AI | Finance Weekly
Thousands of yuan Qi fell that day, Beijing East Third Ring Road, near the bright, crowded cafe, the passion of the voice has disappeared there has been coming and going, both the harvest of hundreds of millions of large V, there are still hesitant wait and see There are often "wanderers" who dream about the riches of the night, with different backgrounds, different temperaments, sensitive senses of smell, and others who keep telling their stories and face their thirst for money.
It was a paradise for coin circlers, packed with project teams, solicitors, self-media people, and everyone with a set of spiritual victory laws. Even on January 19, after the yuan coinage fell, some people still quietly told me : 'Now you approach the financial freedom within a year.' No matter at what time into the coin ring, can hear such voices. Some for beliefs willing to be leeks, and some want a fortune overnight, but was eventually cleared overnight .
Lively scene is like back to 2015 Zhongguancun Venture Avenue.
1
Crashed
"The blockchain has created an incredible dream." In the eyes of Guo Yuhang, the founder of Unicom's point of integration network, it is as dry as firewood: dry wood was the lack of imagination in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis Market, the fire is nowhere to place the funds in the raging fire, beating the bitcoin into the anxiety fire.
Different from the circle of dreamers and careerists, people in the chain lonelily dwells in the office development technology in the south of Wudaokou Huaqing Jiayuan. I visited a few of them, all in all, with low ceilings and new Brush walls, poor office desks and chairs, and decorating materials on the floor, empty rooms full of pungent flavors, but for the moment, they are all enjoyable and are mesmerized by the blockchain.
The story of the coin ring and the chain is moving toward the two extremes.Guo Yuhang said a little story: a former job in Morgan Stanley after 90 investment banker bought 6 years ago, 4,000 bitcoin, 2017 bitcoin big After I rose, I suddenly remembered that I was also a 'Thousand Yuan Hou'. However, due to my wallet, the key was not preserved and could not be recovered. In the end I lost hundreds of millions of RMB, which is about the same as the small target of three Wang Jianlin.
Greed and regret were mixed in the huge vanity of the coin ring, and the fate of millions of people was drastically fluctuating, but Vanity Fair now became a meat grinder: bitcoin began to fall from January 7 to January 15 The beginning of the common currency down, the 'coin circle' experienced an unprecedented cliff-style crash.
The "not-small" digital money market shows a 20% drop in popularity. Every good time for 'dip in the doldrums' has turned out to be a larger-scale plunge in more than a thousand digital currencies Only one digit to January 21, the size of the currency after the shock has not yet regained its strength.
'The currency is now only one-twentieth of the highest point, chasing scolded fans who are losing their money every day.' One team leader in charge of digital currency sued on January 16. Soft-jun has long been accustomed to this: In the currency circle, ups and downs of the story too much, eyes open in the morning, millions of things will be staged in his every few and half will be staged.
'Every day after entering the currency circle has been very painful,' he concluded.
And plummeted at the same time, is the concept of blockchain warming rapidly in the square.On January 9, the real fund Xu Xiaoping call, the blockchain keyword WeChat index doubled in the next two days.
More and more large companies are entering the market with huge profits that tempt everyone to enter. Insiders tell one thing: One Internet giant wants to taste the fish and want to avoid the risk, so came up with a Out of the box - let the entire team leave to develop the blockchain project, made split locally, can not be transferred back to the body.
Even a group of fair-share companies regard the blockchain as the straw for market value management: Renren, Thunder, Kodak, Sifang, easy to see the shares ... They have one thing in common - the main business is weak, but as long as the increase A blockchain concept, the share price soared.
Soft Jun told me on January 17: 'On the one hand, we are crazy about selling the coins and on the other hand, we are going to bargain hunkyly.' Despair and hope, greed and fear, together occupy the minds of the players in the coin ring and the chain ring.
2
Accidentally shuffle
Fueled by the plunge in currency prices is the tangible hand of regulation - from the Chinese central bank ban on mining the news spread like wildfire until the brewing in South Korea closed digital currency exchange, and then the United States SEC will be mandatory for the virtual currency Measures, the trend of the suppression of digital currency has been formed around the world.
