Where did people who left the crypto market go? Retirement, getting married, having children, transitioning to entrepreneurship...
Original Author: 0x min & Freya
Original Editor: 0x min
In the world of encryption, people come and go. Have you ever wondered where people who leave the cryptocurrency circle go?
With this question in mind, we interviewed many industry professionals and received a variety of answers: studying abroad, getting married and having children, lying flat, starting an AI venture, selling insurance, technology agriculture...
Leaving here does not mean not holding cryptocurrency assets, but not working in the cryptocurrency industry. Some people earn enough to retire and lie flat; some people leave due to the bear market; some people are still unemployed...
When the gears of the cryptocurrency cycle begin to turn, everyone is carried forward, helpless.
What are the veterans in the cryptocurrency circle doing?
In 2011, a major event that impacted the history of Chinese cryptocurrency occurred, the community "8btc" was established.
The two founders of 8btc are well-known in the industry, Chang Jian and QQagent (Wu Jihan), but there was also another founder - financial writer Lao Duan.
In 2011, Lao Duan wrote several articles related to Bitcoin, such as "What can appreciate 3000 times in a year" and "Bitcoin: Great innovation or giant bubble?". In July 2012, Lao Duan established the Bitcoin fund "Lao Duan Bitcoin Fund", which was the first Bitcoin fund in China.
A few months later, the Cyprus banking crisis broke out, and Bitcoin soared more than 10 times in 8 months. The skyrocketing price actually gave Lao Duan great "psychological pressure". Under the pressure of liquidation, in April 2013, Lao Duan chose to liquidate the Bitcoin fund ahead of time, believing that Bitcoin's rise had peaked.
In November 2013, 5 months after Lao Duan liquidated the Bitcoin fund, to everyone's surprise, Bitcoin once again skyrocketed. However, at this time, Lao Duan, who "missed the boat," gradually transformed from a Bitcoin evangelist to a Bitcoin critic.
"The biggest value of Bitcoin at present is satisfying the Chinese people's fantasy of getting rich overnight."
From then on, Lao Duan and the world of Bitcoin went their separate ways. He then rooted himself in the stock market, becoming a stock commentator and publishing books such as "The Magic of Investment", "Positive Energy Investment Studies", and "In fact, You Still Don't Understand Women".
In March 2021, Lao Duan mentioned "Bitcoin" once again.
Laoduan said that at his peak, he owned four digits of Bitcoin, which is now worth billions of RMB. However, most of it was sold after earning several tens of times the profit. Now, only a three-digit "remainder" remains, but these Bitcoins are all in the bankrupt exchange Mt. Gox.
Similarly, Bobite, after Wu Jihan and Laoduan left, Chang Jian found new partners: Song Huanping, Chen Yurong, and Lang Yu.
Song Huanping used to be a "co-founder of Bobite". Now, the identity tag that appears in the media for Song Huanping is the founder of Happy Tiger Capital, the first angel investor in catering, and has invested in Lele Tea, Chen Xianggui, Hutouju, Jasmine Milk Tea, and Beard Chef.
In 2013, Song Huanping learned about Bitcoin in a QQ group and then met Chang Jian through a friend's introduction and joined Bobite to participate in the commercialization process. However, this journey lasted only four months.
In early 2015, with the first bucket of gold earned from the currency circle, Song Huanping chose to leave the currency circle and entered the investment circle, targeting the catering industry, and established Happy Tiger Capital.
In 2017, when interviewed by the media, Song Huanping expressed some dissatisfaction with the currency circle, even saying "a little sad":
"A round of skyrocketing, followed by a new round of attention, then quickly cooled down, waiting for the next breakthrough of a price that was previously considered crazy, and then triggering an even larger wave of attention."
"Bitcoin is a good thing, but the currency circle is too dirty."
Since the birth of Bitcoin, it has changed the destiny of many grassroots people in the past ten years. The old people of the currency circle have all "retired" and faded out of the public's sight.
A "veteran" who entered the Bitcoin community in 2013 told Deep Tide TechFlow that the old people he knows in the currency circle either went overseas or returned to their families to take care of their children every day. Some even became obsessed with "immortality" and invested in peptide-related industries.
Once hailed as the "richest man in Bitcoin," Li Xiaolai was regarded as the spokesperson of the currency circle until he gradually faded out of the cryptocurrency industry after the 2018 audio incident. Besides continuing to write books, the most important thing for Li Xiaolai, who left the currency circle, is "having a bunch of children." Li Xiaolai, who has become a father, now has a new identity as an educator.
