Cryptocurrency OG Guo Hongcai suddenly posted a photo of Zhao Dong standing in Crypto Valley on his social media, which shocked all the old players. Some people calculated that it was almost time for him to be released from prison, while others said that it was an old photo and the person was still in prison.

Regardless of whether he is in or out of prison, we should all know something about the story and vision of this first person in the domestic stablecoin industry.

Image source: "Nangongyuan2022" Weibo

Zhao Dong has always been popular in the industry and often attends various conferences and AMAs.

He initially co-founded Moji Weather, then joined Garage Coffee, launching his second entrepreneurial venture. Garage Coffee is a fascinating place, a hub for internet entrepreneurship trends and trends, and a museum of internet entrepreneurship. He bought his first Bitcoin there in 2013, recommended by a friend named Wu Gang, who later became the CEO of Bixin.

In the garage, he met the earliest group of players who came into contact with Bitcoin, including Wu Gang, Li Lin, Li Xiaolai, Bao Erye, Zhao Guofeng, Du Jun and other current bigwigs in the cryptocurrency circle.

Image source: "Garage Coffee" Weibo

Zhao Dong, a technologist, thought Bitcoin was a good idea and started hoarding it. He initially bought 2,000 coins at an average price of 500 RMB. He likely bought more later. Furthermore, Bitcoin's price skyrocketed in 2013, increasing four or fivefold in a single year. It's said that Zhao Dong's assets at that time exceeded 100 million RMB.

Unfortunately, Dongshu started using leverage and ended up losing money. It's said he lost 9,000 bitcoins in a single day, leaving him with a debt of over 60 million yuan. This is why he began focusing heavily on over-the-counter trading to pay off his debts. He chose OTC trading because the market depth at the time was limited.

He took any trade, earning 50 or 60 yuan per trade on low volume, and even more on a lucky high volume trade. He bought his coins directly from Friedcat, who gave them to him right after they were mined. Unfortunately, Friedcat, China's first-generation mining rig manufacturer, has also vanished.

OTC trading allowed Zhao Dong to pay off his debts and begin accumulating assets again. In 2016, following the shocking Bitfinex theft, he acquired Bitfinex-issued BFX and became a shareholder. This event seemed to mark the close relationship between Zhao Dong and Bitfinex.

Bitfinex and Tether, the issuer of USDT, were created by the same team. Later, Dongshu directly used collateral to secure additional USDT, which laid the foundation for his subsequent lending business. He later became Tether's spokesperson in the Chinese-speaking world.

I heard that at the peak of his career, Uncle Dong had 10,000 bitcoins, which is 1/2100 of the total number of bitcoins, which is worth 1.2 billion US dollars today.

But everything came to an abrupt end in June 2020. Just three months after the March 12th crash, news broke that Zhao Dong had been arrested. He remained silent since then. A year later, reports surfaced that he had been sentenced to two years for money laundering and aiding and abetting a fraudulent act. Later, it was discovered that he was involved in foreign exchange transactions.

Many people commented that Zhao Dong looked incredibly happy in today's photos, suggesting he couldn't be so cheerful right after being released. For someone who holds a stake in Tether, the world's largest stablecoin group, and has passively held a significant amount of Bitcoin to this day, anyone would be happy for him if he were actually released early.