Author: Sleepy.txt
Jia Yueting has figured out the cryptocurrency world.
On October 8, he posted a picture of a car with 'BNB' printed on it on X, captioned 'Drive the Binance car, enjoy the Binance life.' The similarly named meme coin 'Binance Car' saw its market value surge, increasing to $30 million in just a few hours.
With popularity reaching new heights, Jia Yueting personally stepped in to refute rumors: he has never issued a coin.
Image source: X
Boss Jia's car manufacturing remains difficult, but he clearly understands how to stir up waves in the crypto world. However, his recent involvement in the Binance meme is not a coincidence.
Just a few weeks ago, in September 2025, the crypto asset fund C10 Treasury managed by Jia Yueting announced its latest earnings, with a floating profit of about 7%. A few days later, he made a bigger move, spending $41 million to acquire the Nasdaq-listed company QLGN.
If the shareholders' meeting passes, QLGN will be renamed CXC10, shifting towards cryptocurrency and Web3 business. According to the plan, C10 Treasury will subsequently begin allocating the top ten crypto assets.
From content and cars to finance, Jia Yueting has always been searching for a stage to continue his narrative. And this time, he once again tied himself to the crypto world.
More than a decade ago, the lights of LeEco Building in Beijing often shone late into the night. It was an era of ambition, where Jia Yueting stood on stage shouting "ecological transformation," aiming to construct a vast future landscape with hardware, content, and finance.
He was like a dreamweaver, building the future on concepts and visions. The investors and media in the audience were ignited by slogans like "disrupting television," "redefining smartphones," and "creating China's Tesla."
Now he is in Los Angeles, and the profits from C10 Treasury and the acquisition plan for QLGN have become new narrative materials. He uses data, compliance, and capital to build a larger story framework.
Whether Jia Yueting's transformation is a true metamorphosis or just a new bottle for old wine can only be traced back to the fourteen years he intertwined with the crypto world.
The Era of Frenzy
In 2011, Jia Yueting stood on the uphill path of life.
Jia Yueting speaking at a press conference; source: Huxiu
LeEco had just listed on the Growth Enterprise Market, becoming the "first video stock in China." That year, the company's revenue reached 598 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 151%, with a net profit of 131 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 87%. But his ambition was far beyond just a video platform; he wanted to build an ecosystem spanning content, terminals, platforms, and applications.
That year, Li Ming came into his view. Li Ming was the technical head of LeEco Cloud, who enjoyed researching Bitcoin in his spare time, running nodes on his home computer. At that time, WeChat had just launched, Alibaba was preparing for an IPO, and Baidu was still the center of the traffic kingdom. Almost no one paid attention to this digital currency experiment.
However, Jia Yueting remained vigilant. He was always sensitive to new technologies, able to capture the scent of new directions amidst the noisy waves. That intuition allowed him to notice the potential of blockchain earlier than his peers. He began to communicate with Li Ming, asking about the underlying logic of Bitcoin, while also probing whether this technology, which had not yet garnered attention, could become part of the LeEco ecosystem.
From 2012 to 2013, Jia Yueting's "ecological transformation" reached its peak.
He first launched the first generation of super TVs, and then in the following year, he launched the LeEco box. The logic was simple: hardware subsidies were exchanged for users, and content fees were used to recover costs, with the platform effect amplifying profits. This approach was unique at that time; while others were still struggling with copyright fees, he had already figured out how to absorb costs through hardware sales.
At that time, Bitcoin's price first surged above $1,000. Li Ming sent an email to Jia Yueting, suggesting the addition of mining functions in the LeEco box and LeEco TV, allowing users to offset a year's membership fee of 499 yuan with the coins mined.
This plan involves multiple aspects: hardware, software, network, and finance, far more complex than conventional products. But it tied hardware, content, digital currency, and user incentives into one system, which was precisely to Jia Yueting's liking. Later, he specifically named Li Ming to be responsible for the project in a strategic meeting, breaking the company's normal reporting chain. "Under normal circumstances, the big boss shouldn't personally assign a project to someone," Li Ming later recalled.
