An interview with a former Binance listing manager: How to make money in the crypto world? Who controls Bitcoin's price fluctuations?

Guest: Chase, former Binance Listing Manager

Podcast source: Class Representative Stands at Attention

Broadcast date: February 10, 2026

Guest identity : Chase, former listing manager at Binance. During his tenure, he handled approximately 1,000-2,000 projects and personally oversaw the token launches of about 100 projects. The data he handled was of extremely high quality, representing a top-level perspective in the industry.

Core Insight : He believes the cryptocurrency market (especially the exchange environment) is a "no-acting" financial battlefield. Unlike the stock market, which is still cloaked in financial reports, it's rife with liquidity games and market maker manipulation. He observes that Bitcoin's candlestick charts can be manipulated by large players to create perfect "artificial patterns" to assert their dominance. In this market, information, traffic, attention, and even insider information are assets in themselves ; as long as there is liquidity, they can be priced.

Key viewpoints summary

1. Macroeconomic factors and cryptocurrency valuation logic

• The truth behind the US stock market bull market : Since the dot-com bubble, the S&P 500 has been in a long-term bull market, but this may not be the case when compared to gold. The core reason for this phenomenon is the continuous expansion of the money supply .

• Asset Price Support : Newly issued currency must find asset backing. As goods and services growth (GDP) lags behind the rate of money supply and credit growth, excess money, besides creating bubbles, must flow into new asset classes. Cryptocurrencies, with their low-cost issuance and lack of centralized verification, have become an excellent container for global spillover liquidity.

• Cryptocurrency valuation system : Unlike traditional finance which focuses on cash flow, the short-to-medium-term performance of cryptocurrency assets is determined by three factors:

• Liquidity
• Traffic/Attention
• Tokenomics

2. Market manipulation and the mindset of "market makers"

• Can Bitcoin be manipulated? : Yes. Chase once observed that Bitcoin rose for seven consecutive days in a week with almost the same magnitude and trading volume, before plummeting. This was not a natural fluctuation, but rather a signal from large financial groups (market makers/market manipulators) to the market – “I control the rhythm; those who understand follow, and those who don’t get eaten up.”

• Everything can be priced : In the world of crypto, information, traffic, and even insider information (such as Polymarket prediction markets) can be assetized. When most people reach a "consensus," it is often the moment to reap the rewards.

• A market where there's no pretense : Exchanges like Binance vividly demonstrate what naked trading looks like. There are value investors here, but more often, there are market makers who see through liquidity and short-term gains—a financial battlefield where "there's no pretense."

3. Cutting-edge trend: The combination of AI Agent and Crypto

• The measurement challenge of AI : In the future, the economic volume generated by AI agents will exceed that of humans, but the existing GDP system cannot measure the micro-transactions of AI (API calls, data exchanges).

• Crypto as infrastructure : Crypto is a natural financial infrastructure for AI. It can provide measurement and settlement accurate to every tiny transaction, without the cumbersome trust processes of the banking system. Crypto may be for AI, not for humans.

4. Industry Insights and Wealth Opportunities

• The exorbitant profits of stablecoins : Tron holds a large amount of USDT. Tether (the issuer of USDT) earns approximately $15 billion a year, exceeding the combined losses of OpenAI and Anthropic. This is a risk-free arbitrage model relying on the interest rate differential between US Treasury bonds, making it the industry's true "cash cow."

• Capital equality : Crypto's biggest change in production relations lies in "capital equality." Regardless of who you are, as long as you meet the criteria, your funds can obtain equal returns (such as DeFi yields), breaking the traditional banks' discriminatory treatment of retail investors and high-net-worth clients.

5. Career Advice

Regarding getting rich quick : This industry does indeed have a "spiritual energy" bonus. Ordinary people who work hard (such as taking advantage of airdrops) may earn more than those in traditional manufacturing. However, in the end, the big money still flows to "Nascent Soul cultivators" (top players) or is redistributed.

Advice for newcomers : First, understand two things— Bitcoin (as an asset allocation) and stablecoins (as a payment revolution). Don't just focus on speculation; see the opportunities brought about by the transformation of the payment system.

◦ 2026 Prediction : Bitcoin will rise, but possibly in ways you wouldn't expect (through pricing all information and liquidity games).

Opening remarks and guest introductions: The power of the person in charge of listing on Binance

Class representative : Hello everyone, welcome Chase, a very mysterious and influential figure in the cryptocurrency world, to our program. Chase, please introduce yourself.

