Father of central bank digital currency, using $ETH to pay himself
A case exposed in a CCTV anti-corruption documentary: Yao Qian, former director of the People's Bank of China's Digital Currency Research Institute, the person named by Coindesk as one of the 'Top Ten Blockchain Figures of 2017' and in charge of DCEP development.
In 2018, he helped someone launch an ICO on an exchange and received 2,000 $ETH as a bribe.
A hardware wallet was found in his office drawer, with layered shell bank accounts traced through four levels; the source of 10 million was from cryptocurrency trading, ultimately used to purchase a villa in Beijing.
The investigation team said: This is the first successful case in China's anti-corruption history to trace cryptocurrency-related bribery.
Yao Qian himself said in front of the camera: 'I previously thought it would be hard to gather evidence.'
You see, the person who regulates cryptocurrency knows its loopholes best.
He wrote a paper just a short while ago stating that 'Bitcoin lacks a value anchor and cannot become a real currency,' yet he himself hoarded $ETH to buy a villa.
This is perhaps the greatest irony of 'blockchain immutability'—the blockchain record may not catch you, but your Ledger in the drawer can.
CPI, tariff rulings, CLARITY Act—Lazy Orange helps you sort it out 👇
1/13 (today): U.S. December CPI release
1/14 (tomorrow): Supreme Court tariff ruling + PPI
1/15 (day after tomorrow): CLARITY Act markup
1/28: FOMC interest rate decision
Today's CPI, market expects around 2.7%. If it comes in significantly below expectations, rate cut expectations rise, and $BTC may break above $95K; if above expectations, it could retrace to $88K.
But tomorrow is the key—Supreme Court will rule on whether Trump's 'Liberation Day tariffs' are unconstitutional. Polymarket shows a 76% probability of being overturned.
If overturned, the U.S. government would have to refund over $133 billion to importers, inflation expectations would drop, the dollar would weaken, and risk assets would be a major beneficiary.
Trump himself is anxious, saying, 'If we lose, we're done.'
The CLARITY Act on day after tomorrow is also worth watching—it's the first truly meaningful crypto market structure bill in the U.S. If it moves forward smoothly, regulatory clarity would be a medium-to-long-term positive for the industry.
Those with positions, please manage risk carefully~
The Chair of the Federal Reserve is under criminal investigation.
This is the first time in U.S. history that a sitting president has used criminal means to target a central bank governor.
On January 9th, the Department of Justice issued a subpoena, and on January 11th, the case was officially filed, directly pressuring U.S. stock index futures.
--- On the surface, it's about construction corruption; in reality, it's a power struggle.
Trump accused Powell of poor management in the renovation of the Federal Reserve headquarters, where the budget soared from $2.5 billion to $4.1 billion. The DOJ is investigating whether Powell lied during his congressional testimony in June last year.
But budget overruns happen in almost every major project.
What Trump really wants is for Powell to cut interest rates.
Powell responded sharply—on the evening of the 11th, he released a video statement, the strongest stance he has taken during his tenure: "The criminal charges are a pretext; the real reason is the president's desire to control interest rates."
It's extremely rare for a central bank governor to publicly confront the president.
More importantly, Powell's term ends in May, and Trump has already prepared his successor.
--- For the crypto market, this could be a signal.
Yesterday, U.S. stock index futures dropped, but $BTC fluctuated around 90,000 without following the decline.
The market is waiting for two possible outcomes: Trump wins → rate cuts and monetary easing → bullish for BTC Powell wins → doubts about U.S. dollar credibility → also bullish for BTC
In this game, no matter who wins, $BTC seems unlikely to lose.
In 2025, 11.6 million crypto projects died, and views of crypto content on YouTube dropped to a 5-year low.
But that's not the point. The key is data released by CoinGecko: in 2025, 11.6 million crypto projects went to zero, accounting for 86% of all project failures over the past five years.
Even more alarming, 7.7 million died in Q4 alone—more than the total number that died in the previous four years combined.
Why? Because token creation has become too easy. At the end of 2024, there were 3 million tokens in the market; by the end of 2025, that number surged to 20 million.
Pump.fun allows anyone to launch a token with just a mouse click, resulting in an avalanche of low-quality tokens.
Retail investors are getting scammed over and over again—TRUMP dropped 90%, MELANIA fell 98%, and LIBRA, promoted by Argentina's president, crashed instantly.
YouTube has lost viewership, and no one is willing to bottom-fish for altcoins anymore. Now, people are focusing more on on-chain opportunities, aiming for high returns with minimal capital.
