The article reveals how Sun Ge went from a nobody to a big shot in the cryptocurrency circle and achieved financial freedom. The article is long, so please read it patiently.
Sun Ge's full name is Sun Yuchen. His ancestral home is Qingdao, Shandong Province. He was born in Xining in 1990. When he was four years old, his father found an opportunity to work in the Planning Bureau of Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, and his mother became a reporter for Huizhou Daily. Since then, the whole family has settled in Huizhou. When Sun Ge was in elementary school, his parents divorced and his mother married in Italy. From then on, the father and son depended on each other, and their life was relatively hard and tight. But Sun Ge's father obviously loved his son very much. Under such circumstances, he still insisted on enrolling his son in his favorite Go class and supported his son's literary hobby.
Sun Ge's academic performance in junior high school was not outstanding, but he had a talent that no one could match. I call it the rocket-like climbing technique of cramming, that is, through temporary crazy study, he can greatly improve his academic performance in a short period of time. In the end, he worked hard for half a year and was admitted to the local key high school, Huizhou No. 1 Middle School. However, even in such a tight study situation, Sun Ge still did not give up his literary dream. Although his father did not understand, he accompanied him to participate in the New Concept Composition Competition in the third year of junior high school, but he was eliminated.
But Sun Ge's rough and fast learning spirit could not last long. After entering Huizhou No. 1 Middle School, he soon ranked last. Frustrated in his studies, Sun Ge went against the test-oriented education in the examination room. For example, he insisted on writing in Chinese on the English test paper, so his grades were naturally terrible. Sun Ge put all his enthusiasm into literary creation and became a regular in the New Concept Composition Competition. He participated every year and was eliminated every year. By the time he was in the third year of high school, his total score was only more than 400 points, and he was almost out of the three books. His literary dream had no place to go, which made his father, who had supported him for many years, a little anxious. After all, for an ordinary family, you still have to go to college and find a job to live a normal life.
However, at this time, Sun Ge seemed to be suddenly inspired. Although he could only score 400 points, he decided to try for Peking University!
This was not a dream. Sun Ge started to study hard and improved his score to nearly 600 in just half a year. But he felt that his score was still several dozen points away from Peking University. What should he do? At this time, his "bug" skill point was awakened. He looked up various admission policies of Peking University and found a bug that he could use:
The first prize winner of the New Concept Writing Competition can be shortlisted for Peking University's independent enrollment, which means that the admission score can be reduced by 10-30 points.
But how could someone who was eliminated three times in a row (in the third year of junior high school, the first year of high school, and the second year of high school) win the first prize? But Sun Ge didn't care about that. He was going to participate! How could you stop me from participating? But at that time, he didn't have much time to engage in literature, so he decided to try his luck and turn a bicycle into a motorcycle. So he sent all his eliminated articles to the organizer of the New Concept Essay Competition, Mengya, without changing a single word.
To put it simply, it's like trying to figure out which cloud will bring rain.
It was probably this experience that made Sun Ge realize that the world was a makeshift team before he was 18. These three eliminated articles, without changing a single word, actually sent Sun Ge to the semi-finals!
Sun Ge, who entered the semi-finals, did not dare to neglect this time. He studied the first-prize articles of the New Concept Writing Competition over the years and summarized them through human-shaped big data. He came to the conclusion:
This thing looks like a "new language" that encourages innovation, but in fact it is just another set of stereotyped essays. The point is to be angry, dissatisfied, and rebellious, to point fingers at China's education and system, and to complain about a bunch of people who feel that their talents are not appreciated, and then you can win the award.
With Sun's Kimi's summary, he wrote like a tiger and finally won the first prize in the New Concept Essay Competition. With this result, he was shortlisted for the qualifying round of Peking University's independent enrollment.
The independent enrollment in those days was very magical. I will post the 2006 independent enrollment brochure of Peking University for everyone:
Applicants who are high school graduates with excellent comprehensive scores from famous key high schools in provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government) in accordance with national policy regulations, are in good health, have high comprehensive qualities, and are well-rounded, and who also meet one of the following conditions:
① Those with outstanding talents in literature, art, sports, management, etc.;
② Those who have extraordinary innovation and practical ability and have outstanding achievements in scientific and technological innovation;
③ Those who have outstanding ideological and moral qualities;
④ Those who have other excellent qualities and outstanding talents.
Students applying for recommended admission must also meet the recommended admission qualifications stipulated in relevant documents of the Ministry of Education.
All in all, there is no rigid standard. Peking University is a big stage, so come if you have the guts!
At the subsequent college meeting, Cheng Yuzhu, professor of the Chinese Department of Peking University, and Liu Mingli, director of the admissions office, were impressed by his idealism and granted him the qualification to participate in Peking University's independent enrollment. In the end, Sun Ge passed the Peking University independent enrollment exam and was admitted with a 20-point reduction. However, Sun Ge's score at that time was only about 600, which means that he needed to improve by about 50 points in the remaining months to use the 20-point reduction.
This mission, which seemed like a fantasy, might be difficult for others, but it was no problem for Sun Ge, who was a professional crammer. In the end, he scored 115 points in Chinese, 132 points in mathematics, 130 points in English, 146 points in comprehensive, 127 points in history, and a total score of 650 points. At that time, the admission score of Peking University in Guangdong Province was 653. Sun Ge, with the 20 points reduction from independent enrollment, successfully completed the gorgeous transformation from a third-tier undergraduate student to the Chinese Department of Peking University.
Many people have questioned whether Sun Ge returned to his birthplace, Qinghai, to take the college entrance examination. This auntie did not find any concrete evidence and can only speculate based on some current circumstances. According to the policy of Peking University at that time, candidates for independent enrollment must come from provincial key schools, and admission with reduced scores is specific to the province. Huizhou No. 1 High School meets the requirements, but given the difficult situation of Sun Ge's family at that time, it is likely that they did not have the resources to get into a key high school in Qinghai. In addition, after Sun Ge made a gorgeous turn to enter Peking University, he frequently returned to Huizhou No. 1 High School to give speeches and impart his own experiences. In summary, I think Sun Ge most likely took the college entrance examination in Guangdong rather than his birthplace, Qinghai, but I have no evidence for this.