Chase : Hi everyone, I used to be a powerful figure, but now I'm all gone, haha. I'm leaving to pursue my dreams, giving up a lot of power. Hi everyone, I'm Chase. Like the class representative said, my most recent job was as a Listing Manager at Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the crypto world. This job mainly helped the founders mint their tokens. Between the time I joined and the time I left Binance, its annual trading volume had reached the level of Nasdaq, so it had a significant scale.

Class representative : Let me explain your job to everyone. These people issue a coin, but if they want to trade it on Binance, which has the trading volume of Nasdaq, it has to go through your team. My understanding, and you might not be able to say it exactly like that, is roughly similar to the position at the Securities and Exchange Commission that decides whether a company can go public. So all the founders are very... hh

Chase : Functionally similar, but cannot be defined in this way in a legal sense.

Class representative : Okay, please continue. How big is your team? And what is your role in it?

Chase : Our team has about a dozen people. My official title here is Listing Building Manager. We used to have four people, but now there are fewer. These four people are the ones who can actually approach people externally, talk to them, understand their concerns, guide them, and explain how things should be done (A, B, C, D). That's roughly it.

Class Representative : Wow, I think your background contains several very important pieces of information. First, you definitely review a lot of projects; you're probably one of the people in the world who reviews the most crypto projects, because it's your job. Second, because you genuinely wield real power—we won't shy away from this, especially since you're leaving soon—there's no longer any conflict of interest. Therefore, the founders value you highly; the core resources and information you receive are very firsthand and authentic, which has helped you develop your judgment. Third, one of your job's aspects involves communicating within the industry, so you've certainly formed your own opinions and insights. I think these aspects give you a unique position. So, what would you like to share with everyone today?

Chase : I think the most I can share with everyone is how the entire model looks after I input so much data. And I think my data is relatively high-quality data, so it shouldn't be considered garbage. I can share the highest quality data with everyone very honestly. From the time I joined the company until last year, a total of about two and a half years, I reviewed about 1,000 to 2,000 projects. Last year, I supported about 100 projects that actually launched their tokens successfully.

Class representative : Tell us what the concept behind this number is, whether you're looking at the project or the launch project.

Chase : You can understand evaluating projects like a VC does. You need to look at the deck, the team, talk to them, call them, and make your own judgments—that's the basics. A VC who reviews 200 projects a year is considered quite good, that's impressive. You also need to constantly communicate with the founders. But I reviewed over 1,000 projects in two years, and last year alone, 100 were listed. What does 100 mean? When I first joined Binance, they only listed about 20 a year, the entire company only listed about 20. Then the second year they listed 50 or 60, and by the third year, it was 25. Last year, I alone listed 100. And then the bull market came. How many were listed in total? Around 250 or 300, I guess.

Class representative : Anyway, you take up almost half the country by yourself.

Chase : 1/3. No, no, about 1/3. Because there are only four of us in total. The success rate of this screening is about 5% to 10%.

Crypto's Worldview: The Tertiary Sector and AI Infrastructure

Chase : I'd like you to explain this world to everyone first. How do people who might not understand crypto understand this world? First, you can think of it as a virtual world. This world has its own economic cycle mechanism. If you consider it as a country, then it needs the US dollar as liquidity support. But its output, its export, is its service sector. It only has services, only the tertiary industry. Its primary industry, what does it need—agriculture? It needs computing power and electricity.

Class representative : How do you understand this sentence? What does it mean that the output is the tertiary industry? Because we often say things like, "Can we use Bitcoin to buy pizza?", right? But that's not it.

Chase : The reason I call it the tertiary sector is that although Bitcoin has a large market share, 50% to 60%, it's not the core of this industry. We're talking about places where bubbles can be inflated; it can serve as a store of value, but it can't provide many services. A store of value is essentially what we call liquidity support. Why do I call it the tertiary sector? Because this industry, for example, since Ethereum emerged, many smart contracts can enable certain functions, such as DeFi, which can have a significant impact on the traditional financial industry. And I remember someone saying a few weeks ago that within the next two years, around 2026 and 2027, almost all the mainstream Wall Street institutions will be on-chain.

Class representative : Regarding DeFi, we previously invited Richard Youzhong (founder of Huma Finance) to our channel to talk about his projects. Basically, it helps companies already engaged in trade to reduce financial friction, whether it's currency exchange or lending, helping them reduce friction and improve efficiency. It's a very clear example of a service bringing value to traditional or non-crypto sectors.

Chase : Yes.

