On Tuesday (November 12), Bitcoin surged to $89,465, reaching an all-time high. Chinese on-chain analyst Ai Yi exposed that the 'first person in the Chinese cryptocurrency circle' Fried Cat, who had been dormant for four years, transferred all 206.34 bitcoins from his address, valued at $18.12 million.
According to Ai Yi's monitoring, the Fried Cat address 1BnkE...yxFey, dormant for four years, transferred 206.34 bitcoins to 15286...bjYma today (Tuesday) at noon, valued at $18.12 million; currently, all bitcoins in that address have been completely transferred out.
According to market analysis, in 2012, when Bitcoin was still little known in China, Fried Cat had already opened up territory in the virtual currency field. In 2013, he rode a roller coaster with belief and strength, bringing immense wealth and passionate shouts to himself and many others. But at the end of 2014, he mysteriously disappeared without leaving a trace. His disappearance is shrouded in mystery and is referred to as 'one of the top ten unsolved mysteries in the cryptocurrency community.'
It is reported that Fried Cat's real name is Jiang Xinyu, born in 1986 in Shaoyang, Hunan. In 2001, Jiang Xinyu graduated from Shaoyang No. 1 Middle School and was admitted to the Young Scholars Program of the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei with a national ranking of 11th (another claim is that he ranked 11th in Hunan).
In 2009, 23-year-old Jiang Xinyu obtained a master's degree in computer science with a thesis (Constructing a Secure Thread Mechanism Using Formal Methods) and entered the doctoral program in computer science at the University of Science and Technology of China - Yale Center for Trusted Software Research. In 2011, he visited Yale University, and it was during the summer of that year that Fried Cat encountered Bitcoin and began researching it.
On January 16, 2012, Jiang Xinyu registered an ID as 'friedcat' on the Bitcoin forum Bitcointalk.
It was precisely for this reason that the Chinese cryptocurrency community gave him the nickname 'Fried Cat', and thus a classic figure in the Chinese market was born.
In July 2012, Fried Cat posted a fundraising message on the forum, claiming to have the ability to develop ASIC mining machine chips and manufacture mining machines for mining, but needed funding, with a fundraising target of 1 million yuan.
In a post titled 'ASICMINER: Entering the Future of ASIC Mining by Inventing It,' Fried Cat introduced the ASIC mining machine project and responded to external doubts.
His partner Fan Dawei registered Bitfountain Information Technology Co., Ltd. in Shenzhen. Subsequently, Fried Cat successfully conducted crowdfunding on the GLBSE exchange, with the stock named ASICMiner, which later became the name of Fried Cat's mining machines.
Fried Cat divided the company's shares into 400,000 shares, selling 41% to the outside, while retaining 59% for himself. The success of Fried Cat's crowdfunding was due to the trust of people in the community, as he had been active before the crowdfunding and did not suddenly appear on the forum to raise money. This trust made Fried Cat's later disappearance even more difficult to accept.
The ASICMiner project attracted significant attention in the global Bitcoin community. Among the domestic investors who invested in this project were Wu Jihan, who later became a mining tycoon, and online writer 'Crazy Xiaoqiang'. Their unwavering trust in the Fried Cat team represented the voices of many investors. The foresight of Wu Jihan and others later proved to be correct.
During its peak, Bitfountain even caused panic and attacks in the cryptocurrency community due to excessive computing power. Fried Cat distributed part of its computing power to maintain it at 20%, which calmed everyone's panic. However, nothing lasts forever. This passionate time did not last long.
In the field of cryptocurrency mining, research and development technology is key to maintaining a lead. Fried Cat encountered difficulties in developing the second-generation chips, and market competition had become twice as fierce as before. In addition to the main competitor, Pumpkin Zhang, there were also new emerging competitors, including Wu Jihan. Wu Jihan was once a shareholder of Bitfountain and wanted to join Fried Cat's team, but Fan Dawei disagreed. Later, he recruited Zhan Ketuan as a technical partner, and the two co-founded Antminer, becoming one of Fried Cat's strong competitors.
By October 2013, the computing power of Fried Cat mining machines had dropped from initially accounting for 42% of the entire network to 4%. People began to continuously sell off their Fried Cat stocks, leading to a plummet in stock prices, and setbacks followed in succession.
In January 2014, the third-generation chip released by Fried Cat encountered problems in design and packaging, resulting in insufficient heat resistance and a tendency to explode, causing new products to be unsalable. Although the Tube mining machine was launched again in August of the same year, the profit was not high enough to make up for previous losses. Fried Cat's business fell into difficulty.
Then, Fried Cat's last hope was also shattered. In September 2014, Fried Cat was introduced to a Fujian businessman named Lin QX (pseudonym) through an intermediary known as 'Chong Ge', who had previously engaged in mining machine sales. The two agreed and signed a contract to invest in a mining site covering an area of 2,000 square meters in Huai'an, where they placed 7,000 to 8,000 mining machines.
However, in the end, due to various conflicting interests, the two parties could not cooperate and could only breach the contract. According to the previously signed contract, Fried Cat had to pay the other party 80 million in breach of contract compensation.
In October 2014, Fried Cat got married.
At the end of 2014, Fried Cat suddenly went missing.
Fried Cat's family, team members, and others could not get in touch with him. Fried Cat's family reported him missing on January 25, 2015, but there had been no news for years. This date was designated as Fried Cat's official disappearance date.
On the Bitcointalk forum, Fried Cat's last login was on January 25, 2015, at 4:03 PM Beijing time.
On the morning of January 23, Fried Cat held a two-day mining machine auction and announced its conclusion at 8:03 AM on January 25. Since the forum used Greenwich Mean Time, adding 8 hours results in Beijing time.
On February 28, 2015, Bitfountain Company stopped distributing dividends.
On March 11, Fan Dawei, under multiple pressures, issued an official announcement regarding Fried Cat's disappearance as a co-founder of Bitfountain on the Bitcointalk forum, but stated that the company would continue to operate.
However, investors who came to defend their rights found that the Bitfountain office was already empty.
The glass door inside Room 1317 of the East Building of Shenzhen Coast Plaza was empty. According to company employee Wang Song's recollection, the Fried Cat team had already planned to abandon Huai'an and was preparing to go to Sweden to find a mining factory. Their passports and tickets were all ready, but they couldn't find Fried Cat before leaving.
To date, Fried Cat's disappearance remains a topic of much debate, but the unexpected awakening of his wallet address has sparked heated discussion in the Chinese community again.