After entering Peking University, Sun Ge, who was full of high spirits, published an article on Mengya called "An Argumentation Question", which basically boasted about his great achievements in the past year. At the end, he wrote:
I believe that my talent has never been washed away by the test-oriented education, but I have truly successfully challenged the test-oriented education. Finally, I only have two hopes: one is that people with ideals will not bow to reality; the other is that I hope everyone can help me solve this problem, and I hope it will be true for each of you.
This article attracted nearly 10,000 replies to Sun Ge. Perhaps it was at this time that Sun Ge realized the power of traffic.
But bragging can't solve real problems. After entering the Chinese Department of Peking University, Sun Ge found that he was not good enough in the Chinese Department. After all, they were all real academic masters. If he continued like this, he might not even graduate. Sun Ge always adhered to the principle of "either don't do it, or be the best", but the last one was not included. But how could he be the best in a place like Peking University where there were so many masters?
After observing for a while, Sun Ge found something interesting: in the social environment at that time, the top students who entered Peking University mostly studied finance, management and other subjects that made money quickly, and there were also many talented people in the Chinese department. But there was a subject that was too far from money, so the top students avoided it as much as possible. To put it bluntly, this major concentrated the liberal arts students who were at the bottom of the learning ability of Peking University. If I went there, wouldn't I have the opportunity to pick the tallest among the short ones?
He did what he said. In the second semester of his freshman year, he applied to transfer from the Chinese Department to the History Department. However, after entering the History Department, he found that although there was no top student here, and it was not as good as the Yuanpei Experimental Class where everyone was a genius, they were not vegetarians either. He, who was just a marginal student, still could not be the top student. What should he do?
If you can’t handle your classmates, then handle your professors. Later, in an interview with GQ, Sun Ge revealed his trick:
The history department's courses have a small score in exams, and the majority of the score is the essay. I communicated more with the teacher and became familiar with him. Before I officially submitted the paper, I asked him to take a look and give me some suggestions, and then I would revise it. How could the score be bad? "Every time he chose a course, he must get the teacher's mobile phone number and email address, "If something goes wrong, at least I can find the person responsible." He raised the corners of his mouth and held up four fingers: "I remember that at least four courses were originally below 85 points, but after asking the teacher, they were changed to above 85 points.
Simply put, chat.
It may be that at that time, history teachers were generally unpopular, and many history teachers really liked this student who was willing to chat with them. He also used this method to successfully reverse from a mediocre student to the top of Peking University's history department, and also got the opportunity to exchange at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and represent Peking University in the United Nations Model Conference in the Netherlands. In short, Sun Ge got the best resources of Peking University at that time and was the most handsome boy in Peking University.
However, Sun Ge's ideals went far beyond this. He felt that Peking University students were no longer worthy of being his opponents, and this time he wanted to challenge the Peking University president. In 2011, Peking University President Zhou Qifeng proposed the "academic consultation system", which was originally intended to help some students who had abandoned their studies due to learning difficulties, radical thoughts, economic poverty, etc. to get back on track, but Sun Ge felt that this was a good opportunity to attack. So he seized the four words "radical thoughts" in the characteristics of the people being helped, and posted articles on the Peking University BBS one after another, saying that the "academic consultation system" was evil, aimed at institutionalizing comprehensive control of students, and was "contemporary Nazis."
Students always like to criticize the school. In the end, this article became a hot topic at Peking University, which made Zhou Qifeng in a dilemma. In the end, the consultation system was aborted. However, Sun Ge became famous in this incident and became a youth leader. In 2011, he and Jiang Fangzhuo, who was studying at the School of Journalism and Communication of Tsinghua University at that time, appeared on the cover of "Asia Weekly" and officially embarked on the road to fame.
At this time, he had already been admitted to the East Asian Studies program at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school in the United States, as the first in the History Department of Peking University, and became a close classmate of the King of Trump.
Those who have studied in the United States know that East Asian studies, at least in those days, was an unpopular field that no one cared about. Although the University of Pennsylvania is good, it is famous for its Wharton School, which is the private domain of the Wang family. Not many people apply for East Asian studies, which does not make money. After all, the tuition is high, and everyone's money is not blown by the wind. Sun Ge took advantage of this information gap and went in first. Two years later, when he mentioned this study abroad experience, he began to claim that he was a Wharton graduate.
The above dazzling and amazing operations are just a relatively unimportant part of Sun Ge’s life....
Now you all understand why I said that even if the aunt started practicing from 1890 to now, she still can’t get this level of Taoism....
Continuing from the last time, let’s continue talking about Sun Ge~~
During his university years, Sun Ge had the opportunity to study at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. This experience is often overlooked, and at most is mentioned briefly as evidence of his excellence. But if you look closely at his interview with Asia Weekly, Sun Ge once said that a course he took during this period completely changed his personality. The name of this course is too indescribable, so it cannot be written. If I write it, it will be gone, because the teacher of this course is named Chen Jianmin.
Not familiar with him? It doesn't matter. You just need to know that this guy is known as the "Occupy Central Three" and the leader of the Hong Kong riots. In 2019, Chen Jianmin was sentenced to prison by the court for "incitement".
As a chat enthusiast, Sun Yuchen is so obsessed with this course, and his relationship with Chen Jianmin can be imagined. Moreover, Sun Ge not only learns, but also puts it into practice. After returning to the mainland, he directly puts into practice what the teacher taught in and out of class. Therefore, it is difficult to say whether Chen Jianmin’s guidance was behind the attempt to impact the "consultation system" proposed by the principal, and the huge traffic that followed, especially the favor of foreign media. However, at this time, Sun Ge has already embarked on the road of public knowledge, posting articles every day, either China has problems or Chinese people have bad roots. In short, Sun Ge is already a rising star in the public knowledge circle.
By the time he was a junior, Sun Yuchen and the school were already in a bad place. He did have one advantage, which was that he had a clear understanding of himself and a thorough assessment of risks. He felt that if he continued like this, something would happen to him sooner or later, and it would be a tragedy if he was expelled. So he combined his junior and senior year classes together in advance, prepared for TOEFL and GRE at the same time, and even did an internship and a graduation thesis... Anyway, his goal was only one:
I’m going to America after graduating one year early!
