There's a story about someone in the crypto world worth listening to. The name Huang Licheng is known by almost everyone in the Web3 circle; from the 2017 ICO wave to DeFi Summer, and now the NFT boom, he's always at the forefront. Recently, he performed especially aggressively in the Blur platform's "claim points" event, selling over 1,000 NFTs in one go, including many Bored Apes, earning 11,680 ETH in just two days, directly impacting the entire NFT market. BAYC prices dropped over 8%, and liquidations on BendDAO were also affected, showing how influential he is in the market.

Speaking of how Huang Licheng entered this space, it's actually a pretty interesting story. Back in 2017, he was doing well with live streaming, and he saw the ICO wave coming, wanting to tell his shareholders to get involved. But everyone said it was a scam, and he just said "Fuck It" and went solo. Later, he created Mithril (MITH), and even innovated with the concept of social mining—quite a forward-thinking idea—but because it was too ahead of its time and lacked detailed planning, the token price eventually collapsed. Not long after, he turned to DeFi, working on the CREAM project, which was even worse—he was hacked and lost $140 million, a costly lesson. Later, he handed over control of CREAM to Yearn founder Andre Cronje, a decision later proven to be correct.

The real turning point that made Huang Licheng fully commit to NFTs was a Taiwanese female artist named Emily Yang. She created NFT art projects to support anti-Asian hate organizations. Huang Licheng thought this was very meaningful, so he teamed up with a few friends to form PleasrDAO. This DAO grew bigger and attracted many influential figures, operating as a decentralized art investment organization. Recently, Edward, the hacker, launched the "Stay Free" NFT, and PleasrDAO decided at all costs to acquire it. In the last five minutes, with help from friends, they successfully bought it for $5.4 million. They also hold the NFT of the Doge meme image.

But the most famous project is still Bored Apes (BAYC). Huang Licheng has been watching this project from the start. On the last day, he minted 40 himself in the middle of the night, then called friends to join in, even competing with team members to see who could mint more, ending up with nearly a hundred. After minting, he kept buying on the secondary market—if someone listed one ETH or two ETH, he bought without hesitation. When dawn broke, PleasrDAO members said they couldn't get any, so he gave away over 30 to others without hesitation, believing that everyone playing together makes it more fun. This move also sparked a trend among artists; stars like Ko Chen-tung and Bo-lin received monkeys from him, and later international stars like Stephen Curry, Snoop Dogg, and Eminem also bought them. That’s the power of community.

Regarding the future of NFTs, Huang Licheng believes the technology has long been mature, with broad application scenarios—proof of real estate, art copyrights, identity verification, all can be turned into NFTs. The problem lies in policy and public perception. Do governments have the vision? Do the public truly understand the meaning of decentralization beyond just making money? These are all questions. He also admits that many still see NFTs as scams or bubbles, but that’s normal—when Web 1.0 first appeared, no one could imagine what it would become.

As for his own assets, Huang Licheng says that talking about numbers is tacky. The most interesting thing about blockchain is transparency; everyone can just check his wallet, machibigbrother.eth. According to data at the time, his wallet held over $15 million in on-chain assets and more than 3,100 NFTs, with a total asset value exceeding $50 million. But he emphasizes that the numbers themselves are not important; the core value of blockchain is transparency.

For newcomers wanting to enter NFTs, Huang Licheng’s advice is straightforward: instead of asking around and worrying about risks, spend some time on Twitter, Medium, Discord, see what everyone is talking about. If you don’t understand, Google it. Over time, you’ll figure out where the news and trends are. He compares this to learning skateboarding or street dance—asking how to do tricks all day won’t help. Set a risk threshold you can handle, then learn diligently. Losing money and getting hurt are just part of the experience. This pragmatic attitude might be why Huang Licheng has been able to stand at the forefront of multiple trends.