ranked Zhan as the world's 9th richest self-made billionaire aged 40 or younger, with a net worth of US$5.2 billion. As of June 2019, he is listed as the world's 311th richest person in the

Bloomberg Billionaires Index The ''Bloomberg Billionaires Index'', launched in March 2012, is a daily ranking of the world's 500 richest people based on their net worth. It draws information from "action in the stock market, economic indicators and news reports", features a p ...

, with $5.42 billion.

Personal life

As of 2019, Zhan is single and has no children. He lives in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhan, Micree 1979 births Living people 21st-century Chinese businesspeople Billionaires from Fujian Businesspeople from Fuzhou Chinese chief executives Chinese electronics engineers Chinese technology company founders Engineers from Fujian People associated with Bitcoin Shandong University alumni Academic staff of Tsinghua University