It began in the quiet hum of a bedroom computer in 2010.
Sixteen-year-old Wei Zhang, a Chinese high schooler with a restless mind, stumbled onto a whisper in the corners of the internet: Bitcoin — a digital currency no bank could touch, no government could control.
Armed with just $10 and a spark of curiosity, Wei bought nearly 100,000 BTC for less than a penny each. The number was absurd, the value laughable… but Wei wasn’t buying money. He was buying into a dream.
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From Nobody to Visionary
Years passed. Bitcoin’s price crept upward, then exploded.
By 2013, Wei’s bedroom investment had morphed into a fortune. But he wasn’t content to be rich on paper. At 19, he founded CryptoLeap — the world’s first crypto margin trading exchange. It was bold. It was dangerous. It was genius.
CryptoLeap went from unknown startup to global powerhouse almost overnight. Wei became the boy king of Bitcoin, sitting atop a digital empire and clutching 99,000 BTC like a modern-day gold vault.
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The Email That Killed an Empire
It was early 2018.
Wei received an email from a prestigious venture capital firm. Smooth pitch. Official letterhead. A link to a “secure” document.
Wei clicked.
That click was the guillotine.
The site was a trap — a flawless phishing scam. In seconds, hackers seized control of CryptoLeap’s wallets. Wei’s personal fortune? Gone. All 99,000 BTC, funneled into the shadows of the blockchain.
By the time he understood, it was too late. The coins had vanished into the ether, never to return.
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Collapse and Infamy
The theft set off a chain reaction.
Bitcoin’s price tumbled. Traders screamed for their money back. Lawsuits rained down. Regulators circled like vultures. Wei — once the prodigy — became the pariah.
He resigned. He shut down CryptoLeap. His empire turned to dust.
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The $11 Billion What-If
Today, those stolen coins would be worth over $11 billion. The loss remains one of crypto’s most haunting legends — a reminder that in the digital world, one wrong click can destroy everything.
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Redemption in the Ruins
But Wei didn’t vanish.
He rebuilt his life in the shadows, turning his pain into purpose. Now, he’s a cybersecurity advocate, warning others about the dangers that once claimed him. His story is passed around in hushed tones in trading rooms and online forums — a modern cautionary tale carved into the blockchain’s history.
Because in crypto…
yo$u’re only one click away from fortune, or from oblivion.