🧐 Humans of Binance Stories｜The Game of Cycles: My Crypto Journey——

Recently, I came across Binance's event: "Humans of Binance" — Real Stories · Real People · Real Crypto;

This is the third installment, and every time I finish watching, I feel an inexplicable emotion and always want to write something. Today, I finally put pen to paper;

Many people often think that crypto is a "shortcut to wealth." But for me, it is first and foremost a series of trials through lows and cycles.

If you haven't experienced it yourself, it's hard to imagine the cruelty and fervor of this industry. It can push someone to the peak of wealth in just a few months, but it can also bring you crashing down overnight.

How many heart-wrenching moments, sleepless nights, and gut-wrenching struggles must one endure to truly understand the meaning of cycles? I don't know!

But to truly achieve stable returns, you cannot bypass this hurdle!

Looking back at my eight years in this industry, it’s not just a story of investment, but a tumultuous life journey.

It has taught me a simple yet profound truth:

In Web3, what truly determines life and death is not the profit or loss of a single trade, but whether you can endure the cycles, whether you have your own underlying logic, and whether you can survive through several bull markets!

So, I couldn't help but write this piece, to encourage Binance and everyone else!

Part 1: From Bitcoin to Binance — My Starting Point

At the end of 2016, my second startup ended without success, and I closed my second company!

This should be my first low point. After a smooth graduation from university, there was a time when I thought my life would always go smoothly; I was the epitome of success;

In the second year after graduation, I achieved results in the bank deposit business and reached the peak of A8 in just two years. At that time, most of my classmates were still working jobs with salaries below 5000.

Unexpectedly, at the height of my success, I encountered my first major pitfall in life, losing all my money and accumulating millions in debt due to investments in the then-booming internet finance and bank bridging businesses.

I had to pay off my debts, and working a job wouldn't clear them, so the only way I could think of to repay was to start a business and achieve results in the market again.

Thus, I entered the most difficult entrepreneurial cycle, but often when people are more anxious, they are less likely to achieve results. My impatience and inner turmoil long affected my judgment, and my first entrepreneurial venture as a financial intermediary quickly failed.

So, I teamed up with a college classmate to start a second business: software development and business system building. The early stages went smoothly, and I thought I would finally start making money.

Little did I know my luck could be this bad:

Just as I completed the foundational work, that year's template app development companies sprang up like mushrooms after rain, and my slightly higher-priced custom builds instantly lost their competitiveness in the market.

Thus, the opening scene occurred, and I had no choice but to shut down this company in October 2016.

Before the shutdown, the last business we completed was a software development project for a Bitcoin miner that a friend introduced to me, someone I didn't know much about at the time. I remember telling my partner: after we finish this project and split the money, we can part ways!

Unexpectedly, I never received the last payment!

The agreed development fee was 160,000, and when the miner brother was about to pay us, he asked if we wanted to avoid taxes. After we said yes, he guided me to register on an exchange, deposited over 40 Bitcoins, and told us that this was our development fee.

At that moment, we were completely bewildered!

We thought, this guy isn't trying to skip out on us, is he? Fortunately, he was patient and explained some basic knowledge about Bitcoin and trading methods, even teaching us how to bind a bank card to sell.

40 Bitcoins, worth over 30 million now!

Following the narrative of a success story, my partner and I held onto this money, then became CEOs, won over beautiful and wealthy women, and reached the peak of life. But obviously, reality is cruel:

We were about to part ways, so the moment we got the Bitcoins, we quickly logged in and sold them, each taking 70,000 and heading towards the next crossroads in life.

Why did we only end up with 70,000 from the agreed 160,000? Because that night, feeling down, we pooled together 20,000 to go sing and vent our frustrations! As for why singing cost 20,000, I still don't know!

After that, there wasn't much going on. I entered the most leisurely period of my life. During this idle time, or low point, it was truly better to be idle than to be restless. If it weren't for this period of leisure, I don't think I would have come to know Bitcoin!

So I always say: if we are in a low point, don't fidget around; it might just be an opportunity from heaven for you to rest well, and opportunities might just come knocking!

