Zhao Changpeng, the richest man in China: Born in Lianyungang, he made his fortune in Shanghai and is now a stray dog.

Some people think that he is a liar and a devil, while others think that he is the god of wealth representing the future. He is Zhao Changpeng, a lost dog who was born in Lianyungang and made his fortune in Shanghai. Now the whole world is chasing him.

Weibo, a person living in Turkey, said that Zhao Changpeng's coins are in the mobile phones of the younger generation in Turkey every day. Another said Zhao Changpeng, a dead dog, became the richest man by cutting China leeks. The first one is a liar, pyramid selling.

At a recent New Year's Eve press conference, it was reported that Zhao Changpeng's currency security problem made Zhao flee to China overnight, and media people joked that the biggest mistake now was not buying bitcoin, a virtual currency.

Metacosmic Era and Virtual Currency

On September 24th, 20021,the People's Bank of China, the Central Network Information Office and other ten departments jointly issued the Notice on Further Preventing and Handling the Speculative Risks of Virtual Currency Trading, clearly stating that the business activities related to virtual currency are illegal financial activities, and it is also illegal for overseas virtual currency exchanges to provide services to domestic residents through the Internet.

Since the end of last year, with the rise of the concept of meta-universe, the management of future virtual society has been paid attention to again. Shanghai issued a statement to "guide enterprises to step up research on an important platform for the interaction between the virtual world and the real society in the future". In fact, although many countries, including China, now prohibit the trading of virtual currency, it is difficult to bypass tokens or digital currency in the distribution of the whole virtual society in the future.

Of course, the era of the metauniverse is still very early. In China capital market, Meta-Universe analysts have established China Meta-Universe. Now the metauniverse is a bag. For example, a public relations company will become a super-cosmic company with virtual characters, and probably only investors believe it (at least now everyone knows that this is a lie). In fact, under the regulatory background of China, we can encourage the development of digital pairing based on VR and other technologies, VR education, virtual tourism and other projects that relatively support entities, and all other tokens are prohibited. It is pure deception for a company to get a virtual avatar and a company to get a virtual anchor.

However, facing the future, we should probably pay attention to these things.

The richest man in China on the Devil's Virtual Currency Exchange.

Zhao Changpeng is like a devil, and this exchange is even more ghostly.

This exchange has no license and no entity ..... The whole world does not recognize it except that Canada may be allowed to operate as an exchange.

As the fastest growing major financial exchange in the world, it has neither a headquarters nor an official address. In the countries where it operates, it has not yet obtained a license. Not only that, until recently, its CEO even avoided talking about its place of residence.

Central banks and government agencies around the world, including China, have banned counterfeit currency transactions, and the US Department of Justice is also investigating. However, the other side has become the dominant trading platform giant in digital currency, equivalent to the sum of London Stock Exchange, new york Stock Exchange and Hongkong Stock Exchange. According to CryptoCompare's data, Coin 'an handles 76 billion dollars of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum every day, which exceeds the sum of its four biggest competitors.

According to Caijing magazine, Zhao Changpeng, the founder of Bi 'an, is worth 90 billion US dollars (equivalent to 573.3 billion yuan), surpassing the 424.4 billion yuan of Zhong Shanshan, the chairman of Nongfu Spring, and becoming the richest man in China.

How did ghost friends grow up?

One of the fastest growing major financial exchanges in the world has neither a headquarters nor an official address. In the countries where it operates, it has not yet obtained a license. Not only that, until recently, its CEO even avoided talking about his place of residence.

Founded only four years ago, Bi 'an is now the dominant trading platform giant in digital currency, equivalent to the cryptocurrency versions of London Stock Exchange, NYSE and HKEx. According to the data provider CryptoCompare, after a round of rapid growth, the daily transaction volume of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum handled by Bianca now reaches 76 billion US dollars, exceeding the sum of its four largest competitors.

However, the development of the whole cryptocurrency industry, especially currency security, has been basically unconstrained and unregulated in recent years, and will soon become history.

