Bitmain’s Israeli Research Center Shuts Down

The mining giant Bitmain, whose CEO recently said that ‘I have huge confidence in the future of Bitcoin Cash’, is reportedly being forced to shut down its Israel development center.

Bitmaintech Israel, the company’s research center in Israel, is just two years old and is already being forced to close its doors owing to the market shake up that has been ongoing for some time now. The center is located in the city of Ra’anana (just outside of Tel Aviv), and it is reportedly laying off 23 of the employees who were working there.

Gadi Glikberg, Bitmain VP and leader of Bitmaintech Israel, is also relegating his position at the company. He delivered a message to Bitmain’s Israeli employees:

The crypto market has undergone a shake-up in the past few months, which has forced Bitmain to examine its various activities around the globe and to refocus its business in accordance with the current situation.

It is true that the market has seen more downs than ups in the last few days. Bitcoin mining has seen a huge drop in profitability in the last couple of months. Bitcoin’s mining difficulty has seen the second largest drop in the history.

The market situation has become such that Chinese miners dumped their ASIC miners on the road post the market crash. The Bitmain branch that is being closed down in Israel was mostly responsible for research It was charged with the duties of developing blockchain infrastructure and new mining pool (Connect BTC) and Bitmain’s processor chips.

Bitcoin’s price is going down at a constant rate and both BTC and BCH mining is becoming less profitable with every passing day. Although the exact cause of this move is unknown, it is being speculated that this market crash is possibly forcing the shut down of the branch.

(Read more about: Difficulty in Mining)