After 2022, Li Xiaolai launched the "Annual Family Growth Community" (1999/year) and launched a new course called "Li Xiaolai Talks about Family Education in the AI Era" on "Obtained" in 2023, which has received widespread praise.
The Lying Flat Miners
Once upon a time, miners were considered to be at the top of the cryptocurrency food chain. With a "prohibition order," Bitcoin mining completely broke up with China. So where did the miners who no longer mine go?
Former miners interviewed by TechFlow said that the miner community is also very complex, with different decisions and ideas between large miners and small miners.
Some large miners choose to take their mining machines and physically go overseas to continue mining, while others choose to transform into AI and provide computing power support to other companies.
Most of the interviewees mentioned the same idea - lying flat. They have savings and don't want to work, so they eat, drink, play, travel, and focus on their health.
Miner Wang Lei is now in a lying flat state. Having suffered losses in the coin circle, he has become unusually cautious. He does not engage in risky investments, does not associate with people in the coin circle, and instead holds ETH to engage in Staking, earning a close to 4% risk-free annual return. The annual income of nearly 80 ETH completely covers his daily expenses.
This is already a good "ending." After a bull market, countless small and medium-sized miners went bankrupt.
"Last time, many small miners floated with the good market. They didn't cash out in time, so there were cases of going from driving a Porsche to having to take a Didi," said former miner Li Xiaoming.
During the bull market, many miners blindly invested and got trapped in various first and second-level projects. At the same time, with the FTX/PayPal incident, miners also became part of the army fighting for their rights.
In Yunnan, a female miner named Liangyou entered the Bitcoin community in 2012. After the "mining prohibition order," she chose to invest in organic technology agriculture.
She enjoys raising shrimp, other seafood, and orchards.
Shrimp raised by Liangyou
After researching and thinking, Liangyou believes that currently, in the current economic environment in China, agriculture is relatively stable and long-term business. In addition to technological agriculture, Liangyou will also invest in other physical industries.
Even though former miners like Liangyou are no longer "mining," they still pay attention to the cryptocurrency market as they share a common goal - accumulating coins.
After the Entrepreneurs Left
Prior to entering the cryptocurrency industry, Saul had been involved in internet investments.
In the summer of 2021, the emergence of STEP N caught Saul's attention, as he believed blockchain games could be a future direction for the gaming industry.
Instead of directly investing in a company, he chose to start his own venture. Compared to young entrepreneurs who entered the cryptocurrency industry from the beginning, he believed his advantage lied in experiencing a complete cycle and having richer product and user experience.
Taking inspiration from STEP N, Saul initiated a similar "to earn" project and secured investments from multiple industry VCs.
During the hot trend of "x-to-earn," Saul's project gained widespread attention in the early stages due to various operational activities and collaborations with public chain ecosystems. The NFT props sales were impressive. However, like a momentary firework, the beauty was short-lived as STEP N sneakers collapsed, plunging the entire "x-to-earn" track into a cold winter.
Saul's project did not survive the crypto winter, and after persisting for a year, Saul disbanded the team.
Saul attributed the failure partially to the "cycle." "Web3 entrepreneurship has an obvious cyclicality, shorter than traditional finance. Web3 is a more retail-oriented, irrational market. The more significant problem is that Web3 is difficult to acquire and retain real users, especially in unstable market conditions, user growth is slower than imagined."
After liquidating the project, Saul left the cryptocurrency industry and chose to venture into the booming AI wave, continuing his entrepreneurial journey.
In Saul's view, the cryptocurrency industry and AI are two completely different industries with different underlying logics. The AI industry is more technology-driven, while the cryptocurrency industry, at present, is primarily driven by capital. Blockchain products have not yet effectively addressed real-life problems.
However, he will continue to keep an eye on the cryptocurrency industry in the future because he believes there is significant potential for integration between AI and the cryptocurrency industry, especially in areas such as gaming. Maybe one day, he might return to the crypto industry with a new identity and approach.
"Life is an experience, and if I had to start over, I would still choose to start a business in the cryptocurrency industry."
Saul is just a microcosm of the "Web3 to AI" wave in the bear market. Will Wang, a partner at Generative Ventures, stated, "So far, all the mobile internet portfolios I've previously invested in that turned to Web3 have now moved back to AI."
June 2023, China's oldest encryption media, Bitmain's official website, announced a full transition to the AI field. Bitmain founder Zhang Jie also transformed and became the founder of Unbounded AI, like a Chinese version of Midjourney.