In 2015, LeEco experienced its peak moment. The annual revenue reached 13.017 billion yuan, a nearly 90% year-on-year increase, and its market value once surpassed 150 billion yuan, making it a star company on the Growth Enterprise Market. Super TV sales exceeded 3 million units, and LeEco's smartphone launched to market acclaim, while sports copyrights and vehicle manufacturing projects were also rolling out simultaneously. Jia Yueting's "ecological transformation" first showed its true power.
That year, he turned his attention to finance. Hardware and content supported the surface of the story, but to keep the entire system running, new pivot points were necessary. Finance was seen by him as the true lever that could enable the ecosystem's self-circulation.
In August 2015, former Vice President of the Bank of China Wang Yongli officially joined LeEco as CEO of LeEco Finance. To bring him on board, Jia Yueting invested considerable effort. He painted a grand vision for Wang Yongli: to make financial innovation a pillar of the LeEco ecosystem.
After Wang Yongli's arrival, LeEco's financial sector rapidly expanded, including payments, wealth management, insurance, credit reporting, and even blockchain, all being put on the exploration list. Jia Yueting's mission for him was clear: to achieve "ecological transformation" in the financial sector as well.
In March 2016, driven by Jia Yueting, LeEco Finance announced the establishment of a blockchain laboratory. At that time, most domestic internet companies were still in a wait-and-see phase, and there were very few dedicated laboratories. Jia Yueting requested that the laboratory not focus solely on pure mining or token issuance but instead seek landing scenarios related to LeEco's existing business.
Thus, the laboratory began attempts in several directions, such as embedding blockchain functions in LeEco boxes and TVs to make user devices into nodes; using blockchain to protect copyrights and incentivize content creators with tokens; exploring chain-based payment, wealth management, and insurance services.
In the same year, Jia Yueting began to go abroad in large numbers.
He established a subsidiary in the United States to negotiate the acquisition of Vizio's TV business, while also investing some funds in Faraday Future. Cross-border capital flow became an unavoidable challenge for companies venturing abroad. Traditional payment channels were costly, slow, and had to navigate through layers of regulation. Blockchain brought another possibility, allowing for faster and lower-cost settlements through decentralized networks.
In December of that year, LeEco Finance announced a strategic partnership with Stellar. At that time, Stellar was one of the few public blockchains focused on payments, with rapid transaction confirmations and low energy consumption, making it more suitable for commercial use.
LeEco detailed its blockchain ecological strategy to the Stellar team, explaining the importance of blockchain technology in this strategy. This vision impressed the Stellar team, and they quickly reached a cooperation agreement. This cooperation marked LeEco's first stride onto the international stage in its blockchain exploration.
This layout gradually expanded into a complete blueprint. Blockchain was embedded in the hardware, tokens were used for content settlement, financial exploration included payments and wealth management, and applications extended into identity verification and supply chain. The vision was grand, the pace aggressive, but it also heavily relied on funds and internal coordination.
In 2016, it was too early.
In the second half of the year, LeEco's financial chain began to tighten, with losses in mobile business, continued cash burn in vehicle manufacturing, and ongoing bloodletting from overseas expansion.
In November of that year, Jia Yueting admitted internally that the company needed to "hit the brakes." As cash flow tightened, the plans for the blockchain laboratory were forced to be put on hold.
Twilight of the Empire
2016 to 2017 was a watershed moment in Jia Yueting's life.
In that year, the empire he built began to disintegrate, and the once-entrepreneurial idol quickly became the target of public opinion.
On November 6, 2016, he released that famous internal letter (LeEco's Sea and Flames: Was it swallowed by the giant wave or boiled the ocean?).
Source: Weibo
In the letter, he admitted: "The LeEco ecosystem has encountered significant challenges; our blind pursuit of scale expansion has reached its end."
The release of this letter felt like a belated awakening. Jia Yueting began to confront his decisions over the past few years: blind expansion, reckless scaling, and neglecting cash flow. During that nearly uncontrollable growth, he once believed that as long as the ecosystem was large enough, problems would eventually be obscured by growth.
