Sun Yuchen from Beyond Traffic: Not Just “Brother Sun,” He's a Bear Market Hunter
oneSun YuchenWrapped in marketing news and soaked in traffic, his aura of wealth was so bright that his face was so blurry. He was “Brother Sun” made fun of by netizens during group chats.
Production/Newly Abstracted Business Review
In March of this year, 5,689 bitcoins were stored in an offline device in the National Treasury of El Salvador and locked deep in the treasury. The president excitedly said, “This is our first Bitcoin piggy bank.”
Three years ago, this small Central American country passed a proposal, becoming the first in the world to recognizeBitcoinA country where the currency is legal tender. The whole world has gone viral. Sun Yuchen is one of the few people who tweeted his support, and was praised and retweeted by the president.
Compared to those lace news, Sun Yuchen's tweet was rarely mentioned. It wasn't until the bull market came again 3 years later that people discovered that El Salvador had won, and Sun Yuchen was still on the field.
The latest case is that he led Wave Field TRON and Huobi HTX reached a brand strategic cooperation with Singapore national team goalkeeper Hassan Sunny (Hassan Sunny). Sonny will act as Wave Field TRON andHuobiHTX Chief Security Officer and brand ambassador.
Misleading and ignorant stories about Sun Yuchen run through fragments. In fact, in the eyes of the public, what you can see are two Sun Yuchen.
A Sun Yuchen was wrapped up in marketing news and soaked in traffic. The aura of wealth was so bright that his face was so blurry. He was a “Brother Sun” made fun of by netizens during group chats.
Under the cover of Sun Yuchen's aura, Sun Yuchen, another one that is closer to reality, is often overlooked: he is a serial entrepreneur, professional trader, long-term believer, and a calm hunter in financial games.
The story of the coin industry is less than ten years old, but it is already complicated enough. Almost every story has both positive and negative sides. However, whether it is deification or magicalization, it is actually not the best perspective to observe Sun Yuchen. The most scarce perspective right now is “normal.”
When we remove all filters, return to blockchain finance itself, and re-examine Sun Yuchen, we will find that he has gone through a turbulent cycle.
Become one of the few survivors left on the field.
1. Passed through the “Curse Hour” 3 times
In March 2024, with the recovery of the Bitcoin market, the virtual asset market entered a new cycle.
Sun Yuchen founded Bochang TRON in 2017. On March 5, the network revenue reached a record high of 2.31 million US dollars. By the end of May this year, the number of accounts had exceeded 233 million, the number of transactions exceeded 7.73 billion, and the market value of on-chain stablecoins had exceeded 59.8 billion US dollars, all breaking historical records, and the number of daily active users topped the public chain market rankings.
The faint sound of drums grew louder and louder. Statistics from the cryptocurrency market data platform Coingecko show that in February of this year, the total market value of the cryptocurrency market returned to $2 trillion after a lapse of two years. The head of Goldman Sachs Digital Asset Asia Pacific said that customers have revived their strong interest in the crypto market, and indicators such as the number of new customers, trading activity, and overall transaction scale are on the rise.
“Over the past 60 days, net new demand worth $8 billion has poured into 9 new Bitcoin ETFs.” Matt Barensweig, managing director of digital asset trust company BitGo Go Network, said, “What we are seeing is a historic, record level of activity. This trend indicates that the Pandora's box in the cryptocurrency market has opened, and there will be more capital inflows in the future.”
Everything was in line with Sun Yuchen's judgment on the market, and the current bull market was hard to come by, and it was necessary to go through the “curse moment” 3 times before it arrived.
Since its inception, Satoshi Nakamoto has set rules for Bitcoin: the reward for every 210,000 blocks generated for Bitcoin will be halved until the block reward is 0 in 2140. After all bitcoins have been issued, the final total amount of shares issued is constant at 21 million.
This cycle is converted into time. Every four years, mining rewards for Bitcoin miners are cut in half, and the growth rate of the total amount of Bitcoin is drastically reduced. According to the theory of supply and demand, when supply decreases, prices will rise and enter a new market cycle.