Financial regulators are increasingly worried that digital assets are growing so fast that they are now of systemic importance. Until recently, some people still thought that digital assets were just a fashion. Jon Cunliffe, an official of the Bank of England, mentioned the crisis caused by subprime mortgage in 2008 in a speech in June+10, 5438. When talking about cryptocurrency, he said, "If something in the financial system grows very fast and the growth is basically out of the scope of supervision, at this time, the department responsible for maintaining financial stability must be vigilant."

Monetary security is the most concerned object of the regulatory authorities. In recent months, regulators in more than a dozen countries have issued warnings to users of currency security, reminding them that this exchange is not registered and is not authorized to provide various services.

According to the former executives of Qian 'an, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating Qian 'an's American business model, and the company has obtained business licenses in several states in the United States. An executive of Coin Security said that the SEC asked Coin Security America to provide a list of information, including an explanation of the relationship between its US business and its global business. According to a former executive of the company, the US Department of Justice is investigating whether Qian An is involved in money laundering. Bloomberg News previously reported that the US Department of Justice launched an investigation into currency security.

For this cryptocurrency exchange, the US market can be described as a "big test". The company said that it hopes its American subsidiary can go public in the next few years. Bianca hired a former financial regulator to set up its American business. We, but this guy left in August, only three months after he took office.

Some former executives of the company said they were worried that Bianca's data were in the hands of programmers in China, where the company was founded. They said that this might lead to problems similar to those in Tik Tok. The Trump administration tried to "block" the social media platform for fear that the China administration might gain access to Tik Tok's user data, which the company denied.

Zhao Changpeng, founder and CEO of the other shore, said in an interview that the other shore needs to comply with the requirements of the regulatory authorities. He said that this includes the need for the company to obtain formal permission.

"We are conducting a very legal business." He said that the business grew rapidly because the company gained the trust of users. But "if you look at the people who use cryptocurrency all over the world, it may be less than 2% of the global population." Zhao Changpeng said, "To attract the remaining 98%, we need to accept supervision."

Zhao Changpeng also said that Bi 'an is setting up an office and corporate headquarters, which he thought was an old-fashioned practice before, but the regulators have requirements in this regard. He won't disclose the location of his office and headquarters. In August this year, Bi 'an said on its website that user authentication has been made a mandatory requirement to prevent someone from using Bi 'an to illegally transfer funds.

Bianca and its American business representative, Bianca. The United States declined to comment on the SEC and DOJ investigations, and the two companies said they were two separate entities. Bianca spokeswoman Jessica Jung said, "We will cooperate with national regulators and earnestly fulfill our compliance obligations." She also said, "With the development of currency security, cryptocurrency trading and supervision will also develop, and vice versa."

Matthew Miller, spokesman for Bi 'an. The United States said, "We have taken strong protective measures to ensure that data can only be obtained if we meet the appropriate needs of users, improve service quality or regulatory requirements." He also pointed out that all data of American users are stored on American servers.

Because Qian 'an has no fixed office space, the regulatory authorities are confused because they don't know whose jurisdiction Qian 'an belongs to. Bi 'an Holdings Limited, the parent company of the other shore, is registered in Cayman Islands. However, according to the Cayman Islands' financial regulator, its registration terms do not allow it to operate cryptocurrency exchanges in the country. Jung, a spokesman for Bi 'an, said that the company did not operate a local exchange.

However, before September, Bi 'an Australia website always showed that Bi 'an Holdings was an entity providing cryptocurrency trading services for Australian users. Jung pointed out that this was "just a clerical error."

Zhao Changpeng said that the other shore has 3,000 employees around the world. According to the former executives of Bi 'an, according to the transaction volume handled by the company and the handling fee charged, insiders of the company believe that if Bi 'an goes public, its market value will be as high as 300 billion US dollars.

If so, Zhao Changpeng will become extremely rich. He said he was the biggest shareholder on the other side.

Zhao Changpeng is a star in the cryptocurrency industry. He has 3.9 million followers on Twitter, where he is better known as CZ, which is his initials. According to Bing 'an spokesperson Jung, the company's security personnel told Zhao Changpeng and other senior executives that if someone asked them where they lived, they would only refuse to answer.

