In 2014, Zhao Changpeng, the “richest Chinese” in the cryptocurrency world, sold all his properties in Shanghai and bought Bitcoin. In less than a year, the price of Bitcoin was halved. The housing prices in Shanghai increased by 100%. Despite the huge loss, he did not go bankrupt, but instead strengthened his belief in Bitcoin.

Because a talented young man like him, a veteran in the industry, could suffer losses. This shows that Bitcoin is indeed promising! Soon, in 2017, the opportunity he had been waiting for came.

1. Poker Game

2013, Shanghai. Several middle-aged men were sitting together playing cards. The room was an ordinary private room, and they were playing the usual way. Anyone who came to see them would not notice anything special.

Only Zhao Changpeng vaguely felt that his life might take a turn for the better here.

Why? Outsiders generally don't know, but he knows it very well. This poker game is not for everyone. Let's put it this way, if you throw a brick into the sky now, anyone you hit is an entrepreneur or founder. Zhao Changpeng, who was a senior executive of a large company at the age of 27 and a startup boss at the age of 36, is an absolute young talent. However, at this table, he can only feed cards to the player above him.

At this time, he was holding the cards tightly in his hand, pretending to think. But his ears were perked up to listen to the conversation of the people next to him. Zhao Changpeng knew the big man next to him, his name was Li Qiyuan. He was the founder of China's first Bitcoin exchange "Bitcoin China". The company was founded in 2011, and its trading volume ranked first in the world in 2013. At that time, not many ordinary people had heard of this coin, let alone making money from it. Li Qiyuan was the absolute pioneer and enlightener of this industry in China. Zhao Changpeng dared to guarantee in his heart that more than half of the card players here came here to try out this new trend.

Thinking of this, before the cards were played, Li Qiyuan actually took the initiative to talk to him. The two of them started chatting.

Zhao Changpeng only had a vague understanding of Bitcoin at the time, but Li Qiyuan's opening words made him throw away the cards in his hand.

“Bitcoin is the future.”

Imagine a currency that is not controlled by any country or organization, but is completely in everyone's hands. It can circulate freely around the world without worrying about exchange rates or inflation. And through encryption technology, it can be absolutely safe. In a word, it can punch the financial crisis and kick inflation! If these concepts were put into practice today, people would probably just laugh.

But 10 years ago, it was absolutely beyond the scope.

Zhao Changpeng was stunned on the spot. The excitement was like an electric shock, just like picking up a martial arts secret book. In particular, the core concept of Bitcoin decentralization allows everyone to become a unique individual in a true sense. This is completely in line with his vision of the future world. Zhao Changpeng was so fascinated that he didn't even react to why Li Qiyuan said so much to a poker friend. I guess Li Qiyuan himself may not know. Maybe it was because of his extraordinary bones, or maybe he had a hunch that this young man could shine in this industry. The game ended and the big guys went home.

Li Qiyuan forgot about this conversation in a few days. To him, it was just an ordinary "sermon" that he had given to countless young people who wanted to join the game. But a seed had been planted in Zhao Changpeng's heart. A seed that would shock the world in the future.

2. The Wisdom of Stud

After returning home, Zhao Changpeng dreamed of Li Qiyuan's words. Although all his knowledge came from a card game, he was already firmly optimistic about Bitcoin. For him, entering the game now is the earliest moment. It has to be said that Zhao Changpeng is a ruthless person. He directly gave up his startup company and chose to start from scratch, entering the Bitcoin industry as a worker. At the beginning, he joined an overseas company called "blockchain". There, Zhao Changpeng met many great people in the virtual currency industry, and with his own abilities, he became the third in command of this company. Later, he was invited by the well-known domestic virtual currency trading platform "OKCoin" to serve as the technical director.

In 2014, more and more people paid attention to the Bitcoin track. Zhao Changpeng has become a senior and experienced master in the circle because of his decisiveness in entering the industry and strong execution. It took him less than a year to go from a young boy to debut as a "Bitcoin group". During this year, as his understanding of virtual currency deepened, Zhao Changpeng's belief in Bitcoin became stronger and stronger. At the same time, he also felt that he had figured it out. I have been immersed in this for many years, and I have also done international financial transactions and currency trading. Isn't it a master? With confidence in himself and belief in Bitcoin, Zhao Changpeng was overwhelmed. He made a decision that made everyone call him "crazy". He directly sold his property in Shanghai and bet all in Bitcoin. This behavior shocked even people in the circle. There are many ruthless people in the currency circle, but this is the first time that Langmie dares to bet all his wealth. But everyone thinks that there must be a reason for the big guys to take action. Could it be that the price is going to change? Everyone just waited and watched, and guess what happened?

Prices have indeed changed.