A new question arises: when the new bull market for encryption comes, will the departing entrepreneurs return?
Comings and Goings of Practitioners
The personnel flow in the encryption industry often fluctuates cyclically with bull and bear cycles. When the bull market arrives, they all return, and when the bear market comes, they scatter hastily.
Xiao Jun, who originally worked in post-investment at a well-known industry VC, unexpectedly received a "layoff notice" at the beginning of this year. After careful consideration, Xiao Jun did not continue to look for work in the industry, but resolutely left the coin circle and joined a domestic medical industry.
For Xiao Jun, who comes from a wealthy family, work itself is not that important. Right now, she has a more important mission - finding a partner, getting married, and working in the encryption industry seems to cause her some trouble in dating.
There are not a few people like Xiao Jun who have been laid off and switched careers or are unemployed. The bear market from 2022 to 2023 has severely hit investor wallet balances in the encryption industry, and also sparked a wave of layoffs in the coin circle. Whether it's exchanges, VCs, or project parties, all choose to "layoff" to reduce costs and survive the bear market.
Antoniayly operates a Web3 job-seeking and recruiting community and has a clear perception of the unemployment wave in the coin circle.
"The talent pool for job seekers grows by a dozen every week, but it's good if there's one new position a week. I browse overseas job boards every week, and not many companies are hiring, mostly large companies in Europe and America posting job requirements, but it's hard to tell how many are real HC (hiring capacity)."
Leo, an entrepreneur who has posted job advertisements, told TechFlow, "As soon as I posted the job advertisement, I received a large number of resumes, and some of the applicants have excellent backgrounds." In his opinion, this is not a problem unique to the encryption industry, but the entire environment is not good. Among the resumes he received, there are also many professionals with backgrounds in internet giants who want to join Web3 because the internet industry is more tiring and demanding."
Whether it's Web2 or Web3, under the wave of layoffs, everyone is seeking a way out.
Xiao V, who comes from a journalism background, once wrote reports on financial technology for a leading technology media company and joined a blockchain media company as the chief writer in 2018. She stumbled into the industry by accident, not dreaming of getting rich overnight, purely because it is an area of interest.
At the end of 2019, at the invitation of a major internet company, small V chose to "leave" the cryptocurrency world and "change the environment" by joining an internet company to work in brand marketing. Small V quickly felt the unfriendly working environment in the internet industry, both due to the overall downward trend at the time and the age crisis for individuals over 35.
"In a big company, I felt like a screw inside a machine, with little room for personal development and a sense of value, unlike the freedom I had in the media."
In the middle of 2023, during a wave of layoffs at the major company, small V voluntarily accepted the "optimization package" and embarked on a new field as an insurance broker.
"From my observation, I feel that this is a very promising industry. After a country reaches a turning point in its per capita GDP, the overall depth of the insurance industry increases. The younger generation in China now has a completely different view of insurance compared to before."
Another reason for choosing to become an insurance broker, small V believes that the experience gained in the insurance industry itself is of great help to career development. The complexity of current insurance products involves not only knowledge of the products themselves, but also legal and medical knowledge. This industry also does not have the age discrimination that exists in the internet industry, and many successful insurance brokers consider insurance as a lifelong career.
Recently, small V will join another major internet company as the main job, while continuing to pursue insurance brokerage as a side job.
Coincidentally, the author has noticed that many friends from Hong Kong who used to work in the cryptocurrency industry have entered 2023 and have started selling "Hong Kong insurance" through their social circles, either joining insurance companies full-time or becoming licensed managers.
In 2023, with the resumption of travel, the new Web3 policy in Hong Kong, and the relaxation of high-level talent programs, a large number of mainland personnel and capital have flowed into Hong Kong to obtain Hong Kong residency and start businesses, making buying Hong Kong insurance a "To Do List" item for many cryptocurrency practitioners, and creating a wave of wealth opportunities.
At the end of the interview, we usually ask one question, "Would you still want to return to the cryptocurrency industry?"
Almost everyone answers "yes," with many mentioning the most attractive aspect of the cryptocurrency industry: the distributed remote work arrangement that offers individuals more freedom.
Coco left the cryptocurrency industry and joined a major internet company in 2019, and returned in 2022. In her view, compared to working at an internet company, the cryptocurrency industry is still much easier, allowing her to have the flexibility to pursue side jobs. Additionally, the cryptocurrency industry can also change a person's mindset and expectations.
"Losing money is not important. Once you make some quick money, it's hard for you to completely leave," Coco said.