In the speculative history of digital currency in China, the 'September incident' was a major reshuffle node recorded in annals of history. On September 4, 2017, a group of three departments, CNCB, MIIT and SAIC formally stopped ICO Since then, the domestic ICO once disappeared, several major exchanges have also fought overseas.
During that time, many bizarre things happened in the currency ring: one head of an ICO project that ran to Shangri-La was scared to tremble with fear of opening her own ID card, and more people shunned for various reasons Went abroad
The incredible is that since then the currency circle intensified crazy up.Profit funds accelerated influx, and some bet with silver two, and some use their own bet, 'a lot of VC, PE industry friends, even year-end awards do not want, One after another jump into the coin circle. "An investment industry source said.
While those like Soft Jun borrowed almost hundreds of thousands of speculative coins, the civil servants around him also joined in. 'Although there are only 6700 in a month, the high-quality people in the eyes of the banks have high credit lines.' According to one senior currency speculator speculation that after two rounds of CBBC switch, the currency circle from hundreds of thousands of people soared to millions of people today.
When the market for the entire currency ring expanded rapidly from 200,000 to 10 million, its per capita investment rapidly increased to 10 trillion yuan from 20 billion yuan at a per-capital investment of 100,000. Hard currency currencies such as bitcoin And ETH unit prices soared, blockchain staggering effect of making rich and attract more leek admission. Carnival dance was pushed to the climax.
A bitcoin mined in the mountains of Sichuan. @ Visual China
Regulators may not have expected themselves, September 4 this shot unexpectedly rewritten the industry structure.
Originally a second-tier exchange of currency security, seize the opportunity to regulate the remediation of the three veteran domestic bitcoin exchange, the company moved quickly from Hong Kong to Japan, a member of the team and even brought their families have gone in just a few months In one fell swoop promoted to the industry first, the number of registered users soared to 600 million, and even had to temporarily suspend registration.
From September 4 to November, after the renminbi deposit was halted, the old players all went to the currency security. The currency security mainly consisted of the currency transactions. Since the deposit and cash withdrawal do not support the legal tender, they are basically not subject to regulatory influence , And these veteran first-line exchanges at this time busy rectification, members lost a large number.
'Before the policy was put under pressure, Monetary Security was a second-rate platform and we've always loved them.' "A head of a digital currency distribution group with a market capitalization of nearly 10 billion said, 'But now we have to kneel and lick them, Ask them to pay us the currency. '
Surprisingly, a grassroots exchange person is even more outspoken: 'I like regulation, every regulation is a chance, the formal platform was put to death, and we have become rich. A round of regulation, one hundred percent of our exchanges are still at the bottom, courageous have the opportunity to rank among the forefront of the recent tight breeze, we changed the office, no longer, give the team a holiday, a few months to fight again.
Just as the cash loan industry was under the devastating regulation of regulation, as private loan sharks saw the resurgence of civil unrest, each round of regulation also allowed the relatively obedient digital currency exchange to stagnate, but its demand did not diminish and its chaos did not completely disappear. Instead, Hero with excellent overtaking opportunities.
In the eyes of the above grassroots players, the central bank recently issued a notice just tickling it. In fact, the limit is the legal person households. Now where is the exchange still using the corporate account to receive the RMB, or the currency exchange or the OTC.
An industry deepthroat revealed to AI Financial Services that some newly emerging exchanges have found more secretive trading methods. They bought thousands of renminbi bank accounts from the black market to collect money, which is very exciting. In fact, The spirit of regulating the prohibition of legal tender deposits is contrary to the principle.
3
Secret chain
There are a lot of risks hidden inside: exchanges, currency agencies put on a new vest, continue to make a big money, junk and fraud mixed among them, a large number of private equity investment banks to start acting in WeChat group and circle of friends, circle Little influence within the lead brother, by a currency of the team's request, simply pull a micro-channel group, you can 'cut leeks', earn tens of millions of spreads, the big companies use the blockchain concept of speculation , Celebrate the stock price rise.
November to December, a lot of new currency, the original pyramid selling, micro-business, coal bosses, what people are admitted. No regulation, I am afraid, casually out of a project, at any time to raise Hundreds of millions of people do not even know what's behind the scenes. "One Exchange House expressed his concern.
'I sat for a while on the plane, shut down the phone, after landing a boot saw a dozen ICO project I need to pull the WeChat group docking, the market is too active!' He said to me.