But reality soon proved that every segment of LeEco's business was consuming the same lifeblood. When too many projects draw blood simultaneously, the vast system becomes an unsustainable cycle.
On July 4, 2017, more than half a year after that internal letter, Jia Yueting boarded a flight to the United States, claiming it was a short business trip. He never returned afterward.
To outsiders, this was a hasty escape. LeEco was drowning in debt, suppliers were blocking the entrance of the building, and pressure from investors and regulators came wave after wave. However, from his perspective, this was a strategic shift. Faraday Future's headquarters is in Los Angeles, where he needed to be; the US capital market was more open, with a clearer regulatory framework, and he believed that the opportunity for a restart might be there.
At that time, the United States was in the midst of a blockchain and cryptocurrency frenzy. Bitcoin prices kept hitting new highs, the ICO market expanded rapidly, new projects emerged daily, and funds and concepts chased each other; it was a stage ignited by desire.
A year later, the wave reached China.
China's blockchain industry also welcomed a brief period of frenzy. ICOs became the hottest financing method, with almost all industries trying to attach the "blockchain +" label. Against this backdrop, LeEco's subsidiary, LeRong ZhiXin, launched the "One Chain Box" with Yilian Technology on July 11.
One Chain Box; source: Smart TV Network
This is a TV box priced at 599 yuan, with built-in blockchain functions. Users can earn OC (OneChain Token) by sharing idle bandwidth, which can then be exchanged for goods in the LeEco mall. For LeEco, which was already in turmoil at that time, it felt more like a hasty self-rescue than a well-considered layout.
As soon as the product was launched, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange issued an inquiry letter, questioning whether LeEco was using the blockchain concept to speculate on stock prices. Regulatory intervention cast a shadow over the project overnight.
Jia Yueting originally wanted to use the "One Chain Box" to demonstrate the commercial value of blockchain but was now labeled as "concept speculation." LeEco promptly clarified that it did not involve token issuance and trading. However, this explanation did not change the external perception. The "One Chain Box" quickly became defunct, marking LeEco's last appearance in the blockchain field.
The failure of this project actually reflects the limitations of the entire blockchain industry at that time.
In 2018, technology was still in its early stages, with few landing scenarios, and users remained skeptical about digital currencies. Regulatory policies in various countries were fluctuating, and projects came with high risks from the start. It was an era full of concepts, but any slight delay in execution could quickly dissipate the heat.
This episode made Jia Yueting have a more realistic understanding of blockchain. He realized that this technology is still far from practical application, requiring both a compliant environment and a more mature market mechanism. LeEco's attempt may have been too early and too fast, but it allowed him to see the real gap between business and technology. This realization became a reference for him when he set off again later.
LeEco's crisis took away funds and people. Interestingly, among those employees who left, many later entered the blockchain industry. According to public data, at least 17 former LeEco employees devoted themselves to the crypto world in those years, continuing to chase that unfinished dream.
The Second Half of the Bet
In Faraday Future's factory, Jia Yueting spent the most low-key years of his life.
Faraday Future factory; source: Tencent News
Between 2019 and 2024, he almost vanished from public view, entangled in the minutiae of vehicle manufacturing—technological bottlenecks, tight funding, market competition, and regulatory restrictions were all unavoidable. Faraday Future faced multiple financing obstacles in the US, and mass production plans were repeatedly delayed, giving him a true taste of the complexity and slowness of the manufacturing industry.
The logic of the internet is speed, while the logic of car manufacturing is patience. This experience made him face a different rhythm, step by step trial and error, review, and correction. He had to slow down between speed and risk.
At the same time, the crypto world entered a new cycle. Tesla announced the purchase of $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, and the news sent shockwaves through the global market. Subsequently, companies like MicroStrategy, Square, and PayPal entered the scene one after another. The massive influx of institutional funds transformed this market, which originally belonged to speculators, into one that began to take on the shape of compliant assets.