Less than a year after Zhao Changpeng went all-in, the price of Bitcoin was halved. And the housing prices in Shanghai doubled. In three words, it was a loss. It is said that if you win, you can get a young model from a club, and if you lose, you can go to the adult entertainment industry. If an ordinary guy loses as much as Zhao Changpeng, he probably won't go to the adult entertainment industry, but will queue up to go to the rooftop to save trouble. What kind of faith is this? It's better to die. The currency circle is all blown up. It's over. The big guys are going crazy again. But Zhao Changpeng is not an ordinary person. After losing so much, he didn't go to the rooftop or go to the adult entertainment industry. Instead, he became more determined to believe in Bitcoin. Why? It's very simple. He is a genius boy and an old bird in the industry, but he can be cut off by leeks. Then whose leeks can't be cut off by Bitcoin? No matter how you think about it, there is definitely a way. Everyone knows that there is a top secret book called Sunflower Treasure Book. If you want to practice this skill, you must first castrate yourself. Zhao Changpeng is almost the same. The first knife of the leek cuts himself, and thus achieves the evolution of faith. Just this reverse thinking has reached the fifth level. According to the general script, when the divine power is perfected, it should be invincible. Zhao Changpeng just deepened his faith and prepared to expand and become stronger, but the accident happened. Not long after he worked at "OKCoin", the "Bitcoin Group" had an internal conflict. Zhao Changpeng and the company's CEO Xu Mingxing had a disagreement on the future development direction. Outsiders don't know the specific reason, but they only know that the two of them started to curse each other online when they disagreed. One said that the CEO relied on robots to fake the trading volume and the performance was all exaggerated. One said that Zhao Changpeng's academic qualifications were fake and he cheated the company. The matter became more and more serious. Zhao Changpeng saw that he couldn't stay in this company, so he simply chose to leave. After flying solo, he continued to start a business, but he didn't touch Bitcoin again. It was not because he gave up his faith, but Zhao Changpeng was waiting for an opportunity to create his own Bitcoin exchange. Soon, in 2017, the opportunity came.

3. Takeoff

In 2017, the fire of cryptocurrency finally reached the cognition of most people. A duck knows when the river water warms in spring. There is no need to do research. Zhao Changpeng, an old duck, knows that this will be a crazy year. The probability of stories of getting rich overnight by speculating in cryptocurrencies has increased sharply in the conversation after drinking. When buying vegetables, you can hear grandpas and grandmas talking about this coin and that coin. When a track is even talked about in the vegetable market, it means that countless leeks will appear. Zhao Changpeng understands that now is the best opportunity. In July 2017, he founded Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange in Shanghai.

Users can trade various virtual currencies on Binance and then withdraw them to USD or other currencies. What Zhao Changpeng earns is the handling fee for each transaction. The profit model looks simple, but it is actually quite difficult:

Why do people come to trade with you? There are at least three exchanges in China that are ranked among the best in the world. Huobi, OKCoin, and Bitcoin China, which was founded by Li Qiyuan. Now, these exchanges are taking advantage of the favorable conditions and developing rapidly. Binance, which was just founded by Zhao Changpeng, should have to survive in the cracks. But no one expected that Binance would start the unparalleled leek-cutting mode as soon as it went online. Because no one understands the power of "belief" better than Zhao Changpeng. When he first entered the industry in 2013, he had no experience in the industry. But as long as you enter the industry early, there will always be a day when you become a senior. Now that the trend has exploded in 2017, in the eyes of newcomers, Zhao Changpeng is the big guy who expanded the territory with Li Qiyuan and others. The brand that has been put up is backed by time and experience. Besides, it is really impossible to find someone with more faith than Zhao Changpeng. After all, he really sold his house in 2014 and invested all his money in Bitcoin. He is the first person in China to "hold 99% of his assets in Bitcoin." With this story as a support, players were moved to tears and had no choice but to choose Binance.

Everyone knows that the "believers" are the easiest to harvest. Zhao Changpeng used his faith to bring a group of loyal fans to Binance. In just half a year, Binance attracted 6 million users. With its 1.4 million transactions per second, it has become the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. Both his former colleagues and opponents were left far behind by Zhao Changpeng. This was his first peak in life, but it did not last long.

In July 2017, Zhao Changpeng just founded Binance. In September of the same year, the People's Bank of China, the Cyberspace Administration of China and seven other ministries and commissions jointly issued an announcement. It clearly defined virtual currency issuance and financing activities as "illegal financial activities" and required all related trading platforms to clean up and close transactions before the end of the month. With a ban, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange directly became an illegal institution. Several other domestic exchanges raised the white flag and shut down their services. Even Li Qiyuan gave up his business and turned to blockchain.

For the first time, Zhao Changpeng was a little shaken.

Even his mentor chose to abandon Bitcoin. Is it really necessary to persist? In the end, for the belief of the year, he was ready to fight again. It was this completely different decision that made the fate of Zhao Changpeng and Li Qiyuan very different. He absorbed the lost users of his peers and resolutely left China with the server and team. But he didn't know that what he was going to face next would be a difficult "Wandering Earth" journey, and also a passionate road to becoming the richest Chinese.

4. The Wandering Earth

Zhao Changpeng wanted to find a place where Binance could obtain a legal license. His first stop was Japan. But the treatment there was nothing comparable to that in China. You would never have thought that the world's largest Bitcoin exchange could not rent a large office building offline because of its failure to pay taxes. Because there was not enough space, the desk had to be moved to the side of the toilet. Zhao Changpeng was refreshed every day when he went to work. But he didn't care. The stench did not affect Binance's daily income of tens of millions. As long as the Japanese Financial Services Agency could issue a license, the future would be fine. But unexpectedly, after three months of hard work by the toilet, Zhao Changpeng was greeted by the same ban. He had no choice but to pack his bags again and start "wandering the earth". It's just that other people's wandering is wandering with the earth. Zhao Changpeng's wandering really traveled across half of the earth. As China took the lead in banning cryptocurrencies, many countries began to follow suit.

You may be wondering, why is it so unpopular?