At that time, I had nothing else to do, and the last business involved Bitcoin, which seemed quite interesting. I had only heard of it before, but I didn't know it could be bought and sold, directly exchanged for money, and what mining was all about. I joined some groups and started researching.

Not researching was fine, but once I did, I became completely addicted! I began collecting various information 24/7, often running to the mining boss to learn about Bitcoin-related strategies, and I started outputting what I learned on Weibo and my public account.

At first, no one read my content. I wrote for three months, gaining just over 30 followers, but I was learning a lot, and my intuition told me this thing might have great prospects, and I could turn my life around with it.

If that moment sparked my "curiosity" about crypto, it was the ICO frenzy of 2017 that truly pulled me into this world.

Entering the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017, as winter turned to spring, ICOs grew wildly like spring grass.

AntShares, Quantum, and other projects saw returns of three times a day, starting at five times, and ten times was just the beginning. The crypto market seemed to have pressed the fast-forward button.

Countless white papers, countless tokens, countless new projects, and retail funds flooded in like a deluge.

With my early research and sharing, my Weibo was shared by countless people. Initially, BITWU gained just ten followers a month, but by early 2017, it gained 100,000 followers in a month. Consequently, I became an industry influencer and earned my first true "crypto wealth."

How much?

With an initial investment of 50,000, it reached A8 in less than three months, growing several hundred times. This was something I had never dared to imagine before, and I quickly paid off all my debts.

Also, in that year, at the Shanghai Blockchain Conference in July, I met Binance for the first time, along with CZ and many industry veterans.

As an invited guest at the conference, I interviewed many startup projects. At that time, Binance was still a fledgling exchange, somewhat lonely at the conference.

Everyone was interested in the wealth effects of Huobi, Yunbi, and Jubi exchanges, and few knew of Binance's existence.

After CZ @cz_binance and the early Binance team talked about the cryptocurrency exchange and compliance strategies, very few were interested in learning more.

People couldn't understand why a trading platform that only allowed direct RMB deposits and withdrawals would bother with cryptocurrency trading, why it needed to pursue compliance, and why it had to register overseas. What was the significance of all this?

Then soon, the facts proved what true foresight really is!

Part 2: The Essence of Cycles — Macro Drivers, Industry Narratives, and Binance's Evolution!

After every peak, there must be a trough.

The fireworks of 2017 flashed and disappeared in an instant!

Then my 2018-2020 was a continuous process of losses.

I had a severe path dependency; the money I made from investing in ICOs in 2017 led me to foolishly think I could continue to earn in 2018.

Unfortunately, under the downturn of 2018, the more I invested, the more I lost. The bear market of 2018 hit suddenly, and my assets were halved and halved again from their peak.

The euphoria of 2017 was swept away, and the more I invested, the more I lost, wiping out all the BTC and ETH I had accumulated. Then, in 2018, I encountered the darkest moment of my life: being trapped!

I never imagined I would experience such a time. In those days and nights, I saw and understood too much.

That was my second fall to the bottom, but it transformed me!

It made me completely understand: in crypto, making money relies not on luck but on whether you can safely navigate through cycles.

What is a cycle?

1) Macro liquidity: Federal Reserve interest rates, the US dollar index, global capital flows.

2) Technological narratives / Infrastructure rotation: ICO → DeFi → NFT → AI → Restaking → RWA.

3) Capital structure and market sentiment: VC rhythms and retail FOMO/panic.

Every bull market is the result of liquidity + new narratives + emotional resonance, while every bear market is a cycle of tightening capital, shattered stories, and pervasive fear.

What is safety?

It means you can always see your risk points, not putting yourself in a risky position, ensuring a smooth landing! This must always be the top priority, more important than how much money you make.

The entire period from 2018 to 2020 was the darkest moment for both myself and Binance.

I: Obsessed with path dependency, fantasizing that the ICO model could be replicated, yet continuously losing, going through the darkest time of my life.

Binance: Trading volume plummeted, and global regulations tightened.

But the difference was that Binance chose to "evolve"—

Launching products like Launchpad and BUSD, becoming an innovation engine for the industry; laying out DeFi and NFT, planting the seeds for the bull market; launching an academy and research institute, persisting in education and research during the winter.

At that time, @heyibinance seemed to always be on the front lines, her presence felt in every crisis!