But Lazy Orange wants to say something uncomfortable: the cleanup of bad projects might not be a bad thing.
When the cost of launching a token approaches zero, 99% of projects are destined to be failures. What remains will either have real utility or institutional backing.
Perhaps the script for bull and bear cycles, and altcoin cycles, has changed: there won't be broad altcoin rallies anymore—only the strong will prevail.
$BTC , $ETH , $BNB , $SOL. To the rest, outside the few top players—good luck!
From private game servers to 14 billion Bitcoins: The 15-year laundering strategy of a telecom fraud mastermind.
A former internet cafe manager who dropped out of junior high school 15 years later amassing a fortune of $14 billion.
。
It sounds like a wish-fulfillment story, but it's true.
Caixin today disclosed details of Chen Zhi's assets in China. In addition to the Prince Group, which is well-known, he also holds a game company in Xiamen.
This company mainly develops mobile games and also holds a 70% stake in a Chongqing-based equity investment fund management company. ---
Why do telecom fraud tycoons own gaming companies?
From private game servers to a telecom fraud empire, Chen Zhi's rise to power is actually a fairly typical example of the evolution of the black market.
He was born in Lianjiang, Fujian. After dropping out of school in the second year of junior high, he worked as an administrator in internet cafes in Guangdong and Jiangsu. The turning point came after the game (Legend of Mir) became popular. He formed a team to build a private server for the game and earned his first pot of gold.
At CES, Huang Renxun announced: NVIDIA × Mercedes autonomous vehicles will arrive in Asia this second half of the year.
Lanju immediately thought: Tesla's FSD is already capable of autonomous driving in the U.S., but there are still many restrictions on its deployment in China. Can Mercedes use it?
According to the introduction, the Mercedes CLA is equipped with the Alpamayo system, which is dubbed 'AI that can think.' It can reason, break down, and solve problems like a human when encountering traffic light malfunctions or complex road conditions.
With a new technology launching, it sounds impressive—available in the U.S. in Q1, Europe in Q2, and Asia in the second half of the year.
Huang Renxun said this is the first large-scale application of 'physical AI,' suggesting NVIDIA is not just selling chips, but aiming to redefine the entire transportation industry.
AI technology is advancing rapidly, but ordinary people may find it harder than ever.
There are millions of professional drivers worldwide who rely on driving to support their families. Once autonomous driving becomes widespread, these people face job loss. Reskilling is unrealistic—how can a 40-year-old driver start learning programming or AI from scratch?
This could happen as early as 2026.
In the AI era, those who master technology seem to always win. Ordinary people can only passively adapt or be left behind.
Silver increased by 150%, gold increased by 70%, $BTC decreased by 6.8%
Today I saw a piece of data that made many friends directly break down.
Silver increased by 150%, gold increased by 70%,
decreased by 6.8%.
What’s even more heartbreaking is that the reasons we in the crypto world shout for these three assets are the same: hedging, anti-inflation, and hedging against fiat currency depreciation.
| But the market only recognizes silver and gold
The specific numbers are as follows:
Silver: increased by 150% in 2025, from $28.86 at the beginning of the year to now $72.18, a historical high.
Gold: increased by 70% in 2025, from $2628 at the beginning of the year to now $4490 / ounce, a historical high.
Bitcoin: decreased by 6.8% in 2025, from $93,425 at the beginning of the year to now $87,064.
CZ: The era of making money while lying down has ended! Stablecoin 2.0 is about to begin
If there is a business: users put money here, you take it to invest and earn 4-5% profit, not giving a penny to the users, you can earn hundreds of millions of US dollars in a year.
How long do you think this business can last? This is not a hypothesis; this is the USDT you have in hand.
CZ gave the answer last night: the era of making money while lying down is coming to an end.
| Tether's business model
Tether's profit in 2024 is reported to reach hundreds of millions, which is more profitable than many listed companies.
The business model is as follows: you deposit 1 dollar to Tether → it issues 1 USDT to you → then takes your money to buy U.S. Treasury bonds → you hold USDT without earning a penny in interest, Tether takes all the profits.
The President of the United States sued the BBC yesterday, claiming 10 billion dollars!
Trump sued the BBC yesterday, claiming 10 billion dollars.
What does this concept mean? The BBC's total revenue for the year 2023 was only 6.5 billion dollars. Trump wants them to compensate for a year and a half of income.