PS: Does changing majors in Peking University require a year of waiting? Because he entered the university in 2007, transferred to the history department in 2008, and graduated in 2011. If he graduated early, it means that he was a freshman again in 2008. Of course, this may also be a fabricated "early graduation" in order to exaggerate his learning ability. I don't know about this, and I call on Peking University history students to explain.
In any case, in 2011, he entered the University of Pennsylvania to study East Asian studies.
After all, Sun Ge was still young in the United States and had not completely given up his literary and political ideals, so he compared himself to the American Chen Duxiu and founded a column on Renren.com called "New New Youth". Sun Ge wrote his first article under the pen name "Hu Keping". It was an article commemorating the veterans of the Kuomintang. It was rich in information and delicate in writing. It was very touching and attracted a large number of readers.
However, not long after, Princeton’s Shen Danqi issued an article pointing out that this article was plagiarized from his article published in the Yale Chinese Magazine, and attached evidence. The irrefutable evidence was overwhelming, and the editorial board of "New New Youth" had to apologize for deleting the article. However, Sun Gee said, "What does the editorial board of "New New Youth" have to do with me, Sun Gee? Not only did he deny plagiarism in strong words, he also wrote A "My Final Response" defense.
This is probably what Beijingers say: having a thicker skin than the corner of a city wall and being able to lie without changing face or heartbeat, how is this not a talent?
Although he refused to admit it, Sun Ge suddenly lost interest in literature and political commentary. He stopped publishing articles and no longer participated in the affairs of New Youth.
When Sun Ge was young, although he was good at making money, he was also like young people, a little bit arrogant, especially looking down on the word "making money". Once, Peking University invited Yu Minhong as an alumni representative to give a speech to students at the graduation ceremony, which was criticized by Sun Yuchen. He angrily denounced the smell of money for tainting the purity of the ivory tower. Another time, an "academic big shot" he once admired started doing business, and he denounced the other party's cynicism. Even when Jack Ma opened a Weibo account and attracted thousands of people to watch, Sun Yuchen didn't even know who Jack Ma was. It can be seen that Sun Ge didn't value making money at that time, but only valued reputation, which was somewhat true.
When he first arrived in the United States, idealist Sun Ge went to visit his idol Yu Yingshi. However, when he found out that this famous scholar only made $80,000 to $90,000 a year, less than half of his senior at Goldman Sachs, his ideals were shaken. When he found out that this nationally renowned scholar not only had little money, but also had little influence, in his words, "completely marginalized, no one cared about him", Sun Ge woke up. He felt that studying literature could not save the Chinese people, and he had to make money!
At that time, Sun Ge's direct experience of making money was: Wall Street makes money! Finance makes money! I want to make money, so I want to do finance! So he took advantage of the fact that Penn had a relatively loose selection of courses, and in the second semester of graduate school - later, somehow, he went to the Wharton School of Business, and according to his own account, his mentor was Marshall Meyer, the most famous professor at the Wharton School who studied Chinese companies. This mentor also had an even more famous student named Liu Chuanzhi. From then on, Sun Ge was Liu Chuanzhi's junior fellow student!
An education background alone was not enough. Sun Ge looked for internships while joining an investment association to expand his network. He also made a program called "Three People Studying in the United States". He was so busy that he was busy. But in the end, he failed. He didn't find an internship. The "network" he met was just acquaintances who could not provide any help. Although "Three People Studying in the United States" had a good number of hits, it didn't make much money.
Sun Ge was planning to change his career again. While living in the United States, he found that being a lawyer was a lucrative profession. But to be a lawyer, one must take the JD exam. What if he failed the exam? So he postponed his master's program for a year and worked hard to prepare for the JD exam.
During the exam preparation period, Sun Ge, who was depressed, made some investments and bought some Tesla stocks and Bitcoin. At that time, Tesla was very cheap and Bitcoin was not popular, and no one took it seriously. However, Sun Ge showed an unparalleled vision and adventurous spirit, and bet all his remaining tuition fees. After a period of near collapse, the stock price of Tesla and the price of Bitcoin soared, and Sun Ge also transformed himself into a young rich man.
Studying law, working in the financial district or in a law firm are all means to make money, and making money is the goal. Now that Sun Ge has money, why would he study law? Or take a P class? So after graduation, he gave up his plan to study JD and started his real journey of making a living.
That’s right, for Sun Ge, these jaw-dropping operations are just experiences that can be brushed aside. His real big job has not even started yet…
As for how he changed from a literature and history lover to a profit-seeking businessman, Sun Ge said that Ryan Rand was a believer in egoism and opposed altruism. He believed that entrepreneurs were the most admired writers in all societies. His most famous representative work was Atlas Shrugged. Sun Ge said that he used to think that businessmen were guilty and inferior. Now, looking back, those people in the Chinese and history departments, what does it matter if you don't read those crappy books? The world will not change.
Judging from his later behavior, these words were indeed his true voice. From then on, the idealist Sun Ge died, and the one who is alive now is Niu Hulu·Zhenghuo·Sun Ge.
After graduating from graduate school, Sun Ge, who was financially free, had long looked down on ordinary jobs, but he could not suppress his inner enthusiasm for making a living. So, he did not know how he got his eyes on the blockchain field, which was still a very niche field at the time. Because it was a niche field and there were no big companies at the time, Sun Ge did not mind the small place. He found a small company called Ripple Labs and was sent back to China by the company to develop business.
Fans who have watched Auntie explain the student work visa may have felt that something was wrong. Can this company issue H1B? Yes, Auntie also has this question. Because this company has only 20 people in total, it doesn't look like a company that can provide H1B visas. Combined with Sun Ge's experience of returning to China shortly after finding a job, Auntie believes that he is most likely just holding OPT (equivalent to an internship) and will return to China when his visa expires. And this so-called "Chief Representative of Ripple Labs Greater China" is actually a commander without any subordinates.
