I recently recalled a legendary story from the crypto world. The name Mao Shixing, also known as Divine Fish, should be familiar in the community. From a student who entered the crypto space at 21, to founding Fish Pool mining pool, and experiencing multiple moments of sudden wealth and zeroing out, his journey is almost a microcosm of a decade of ups and downs in the crypto industry.

In the summer of 2011, Mao Shixing, then a sophomore at Beijing University of Chemical Technology, first encountered Bitcoin in the library. At that time, he probably didn't expect that this accidental discovery would completely change his life trajectory. He began to study obsessively, even skipping classes to hang out on foreign Bitcoin forums, trying to understand the logic behind this decentralized world.

In early 2012, Divine Fish bought a few graphics card mining rigs to start mining. This decision earned him his first 1 million yuan. After tasting success, he founded China’s first Bitcoin mining pool—F2Pool, which also established his position in the crypto community.

2013 was a crazy year. Bitcoin surged to over $700, and the digital assets in his account also skyrocketed to the billion-yuan level. But this happiness didn’t last long. In 2014, Bitcoin entered a bear market, and the entire mining industry faced difficulties. On May 8 of that year, Divine Fish got married to his girlfriend, whom he met in the Bitcoin community. Interestingly, he didn’t buy a diamond ring but instead gave his wife 25 Bitcoins mined from a block, leaving a message in the transaction: “Holding your hand, growing old together.” This story spread throughout the crypto community, and many were touched by this romantic gesture.

The blow of the bear market was heavy. In 2015, Divine Fish shut down his company. But he didn’t completely leave the scene. In 2016, as Bitcoin’s market started to recover, he reopened his business, this time focusing on Ethereum mining pools. During that period, he accumulated nearly 100k ETH. Later, he sold all of them, earning about 2 million USD.

This is the most regretful part of Divine Fish’s story. If he had held onto those ETH until now, given today’s prices, those coins would be worth over 2 billion USD. One decision could have made a difference of 2.6 billion.

In the ten years of the crypto world, Divine Fish experienced the confusion of sudden wealth and also witnessed people around him despairing due to losses. These experiences deeply taught him about human greed and fear. Sometimes I wonder, in this market full of opportunities and traps, which is more important—perseverance or luck? Perhaps neither is crucial; what matters most is whether you truly understand this market and where your bottom line for decisions lies.