Where do industry professionals go when they leave the cryptocurrency space?

Written by: 0xmin & Freya, Deep Tide TechFlow

Edited by: 0xmin

In the world of cryptocurrency, people come and go. Have you ever wondered, where do people who leave the crypto space go?

With this question in mind, we interviewed many former industry professionals and received various answers: studying abroad, getting married and having children, lying flat, starting AI businesses, selling insurance, tech agriculture…

Here, leaving does not mean not holding crypto assets, but rather not working in the crypto industry. Some people have earned enough to retire and lie flat; some have exited due to the bear market; others are still unemployed…

When the gears of the crypto cycle start to turn, everyone is swept along, unable to control their own fate.

What are the old-timers in the crypto space doing?

In 2011, a significant event that influenced the history of Chinese cryptocurrency occurred: the establishment of the community "8btc."

The two founders of 8btc, Chang Jia and QQagent (Wu Jihan), are well-known in the industry, but there is actually another founder—financial writer Lao Duan.

In 2011, Lao Duan wrote several articles about Bitcoin, including "What Can Increase 3000 Times in a Year" and "Bitcoin: Great Innovation or Giant Bubble." In July 2012, Lao Duan established the Bitcoin fund "Lao Duan Bitcoin No. 1," which was also the first Bitcoin fund in China.

A few months later, the Cyprus banking crisis broke out, and Bitcoin surged more than tenfold in eight months. This surge instead put immense "psychological pressure" on Lao Duan, and under the pressure to cash out, he chose to liquidate the Bitcoin fund early in April 2013, believing that the Bitcoin rally had reached its peak.

In November 2013, five months after Lao Duan liquidated the Bitcoin fund, Bitcoin unexpectedly surged again, and at this point, Lao Duan, who had "missed out," gradually transformed from a Bitcoin evangelist to a Bitcoin critic.

"The greatest value of Bitcoin at present is to satisfy the fantasy of 'getting rich overnight' for the Chinese people."

From then on, Lao Duan parted ways with the Bitcoin world, subsequently rooting himself in the stock market, becoming a stock commentator, and publishing books such as "The Investment Magic Book," "Positive Energy Investment," and "Actually, You Don't Understand Women Yet."

In March 2021, Lao Duan mentioned "Bitcoin" again.

He stated that at his peak, he owned four-digit Bitcoin amounts, which are now worth billions of RMB, but most of it was sold after making dozens of times the profit. However, he still has a three-digit "leftover," but these Bitcoins are in an already bankrupt exchange—Mt. Gox.

Similarly, after Wu Jihan and Lao Duan left 8btc, Chang Jia found new partners: Song Huanping, Chen Yurong, and Lang Yu.

Song Huanping's former title was "Co-founder of 8btc," but now, the identity label appearing in the media for Song Huanping is founder of Happy Tiger Capital, the first angel investor in the restaurant industry, investing in Lele Tea, Chen Xianggui, Tiger Head Bureau, Jasmine Milk, and Chef Huzi.

In 2013, Song Huanping learned about Bitcoin through a QQ group and later met Chang Jia through a friend's introduction, joining 8btc and participating in its commercialization process. However, this journey lasted only four months.

At the beginning of 2015, with the first pot of gold earned from the crypto space, Song Huanping chose to leave the crypto world and turned to the investment circle, focusing on the restaurant industry, and founded Happy Tiger Capital.

In 2017, during a media interview, Song Huanping expressed some dissatisfaction with the crypto space, even saying he was "a bit sad":

"After a round of skyrocketing, a new wave of attention quickly follows, and then it cools down just as fast. When the next round breaks through a price previously considered crazy, it attracts another wave of greater attention."

"Bitcoin is a good thing, but the crypto space is too dirty."

Since the advent of Bitcoin, over a decade has passed, changing the fate of many grassroots individuals. The once old-timers in the crypto space have all "retired," fading from the public eye.

A "veteran" who entered the Bitcoin community in 2013 told Deep Tide TechFlow that the old-timers in the crypto space either went abroad or returned to their families, spending their days taking care of children, while others became obsessed with "longevity," investing in peptide-related industries.

Once regarded as the "Bitcoin billionaire," Li Xiaolai was seen as the spokesperson for the crypto space until he gradually faded from the crypto industry after the 2018 recording incident. Since leaving the crypto space, aside from continuing to write books, the most important thing for Li Xiaolai is "having a bunch of children." As a father, Li Xiaolai now has a new identity—an educator.