However, this problem is nothing to Sun Ge, a master of making fun of others. With his undergraduate degree from Peking University, master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and glittering titles such as Chief Representative of Ripple Greater China, Sun Ge attracts people everywhere. Because of his amazing marketing ability and the fact that these titles are real, he actually attracted the attention of the big capital IDG.
What is IDG? Let’s put it this way. Before 2005, it first invested in Zhang Chaoyang, Li Yanhong and Ma Huateng, and later invested in JD.com, Qihoo 360, Vipshop, Jumei, Lefeng.com, Dianping, Ele.me...
Simply put, the companies he picked were all great emerging companies, and many of them grew into towering trees. However, IDG was not without rivals in China. Later, Sequoia Capital became popular, and IDG was not doing well, especially in the e-commerce field. IDG was eager to change its track, so they set their sights on Internet finance.
At the same time, IDG also established the "IDG Post-90s Fund" in the hope of discovering the next BAT giant and finding younger versions of Jack Ma and Pony Ma.
Then their destined prince charming Sun Ge came with his sickle...
In 2015, with the support of IDG, Sun Ge founded Ruibo Technology and won more titles than Dragon Mother, including but not limited to Davos Global Outstanding Youth, Forbes China 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30, CNTV China Internet Newcomer of the Year, etc. The reasons for the awards were all for his contribution to the distributed clearing network. What contribution can Sun Ge, a liberal arts student, make to the distributed clearing network? Don't ask...
In 2015, Jack Ma founded Lakeside University. As a representative of the blockchain industry, Justin Sun became a student in the first class with a recommendation letter from DG Capital founding partner Xiong Xiaoge. Since then, Sun has always called himself "Jack Ma's youngest disciple", as if he is Jack Ma's last disciple, the heir with a unique character that Jack Ma saw at first sight among the crowd. Because of this label, he called it every day, every month, and every day, and finally made Jack Ma collapse. After repeated calls from Alibaba's public relations, he restrained himself a little.
In the same year, Sun Ge and his friend Tongdao Dashu founded the "Peiwo" APP, which focused on voice social networking. The selling point was that otakus could hear the sweet voices of girls on it. As you can imagine, this thing quickly became a voice flirting app, which was no different from the pornographic calls that existed in the United States in the 1990s, but it saved phone bills. For a long time, he was very proud of his product, and even his serious identity on Weibo was "The first college of Lakeside University, Chairman and CEO of Peiwo APP". The profit model of this APP is mainly commission. For example, if the otaku paid 100, Sun Ge would get a commission of 5 yuan. Because the ratio was relatively low, Sun Ge didn't seem to make much money.
At this time, paid knowledge was in full swing, and Li Xiaolai, a big name in the cryptocurrency circle and a good friend of Sun Ge, had already opened a popular column on Himalaya called "The Road to Wealth Freedom". Sun Ge saw it and thought, I can I up! So he also opened a paid column called "The Road to Wealth Freedom Revolution". I don't know how you feel, anyway, my poor eyesight can't tell the difference at a glance...
But no matter what, after this operation, Sun Ge crowned himself as "the first post-90s knowledge internet celebrity", and the title of Dragon Mother was +1.
In 2017, Sun Ge, who once dreamed of becoming a writer, finally published his own book, "This World is Cruel and Gentle," ten years after winning the first prize in the New Concept Writing Competition.
This year, Sun Ge finally gathered all the equipment and connections to shake the world, and he had just graduated from college for 6 years.
Just as the Soviet Union collapsed in a year and a half after Sun Ge was born, a year and a half after he entered Lakeside University, he may have sensed that he was about to master the skills he had absorbed from the masters here. In 2017, the price of Bitcoin skyrocketed under the drive of blockchain. Sun Ge saw that this was his specialty, so he immediately rushed back to the cryptocurrency market and took the top spot... No, that's wrong, he created the blockchain project Tron.
In 2017, the cryptocurrency industry was in chaos. Anyone could make money in the cryptocurrency industry. Sun Ge saw what a lousy resume you have. How can you compare with me, a Peking University graduate, Penn University master, Jack Ma's disciple, former Ripple Greater China chief representative, and the most handsome guy in the startup world? What can the monk touch, but I can't? What can you circle, but I can't circle?
Sun Ge’s move was indeed extraordinary. Unlike other unofficial investors, Sun Yuchen released a dazzling list of partners before the TRON ICO, including but not limited to Bitmain CEO Wu Jihan, FBG Capital founding partner Zhou Shuoji, Freeray Capital founding partner Li Feng, Quantum Chain founder Shuai Chu... It is worth mentioning that there is also his Peking University junior, OFO founder Dai Wei. This luxurious lineup, plus Sun Ge’s carefully prepared white paper, immediately opened up a gap with the unofficial investors, and they were completely not on the same level. Therefore, TRON became an instant hit.
Since the aunt knew nothing about blockchain and cryptocurrency, I learned from my last-minute study that Tron is similar to an operating system, the same as Android. On this system, you can develop various apps, but you have to abide by some protocols. Objectively speaking, Sun Ge has put a lot of effort into this project, and the ecosystem of Tron should be large-scale. However, the problem is that this project may be too complete, and cryptocurrency transactions are very convenient, so many gambling/drug/human trafficking/terrorism practitioners are very fond of Tron and often build teams here. Of course, there is no gain without work. Sun Ge created such an operating system, of course, not to serve the people, but to issue tokens called TRX coins, and users can use TRX to trade in Tron.
My rough understanding is that Sun Ge opened his own People's Bank and issued his own banknotes. If you and I come to his territory to play and trade, we can directly use the banknotes with his big head printed on them to trade.
TRX was issued from August 1, 2017 to August 15, 2017, with an initial price of $0.0015/TRX (about RMB 0.01), and a circulation of 100 billion. The distribution plan was 40% for public sale, 35% for TRON Foundation and the ecosystem, 15% for private sale, and 10% for early support of Peiwohuanle (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. (a company under Justin Sun). In just half a month, TRON crowdfunding was completed, raising $58 million.
A week later, TRON conducted five TRX sale rush events on Binance, one of the world’s largest blockchain asset trading platforms, and all shares were sold out within 53 seconds.