Between 2019 and 2024, the blockchain industry itself underwent an unprecedented iteration.
Ethereum's smart contracts gradually matured, the funding scale of DeFi protocols soared from hundreds of millions to hundreds of billions; NFTs brought digital art and virtual assets into mainstream view; DAOs made community governance a new form of organization.
Looking back at Jia Yueting's "ecological transformation" vision during the LeEco period, these new technological paths carry familiar shadows, only the context and tools have completely changed.
By 2024, the entire industry’s infrastructure will be vastly different from six years ago. The entry of institutional funds, the maturation of stablecoins and DeFi, and the integration with AI applications have all made the market more robust and operational.
Compared to the "One Chain Box" of that year, the methods and environment for trying again are now completely different. To return to this track, it must be based on clearer market logic and a more restrained execution path.
On August 17, 2025, at Pebble Beach, California, USA, Jia Yueting took the stage again to announce the launch of the "EAI + Crypto Dual Flywheel" strategy.
Unlike previous press conferences, this time the spotlight was not on new cars but on a completely new business framework, linking EAI (Electric AI) with Crypto to form a bidirectional growth system.
The logic of this strategy is not complex. EAI represents Faraday Future's electric vehicle and artificial intelligence business, the source of cash flow from the real economy; Crypto is the other extreme, leading to a larger space of crypto asset management and the digital economy. The two support each other, with EAI providing cash flow support and the profits from Crypto flowing back to promote manufacturing and research.
C10 Treasury is the starting point for the "dual flywheel" strategy. It is a crypto asset management platform, adopting an "80% passive + 20% active" strategy, where the majority of funds are strictly allocated according to the C10 index of the top ten cryptocurrencies (excluding stablecoins), while the remaining portion is flexibly managed by the team.
Passive investment serves as the foundation, maintaining structural stability; the active portion retains room for offensive maneuvers. As of September 18, 2025, C10 Treasury manages assets of approximately $10 million, with a paper profit of seven percent.
On September 20, Jia Yueting made another move. Faraday Future acquired the Nasdaq-listed company QLGN for $41 million and planned to rename it CXC10. QLGN (Qualigen Therapeutics) was originally just a small biotech company, and what attracted Jia Yueting was not its main business but its compliant identity and financing channel as a listed company.
This meant a ready-made capital shell.
Jia Yueting at the CXC10 press conference; source: Faraday Future official X
In this acquisition, he personally invested $4 million, holding about 7% of the shares and voluntarily locking them for two years. On the day the news was announced, the QLGN stock price surged 255%, with pre-market prices jumping from $2.8 to over $10.
More importantly, a new name emerged in this acquisition case: the SIGN Foundation. SIGN is a blockchain technology company backed by top institutions such as Binance Labs and Sequoia Capital. Its involvement not only brought in funding but also provided technical and resource backing. For Jia Yueting, this meant regaining a ticket to enter the core circle of the industry.
Compared to the LeEco era, Jia Yueting's stance is clearly different. This time, he aims to build a new narrative through capital structure, compliance paths, and institutional alliances. However, whether this shift represents a true transformation or a more refined cycle can only be answered by time.
Unfinished Path
Looking back from the present, Jia Yueting's business trajectory resembles a circle.
During the LeEco era, he told the story of "ecological transformation"; at Faraday Future, he depicted the future of transportation with electric vehicles; by 2025, he pushed the "EAI + Crypto Dual Flywheel" to the forefront.
Every turn is marked by the nodes of the era, accompanied by controversy.
The real test is still ahead. The floating profits of C10 Treasury benefit more from market conditions; whether it can withstand fluctuations is still uncertain. The logic of the "dual flywheel" sounds complete but has not yet been tested through cycles. More importantly, whether he has truly learned moderation from past failures or just changed his narrative style remains unanswered.
From the LeEco Building in Chaoyang, Beijing, to the factory workshop in California, USA, and then to the capital stage of Nasdaq, this story spans regions and industries.
In the crypto circle, stories never have final endings, only the next chapter that is constantly being written.
Jia Yueting's story continues.