After 2022, Li Xiaolai launched the "Annual Family Growth Community" (1999/year) and introduced a new course in 2023 titled "Li Xiaolai Talks About Family Education in the AI Era," which received widespread acclaim.

The miners lying flat

Once, miners were seen as standing at the top of the cryptocurrency food chain. With "a piece of ban," Bitcoin mining completely "divorced" from China. So, where have the miners who no longer mine gone?

Former miners interviewed by Deep Tide TechFlow revealed that the miner community is also quite complex, with different decisions and thoughts among large and small miners.

Some large miners chose to take their mining machines and bodies abroad to continue mining, while others opted to transition to AI, providing computing power support for other enterprises.

Most interviewees mentioned the same term—lying flat, having savings, and not wanting to work, so they indulge in eating, drinking, playing, traveling, and maintaining health.

Miner Wang Lei is currently in a lying flat state. Having suffered losses in the crypto space, he has become extremely cautious, avoiding risky investments and not interacting with crypto people. He holds ETH for staking, earning nearly 4% in risk-free annual returns, with annual earnings close to 80 ETH, which can fully cover his daily expenses.

This is already a good "outcome." After a round of bull markets, countless small and medium miners went bankrupt.

"Last time the market surged, many small miners floated away, failing to cash out in time. Some went from driving Porsches to having to drive for Didi after the market passed," said former miner Li Xiaoming.

Many miners blindly invested during the bull market, getting trapped in various primary and secondary projects, while also facing the fallout from FTX/PayPal, making miners part of the rights protection army.

In Yunnan, a female miner named Liang You, who entered the Bitcoin community in 2012, chose to engage in organic tech agriculture after the "mining ban."

Shrimp farming, other seafood, orchards… she enjoys it all. Liang You's shrimp Liang You believes, after some research and reflection, that under the current economic environment in China, agriculture is a relatively stable and long-term business. In addition to tech agriculture, Liang You is also investing in other real industries.

Although Liang You and other former miners no longer "mine," they still pay attention to the trends in the crypto market, sharing a common goal—to accumulate coins.

Entrepreneurs after leaving

Before entering the crypto space, Saul was engaged in internet investments.

In the summer of 2021, the emergence of STEPN made Saul realize that chain games might be a direction for the future development of the gaming industry.

This time, he did not directly invest in a company but chose to start his own business. Compared to young entrepreneurs who got involved in the crypto industry from the beginning, he believes his advantage lies in having experienced a complete cycle, with richer product and user experience.

Thus, Saul initiated a similar movement-to-earn project based on STEPN and received investments from several industry VCs.

During the hot small cycle of "x-to-earn," Saul's project gained widespread attention in the early stages through various operational activities and interactions with some public chain ecosystems, with impressive sales of NFT items. However, like a fleeting firework, the beauty was always short-lived, and the collapse of STEPN's running shoes plunged the entire "x-to-earn" track into a winter.

Saul's project failed to survive the crypto winter, and after a year of persistence, he disbanded the team.

Saul attributes part of the failure to "cycles," stating, "Web3 entrepreneurship has a clear cyclicality, shorter than traditional finance. Web3 is a more retail-oriented, irrational market. The more significant issue is that Web3 finds it challenging to acquire and retain real users, especially in unstable market conditions, where user growth is slower than expected."

After liquidating the project, Saul left the cryptocurrency industry and chose to dive into the hot wave of AI, continuing to start a business.

In Saul's view, the crypto industry and AI are entirely different fields, with different underlying logic in the services they provide. The AI industry is more technology-driven, while the crypto industry is still primarily capital-driven, and blockchain products have yet to effectively solve real-life problems.

However, he will continue to pay attention to the crypto industry in the future, as he believes there are many areas where AI and the crypto industry can combine, especially in fields like gaming. He might even return to the crypto space one day in a new identity and form.

"Life is an experience. If I could start over, I would still choose to start a business in the crypto space."

Saul is just a microcosm of the "Web3 to AI" wave under the crypto bear market. Generative Ventures partner Will Wang stated, "Up to this moment, all the mobile internet portfolios I previously invested in that shifted to the so-called Web3 direction have now all returned to AI."

In June 2023, the oldest crypto media outlet in China, 8btc, announced a complete shift to the AI track, and 8btc founder Chang Jia transformed into the founder of Boundless AI, creating a Chinese version of Midjourney.