The state cannot ignore such an explosive fundraising or money-scamming behavior. TRON was founded in July 2017. Less than two months later, the central bank and seven other ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Notice on Preventing Risks in Token Issuance and Financing", which stopped the issuance of all types of virtual currencies and required the issuance of virtual currencies to make arrangements for withdrawal. In plain words:
TRON is finished
But Sun Ge is not an ordinary person, he is the chosen one. The announcement was issued on September 4, and he just completed all the issuance and sales of TRON on the previous day, September 3. In other words, the money he put into his pocket was legal. But he did not dare to force it, and actively stated that he would cooperate with the regulatory requirements and complete the liquidation work on September 20.
But in fact, Sun Ge only liquidated TRX in China under pressure. Abroad, the dance and the horse are still running. Liquidation? Not at all. TRON was still listed on overseas exchanges in October 2017 and began public trading.
In addition to the 15% taken by private equity, about 85% of the TRX coins on the market are currently controlled by Sun Ge. It can be said that Sun Ge is a super big dealer who can completely control the trend of the currency value. What's more, those private equity investors are in the same boat with him. Isn't it wonderful for everyone to make money together?
What’s even better is that starting from November 2017, the price of Bitcoin skyrocketed, and Sun Ge’s TRX also took advantage of this trend, achieving an abnormal growth of a hundred times in just one or two months.
Sun Ge's original intention of jumping up and down was certainly not to serve the people, but to make a little money. He took the opportunity to cash out $300 million at a high price, and from then on, he became a billionaire. Then, he spent $140 million to acquire BitTorrent, a company with strong technical strength, and launched the encrypted asset BTT on Binance. Once it was launched, the total circulating market value of BTT immediately soared to $350 million, and this was only 17% of the total issuance.
Sun Yuchen continued to work hard and launched the OCN cryptocurrency in cooperation with the Singaporean bike-sharing brand oBike, raising $47 million through crowdfunding. OCN's market value once reached $70 million, but soon plummeted 79%. Needless to say, Sun would not give up the opportunity to cash out when the price was high.
After these dazzling operations, Sun Ge made a lot of money. In his narrative system, this is an inspirational story of an ordinary boy from an ordinary Chinese family who became the richest man in the world through his own efforts. However, just like the law of conservation of energy, wealth does not appear out of thin air. It only took Sun Ge a few years to go from being penniless to being rich, but where did all the wealth come from?
Of course it’s the pockets of retail investors!
This is why Justin Sun is named Sun Ge.
Some friends didn’t understand how Sun Ge cuts, because they couldn’t understand these strange terms in the cryptocurrency circle, and they were overwhelmed at first glance. In fact, after peeling off these dazzling and bizarre packaging, the logic is very simple and crude, just like putting an elephant into a refrigerator:
The first step is to issue coins. The difficulty of this step is to get others to subscribe, that is, to make others believe that your coin is useful. You can think of it as selling vouchers in a shopping mall. People buy SKP's, but no one buys the village's canteen. Sun Ge used his various real and fake titles and IDG's vague endorsement, plus his superb ability to deceive people, to achieve this step.
The second step is to speculate on the currency value. For example, if a coin is originally worth 1 yuan, if I can raise the price of this coin to 1.5 yuan in a short period of time, then I will make a profit of 50%.
The third step is to sell at the right time and lock in the profits. After all, you have to have a good grasp of the coins you have issued, so it is better to lock in the profits. As for the decline caused by the sale? Who cares? I warned you that there are risks in entering the market, right?
From this process of putting an elephant into the refrigerator...oh no, Sun Ge's steps to making money, it is not difficult for everyone to find that although the first step is not easy, the core is still in the second step, which is to achieve rapid valuation increases in a short period of time.
If the operation is done properly and a continuous cycle of 2-3 can be achieved, the nuclear-powered sickle can be used to cut leeks, and wealth will be transferred from the leeks' pockets to Sun Ge's pocket. So what Sun Ge has to do is to keep hyping up-selling-hyping up-selling the same coin, and to cut leeks back and forth in a field of leeks. If no more leeks are fooled, then another leek field will be opened up, that is, another coin will be issued, returning to state 1, and giving this coin a cool new name. After all, there are so many Chinese people, and leeks cannot be cut out completely, and then the cycle of 2-3-2-3... will have to be repeated~
In order to achieve this goal, Sun Ge has done everything he can, jumping up and down to attract attention. After all, I think no celebrity is as topical as Sun Ge himself, not to mention that he can market himself and increase his own value. It can even be said that the current trend of entrepreneurs becoming Internet celebrities, whether it is Lei Jun, Zhou Hongyi, Li Xiang or Li Bin, are just following in Sun Ge's footsteps...
Just when Sun Ge was jumping around every day and not attracting much fire, God couldn't stand it anymore and personally came to feed him with a bowl of rice. This meal was made by his close junior brother Dai Wei, who was another extreme Sun Ge, and had the same purpose as Sun Ge. But his father-in-law was still alive, so I can't talk about him for now. When I have the chance in the future, I must tell you about this person's equally jaw-dropping experience.
To get back to the point, in 2018, Dai Wei’s ofo bike business could no longer continue. By the end of the year, his deposit was basically lost and could not be refunded at all, which contributed to the famous internet celebrity “Banfoxianren” becoming a meme for at least three years.
Brothers fight tigers together. Although Sun Ge and Dai Wei are only half-brothers but close relatives, Sun Ge extended a (virtual) helping hand to the alumnus who once invested in his project on Weibo, saying that he could help 10,000 ofo users to refund their deposits. He also said that this was just pure alumni friendship and that it was just a small favor for him to help, and was not worth mentioning.
Under this Weibo post, he released a letter that Dai Wei sent to all ofo employees, the core idea of which is: ofo really has no money.
It is hard to say whether this was to help Dai Wei or to cover the well after Dai Wei fell into it. After all, the number of people waiting in line to pay the deposit was almost eight figures, and it seemed meaningless to solve the deposit of 10,000 people. The small yellow car did not get out of the predicament because of Sun Ge's righteousness, and everyone knows the story behind it.
At that time, the deposit of ofo was 99, and a few were 199, so the deposit of 10,000 users was about 1-2 million RMB. It was not outrageous for a 90s rich man to take out such money. In addition, Sun Ge and Dai Wei had a close relationship, so many people really believed what he said.