Class representative : Could you please list out what you consider to be the most important points?

Chase : You just mentioned where this industry provides services and value, which is correct. But besides that, this industry has something very special about it. For example, flash loans. Most people probably haven't heard of them. What does it mean? For instance, when you borrow money from someone or a bank, you either need collateral, right? Or you need a very high credit score or something like that. You need something for the bank to lend to you. The power of flash loans is that you can complete the lending and collection process without any collateral, and without any risk to the bank. Almost all payment-related cryptocurrencies can be enabled.

Chase : The most important thing, and what I might be writing soon, is a paper related to AI. Let's say, five years from now, if AI continues to develop using the scaling laws we have now, the number of AI agents will definitely exceed the population, right? Based on this assumption, how do you measure the economic behavior generated between AI agents? You call its API, FINE, which is currently a subscription model. But often, I might only need a lot of long-tail data, for example, data that only you have, or data that only I have. How do I settle a single call? Right? The amount of data obtained is very, very small, and the existing banking system can't handle the settlement. All these economic behaviors need to be measured first. Secondly, everyone needs to trust this for it to succeed. This is where Crypto can be enabled or collaborate with AI. This is also why many people in the industry think that Crypto itself might not be for human use; we designed it this way so that it might be for AI in the future.

Class representative : When I interviewed Youzhong, he also mentioned something that I still remember: he believes that AI is a productive force, while Crypto is a production relation.

Chase : Actually, crypto also has productive forces and relations of production. But crypto can truly change the relations of production because, to put it more broadly and ideally, it involves the concept of capital equality. Imagine if you live in mainland China, you're used to Alipay and Yu'ebao, right? It's natural for your money to automatically earn interest there. But in North America or Europe, you might have to go to a bank, where there are thresholds, and the interest rates are very low. But crypto completely equalizes the world. Money is money. I don't care whose money it is; as long as you deposit it and meet my standards, you can get the same returns.

Macro Perspective: US Stocks, Gold, and Currency Illusion

Class representative : As mentioned earlier, payment itself is a large system within this framework, and crypto can provide a lot of value within it. Changing production relations is another form of value. Are there any other points where, in your opinion, crypto offers significant value?

Chase : To put it more realistically, it can help all countries with excessive liquidity absorb more liquidity without affecting inflation.

Class representative : I understand it's about storing value. Do you think there's a significant difference between this and gold?

Chase : That's an excellent question. Look at the link I shared with you; there's a screenshot there. What is that screenshot? First, let me ask you a question: do you think the US stock market, from the Dot-com Bubble to now, is in a bear market or a bull market?

Class representative : It's a bull market.

Chase : Yes, you're talking about the S&P 500, which is in a bull market. But for gold, it's in a bear market. The chart I showed you is illustrating that point.

Class representative : Right. Interesting. It means the money you printed drove the S&P 500's growth, but it still didn't outpace the growth rate of gold, which is an inflation hedge. Wow. So the S&P is even more... attractive than gold.

Chase : This is a research post by Lyn Alden, a very famous author. I can give you the link in a bit.

Class representative : Interesting, interesting, interesting. This is a huge shift in my understanding of investing. Before, my flawed, formally learned investment theories—which were essentially a waste of my time in economics—led me to think that stock prices were the discounted present value of future income. That made sense, right? But then I realized why everyone in the US stock market was saying the bubble was about to burst, that it would crash every 10 years, but it didn't happen. Why? I later realized it's because when too much money is printed, there's nowhere to put it. Before, people couldn't create that much money, but now that so much money has been created, it just has to go somewhere.

Chase : Yes, that's right. You want our goods and services to grow, say, by 5% or a few percent annually, right? Your money supply, including your credit growth, is far exceeding that rate. So, besides becoming bubbles, your excess money needs to find new services or assets to price. Why new assets to price? Because in the cryptocurrency world, cryptocurrencies can be issued continuously at very low cost. And these warrants don't need to be verified by a central institution. So, as long as people believe your asset has value, new liquidity will come in and absorb that liquidity.

Class representative : All I need to do is verify beforehand.

Chase : Yes, you just need to decide for yourself.

Class representative : It's not just you we need! You!

Chase : Oh~ me personally, right? You! No, no, I'm just an employee, an employee. Damn it.

Pricing Everything: Polymarket and Information Assetization

Chase : There's a project that's been quite popular lately called Polymarket, I'm sure you've heard of it.

Class representative : I don't know, can I tell everyone? I've actually heard of him, but I don't know much about him. I always thought he sounded like a scammer, so I stopped watching.

