Just after May Day, a Chinese couple was found dead naked in a hotel in Bali, Indonesia. When the man was found, he had more than 20 wounds on his body, and the woman drowned in the bathtub. No matter how you look at it, it was a malicious homicide.
When the police finished their investigation, the results they released shocked everyone: ruling out third-party homicide, it was the man who first drowned the woman and then committed suicide with a wine bottle.
Such a statement is obviously unconvincing, but as more details are revealed, the case is cast a deep shadow: the man is a person in the cryptocurrency circle, suspected of embezzling 500 million Tether (about 3.5 billion RMB), and is being hunted by a black market tycoon with a reward of 5 million RMB.
The cryptocurrency industry is an industry that ordinary people cannot touch. How strange is it inside? How many people have died for the dream of getting rich overnight?
01.
According to information disclosed in the news, the two victims were from Guangxi and Jiangxi respectively. The man, Li, was 25 years old, and the woman, Fang Cheng, was 22 years old.
During the forensic identification, it was found that Li had open wounds on both sides of his body, about 11 centimeters in length, more than ten wounds on his back and limbs, and a large amount of fluid in his stomach.
Cheng's case was relatively simple, with bruises all over his body and obvious marks on his neck. It was highly likely that he was strangled to death.
By investigating their social media platforms, people concluded that the couple's identity was not simple. The man had a personalized Rolls-Royce and many luxury cars in Cambodia, and the woman's geographical location showed that she often went in and out of Cambodia.
Further investigation revealed that Li's family background was very ordinary and he dropped out of school in the third year of junior high school.
He is neither a second-generation rich man nor a businessman, so where did he get so much money to buy a luxury car? When there were many different opinions, nnn, a well-known cryptocurrency player, came out to reveal that the victim was his friend, who was also in the cryptocurrency circle. And his huge wealth also came from the cryptocurrency circle.
Regardless of how much money can be made, the fact is that the cryptocurrency world is “highly risky” and everyone knows it. At the end of last year, three cryptocurrency players died mysteriously in just one month.
Nicola, co-founder of makerDAO, became famous for issuing the first decentralized cryptocurrency DAI on Ethereum. He became a billionaire at the age of less than 30. On October 28, 2022, his body was found on a beach in Puerto Rico.
The next person to pass away was Kurland, co-founder of Amber Group, a global virtual asset service provider, who died in his sleep on November 23rd local time. He was only 30 years old and had no chronic diseases. Two days before his death, he was still negotiating a financing deal worth $10 billion.
Three days later, Russian cryptocurrency tycoon Taran took a helicopter from Switzerland and died in a plane crash at the border between Italy and France. The 53-year-old died on the spot.
What kind of magic is it that attracts so many people to flock to the cryptocurrency world?
02.
Since the advent of Bitcoin in 2009, the cryptocurrency world has formed two relatively mature markets: the primary market and the secondary market.
Let’s talk about the secondary market first. All currencies that can be listed on exchanges, virtual digital currencies that can be publicly bought and sold in a specific country and circulate freely, are secondary market currencies.
Including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and even Dogecoin, which is supported by Musk. The vast majority of cryptocurrency players on the market are secondary market players.
Although there are many people in the secondary market, the primary market is where the real money is made.
The so-called primary market refers to the stage of subscription before the listing of virtual digital currency. During this stage, players can buy project coins at the lowest price, which is equivalent to "original shares". After listing, if the price of virtual digital currency starts to soar by hundreds or thousands of times, all players in the primary market can become rich overnight.
As the saying goes, the greater the return, the greater the risk. The primary market is attractive, but the risks are not small, mainly in three aspects:
First, they use fake projects to raise money. Many unknown companies put information in the market under the banner of "blockchain", telling you openly or secretly that they are preparing to issue virtual currency and are doing private placement. As a result, many people invested money only to find out that this is a fake and it is not the same thing at all.
The second is the risk of price falling below the issue price. Like stocks, virtual currencies will also fall below the issue price after listing on the exchange. Suppose there is a virtual currency with an issue price of 10 yuan per piece, but after listing, the market does not recognize it and the price drops to 8 yuan per piece. At this time, all primary market players will lose money.
Finally, there are the risks of third-party agencies, such as running away on behalf of investors, private equity embezzlement, etc. Because the supervision of virtual currencies is not perfect, all kinds of evildoers have joined the battle, some are thinking about the appreciation of listing, and some are thinking about the private equity principal.
Like Li who was killed in Bali, relevant insiders revealed that he was a primary market player in the cryptocurrency circle. As a third-party agent, he embezzled 500 million Tethers (about 3.5 billion yuan) from a Southeast Asian currency issuing group, which angered the big boss behind the scenes and he was put on the dark web and hunted down around the world.
So the question is, with Li's "intelligence" in the cryptocurrency circle, it is impossible that he doesn't know the consequences of making money through illegal means. Why doesn't he run back to China? No matter how powerful the Southeast Asian killer is, would he dare to run to China to cause trouble?
03.
Except for Singapore, the legal supervision in Southeast Asia as a whole can be described as "decoration".
In the Golden Triangle, drug smuggling is rampant, and local officials are in collusion with local tyrants; in the Philippines, online and offline casinos are "in perfect harmony", and the crimes of the gambling industry are notorious; in Myanmar, warlords are divided and the electronic fraud industry is prevalent, and "kidney cutting" is not entirely a rumor.
Naturally, virtual currency trading, an industry that is extremely difficult to regulate but can generate huge profits, has taken root in Southeast Asia.
Huobi founder Justin Sun said that Southeast Asia is his next investment destination. San Francisco-based virtual asset trading platform Coinbase plans to recruit more employees in Southeast Asia.
In sharp contrast, domestic supervision of virtual currencies is relatively complete. In 2021, the People's Bank of China jointly issued a document with multiple departments to ban any form of illegal financial activities in accordance with the law and prohibit overseas exchanges from providing virtual currency trading services to residents in my country.
To put it bluntly, the billions that Li made from illegal activities in Southeast Asia cannot be used in China.
This also explains why Li's Rolls-Royce luxury car was found in Cambodia rather than in the country.
If Li returns to China, he will certainly be safe. "Murder cases must be solved" is the bottom line of our people's police. Even if the Southeast Asian killers have ten thousand guts, they would not dare to cause trouble on the mainland.
But between money and life, Li chose the former. Perhaps he is the type of person who has money but no life to spend it on.
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