This point will be reached again in mid-April 2024.
Looking back, after three “curse moments” in 2012, 2016, and 2020, Bitcoin will experience a round of upward movement, then fluctuate downward until the next “curse moment” arrives.
As a result, people are also using April 2024 as the starting point for a new round of bull markets. Everyone wants to compete for ferry tickets. Bitcoin prices soared to the 70,000 yuan mark in March 2024, and hit record highs over and over again.
According to a report by multi-asset broker Tickmill Group, some commentators predict that the price of Bitcoin will reach 100,000 US dollars/coin by the end of the year.
The boom has returned. Sun Yuchen said in an interview that large-scale adoption in the industry is nearing implementation. The adoption of Bitcoin spot ETFs and the increase in the number of global user registrations are important signs of this trend.
He predicts that cryptocurrencies will become part of the global financial infrastructure, similar to the popularity of social media.
Sun Yuchen's judgment quickly spread on social media. People trust judgments, and are based more on his status as a “survivor.”
People who have survived the cryptocurrency bear market and retained the market are all in the minority who can see trends clearly through the cycle.
2. What did Sun Yuchen do right?
Sun Yuchen became a survivor, beyond the judgment of many people.
For those far from investing in the cryptocurrency industry, what he has learned over the years is that he rented a pool villa in Singapore, an NFT avatar he bought for a fortune, personal bodyguards and body armor, and Xu Jiayin's private jet that he spent huge sums of money to buy.
He was like a motorbike stunt rider. The audience watched from afar and watched as he sped alone, completing a series of complex and pompous performances.
What is most widely spread is his smile. In the section, he is “Sun Cut,” and “Sun Cut laughs, life and death are difficult to predict”. Behind the ridicule is the controversy over cutting chives.
Along with marketing news, these disputes spread widely and became part of Sun Yuchen's public image.
Other than marketing, that was Sun Yuchen, another trader. Compared to the incident news he previously dominated, what is more worth observing is his layout method in a bear market.
In fact, since Buffett's lunch, Sun Yuchen has been quiet for a long time. Most of his activities on X revolve only around cryptocurrencies.
In addition to supply and demand relationships, the cyclical fluctuation of cryptocurrencies also stems from strong policy supervision. The size of the window left by the policy determines the room for cryptocurrencies to dance.
At the end of 2023, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the US Department of Justice successively issued sky-high fines against the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, with a cumulative amount of 4.3 billion US dollars. Today, the regulatory pressure Binance is facing seems to have come to an end, but it can be seen that the crypto asset market is still facing serious compliance challenges.
The precision of Sun Yuchen's layout is reflected in this. While going through the bear market, Sun Yuchen turned his main focus to building compliance. In 2021, Bochang TRON's joint asset management company VanEck successfully launched TRX ETN on the German Stock Exchange and entered the mainstream financial markets of 16 European countries. In 2022, Wavefield TRON became the national public chain of Dominica, and Wavefield tokens have the status of fiat currency in the country.
Notably, Changpeng Zhao, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, also retweeted the news: Wave and Dominica have begun a promising beginning.
In terms of architecture, Bochang TRON and Huobi HTX are both promoting decentralization. In particular, Bochang TRON has completely decentralized governance and is currently the largest decentralized organization (DAO).
While ensuring the stable operation of the platform in European and American countries, Wavefield TRON penetrated the world and focused on emerging economies such as Southeast Asia, South America, and Africa.
Although the economic level is not well developed, what Sun Yuchen saw was that these countries' local currency values fluctuated greatly, and bank outlets were scarce, and the wave market network could provide payment services such as transfers and transactions to local people.
In Sun Yuchen's view, this is where the value of Wave Field TRON lies. He once mentioned in an interview that most people in the world don't have bank accounts because banks don't want to serve these people. “For people in most countries such as Vietnam, Argentina, and Turkey, the first time they have an encrypted address is also the first time in their lives that they use financial services.”
