Seg Square is the main distribution center for bitcoin mining machines, graphics cards and hard disks. Seg Square, 10 floor, mainly sells computers and electronic parts. There are more than 20 shops selling mining machines and video cards, mainly on the third and fifth floors, and most of them have the words "mine" and "technology".
The turning point of policy occurred in May 20021year. Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Yunnan, Sichuan and other places have successively introduced virtual currency mining bans.
On 20021May 19, the People's Bank of China issued a notice to prevent the risk of virtual currency speculation in official WeChat account, requiring financial and payment institutions not to accept cryptocurrency as a payment and settlement tool, nor to provide services and products related to cryptocurrency. Subsequently, the the State Council Financial Stability and Development Committee held a meeting, demanding to strengthen the supervision of financial activities of platform enterprises, severely crack down on bitcoin mining and trading, and resolutely prevent individual risks from being transmitted to the social field.
In order to avoid risks, some merchants in SEG Plaza covered the word "mining machine" in the product name with tape.
Gao Ling, a professional coin speculator in Beijing, exclaimed. Her account lost the market value of about 70 bitcoins last month.
Seven years ago, after graduating from college, she entered an internet company in Beijing and got in touch with blockchain and bitcoin.
In 20 19, the bitcoin market gradually rose. At that time, Gao Ling and his family had an argument about buying a house. In a rage, she put the money for buying a house into the real estate account. After earning a few dollars, she simply resigned from the company to speculate in coins. "Because the money is earned by myself, there is no support or opposition from the family who resigned."
At the peak of 202 1 may 12, the market value of all virtual currencies in gaoling account was about 89 bitcoins.
In addition to buying bitcoin, she will also buy other cryptocurrencies on the trading platform, but in the end they are all denominated in bitcoin. Based on the closing price of USD 49,000, the account fund is about USD 4.36 million (about RMB 2,826,543.8+0,000).
Now, after experiencing the biggest loss in her life, she only has the market value of 2 1 bitcoin, which is about 723,000 US dollars (about 4.68 million RMB), only one-sixth of the peak period.
"This is really terrible. You just watch the money in your account decrease a little. " Recalling the plunge, Gao Ling was a little excited. "Compared with the risk brought by the falling currency price, I was more worried about stepping on the air, because I thought it would go up, so I didn't choose to sell it."
After this round of plunge, Gao Ling changed most other currencies into bitcoin, which increased the ability to resist risks, but did not add positions.
The currency circle cooled down, and in May 2009, 65438+ became a node that affected the development of the industry. The cryptocurrency market, which has always been popular, experienced a waterloo-style plunge on this day, which led some investors to explode their positions and even leave the currency circle directly.
On that night 10, Coin, a cryptocurrency trading platform, showed that in the past 24 hours, the market exploded about 5.92 billion US dollars (about 38 billion RMB), and the number of people who broke positions was nearly 480,000.
On the afternoon of May 19, Zhang Bin was still on a business trip. When he saw that the price of bitcoin was falling, he used his mobile phone to operate, entered the market to bargain-hunting, and added several times leverage through contract transactions. "After half an hour, there will be panic selling in the market. If you don't cut the meat and sell it, you will face the danger of explosion. "
Coinmarket Cap, a cryptocurrency data website, shows that on May 19, the price of Bitcoin dropped from $43,546 to $3,0681USD, a decrease of 29.5%, and the transaction volume also reached a new high in the past three months.
In the traditional financial field, futures contracts are more used to hedge risks. But in virtual currency trading, contract trading is mainly used to amplify leverage. Zhang Bin said with emotion, "I lost 7 million in half an hour. I'm still fine. I lost tens of millions and hundreds of millions that day. "
Since 202 1, the price of bitcoin once climbed to a historical high of $64,455 on April 14, while the price in the same period last year was only $6,842, an increase of 842%. Compared with the historical record of Bitcoin, the decline in May 19 was not large, but the market value has doubled, causing many investors to suffer heavy losses.
Zhang Bin is a professional player in the currency circle. He has been in contact with bitcoin for seven or eight years. He is a well-known trading expert in the industry and usually trades every day. Zhang Bin first came into contact with Bitcoin when he was in college, during which he had intermittent speculation, but he lost more and won less.
20 17, Zhang Bin has been working in Shenzhen. He saw the bitcoin market rising, so he chose to short bitcoin, but not only lost a lot of money, but also owed debts.