A new question arises: When the next round of crypto bull market arrives, will the departing entrepreneurs return?

Professionals come and go quickly

The personnel flow in the crypto industry often fluctuates with the cycles of bull and bear markets. When a bull market arrives, everyone returns; when a bear market descends, they scatter hastily.

Xiao Jun originally worked in post-investment at a well-known VC in the industry but unexpectedly received a "layoff notice" early this year. After careful consideration, Xiao Jun did not continue to seek work in the industry but resolutely left the crypto space to join a local medical company.

For Xiao Jun, who comes from a wealthy family, work itself is not that important. She has a more important mission at the moment—to find a partner and get married, as working in the crypto industry seems to complicate her dating life.

Many people like Xiao Jun, who were laid off and switched careers or remained unemployed, are not few. The crypto bear market from 2022 to 2023 severely impacted investors' wallet balances while also triggering a wave of layoffs in the crypto space. Whether in exchanges, VCs, or project teams, everyone chose to "lay off" to reduce costs and survive the bear market.

Antoniayly operates a Web3 job-seeking and recruitment community, and she has a clear perception of the unemployment wave in the crypto bear market.

"The talent pool for job seekers grows by about a dozen each week, but having one new position a week is already good. I check overseas job sites every week, and there aren't many companies hiring. Most of the job postings still come from large companies in Europe and America, but it's hard to say how many real headcounts there are."

Leo, an entrepreneur who once posted job openings, told Deep Tide TechFlow, "As soon as I posted the job openings, I received a large number of resumes, some of which had very strong backgrounds." In his view, this is not a problem unique to the crypto industry but reflects the poor overall environment. Many of the resumes he received came from people with backgrounds in large internet companies, and many of them want to join Web3 because the internet industry is more exhausting and competitive.

Whether in Web2 or Web3, under the wave of layoffs, everyone is seeking a way out.

Xiao V, who graduated in journalism, once wrote fintech reports for a leading tech media outlet. In 2018, she joined a blockchain media outlet as a lead writer, accidentally "entering the circle," without any fantasies of getting rich overnight, purely out of interest in a new field.

At the end of 2019, invited by a large internet company, Xiao V chose to "exit" the crypto space to "change the environment" and worked in brand marketing. Xiao V quickly felt the unfriendly work environment in the internet industry: first, the overall downward trend, and second, the age crisis at 35.

"In a big company, I felt like a screw in a machine, with little room for personal expression and value, and it wasn't as free as in the media."

In mid-2023, during the layoffs at the big company, Xiao V voluntarily accepted the "optimization package" and began to embrace a new field—insurance brokerage.

"I observed that this is a very promising industry. The insurance industry tends to grow deeper once a country's per capita GDP reaches a certain turning point. Young people's views on insurance in China are completely different from before."

Another reason Xiao V chose to become an insurance broker is that she believes the experience accumulated in the insurance industry is very helpful for career development. The current insurance products are complex, involving not only knowledge of the products themselves but also legal and medical knowledge. This field does not have heavy age discrimination like the internet, and many successful insurance brokers treat insurance as a lifelong career.

Recently, Xiao V will join another large internet company as her main job while continuing to pursue insurance brokerage as a side job.

Coincidentally, I noticed that many friends who once worked in the crypto space in Hong Kong have started the "Hong Kong insurance" sales model in 2023, either joining insurance companies full-time or becoming licensed managers.

In 2023, with the resumption of cross-border travel, new Web3 policies in Hong Kong, and the relaxation of high-skilled talent plans, a large influx of mainland personnel and funds has entered Hong Kong, obtaining Hong Kong identity, starting businesses in Hong Kong, and buying Hong Kong insurance has become a "To Do List" for many crypto professionals in 2023, also creating a wave of wealth opportunities.

At the end of the interview, we usually ask one question: "Would you be willing to return to the crypto industry?"

Almost everyone answered yes, mostly mentioning the most attractive aspect of the crypto space: the state of distributed remote work, which offers more personal freedom.

Coco left the crypto space for a large internet company in 2019 and returned in 2022. In her view, compared to working in internet companies, the crypto industry is still much easier, allowing her to have time for side projects. Additionally, the crypto industry can change a person's mindset and expectations.

"Losing money isn't important; once you make a bit of quick money, it's hard to completely leave," Coco said.