Xiaolai Li is often described as “China’s richest Bitcoin Billionaire”. He is a Bitcoin billionaire and the founder of the Chinese venture capital firm Bitfund.
His last net worth estimation put him worth around 7 billion yuan or 1 billion USD. Xiaolai Li was one of the major proponents of Bitcoin from the beginning of its popularisation in 2008.
Amongst the current Cryptocurrency investors circle, he is considered quite a controversial figure due to his recent views on the Bitcoin revolution and digital currency’s future.
In this article, you will learn more about how Xiaolai Li became one of the most prominent and influential names in the game and what achievements and contributions he made to the blockchain investors circle.
Early Life
Xiaolai Li was born on 12 July 1972 in the Heilongjiang province of China. He describes his study at a junior high school in a negative light and talks about how it was a waste of time.
He later went to Changchun with dreams of becoming an accountant but ended up not learning enough to become a good accountant and instead having to settle for becoming a salesman for expensive goods in the computer city.
It was at this point his friend Luo Yonghao convinced him to start teaching at the New Oriental as an English prep teacher to pay off his debt.
While in Oriental he wrote many best-selling books like “TOFEL Core Vocabulary 21-day Breakthrough” which earned him quite a substantial bit of money.
He believed that education and knowledge gathering were of utmost importance for any person for personal career advancement.
Xiaolai Li’s Entry into Bitcoin Investing and Mining
Xiaolai Li found his way into Bitcoin investing while he worked at Oriental. His initial investments in Bitcoin had earned him a considerable amount of gains and at times helped him to double or triple his investments.
It was in 2008 with the release of Bitcoin white paper that Li decided to quit his teaching career and start a foreign study consultation business. It was one of the initial ventures he set up in his lifetime as a businessman. This was just the time of his career when he tried his luck with Bitcoin mining after seeing it rise to $24 in value.
He and his partner could however only recover about 10,000 yuan from the 600,000 yuan which they had invested. This however did not discourage him as he decided to use it as a learning experience and focus on a different investment approach of selling whenever the prices rose and buying them back at a lower price when they went low.
His strategy then went on to earn him a fortune and earn him millions of dollars earning him the name of “China’s richest Bitcoin Billionaire”.
Two years later Yi founded the cryptocurrency venture capital fund Bitfund and appointed Hangzhou blockchain investor Grandshores Technology Group, as part of a project to create a Hong Kong-based stablecoin.
Current life as an Investor and later controversies
His investment model and personal success in trading were looked up to by many investors in the circle with too much of the focus on him such that it was quite disappointing for them when he later ousted Bitcoin as being just a string of virtual numbers with no inherent value in them.
He later made a rant about some of the most popular Bitcoin exchanges and coins calling them a scam and calling the brokers cheaters.
In September 2018, Lee finally put out a message that he was no longer going to be leading any projects related to blockchain technologies and that any rumors of such should be dismissed as such.
The statement along with his later cashing out of around 13.5 billion yuan shortly afterwards got him a amount of heat from other investors calling him a liar and an immoral human being.
However despite all these accusations he still urges people to not fall into the false hope of wealth in such projects.
Despite its poor reception by others, Li personally believes that his philosophy was the right course of action. He expressed his desire to serve as an example, aiming to educate and guide people toward a more conscientious and understanding investment strategy.
The Bottom Line
Xiaolai Li even with his eventful career journey and later life choices still remains a unique individual within the investment circle for being a champion for his risk-taking behavior and wide knowledge of the industry.
His philosophy whether it be objectively or subjectively taken should be considered along with his achievements and the impacts that he has made in the lives and careers of investors all around the world.