Zhang Bin chose to take risks and borrowed a small loan of 2,000 yuan from the Internet to make a quick short-term profit. One night, I earned 40 thousand. After paying off 20,000 yuan, I changed the remaining money into the currency that was relatively hot at that time, and earned hundreds of thousands in two or three days.
In Zhang Bin's view, the hot market of that period didn't even need investment skills. "It is normal to spend 654.38+00,000 yuan to buy a coin for two or three months, and the market value will be 654.38+00 times."
Through frequent leveraged trading and bull market boost, Zhang Bin quickly earned tens of millions in more than a year.
Although this round is facing huge losses, the price of Bitcoin is close to the highest value this year, and Zhang Bin still chooses to trade every day.
On 20021May 18, China Internet Finance Association, China Banking Association and China Payment and Clearing Association jointly issued the Announcement on Preventing Speculation Risks in Virtual Currency Trading (hereinafter referred to as the Announcement of the Three Meetings), reminding investors that virtual currency has no real value support and its price is easily manipulated, and there are multiple risks in related speculative trading activities, such as false assets risk, business failure risk and investment speculation risk.
The entire cryptocurrency market plummeted, which also made the virtual currency trading platform panic.
Li Jin is a key account manager of a virtual currency exchange, mainly providing information consulting services to customers. He himself is also a senior virtual currency enthusiast. 20 19 resigned from a domestic brokerage firm and joined a virtual currency exchange.
When the price of Bitcoin exceeded $60,000, Li Jin made a huge investment and chose to short. The break-even point was set at $35,000, and he earned nearly10 million RMB.
According to Li Jin, although some investors chose to leave after serious losses, some investors still asked him if he could enter the market after the price plummeted.
Late at night on May 19, tuya received a message reminding that the trading volume of the platform rose rapidly that day, ten times as much as usual. Tuya is the chief operating officer of AAX, a virtual currency trading platform.
Tuya was very surprised when he saw the data. "After discovering that the price of the currency plummeted, the first reaction was to turn to Musk's Twitter and start chatting with colleagues to discuss the reasons."
However, as soon as May 19 passed, the transaction volume began to decline, and soon it was lower than the previous average. Li Jin said frankly, "It has been sideways for a month now, and it will last for at least half a month."
The income of virtual currency exchange is mainly through collecting transaction fees. Li Jin takes his exchange as an example. "At present, if you buy and sell immediately, the handling fee is about six ten thousandths; If it is a pending order pricing, the handling fee is four ten thousandths. "
The price of bitcoin has plummeted and the market is sluggish, which will also bring difficulties in pulling new products. When the market is good, there will be a steady stream of funds entering the market. Exchanges don't have to spend too much time on marketing strategies. Once the market deteriorates, new marketing strategies need to be replaced.
At the same time, the exchange is also facing more serious transaction compliance problems.
In 20 17, the central bank issued regulations prohibiting the issuance and financing of tokens and prohibiting cryptocurrency trading platforms from engaging in the exchange between legal tender and cryptocurrency. Since then, individuals in China cannot directly use RMB to buy cryptocurrency from exchanges and other institutions.
At present, residents with accounts in China want to buy bitcoin, mainly by over-the-counter transactions. Individuals can use RMB to buy bitcoin on the cryptocurrency trading platform, or convert it into a stable currency equivalent to US dollars for purchase. However, the whole process is a personal transaction, and the account is also paid to the other party's personal account, in which the platform assumes the role of matching and ensuring transaction security similar to Taobao.
The "Announcement" of the three associations believes that from the current judicial practice in China, the virtual currency transaction contract is not protected by law, and the consequences and losses caused by investment transactions can only be borne by the relevant parties themselves.
On May 18, after the announcement of the People's Bank of China, some exchanges closed their OTC transactions one after another. On May 19, Matcha MXC Exchange suspended off-exchange trading. Subsequently, Firecoin Exchange, one of the three cryptocurrency exchanges, announced the cancellation of off-site block trading.
On June 2 1, the People's Bank of China announced that it had recently interviewed Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Postal Bank, Industrial Bank and Alipay, demanding that the capital accounts of virtual currency exchanges and over-the-counter dealers be thoroughly identified and that the payment of transaction funds be cut off in time.
(At the request of the interviewee, Zhao Lan, Gao Ling, Zhang Bin, Li Jin and Sharla Cheung are pseudonyms. )