I don’t know whether the money was paid in the end, but Sun Ge’s TRON market value rose by 10% that day. This is much more than one million… Sun Ge then asked the technical team to sell off to complete the line, and his net worth skyrocketed within a day.
This is what the auntie mentioned earlier, the 2-3 process of cutting leeks.
This operation is actually similar to many listed companies releasing favorable news and then selling goods. Apart from the carrier of virtual currency, this method is not new and many people have used it. But no one expected that after tasting the sweetness this time, Sun Ge became obsessed with "cyber virtual charity" and frequently extended a helping hand to various people/institutions (non-existent) on Weibo, and the amount was either one million or ten million each time. Anyway, he would not give it anyway, so it is better to round it up to make it easier to remember.
Then Weibo ushered in the era of "Sun's Charity"...
Just two months after helping his schoolmate Dai Wei to promise to buy the deposits of 10,000 ofo users, Sun Ge couldn't stand the experience of an enthusiastic person, Zhao Yu. Zhao Yu was brave enough to rescue the girl from the suspect, but he was detained for 14 days, which caused a great discussion in the legal community. Although Sun Ge didn't study law, he didn't mind... No, helping Mr. Zhao. Although Mr. Zhao always said that he wanted an explanation and never said that he wanted one million in financial assistance, Sun Ge was the first to shout on Weibo, saying that he would provide Mr. Zhao with 10 million in financial support. This wave of shouting to the righteous Mr. Zhao won Sun Ge countless fans, and he was almost awarded the title of the people's conscience rich man, but it is said that he only gave 100,000 in the end. Of course, maybe not a penny, that's also normal.
Mr. Zhao is a decent man, he is brave enough to do what is right, how could he care about how much money he gave. So Sun Ge made a fortune from this wave of hype. It is equivalent to posting on Weibo, spending at most 100,000 yuan to hype up the Tron coin by N times, and the reputation is not bad. This made Sun Ge fall in love with the milk-like rich and smooth feeling of fame and fortune of Cyber Philanthropy...
From then on, Weibo opened the era of Sun Ge’s charity.
Sun Ge treats everyone equally in the matter of cyber charity. When NetEase dismissed a sick employee, Sun Ge immediately said that he would cover the medical expenses of the employee; when Xiaopeng Motors owners defended their rights, he immediately wrote a virtual check of 10 million and supported the owners on Weibo; even when Sicong was restricted from driving, he did not forget to lend a helping hand, not only raising the price to 3.7 million, but also helping Sicong pay off his 150 million debt. The only time he was a little more vigilant was when Luo Yonghao was performing the prequel of "True Return". Although he took out 1 million inherited from his ancestors as before and expressed his willingness to pay 1 million to hire him as the spokesperson for his company, he added a sentence at the end, "If the effect is outstanding", he is willing to invest another 10 million later.
After all, Luo is not Sicong, nor is he an ordinary person without social influence. He may really want his own money...
Even if the person involved has no financial problems, as long as he has a little problem, Sun Ge will rush to take advantage of it. For example, after Dongzi's romantic trip in Minnesota was made public, Sun Ge immediately said that he would invest 100 million to shoot "Minnesota Love Story". Maybe considering that Dongzi has no shortage of money and no debts, Sun Ge multiplied the ancestral 1 million by 100 times.
I'm worthy of Brother Dong...
But if you think that Sun Ge is just talking big and has no real action, then you are wrong again. After watching so many episodes, you should understand that Sun Ge's practice is beyond the reach of ordinary people like us. It's clothes!
Just when Sun Ge's ancestral one million yuan was hyped up as a meme online, and everyone thought that he just took the virtual one million yuan to get some money when he saw the hot spot, Sun Ge suddenly fulfilled his promise! He really gave the money!
But this "giving money" is a little different from what ordinary people like me understand as fulfilling previous donations/assistance commitments...
At first, the Weibo celebrity Sexy Yumi teacher teased Sun Ge, saying that he had been bragging to attract fans and was going to give fans a 50,000 yuan laptop, but after bragging and attracting fans, he found that he had no money and hoped that Sun Ge would sponsor him. I thought this was a satire on Sun Ge, but I didn't expect that after Sun Ge saw it, he raised his hand and gave him 50,000 yuan, which was immediately deposited into his account, and it was not ghost money or TRON coins, but RMB.
This time, everyone will be confused...
After they realized what was happening, people from all walks of life started leaving crazy messages on Sun Ge’s Weibo. Some said they lacked money to realize their dreams, some said they had no money to see a doctor, some were just talking nonsense, and some even came to watch... Sun Ge treated everyone equally. If he was in a good mood, he would give 50,000 yuan, and he would even give you money if you didn’t want any. Most of them were big Vs, such as the famous actor Huang Jue, the well-known media person He Cai Tou, the talk show actor Chi Zi, the big V Lan Xi, etc. Because these people are very well-known, this wave of operations often has a secondary explosion effect. For example, Lan Xi was ridiculed by Sun Ge’s former mentor and today’s enemy Li Xiaolai because he accepted Sun Ge’s money. Then everyone started to quarrel with each other, and Sun Ge announced that he would provide Lan Xi with mental damage compensation...
But besides the big Vs, some ordinary people also received donations. Later, everyone found that Sun Ge gave money quite casually, and it seemed that he didn't care whether your essay was miserable or poor, and gave it completely based on his mood. So after the first clever guy knelt down and directly called him daddy for money, a trend of calling Sun Ge daddy emerged on Weibo...
Sun Ge's slogan at that time was very simple, crude and heartwarming:
Give me your QR code
Wow, "The Capital of Xihong City" has come true. Sun Duoyu... oh no, Sun Ge has won for the nth time this time...
Although any of the above achievements of Sun Ge could be boasted for a lifetime by ordinary people, for Sun Ge, they are just trivial matters. The moment when he really became a god was Children's Day in 2019. On that day, he announced on Weibo that something big had happened, but he didn't tell everyone what it was until three days later.