As a result, the BBC president and news director resigned, and the documentary was taken down from all platforms.
| What exactly did the BBC do?
On December 15, Trump officially sued the BBC in federal court in Florida.
The cause was a documentary aired by the BBC one week before last year's election (Trump: A Second Chance?).
The BBC's operation:
They spliced together two segments of Trump's speeches from January 6, 2021:
First segment: calling on supporters to march to the Capitol
Computing power plummeted by 17%, why does it feel like BTC is safer?
Recently, a major event occurred in Xinjiang.
The overall network computing power plummeted by 8% overnight and dropped by 17% in a week. 400,000 mining machines just stopped.
What surprised me even more was that after China completely banned mining in 2021, China's computing power quietly returned to the third place in the world, accounting for 14%.
It wasn't until I saw the F2pool data that I realized: this time it wasn't an accidental power outage, but a premeditated cleanup operation.
| A 17% drop in a week, an 8% drop in a single day
On December 13, Kong Jianping posted on social media: Bitcoin mining sites in Xinjiang are gradually shutting down.
At that time, no one was sure about the scale. Until today, he spoke again: the computing power dropped by 100E yesterday, down by 8%, and based on an average of 250T, at least 400,000 machines were shut down.
Just now, Apple's CEO publicly stated that he holds cryptocurrency?
From Apple CEO to billionaire: Cryptocurrency is completing the "mainstream closed loop"
- Apple CEO publicly admits to holding Bitcoin and Ethereum personally - Car companies like Toyota, BYD, and Yamaha accept stablecoin USDT payments - Billionaire club Tiger 21 quietly includes Bitcoin as a hedge asset
Lastly, the above content is compiled based on public information and does not constitute any investment advice, only for sharing industry hotspots. Please make independent judgments and participate cautiously.
After eight years of ups and downs, $BNB has finally reached $1000.
It's hard to imagine that when it was first issued in 2017, it was only $0.1 and was merely a fee discount voucher. Who would have thought that this small utility token could make it all the way to today.
In 2018, it found its way out in the bear market with the IEO model, gaining real recognition; In 2019, the IEO craze continued, and BNB surged to $39, starting its transformation from a discount voucher to a comprehensive platform token; In 2020, with the launch of BSC, DeFi summer directly turned $BNB into "ecological fuel"; In 2021, it soared to $600, entering the top three in market value, becoming the king of exchange tokens; In 2022-23, with regulations, lawsuits, CZ stepping down, and various negative predictions, many thought the myth was coming to an end; In 2024, CZ returned, reigniting the BSC narrative, and Meme and GameFi made a comeback.
Until today, with $BNB crossing $1000, it’s not just a simple price high but a direct response to eight years of skepticism: $BNB has evolved from a small utility token into a true consensus asset.
The logic behind it is quite straightforward: CZ's return restored confidence; The activity on BSC chain picked up, with Meme and applications coming one after another; Liquidity has warmed up, and BNB remains the most direct Beta asset;
Binance's entry position hasn't changed, and BNB will always be the core chip. So $1000 is not the end, but a watershed.
What remains to be seen is—can this time bring a resonance to the entire BSC sector. #BNB #BSC
$DOGE ETF launches this week|Trump-affiliated companies are going all out for mining machines, GUCCI stores accept DOGE payments!
Dogecoin heads to Wall Street! This week, the first meme coin ETF in the U.S.——Rex-Osprey DOGE ETF (code: DOJE) officially launched, marking the arrival of the first "useless but consensus-driven" ETF in the U.S. stock market.
Meanwhile, Thumzup Media, a publicly traded company associated with the Trump family, announced the acquisition of DogeHash, deploying 2,500 DOGE mining machines at once, with plans to expand by another 1,000, aiming to become North America's largest DOGE mining enterprise.
Another publicly traded company, CleanCore Solutions, completed a $175 million private placement, establishing an official DOGE treasury in collaboration with the Dogecoin Foundation and House of Doge, attracting participation from over 80 institutions including Pantera and GSR.
Even more surprising, the luxury brand GUCCI has opened DOGE payments in some of its stores in the U.S.
From ETFs, mining enterprises, and treasuries to consumer scenarios, DOGE has transitioned from an internet joke to a "institutional asset + cultural currency".
💡 In summary: Dogecoin has officially landed on Wall Street; how will you price DOGE this time?
The above content is organized based on publicly available information and does not constitute any investment advice, merely sharing industry hotspots. Please make independent judgments and participate with caution.