When the Wild Road Trading Platform Wears a "Red Top Hat"

Late at night, I came across Liangxi's chilling warning post. This person, known for their genuine character in the cryptocurrency circle as a "whistleblower," has once again torn off the industry's fig leaf. Those exchanges that emphasize "strictly complying with local laws" in their user agreements may have much deeper collusion with power behind the scenes than ordinary players can imagine.

After spending ten years weaving a well-known political and business network in the industry, OKX's sudden emergence of the dark horse Bitget in 2024 is truly the chilling character that makes one's back shiver. After a certain untouchable young master, accompanied by a business team with a red halo, settled in, the once third-tier trading platform established a direct line to the capital city in just six months—this reminds one of the absurd stories from twenty years ago when certain suddenly wealthy private entrepreneurs appeared on the CPPCC list.

Today, it is hard for young people playing contracts to imagine that when the first batch of miners built mines in urban villages using iron sheet shanties, exchange owners genuinely waited at the network supervision bureau's office at three in the morning. Now, the leading players have advanced to a new realm. A certain trader once boasted after drinking: "Now, as long as a certain district-level economic investigation deputy captain passes a message, it can reach the X office secretary's desk within 24 hours."

These platforms with Cayman Islands licenses have already taken the study of relationships with Chinese characteristics to new heights. When you click "one-click withdrawal" in the app, what seems to be a simple flow of funds might actually involve a city investment fund from a new first-tier city, a low-key overseas Chinese business association, or even an innovative pilot index from a provincial financial office—within this closed-loop ecology, the real force that can shake the chessboard has never been in the white paper.

Liangxi's warning about "telephone case handling" is chilling upon reflection. Last year, the filing speed of "illegal business operations" for a certain second-tier platform's rights protection heavyweight was three times faster than the receipt for reporting a stolen electric vehicle on the street. These stories suddenly made the onlooking investors realize that they were no longer facing tech geeks in plaid shirts but a new form of "red-top businessmen" dressed in the guise of blockchain.

—Instead of waiting for someone to investigate, it’s better to put a gold chain on the regulators first.