She said that Zhao Changpeng has made no secret of his whereabouts recently, and he has been staying in Singapore during the COVID-19 epidemic in the past two years. According to a person who knows Zhao Changpeng, he often rides an electric scooter to meetings.

Zhao Changpeng, 44, was born in China. He said that he 12 moved to Canada with his parents. After studying computer for some time, he worked in several financial companies in Tokyo and new york, including Bloomberg Information. At that time, his job was developing futures trading software.

He said that he first heard about Bitcoin at a poker game in Shanghai in 20 13. At that time, digital currency "cast" by computer programs had existed for several years. Although they are not recognized by the government as legal tender, they still attract a group of people who are proficient in computer technology, including those who no longer have illusions about the financial system after the 2008 financial crisis.

At that time, this currency was very complicated to trade. Not only are there few trading platforms, but the price fluctuations are also extremely intense. In addition, hacker attacks on exchanges such as Mt. Gox have also hit people's confidence.

Zhao Changpeng was attracted by the idea of decentralized currency, which can be used anywhere without going through banks or all kinds of red tape. He said in an interview, "We can use this technology to improve the financial freedom of people all over the world."

He sold his apartment in Shanghai, changed his money into bitcoin, and then went to work for several cryptocurrency startups. In 20 17, he and a team of programmers co-founded bian.

Initially, Qian 'an's business focused on transactions between Bitcoin and other digital currency, but users were not allowed to convert digital currency into mainstream currencies. Zhao Changpeng said that when the company was first established, it didn't need a bank account or a headquarters.

In order to stand out from the competitors who only provide English services, the other shore network has added 9 languages to its website. Some traders said that the platform developed on the other side is also very useful.

2065438+In July 2007, the other bank issued its own digital currency currency (BNB) for the first time, and raised150,000 USD at that time. It introduced its business in the prospectus of 20 17, and pointed out that most other investors were domestic individual investors.

Currency security attracts users from all over the world, including some countries with underdeveloped financial systems, such as South Africa, Russia and India. It took only six months for Bi 'an to become the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, but it soon ran into trouble with the regulators. In the summer of 20 17, Qian' an just started its business in Shanghai. Two months later, the China government imposed a ban on cryptocurrency exchanges, fearing that such exchanges would be used to illegally transfer funds abroad.

Zhao Changpeng recalled at an online technical conference that a team of more than 30 people left China for Japan. In 20 18, Japanese financial regulators also issued a warning to Bi 'an, reminding him not to provide trading services to the public without obtaining a business license.

Since then, the other side will no longer announce the specific office location. Zhao Changpeng said that the employees of the company are distributed all over the world, and they work remotely from home.

Aija Lejniece, a lawyer in Paris, said, "Money security seems to be everywhere, but it seems to be nowhere to be found." A group of investors said that they lost money in May because the trading website on the other side was frozen for more than an hour, and now they are trying to get the money back. Linis is a lawyer representing this group. Bi 'an declined to comment, but it said earlier that it had taken immediate measures to communicate with users affected by the failure and provide compensation to "those users who suffered actual transaction losses".

With more and more kinds of digital currency developed by cryptocurrency enthusiasts, there are more currencies available for trading on the platform than many peers. There are fans of European football clubs, Token, and Dogecoin, which was highly sought after by investors at the beginning of this year.

Currency security is different from the stock exchange and must be approved by various jurisdictions. Coin 'an's business is all concentrated in a platform-Binance.com trading company, which claims to have no headquarters in any country. In 20 19, the second year after Japanese regulators issued a warning to Qian' an, the data collected by the research company The Block showed that there was still user traffic from Japan on Qian' an. Jung, a spokesman for Bi 'an, declined to comment.

Qian 'an began to provide cryptocurrency-related derivatives. With a deposit of 80 cents, users can trade Bitcoin or other digital currency equivalent to $65,438+000. Later, Qian 'an imposed restrictions on such derivatives.

On 20 19, Qian' an began to allow users to exchange encrypted currency into traditional currencies such as US dollars, thus connecting themselves with the banking system.

Some former managers said that the company would pay some YouTube celebrities to make videos and tell people how to start. A promotion team also signed contracts with day traders in the Middle East and Africa markets, who manage small groups on Facebook and other social networks.