A peculiar fact in front of the coin ring is that a new technology devoted to establishing a decentralized trust mechanism relies heavily on a centralized chain of trust at the beginning of its birth - The urgent need to address the issue of information asymmetry has brought astounding fortunes to everyone on the chain, project teams, exchanges, brokers and the media.
'In order to give us a new currency to send articles, I have given a lot of money from the media have been sent, just one influential online media, I almost half a year on the release of one or two million for some time a day It is necessary to go out from my hands hundreds of thousands of release, when the signature feel painful. "The founder of a coin currency team told me.
According to a number of currency circles, AI Financial News Agency revealed that some influential media in the currency circle are not advertisers' earning models. Instead, they issue letters to influence the price of the currency or promote new currency to profit from it. Sometimes an article charged a number of bitcoin, a circle of media so monthly income of about ten million yuan on the order of magnitude.
There is also an endorsement person's role: ICO project issue, will find endorsers to the platform, these people either in the currency circle has been a long time, there is a certain appeal, or is in academia, financial institutions or Internet companies hold important positions as long as ICO project endorsement, there is a chance to participate in the division.
This later evolved into a private equity investment broker game.The project side will provide to the agency on behalf of the private placement or related self-media provide a certain amount of internal coins or low-cost subscription price is usually ICO sales price based on the 3 to 8 fold Do not wait.
There are so many stories staged in the circle.
A veteran influential in the circle of self-reliance, launched a private placement agency, made a few weeks, tens of millions, and some ICO project to find him, the issue price is $ 2, he 8 cents Will be able to get their share of the hand, and then resold to the next piece of five home, equivalent to become an agent .He then he will share distribution, his disciples continue to pull the group sale, but also earn Difference. For this large currency V, there will be a lot of ICO project to ask him to sell.
For a time, such pull group moves in the popular circle of friends, there are some large circle of V coins is issued articles recommended coins, or open a small seal to charge the user fees, but also in progressive gold. Moci information is flooded with the entire currency ring, the noise has long overshadowed the truth, while both long and short are by all kinds of information for profit.
January 22 in a WeChat group, a user group sent a message of innocence, 'XX site XX project is currently confirmed misappropriating road run, the project side lost.' Soon there are big V come to rumor, claiming that running the road is purely non-existent .
The market turbulence, the dealer also took the opportunity to reap retail, soft gentleman recalled his soul-stirring experience: 'The exchange is 24 hours never sleep, while the dealer did not start until midnight to hit the plate, hit a hit, In the morning, when I was very open - eyed, my sleep fell to my grandmother 's house, and in the afternoon, the dealer started to move up again, and during that time, I felt very painful and had a good night' s sleep.
The exchange is a harvested droughts and floods, it will charge ico team 'on the bill', single this one, and some as high as tens of millions of.A team of token workers said the first two months of new coins more and more The more leeks are not enough, some of the new coins up to break, finally collected tens of millions of grass, might as well not, 'this circle is too close to money, all the rules of the game are money open.'
Exchange of lucrative profits, not a secret - 'OKEX, fire currency such a head platform day trading volume of 10 billion yuan up and down, such an exchange, the light fee one day you can receive a billion, a year Down profits may be tens of billions of magnitude, very scary, and even many long-tailed exchanges, each month can earn tens of millions of fee. "The exchange said.
Trading volume reached 168 billion yuan in the currency, in November launched its own platform currency - coins, the market capitalization once reached 15 billion, after falling still nearly 9 billion market value, which opened up a new exchange for the financial Choi road.
Compared to other projects that still only stay at the conceptual level, the money and money already belonged to the money, and immediately they were looting.
'After I got my hand, it was more than a few dozen times, but it was precisely because of the ICO that they had just been drank.' 'COO, a platform that also trades currency coins, Say.
In the supervision of close attention at the same time, after the resurgence of the old exchange of fire and OKex began to follow the example of the issue of platform currency .2009 evening, the fire currency announcement said it registered by its registered fire Pro Pro station Credit system based on blockchain distribution and management Just a few minutes later, OKex also announced that its strategic partner, the OKB Foundation, has released the application token OKB, two new platform tokens ready to come out.