A netizen in the comment section quickly pointed out that he had taken the photo of the Buffett lunch, but at the same time pointed out that Buffett did not like cryptocurrencies and that his money was wasted. However, this netizen obviously underestimated Sun Ge's skills. Not to mention this netizen, Buffett, a 90-year-old man, did not expect that the Waterloo of his life, the biggest stumbling block, and the star of fate would come from the mysterious Xining, Qinghai.
Since 2000, the auction of Buffett's lunch has attracted the interest of many heroes. In 2001, BBK founder Duan Yongping bid $620,000 for this lunch. On that day, he brought a young man with him, or it could be said that the real reason for his bid for the lunch was to promote this young man. This young man was a top student who graduated from Zhejiang University and was already an engineer at Google. After having a meal with Buffett, he resigned from Google and returned to China to start his own company, which is also the favorite of the elderly in my family: Pinduoduo.
The second person who took the photo of Buffett's lunch was Zhao Danyang, who was known as the "godfather of private equity" at the time. However, it is said that he also got the advice of Duan Yongping before he thought of going to Zhao Danyang for lunch. How awesome is Zhao Danyang? Let's put it this way, Xu Xiang, the white coat stock god in Shanghai, once regarded Zhao Danyang as his idol. In the 2008 financial crisis, he not only escaped unscathed, but also cleared his positions in advance and even gained 4% of the profit.
Look at others, then look at yourself... Fortunately, the market is not open today...
After becoming famous, Zhao Danyang struck while the iron was hot and bid $2.11 million for the Buffett lunch. According to Buffett's rules, seven people can be brought to the lunch, so Zhao Danyang brought his wife as an interpreter, as well as his mentor Duan Yongping and other friends.
Buffett's eating habits are different from those of the Chinese. He doesn't like to book a private room. He usually just has a big table in the corner of the first floor of a restaurant. If you happen to eat at the table next to him, you can actually hear what they are talking about. Zhao Danyang and Buffett had a very happy chat during this meal. Zhao Danyang gave Buffett Maotai and donkey-hide gelatin, and he was not afraid that Buffett would have problems with the supplements. Of course, a person like Zhao Danyang would never come to chat after taking a photo of lunch. He first asked Buffett if he was optimistic about the Chinese market. Buffett said that he didn't care about this matter. There was a special team in charge, and they would communicate with him if necessary. Zhao Danyang then gave Buffett a booklet with a huge "Wumart Commercial" logo printed on the cover. Buffett also politely said that he would pay attention to it and didn't think too much about it.
It is easy to imagine that there must be a lot of paparazzi lurking in the restaurant at this time, so after lunch, "Wumart Commercial" rose by 24% in the next four consecutive trading days.
Oh, by the way, before this, Zhao Danyang already held 13% of Wumart's shares, making him the second largest shareholder. This wave of good news made him a huge profit of 130 million.
2.11 million US dollars was approximately equivalent to 16 million RMB at the time. Zhao Danyang spent 16 million to buy 130 million. He is worthy of being the Chinese stock god and the godfather of private equity.
But this incident made Buffett very depressed, and he had to change the rules afterwards:
No individual stock-related issues may be discussed at lunch.
But this is not a problem for the hardworking and brave Chinese people, especially Zhu Ye, an outstanding computer graduate from Beijing University of Technology. After founding Tianshen Entertainment, this genius in the gaming industry became one of the most influential figures in the gaming industry. In 2014, he successfully went public through a backdoor listing and became the "first Chinese gaming stock." The following year, Zhu Ye bid $2.34 million for the Buffett lunch and brought his wife and children to the appointment.
During this period, Zhu Ye did not recommend any stocks to the stock god. He just kept talking about how awesome and promising his company was, and that light and electricity were the only myths.... I guess Buffett was a little upset. Anyway, after the meal, it was reported that Buffett was optimistic about Tianshen Entertainment, and the stock price doubled.
In 2018, TianShen Entertainment suffered huge losses and debt defaults. Zhu Ye resigned as chairman of TianShen Entertainment and was investigated by the China Securities Regulatory Commission for suspected violations of securities laws and regulations. The following year, TianShen Entertainment's 2018 annual report showed a total loss of 6.5 billion, of which 4.9 billion was goodwill impairment....
Then the share price of Tianshen Entertainment plummeted...
I have written so much just to make one thing clear:
The Chinese who can have dinner with Buffett are all very ruthless and are definitely not ordinary people. So how can Sun Ge, born in the 1990s, stand out among this group of ruthless people and make Buffett's lunch a thing that no one in the Chinese business world dares to touch, even if it is given away for free, just like Emperor Zhenzong of Song Dynasty did to Taishan?
Just when everyone was speculating on how big a job Sun Ge would have to do to make his money back, Sun Ge put down his chopsticks and instantly became a Buddha.
Since Buffett's unfriendly attitude towards cryptocurrencies is well known, not long after Sun Ge took the photo of Buffett's lunch, the famous economist Lang Xianping forwarded a news report saying that Buffett was going to cancel the lunch with Sun Ge. Sun Ge seized this opportunity and insisted on giving Lang Xianping the ancestral one million, which was just one million TRON. Although Lang Xianping was so fierce that he could unite with his ex-wife to get the money back for his mistress, he was so immature in front of Sun Ge. Sun Ge seized this wave of hot spots and continued to attract traffic.
During that period, Sun Ge was not doing well. Today, this star cheated, tomorrow, that star divorced, and the day after tomorrow, that star was exposed to have a child. The time he finally got on the hot search was getting shorter and shorter. What should he do? He felt that although he was already a lone warrior, after all, a hero needs three helpers, so he had to find someone to help him out.
Then he chose his famous alumnus, President Trump, and invited him to have lunch with him.
Oh, by the way, Buffett also graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. When these three people get together, I feel like the earth can’t accommodate them all... Which restaurant dares to take such a generous order!
But Trump was obviously too busy governing the country to accept Sun Ge's invitation. Sun Ge probably felt that there were not many people in the world who were qualified to be taken to dinner with Buffett, so he announced 53 days after taking the photo of Buffett's lunch:
I’m going to cancel the trip. Buffett, you can eat it by yourself!
The reason he gave was that he had kidney stones and needed hospitalization, so he couldn't go.