Within the company, Bianca will also let the teams compete with each other and let the best growth strategy win. "We encourage internal competition." Zhao Changpeng said.

Binance.com is also favored by American users, but it turns out that it is not easy to maintain its dominant position in the American market. 2065438+In April 2009, the SEC issued a document outlining a series of tests to determine which digital assets can be regarded as securities under its supervision. Zhao Changpeng leads American users to Bi 'an. The United States provides relatively few kinds of cryptocurrency transactions and does not involve derivatives.

According to a former senior executive of Qian 'an, at the end of 2020, the SEC inquired about Qian 'an. The United States provides detailed business information, including who is in control of users' digital wallets, where encrypted currency is stored, and details of the agreement between currency security. The United States and its parent company Qian 'an Holdings.

May 202 1 year, currency security. The United States hired Brian Brooks as CEO. During Trump's administration, he served as the acting director of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and also held management positions at Coin Security's competitor, new York Global Inc

After taking office, Brooks began to raise funds from American investors. This will introduce independent members into the board of directors, thus weakening Zhao Changpeng's control. According to some former executives, Zhao Changpeng currently holds a majority stake in Bi 'an. United States of America

Brooks also wants to control the flow of American software out of China, they said. According to the electronic information seen by the Wall Street Journal, one month before Brooks took office, employees of Bi 'an. We have to turn to their colleagues in Shanghai to solve some software problems in American accounts. According to former executives, until this summer, developers in Shanghai were still maintaining the software code supporting digital wallets of American users and working around the engine for coordinating transactions.

According to informed sources, at the beginning of August, when the financing transaction with 12 American investors was about to be completed, Brooks and Zhao Changpeng had a contradiction on the issue of new directors.

Some people familiar with the matter said that Brooks believed that the investor who led the investment should automatically get a seat on the board of directors, and the board of directors should choose another independent director, but Zhao Changpeng hoped that he could master the right to appoint directors. In addition, according to informed sources, Zhao Changpeng also avoided transferring the management of the code from Shanghai.

Brooks left his job on August 6th. According to people familiar with his departure, some employees of the legal and compliance team subsequently left the company.

Jung, a spokesman for Bion, said that Bion's technology and data are not in China. "All the personally identifiable information of American customers is stored on the Amazon web service platform in Richmond, Virginia," said Bi 'an. American spokesman Miller.

Miller also said, "the management of currency security. The United States controls the company's direction, company assets, and user accounts and data supervision. " He pointed out that the currency is safe. The United States has employees all over the world.

Miller said that money is safe. The United States is financing through other channels, and it plans to introduce two new investors to the board of directors, who will provide more supervision for the company in the process of preparing for the initial public offering (IPO) in the United States. Zhao Changpeng said that he hoped that the currency would be safe. The United States can go public before the end of 2024.

Although Qian 'an is in trouble in the field of supervision, it still cannot stop its development. According to the data provided by CryptoCompare, the spot transaction volume of Binance.com in September increased by 10% compared with the previous month, and its monthly spot transaction volume has topped the list for 15 months in a row.

Zhao Changpeng said that he hoped that monetary security would grow at a more moderate speed. He said, "We hope that other exchanges can grow a little, so that they can share the user pressure with us."

202 1 The craziest year of cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin is close to $70,000, and memecoin, a "pet coin", is worth billions of dollars, causing a sensation on Wall Street and attacking China in an all-round way: 202 1 is the craziest year of cryptocurrency so far, even by the fluctuation standard of the industry.

At the beginning of 20021,large and small investors poured into digital assets. Since then, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have always been the focus of attention, and the language of cryptocurrencies has also taken root in the dictionary of investors.

The following are some major trends that dominate cryptocurrencies this year.

1/ Bitcoin: Still the first.

This primitive cryptocurrency is still the largest and most famous token, although many challengers follow closely.

Bitcoin soared by more than 1 20% from 65438+ 10/,and set a record of nearly $65000 in mid-April. The cash tsunami set off by institutional investors, the increasing acceptance of big companies such as Tesla and MasterCard, and the increasing favor of Wall Street banks have promoted the rise of Bitcoin.

