The social media of cryptocurrency OG Guo Hongcai suddenly posted a photo of Zhao Dong standing in Crypto Valley, which surprised all the old players. Some calculated that it was about the time he was released from prison, while others said it was an old photo and he was still in jail.
Regardless of whether he is out or not, we should understand the story and vision of this leading figure in domestic stablecoins.
Image source: "Nangong Yuan 2022" Weibo
Zhao Dong has always had a good reputation in the industry and often participates in various meetings and AMAs.
He was originally a co-founder of Moji Weather, and after that, he went to Garage Cafe to start his second entrepreneurial journey. This is also a magical place, a gathering spot for the trends and directions of internet entrepreneurship, as well as an internet entrepreneurship museum. In 2013, he bought his first Bitcoin there, recommended by a friend named Wu Gang, who later became the CEO of Bixin.
At Garage, he met some of the earliest players who got involved with Bitcoin, including Wu Gang, Li Lin, Li Xiaolai, Bao Er Ye, Zhao Guofeng, Du Jun, and other current big shots in the cryptocurrency world.
Image source: "Garage Cafe" Weibo
With a technical background, Zhao Dong thought Bitcoin was quite good and started accumulating coins, initially buying 2,000 at an average price of 500 RMB. He likely bought a lot more later, and with Bitcoin's explosive growth in 2013, reportedly increasing four to five times in a year, it is said that Uncle Dong's funds had already exceeded 100 million at that time.
Unfortunately, Uncle Dong started playing with leverage and faced liquidation, reportedly losing 9,000 Bitcoins in one day, with debts exceeding 60 million. This was also the reason he began to focus a lot of energy on over-the-counter trading to pay off his debts. He chose the OTC market because the market depth at that time was not very good.
He took on all kinds of trades, making 50 or 60 RMB on small transactions, and if he was lucky, he could make more on larger trades. He bought coins directly from KaoMao, right after they were mined. Unfortunately, the first generation of mining machine manufacturers in China, KaoMao, has also disappeared now.
The OTC business allowed Zhao Dong to pay off his debts, and his assets began to accumulate again. In 2016, due to the shocking Bitfinex hack, he acquired BFX issued by Bitfinex and became a shareholder of Bitfinex. This seemed to mark the beginning of Uncle Dong's close relationship with Bitfinex.
Bitfinex and the USDT issuer Tether are from the same group, and later Uncle Dong directly exchanged collateral for the issuance of USDT, which laid the foundation for his later lending business. He also became a spokesperson for Tether in the Chinese-speaking region for a time.
It is said that at his peak, Uncle Dong held 10,000 Bitcoins, which is 1/2100 of the total Bitcoin supply, worth about 1.2 billion USD today.
However, everything came to a sudden halt in June 2020, just three months after the 312 crash. Suddenly, news broke that Zhao Dong had been taken away. Since then, he has not spoken again. A year later, reports emerged that he was sentenced to two years for money laundering and aiding and abetting, and later it was heard that he was found to be involved in foreign exchange issues.
Many people say that in today's photo, Zhao Dong looks too happy; it’s unlikely he would be so happy just after being released from prison. For someone who holds shares in the world's largest stablecoin group Tether and has a large passive holding of Bitcoin to this day, if he really could come out early, everyone would be happy for him.
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