Chase : OK. He first became famous during Trump's election year. Basically, it's a prediction market, or as he calls it, a binary options market. He knew the election results a few hours before they were announced. His logic was that there's always someone in the world with inside information about something.

Class representative : Agreed.

Chase : Then your inside information should be priced, it should be subject to a price.

Class representative : Yes.

Chase : This is a market that sets its price.

Class representative : Okay, he's not a scammer. That makes so much sense. Haha, one sentence convinced me.

Chase : Haha. That's exactly what happened. I have a pretty good relationship with the founder; we often eat and drink together. Now, you can think of it indirectly as a sector that maintains a very strong global presence within the broader context of deglobalization. This sector puts all information on the same network, and all information can be priced. Information can become an asset, traffic can become an asset, any transaction, any idea can become an asset. And as long as this asset has liquidity, it can be absorbed.

The Metrics of the AI ​​Economy and the Failure of GDP

Chase : Like I mentioned before, the reason I wrote the AI ​​paper is that I believe the GDP or economic scale generated by AI agents in the future will definitely exceed the economic scale of humanity. At that time, you can't achieve this without a measurement or sufficient infrastructure. Currently, the readily available infrastructure is Crypto. However, in economics or academia, there isn't an index to describe what these agents actually look like. Right now, we can only estimate what AI might look like in the future through Google reports, OpenAI's funding data, Oracle's data center construction, and CapEx.

Class representative : Understood.

Chase : If you think about it using the first principle, it means that I should measure every agent and every transaction, and it should be very precise.

Class representative : Let me briefly explain this to my channel's viewers. My understanding is that there are two core issues. The first is the actual value of AI, whether it's valuable or not. This is actually very difficult to price. Because if we only look at OpenAI's revenue right now, it's not much, a few tens of billions, right? But Dai Yusen proposed an idea, which I even surveyed at an event: if I bought out your future rights to use ChatGPT, you wouldn't be allowed to use ChatGPT services or any new AI. How much would you be willing to pay to have that right bought out? When I asked about $100,000, only one person raised their hand; out of about 100 people, only one raised their hand. When I asked about $1 million, many people still didn't raise their hands. $1 million—so this thing has immense value, but I can't measure it. The second issue is how much productivity AI actually generates. GDP is actually very difficult to measure.

Chase : It's completely wrong about GDP. G stands for gross, right? But it's not actually gross. Every time you make an API call, you can precisely measure it. Second, it's domestic. AI isn't domestic either; it's global. Third, it's not a product, not a finished product; it's a series of intermediate states. So every word in GDP is wrong. If you use that to measure AI, that's why we absolutely need a new index, at least a micro-level measurement. And it's also important to be able to derive a macro-level index on top of that. We're already writing some of those; we already have a framework.

Class representative : What I mean is that this macro and micro link means you can write a framework, but whether OpenAI will provide you with the measurement is another matter.

Chase : Yes, you're absolutely right. This might mean that when the number of agents reaches a certain level, and one or two killer apps emerge, you might not need OpenAI to manage, care about, or collect your data 100%. You could, for example, host your own agent locally. Then, when this agent is handling complex tasks, you can rely on cloud-based agents. Right? For daily tasks, you can do it from home. I have two MacBooks at home, a MacBook and a Mac mini, and I can connect them to run a 31B model from Qianwen at home. My data is all local, and it works very well.

Bitcoin 2026 and Market Manipulation: The Market Makers Who "Stop Acting"

Class representative : Hmm, we're back to value creation. Let's talk about money first, hahaha. Let's start with the question everyone's most concerned about: Will Bitcoin rise or fall in 2026? Let's make a prediction.

Chase : It will rise. It will definitely rise, it will definitely reach an all-time high. But in what way, it will probably be in a way you never thought of.

Class representative : Why?

Chase : Let's go back to my previous topic. All information can now be priced. Now, in the crypto world, anyone can be priced within this network. When everyone reaches a consensus, that consensus will be priced, and there will be those who oppose the consensus to cash out you. Okay, this might be a bit deep. If you've ever been a market maker, if you know about quant trading, you'll find it's always a case of the big fish eating the small fish. But in the process of the minority eating the majority, when the majority forms a large consensus, you'll likely become a target. Others will price you as that target.

Class representative : It means that when everyone thinks something is going to fall, it actually rises. It doesn't fall. Why? Because when you know it will fall, when you're convinced it will fall, you've already been socially engineered. I'm talking about the general public, not you personally. But this feeling isn't new; it's the operating logic of stock market manipulators.