Rapid riches make the exchange morale more and more high, the Coin CTO said in a high profile on the social platform, 'Our boss let's talk, do not ask when the fire can be on the Nasdaq, we and the Nasdaq Is a competition. '
Below this state, there are good people who leave a message: 'I think the goal can be greater, such as the Fed.' Another good person is echoed: 'Yes, for example, get rid of the dollar.'
4
Trillion air
To many chain people, the circle people play a bit too far.Zhuazheng Zhou trustnote founder, said his company has tokens, but not for employees to take the hype, but for talent incentives. The quality of technology research and development High, the more the value of digital money itself has a direct effect.
Zhou Zhengjun also point out a popular coin in the chain of secrets.Many technical staff willing to accept the digital currency is actually out of tax considerations, 'At present, the tax policy on digital currency is uncertain, basically you can not tax.You want, If one day you say that you have digital currency to pay taxes, do you not recognize the legitimacy of digital currency in disguise?
However, the value of digital currency was seriously distorted at the moment.Sun Jiangtao, an angel investor who arranged the whole chain of the blockchain industry, expressed his disappointment with the current status quo of the industry. According to statistics, at least 80% of ICO projects on the market Are all 'traps' under the digital currency eco-packaging. They either lack project support, become a means of pyramid selling or have great 'moisture content.' The game using blockchain cats and dogs is a good application. '
One Exchange Person told me that in the currency ring, the most important thing is the marketing ability, 'Anyway, it is a pile of air, as long as you can help people to sell the money, how much money will do.' In his eyes, the block Chain industry is extremely low, they do the product, Caton, flashback, but can casually raise hundreds of millions of funds.
'In this circle, a big brother emerges in three months, and then a big brother disappears.' 'He said' the metabolism is extremely abnormal. 'But there are still many people who are more risk-averse people want to come in. Like the financial imagination, are concentrated in this area broke out.
In the mobile Internet world, a track generally has only two or three unicorn, the block chain area is very special, through the ICO and issue currency, the company reached the market value of 1 billion US dollars threshold, up to dozens in the Sun Jiangtao In the eyes of now, most of the top ten blockchain projects are mostly without application scenarios, most of which are bubbles and air and will eventually burst.
Bitcoin Tyson endorsement of bitcoin ATM machine settled in Las Vegas @ Visual China
ICO essence is asset securitization, bypassing the investment bank and the exchange system, without the audit and the law, to achieve a small IPO.
Wu Tianyu, founder of Tiger Securities, said that the trading system and trust mechanism adopted by human society now are indeed a waste of social resources, but this extra cost is to ensure the security of transactions. At this stage, this technology is bypassed before the technology is mature System, the user experience is very cool, but the risk is very large, and finally there may be more liar than good people, bad money driven by good currency situation.This is one of the reasons blockchain fraud at this stage.
'Air currency is actually the advanced form of pyramid schemes, the concept of blockchain for pyramid schemes, it is indeed an excellent theme. MLM has not destroyed it for so many years, and pyramid schemes whatever the outcome, such as hundreds of people to stay in one place, it is easy to expose , But not so easy to find the air currency, "said a person in charge of a token.
Zhou Zhengjun was a veteran of the chain, and he was full of worries about the young people in the circle of money: "These liar projects are all consuming resources in this area and the cheaters are kidnaping more and leaving less to do good work. He is worried that the whole industry will be overwhelmed and the chain will be tied.
Even recognize the real people, but also their thoughts.
Sun Jiangtao said that the blockchain industry has three different spheres, in the past a long time, they despise each other and estrangement - people who focus on digital assets desperate to do the public chain, focusing on the underlying technology to develop the chain of people , Not to see the digital assets all day upside down terrestrial turtle ', while the Internet giants, it is difficult to lay yourself in the forerunner to seek cooperation, they based on traditional experience to start a new kitchen, but often more effective.
Despite all the chaos, Sun Jiangtao remained optimistic.He believes that the area of blockchain the current waste of funds have not so much mobile Internet, and fraud and the bubble, is actually the best investor education, speculative attitude first lapped Everyone's attention, have the opportunity to slowly unify their understanding, only the birth of a great business opportunity.
After so many rounds of big ups and downs, some people find that their wealth outlook has changed. "I now think money is not money but chips for the game, and it is not a shame to be involved in a collective trial and error in human history."