In 2008, the global financial crisis brought economies around the world to a freezing point, and the market was in a slump. However, in that year, a New Oriental English teacher named Li Xiaolai decided to quit his stable job and embark on a completely different path.

A few years later, he became a firm believer in Bitcoin in a way that was bold and almost crazy: he spent all his savings to buy 100,000 bitcoins.

At that time, the price of Bitcoin was only around $1. This decision not only shocked his relatives and friends, but also made Li Xiaolai a "legend" in the domestic currency circle.

However, ten years later, Li Xiaolai chose to sell all his Bitcoins and completely withdraw from the market that had made him rich. Not long ago, Trump won the election and the price of Bitcoin soared again. Now, does he regret it?

From New Oriental lecturer to Bitcoin enthusiast

Li Xiaolai's story started out simple. Born in 1972, he grew up in an ordinary family in Northeast China. Li Xiaolai's childhood was not rich, but he showed a spirit of never giving up since he was a child.

With his own ability, he overcame all difficulties in his study and eventually became an English teacher. With his solid English skills and humorous teaching style, he quickly won the love of students and parents and became a star of New Oriental.

However, despite a stable job and a good income, Li Xiaolai was not satisfied with it. In 2008, the global financial crisis broke out, the stock market plummeted, and the currency depreciated, which made him realize that it was difficult to achieve "financial freedom" by relying solely on wages.

At the same time, the concept of Bitcoin was born in 2009. This decentralized digital currency proposed by Satoshi Nakamoto aroused Li Xiaolai's interest.

Although most people at the time believed that Bitcoin was nothing more than a speculative bubble, Li Xiaolai keenly saw the potential behind it.

In 2011, the price of Bitcoin was less than $1, but it had already caused some small discussions on the Internet and in investment circles.

Many people didn't take it seriously, thinking it was just a speculative craze about digital currency. However, Li Xiaolai made a decision that no one expected - he spent all his money to buy 100,000 bitcoins.

At that time, the price of each Bitcoin was extremely low, and one could even buy it for a few cents. Li Xiaolai's move attracted strong opposition from his relatives and friends, and some even said that he was "gambling", but he firmly believed that he saw the future.

“How can you own the future if you don’t bet on it?”

Li Xiaolai's words became a true reflection of his decision at the time. He firmly believed that Bitcoin would become the core of the future monetary system, even though almost no one believed it at the time.

From wealth surge to liquidation and exit

But what people didn’t expect was that as time went by, the price of Bitcoin began to soar, and Li Xiaolai became the "investment master" that everyone envied.

In 2013, Li Xiaolai publicly announced for the first time in an interview with CCTV that he held "six-digit" bitcoins. This news quickly made him a "celebrity" in the currency circle.

As the price of Bitcoin continued to rise, Li Xiaolai's wealth also increased, even reaching an astonishing figure of tens of billions of RMB at one point.

In 2017, the price of Bitcoin reached a record high, exceeding $20,000 per coin. This made many early investors instantly rich, and Li Xiaolai became a focal figure in the Bitcoin market at home and abroad.

However, just when everyone thought that he would continue to hold Bitcoin and enjoy the growth of wealth, Li Xiaolai made an unexpected decision - to sell off all his Bitcoin.

Li Xiaolai once publicly explained the reason why he liquidated his position. In his opinion, the crazy rise of Bitcoin was not entirely a true reaction of the market, but a precursor to a bubble. So he decisively sold all the Bitcoins in his hands and successfully avoided the subsequent market crash.

Although this decision helped Li Xiaolai preserve his wealth, it also sparked huge controversy. Many investors believed that he lured retail investors into the market at a high price, while he took the opportunity to cash out.

In particular, in 2018, a private recording of Li Xiaolai was exposed, in which he bluntly said that "Bitcoin is a complete scam" and admitted that he had "cut leeks". This recording caused an uproar on the Internet, and some people even called him "the banker of the currency circle."

What is the current situation?

Li Xiaolai's liquidation behavior not only made him miss the subsequent rise of Bitcoin, but also caught him up in a storm of public opinion.

People have accused him of using his influence to "scam people", and some blockchain projects he participated in, such as EOS and PressOne, have also been criticized as "air coins" and even suspected of money-making.

In 2018, Li Xiaolai gradually faded out of the public eye. In the same year, he published "Self-cultivation of Leeks", trying to share his investment experience through books and remind investors not to blindly follow the trend.

However, the publication of this book did not quell outside doubts, but instead made more people think that he was "whitewashing" his behavior.

However, the outside discussion has not changed Li Xiaolai's view. He firmly believes that his investment in Bitcoin is based on rational judgment rather than the influence of market sentiment.

Although he chose to liquidate his position, he did not regret it, because he knew that the essence of investment is the coexistence of risks and returns. After quitting the cryptocurrency circle, Li Xiaolai returned to the education field he was familiar with. He began to publish English learning books and continued to help students through education.

Not long ago, when the news came out that Trump won the election, Bitcoin soared, even breaking through $91,000 at one point.

Just as the Bitcoin market was becoming increasingly crazy, some people remembered Li Xiaolai, the former "Bitcoin richest man". If Li Xiaolai had not chosen to clear his holdings at the time, how astonishing would his wealth be today.

But for Li Xiaolai, even if time could go back, his choice would still be to sell out, because for him, education is not only a choice to return to his original intention, but also a re-positioning of his life. #交易所BTC储备量创2018年以来新低