The sinking world has contributed a significant amount of trading volume to cryptocurrencies. Over the past 30 days, the average number of transactions per day for BOCHANG TRON has exceeded 6.32 million, an increase of 11.5% over the previous month. Bochang TRON is far lower than the BTC and ETH networks in terms of transfer speed and cost (the transfer cost is only about 15% of the previous two), making it the most important transfer protocol.
Compared to traditional finance or other transaction chains, Wavefield TRON is lower in cost, cheaper and more affordable. People can sell virtual assets when they are bearish on Bitcoin, but they can't easily abandon the wave market ecosystem.
Inclusive value rather than investment value is the anchor for Sun Yuchen's sinking in the bear market.
At the same time, Sun Yuchen is losing weight for herself. He optimized the structure of the platform, saved resources, reduced costs and increased efficiency. The data shows that in the first three quarters of 2023 (results for the fourth quarter have not yet been calculated), the entire group was profitable, and total profit continued to grow.
Building compliance, reducing market layout, reducing costs and increasing efficiencySun Yuchen's three-handed operation enabled him to get through the virtual market downturn cycle without risk and stand at the starting point of a new round of bull markets.
In a recent interview, he was full of confidence in the new cycle. “It will take time for 8 billion people to accept cryptocurrencies, but it has become 100% certain. This is what I think is the greatest certainty, and I think it is very different from the last cycle.”
III. THE MOST FURTHEST JOURNEY
On March 22, 2023, US time, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a lawsuit against Sun Yuchen and his three wholly-owned companies.
Sun Yuchen believes that the US SEC's digital asset regulatory framework is still in its infancy and needs further development. “Given the important role the cryptocurrency industry can play, we are eager to cooperate with global governments and regulators committed to establishing transparent regulations and cooperative standards.”
Changes in the coin industry are always a flash of light, but in terms of long-term development, what is most scarce in blockchain finance is longevity.
An emerging technology and the track it belongs to require a long cycle of construction. However, Sun Yuchen, who has always been out of the news, is an adherent of the long-term principle. This is probably also the reason why he was able to get through the cycle.
This also doesn't match what outsiders think of him. Sun Yuchen in the hot news is assertive, smart, and impatient, yet another trader, Sun Yuchen is calm, calm, and good at patience and waiting.
His field, TRON, was born in 2017. Back then, sharing economy projects blossomed everywhere, unmanned cars were being pressured, the banner of new retail swayed, and internet finance was flocking to the market.
Seven years later, the popularity was scattered, and few people mentioned it again. New retail turned around and left, and internet finance left a mess. The only thing that was often mentioned in the news was AI and live e-commerce. In the end, even entrepreneur became a distant term.
Seven years have passed, and long-term philosophy is no longer being sought after, and value investing has become an old dream. Instead, Sun Yuchen is still continuing to do what he did seven years ago, and as a result, has gone through the cycle.
This is actually another of Sun Yuchen's core chassis.Because of persistence, we are not afraid of ups and downs; because of persistence, we can stay on the field; because of persistence, we can get stronger and stronger.
In Sun Yuchen's signature sly smile, she actually has the confidence of an idealist. Compared to entrepreneurs who are chasing the trend, he believes more in the trends he has identified and that blockchain will lead to the future.
Currently, 40% of the world's 300 million crypto population is located in Asia, and the total number of Bochang TRON accounts has exceeded 200 million. In other words, more than half of the crypto users have joined the Wave Field ecosystem.
In 2007, Sun Yuchen's essay title in the New Concept Essay Contest was “The Longest Journey from Here”, about ideals and ambitions.
Butterflies inflame his wings, and this is where he began his journey. This essay won him the first prize in the competition and was able to participate in an interview for Peking University's independent admissions, so after graduation, he went to the US to study, come into contact with Bitcoin, and became one of the earliest holders of cryptocurrencies.
In addition to the essay, Sun Yuchen also chose the furthest path.After wearing a “bear,” a longer and unknown journey awaits him.