In 2020-2021, global liquidity surged, and crypto welcomed a "second spring." DeFi Summer, NFT craze, and GameFi explosion.

Binance Smart Chain (BSC), with its low gas fees and user experience, became an important carrier of new narratives, and the price of BNB soared.

But opportunities came with challenges. Starting in 2021, Binance faced unprecedented compliance pressures: tightening regulations in the US, Europe, and Asia forced it to find a balance between expansion and compliance.

All of this made me realize: the true winners of cycles are not those who run the fastest in bull markets, but those who can survive in bear markets and continuously upgrade under pressure.

Part 3: The Underlying Framework of Cyclical Investment—

After 2021, I restarted my crypto journey, but the beginning was not smooth. I was misled by the profits of altcoin seasons, immersed in the dream of rapid rises and unable to extricate myself.

Especially with the collapse of chain games and the disconnection in DeFi, my altcoins were left in a state of confusion, and at one point, my positions lost nearly 80%.

The most important thing in investing is: principal!

I wasn't prepared!

So I began to rethink: what exactly is investment? I summarized three key words: cognition, allocation, rhythm.

1) Cognition: Based on cycle expectations;

Bull and bear alternation is a major cycle, while narrative rotation is a minor cycle.

Investment must be based on an understanding of cycles, not just chasing news or staring at K-lines every day.

2) Allocation: Three-tier asset structure;

Core assets: BTC, ETH — long-term base.

Trend assets: L2, AI, RWA, Meme — capturing emotions and explosive points.

Flexible positions: stablecoins, hedging tools — a buffer zone for switching between offense and defense.

3) Rhythm: Entering, exiting, and observing;

Research in the early bull market, taking risks in the mid-bull market, and leaving reserves in the late bull market;

In a bear market, do not cut losses; accumulate knowledge and opportunities deeply.

In summary: Establish your own logic, making money relies on cognition, and holding on relies on rhythm.

You cannot earn money beyond your understanding; even if luck allows you to earn, you will lose it back through your own abilities.

As I wrote a few days ago, the only way to earn big money and maximize the guarantee that it does not flow away is this:

Hold truly monopolistic and scarce assets ➡️ Create passive income ➡️ No longer struggle for survival ➡️ Spend a lot of free time learning, thinking, and judging scarce assets ➡️ Continue to hold scarce assets ➡️ Form a spiral compounding growth of assets and intelligence.

Running with cycles and making friends with time is not a shortcut, but a practice of layered selection.

2021-2022 also reaffirmed this:

Bull market peak: NFT frenzy, GameFi explosion. Bear market arrives: Luna collapses, FTX implodes, confidence collapses.

However, cycles will not be absent; they will only be delayed.

Looking back now, that time was also the best story of picking up chips in a land of gold; the question is, did you pick any up?

Part 4: Conclusion — Binance and I, a Shared Cycle Story

From 2016 to 2024, I personally experienced three major cycles: frenzy, fall, and rebirth.

I have seen countless ordinary people being harvested by cycles, and I have witnessed a few who changed their fate by navigating through cycles.

As for myself, from being in debt of millions to quickly accumulating wealth, then falling into a trap and finally stabilizing, what I rely on now is definitely not overnight wealth, but the tempering of cycles.

Just like you!

I am very ordinary, but I can remain unperturbed by honor or disgrace, neither hurried nor slow!

I have also experienced huge losses and made wrong moves, but I did not fall. After going through so much, I have lived through several bull markets, and I have my own cycles!

Similarly, Binance has also experienced its own cycles:

From a "startup" in 2017 to the world's number one today; from being questioned in the bear market about "whether it can survive," to now becoming the crypto entry point for hundreds of millions of users; from a single exchange to wallets, research institutes, charity, and education, gradually moving towards a "people-centered" comprehensive ecosystem.

In this industry, cycles are the fundamental color of everything.

And those who can continuously survive and grow are the true winners.

This is also the shared story between me and Binance:

Finally, I want to leave you with this sentence —

The market is a battlefield; only those who survive deserve to win!

In the game of cycles, only people are the most worthwhile answer to persist in.

Binance @binancezh @binance

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