What stimulates investors' interest is bitcoin's so-called anti-inflation characteristics-its supply is limited. The record-breaking economic stimulus plan pushed up the price of Bitcoin. With interest rates at record lows, the hope of quick profits and easier access to bitcoin through rapidly developing infrastructure also help attract buyers.

Bitcoin base, the US cryptocurrency trading platform, was listed globally in April, with a valuation of $86 billion on the first day of listing, making it the largest cryptocurrency company to date. It symbolizes that bitcoin is accepted by the mainstream.

"It has successfully entered the eyes of public debt and stock investors," said Richard Galvin of Digital Capital Asset Management, a cryptocurrency fund.

However, Bitcoin is still in turmoil. It fell by 35% in May, and soared to an all-time high of $69,000 in June165438+1October, due to the sharp rise in inflation in Europe and America.

Famous skeptics still exist, and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called them "worthless".

2/ The rise of meme coins

Even though bitcoin is still the first choice for investors to get involved in cryptocurrency, a large number of new tokens have entered this field, which some people will call a joke.

From Dogecoin, Shiba Inu to squid game tokens, meme coins are a loose collection of tokens, rooted in network culture, and often have no practical use.

Dogecoin is a bitcoin derivative product launched on 20 13, which soared by more than12,000% in May, reaching a record high, and then fell by nearly 80% in mid-February. Shiba Inu was once among the top ten digital currency.

The meme coin phenomenon is related to the "wall street bet" movement, in which retail investors connect in series on the internet, pouring into stocks such as GameStop and squeezing short positions of hedge funds.

With idle funds in hand during the epidemic prevention blockade, many traders turned to cryptocurrencies, even though regulators warned of volatility.

Joseph Edwards, research director of cryptocurrency broker Enigma Securities, said: "It's all about financial liquidity.

"Although coins such as dogecoin and Shiba Inu are full of speculation, the money invested in these coins is based on the intuition of' why I shouldn't make money, I should make money with my savings'."

Figure: The rise of meme coins

The red line represents Shiba Inu and the blue line represents dogecoin.

3/ Regulation: A big shadow of cryptocurrency market

As funds flock to cryptocurrencies, regulators worry that they may be used for money laundering, posing a threat to global financial stability.

Regulators have long been skeptical about cryptocurrencies, demanding more power for the industry, while some institutions have called on consumers to be alert to the violent fluctuations of cryptocurrencies.

As the new regulations are coming soon, the cryptocurrency market is uneasy about the risk of being suppressed.

When the China government imposed restrictions on cryptocurrencies in May, Bitcoin plummeted by nearly 50%, dragging down the whole cryptocurrency market.

"Regulatory risk is the top priority, because these regulations determine the life and death of financial service practitioners," said Stephen Kelso, global marketing director of ITI Capital. "Regulators have made great progress and they are catching up."

4 NFT

With the hot meme trading, another member of the crypto asset family who has been neglected has also robbed the limelight.

202 1 year is the year when heterogeneous token (NFT) broke out. NFT is a password string stored in the blockchain digital ledger, which can represent the unique ownership of artworks, videos and even Twitter.

In March of this year, American artist Beeple sold a digital art work at Christie's auction for nearly $70 million, making it one of the three most expensive auction works sold by living artists.

This auction shows that NFT will roll in.

Sales in the third quarter reached $654.38+007 billion, more than eight times that of the previous quarter. With the peak of trading volume in August, the prices of some NFTs rose so fast that speculators could double their profits in just a few days or even hours.

John egan, CEO of L'Atelier, a research company under BNP Paribas, said that the popularity of cryptocurrency and NFT may also be related to the decline of social mobility. Young people enter this market to get rich quickly, because the soaring prices of traditional assets such as houses have made young people unattainable.

Although some world-class top brands, from Coca-Cola to Burberry, are already selling NFT, the lack of regulatory rules means that large investors will basically not touch NFT.

"I don't think licensed financial institutions will actively and boldly trade [these] digital assets in the next three years," Egan said.

Figure: NFT online trading platform OpenSea sales (unit: 654.38 billion US dollars)