MicroBT
MicroBT is a Bitcoin company in the Mining Hardware category, founded in 2016 by Yang Zuoxing.
The Idea
A Bitcoin ASIC manufacturer founded by Yang Zuoxing, the chip-design lead behind Bitmain's dominant AntMiner S7 and S9. Denied an equity stake by Bitmain's co-founders, he left in 2016 and built a direct competitor, the Whatsminer line, to take on his former employer's Antminer.
Early Traction
MicroBT broke Bitmain's near-monopoly in 2018-2019 with Whatsminer chips that beat Antminer on efficiency and price-to-power. Bitmain fought back hard, suing Yang for patent infringement in 2017 (he got the patent revoked and the case dismissed in 2018), and in 2019 Yang was arrested in China over disputed allegations widely read as part of the 'mining war' between the two firms.
Peak Stats
Grew into the #2 ASIC manufacturer globally behind Bitmain, and Whatsminer became a staple of large North American public mining operations. Competes directly with Antminer for the top of the market.
Status Today
Active. Competes fiercely with Bitmain and Canaan for ASIC market share. Faces U.S. national-security and regulatory scrutiny over Chinese-made mining hardware.
Why It Matters
MicroBT proved Bitmain's dominance wasn't unbreakable, and it did so from the inside, built by the very engineer who designed Bitmain's most successful machines. Credible competition in ASIC manufacturing matters for Bitcoin's decentralization, keeping the supply of the network's security hardware from running through a single vendor.