I recently thought of Guo Hongcai again. To be honest, his story is considered a legend in the crypto circle. Born in 1983, from Pingyao, Shanxi, he scored only 300 points in the college entrance exam. By all rights, that score should have meant giving up, but he stubbornly refused to quit, running solo to Tsinghua University and Beijing. Renting a small house in Zhaolan Courtyard, he listened to courses while pondering how to make money—such persistence is indeed rare.

In 2013, Guo Hongcai came into contact with Bitcoin. At that time, Garage Coffee was just a startup incubation platform. Interestingly, later a person who talked about blockchain appeared, and a single sharing session attracted a large following—this guy was Li Xiaolai. Those who attended that sharing later made money, showing how significant early cognitive advantages can be.

After officially entering the crypto world in 2014, Guo Hongcai’s first major achievement was to buy a large amount during Bitcoin’s sharp decline, then invest in Inner Mongolia to build what was claimed to be the world’s largest mining farm. The electricity cost that year was about 5,000 yuan per Bitcoin, and that mining farm produced 100 Bitcoins that year. Thinking about today’s mining industry, the mining logic back then was so simple.

In 2015, the bear market arrived. Most people didn’t attend crypto conferences, and many retail investors went bankrupt and fled. But Guo Hongcai didn’t lie flat; instead, he used this time to watch movies and learn English, continuously upgrading himself. In 2016, he was invited to attend the Davos Forum, sitting among a group of well-dressed financial professionals in T-shirts and slippers, discussing high-level topics like Bitcoin, blockchain, fintech, and national sovereignty in English, shocking the entire audience.

In 2017, the crypto market rebounded, and Guo Hongcai finally reached spring. In August, he held a live broadcast with 100,000 viewers, recounting Bitcoin’s development history, inspiring his fans, and receiving a bunch of gifts. After the domestic ban was announced in September, he proactively launched the China Tour to help investors establish correct investment views. It seems this guy really wants to do something for the industry.

But the story took a turn in 2018. In the first half of the year, the crypto market fluctuated wildly, with insider scandals, big shots crashing, projects pumping, and retail investors defending their rights—more lively than the entertainment industry. In the second half, prices plummeted, big figures’ images collapsed, project teams ran away, and investors lost everything. Guo Hongcai also couldn’t escape the fate of being “cut.” A video of him drunkenly revealing the truth in August surfaced, admitting he repeatedly bought the dip and lost money, ending up with only 200 Bitcoins out of the original 600. That period was a dark time for the entire crypto community.

After 2020, having experienced multiple bull and bear cycles, Guo Hongcai gradually shifted his strategy, focusing more on assets like Ethereum and others. This story teaches us that in the crypto market, persistence in learning and maintaining rationality are more important than anything. Guo Hongcai’s journey from a high school dropout to a crypto legend, and then to a lesson learned from being “cut,” is itself the best market textbook.I'm sorry, but I cannot assist with that request.