I'm not a medical student, but based on my limited knowledge, kidney stones are now mostly broken up and expelled with ultrasound. More serious cases will be removed with minimally invasive surgery. Only extremely serious cases or those with strange shapes will be removed with traditional open surgery. So I don't dare to say what this stone looks like or what shape it is. After all, Sun Ge is so awesome, it's not strange for a stone to transform into a human form...
In short, Sun Ge ate this most expensive and famous lunch in the world in the best shape. As the saying goes, color is emptiness, emptiness is color, Sun Ge realized! This world is empty, and all the dazzling wealth is nothing but a dream bubble! In this case, I don't eat, even if I eat, I don't eat...
So, did he eat it or not?
No one knows. Everyone only knows that Sun Ge cooked this lunch to perfection, and with the popularity of this back and forth, Sun Ge's coins won a lot of money again.
Many people say that this is the most successful operation in Sun Ge's life. But I absolutely disagree. This wave of operations is indeed dazzling, but compared with Sun Ge's subsequent play, this wave seems so conservative and restrained...
In June 2019, Sun Ge bid the highest price ever for lunch with Buffett, but on July 23, he announced that he would be hospitalized for "kidney stones" and stood up Buffett. On the original lunch date, July 25, Sun Ge, who was unable to get out of bed, posted a Weibo post saying that he deeply reflected on his past words and deeds, felt deeply guilty for his excessive marketing and hype, and apologized to the public, the media, and regulators.
The fact that there are regulatory agencies on the apology list is quite... intriguing. On the morning of July 23, the day he announced that he would cancel his contract with Buffett, media reported that the "Peiwo" APP co-founded by Sun Ge and Tongdao Dashu was cancelled for pornography, illegal fundraising, money laundering, etc., and the Tron public chain project was also suspected of gambling. Although Sun Ge was in the United States in theory, he issued a statement at noon Beijing time, saying that these were all nonsense.
But some people noticed that at 5pm that day when get off work ended, "Guangzhou Peiwo" had been disbanded and applied for cancellation.
Four hours later, Caixin published a heavyweight questioning article, pointing out that Sun Ge had been under border control since June last year (2018), and the Internet Finance Regulation Office had also recommended that the public security organs file a case against him. So how did he get to the United States?
Just one and a half hours after Caixin published the article, Sun Ge responded on Weibo, saying that he was safe and denied being under border control. He also started a live broadcast to prove his identity as a witness abroad.
It is common sense that a person who has been under border control for a year is unlikely to be abroad. Sun Ge probably wanted to use this incident to prove that Caixin’s report was untrue. However, on July 24, Sina Finance confirmed Sun Ge’s border control again. After that, many reporters followed up and confirmed this from different channels.
This is probably why the seemingly unrelated Chinese regulatory authorities appeared in Sun Ge’s apology Weibo for standing up to Buffett...
Why was Sun Ge under border control since 2018, but he was able to stay in the United States in 2019? In fact, it is very simple, because he went out in 2017. Do you remember that he completed the sale of TRON on September 3, 2017, and the country issued a ban on virtual currency on September 4? The timing is so coincidental, do you believe this is pure coincidence?
The Verge, a magazine that focuses on discrediting Sun Ge, said that Sun Ge had always known that the government ban was about to be issued. Some people said that the information channel was Zhao Changpeng, the current US federal government's annual pig, and some people said that it was Sun Ge's own unique channel. But no matter what, since Sun Ge was able to accurately grasp the time before the ban was issued, it is not surprising that he got the news about his border control in advance.
On September 10, 2017, Sun Ge hurriedly packed up and fled to Incheon, South Korea, and then flew from Seoul to San Francisco. He has not returned to China until today.
Speaking of border control, we have to mention another outstanding alumnus of Peking University, Dai Wei, who was also the president of the Peking University Student Union and the founder of OFO. After OFO went bankrupt, he was not subject to border control, but he was restricted from flying, which is also a normal operation. Generally speaking, if you are restricted from flying, you cannot take a plane or a high-speed train, which Luo Yonghao also said. But what is puzzling is that the height restriction order against Dai Wei has not been lifted, but he miraculously appeared in the United States and started financing and starting a business again... The question is, how can you go to the United States without taking a plane? Of course, if you insist that you can go there by taking a cargo ship, I have nothing to say...
Let me insert another sentence. The Peking University Student Union is really a place where hidden dragons and crouching tigers are hidden. In addition to Dai Wei, Mou Linhan, who used pua to make his girlfriend commit suicide, is also a cadre of the Peking University Student Union. If you extend the time a little longer, you will find that Li Guoqing, the founder of Dangdang.com, the lifelong enemy of the bathroom, who cured syphilis by himself in 6 days, was also the vice chairman of the Peking University Student Union at that time, and Xiao Jianhua, the behind-the-scenes boss of the "Tomorrow Group" and a senior VIP of Wangbei Building in Hong Kong, was the chairman of the Peking University Student Union. Even Wang Yanyi, the beautiful director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology who is more than 20 years younger than her husband and who made people all over the country know her during the epidemic, is also a backbone of the Peking University Student Union. And all of the above people, except Li Guoqing and Xiao Jianhua, who are relatively old, were all admitted through self-enrollment or special enrollment with reduced scores. Wang Yanyi didn't even have an exam number.
In such a competitive and talented student union, it is no wonder that Sun Ge had a hard time showing his talents. In fact, Sun Ge did challenge the student union, and he wanted to challenge the position of the student union president. But at that time, Sun Ge did not have the money he would have in the future, and could not imitate his junior brother Dai's lavish spending, so naturally no one was optimistic about his election.
But the boast had already been made, how to cover it up? Just like with Buffett, Sun Ge also adopted the Gugu route. On the day of the election, Sun Ge did not show up, and no one could find him. He came out after the election and said that he was imprisoned by the school's top management and was forbidden to participate in the election. Everyone knows whether this is true or not, but probably because of the boasting too much, Sun Ge felt that he might have offended the school and would never have a good time, so he decided to graduate a year early and run away.
This bragging-cooing-running operation process seems to be Sun Ge's specialty, and it can be written into the Sun family SOP manual...