Chase : Yes.

Class representative : Is there anyone who can manipulate the Bitcoin market? It's such a huge market. Or is it really that big?

Chase : Bitcoin's market capitalization is currently around 2.5-3 trillion US dollars, so it's quite substantial. It's about 1/10th the size of gold. Around February or April last year, there was a week where Bitcoin's daily candlestick chart showed it rising for seven consecutive days with the same magnitude and volume, then suddenly falling. What does this mean? This pattern usually appears when a strong player controls the entire market. In other words, some person or group wanted to announce to the world that they had control of Bitcoin—it's that simple.

Class representative : OK, he not only controlled it, but he also directly told everyone that he was sending a clear signal.

Chase : Yes. What he wants is for you to join him, for those who understand him to join him and devour those who don't.

Class representative : Oh my god, I'll check what it is right away and find it for you.

Chase : Let me find it for you, wow haha. This industry is really, really interesting.

Class representative : Who is this person?

Chase : There's no specific person involved, and you'll never know who it is. It's like this: there are many market makers here, and traditional financial market makers and crypto market makers often overlap. These market makers don't look at fundamentals; they only look at market liquidity and the signals they believe in. Once those signals appear, they trigger it. This trading method, the situation I just described, falls into what category? Either the market liquidity at that time was controlled by these few people using the same algorithm, so everyone corroborated each other, "OK guys, we're all in this together," right? Or they felt that other people with chips or money wouldn't participate, wouldn't enter their game at that time. About a year ago, on some day a year ago, I came down to find you.

Class representative : Okay~ I found the screenshot and sent it to you. Continuing. Bitcoin has shown a trend that insiders know is being manipulated by experts. If that's the case, then it's definitely as you said, that he can already profit from the situation, and he knows how to do it this way. Everyone understands.

Valuation System: Liquidity, Attention, and Shareholding Structure

Class Representative : So, next, you just mentioned Bitcoin, which aligns with my understanding. Bitcoin is a store of value within the blockchain, essentially a vault-like system similar to gold, used for transactions. The real issue is that making or losing big money here depends on factors outside of Bitcoin itself. The value of gold, regardless of fluctuations, is relatively stable. Even if it reaches its all-time high, it might only be a 30-40% increase from its current level. Besides leveraged trading, what else do you see?

Chase : This might bring us back to some of your previous learning in traditional economics. First, valuation drives the market, right? Second, liquidity, or the real fundamentals. However, the valuation system in the crypto world is different from traditional finance. It mainly consists of three parts. One is liquidity. Another is traffic, which is attention. The last is the entire token structure, what we call tokenomics. These three components almost determine what your asset will look like in the short to medium term. Nobody looks at the long term, nobody looks at the long term.

Class representative : How short is "short-term"?

Chase : Generally, it takes 7 days to 3 months to get a general idea of ​​an asset's trajectory. However, for example, projects like Richard's are actually very good, but because they lacked experience in token issuance, their launch wasn't particularly successful. But in the long run, these projects are definitely worth paying attention to. For instance, they recently launched Defensive Loopring, a new feature. It essentially leverages assets they consider low-risk, preventing losses. It's almost at the smart contract level. The result? It can give you an annualized return of around 17% to 16%. A dozen points is very considerable. And there's no upper limit on the amount of capital; you can put in a few million and sit back and relax.

Chase : That's a great example of why their coins didn't rise in price. Even with such excellent underlying performance, what determines the coin's price or the gap in between? Once your coin, this asset, is in circulation, frankly, firstly, you can't control it anymore; it's all market behavior.

Class representative : Yes.

Chase : But because of the market, the main players in this market pricing are either retail investors who don't understand it, or market makers who have very strong capital but don't care about value; they only care about short-term profits. So this leads to everyone choosing short-term gains and not long-term investments. So when should you enter the market? Especially for people like you, or traditional financial professionals, or even in my current situation, if you want to invest for the long term, it's after the first wave is over, when everyone realizes that the token still has value, and its value is no longer affected by liquidity and attention. At this point, the valuation is relatively fair. For example, if you look at Richard's project Huma, its current valuation is probably only around 300 million, or 300 million US dollars. But in my opinion, it's worth at least two billion; it's just waiting for the right opportunity. The hype is basically over now.

Class representative : Yes.

Chase : exactly. That speculative wave is over.

Class representative : I think looking at Crypto transactions, like those on Binance, vividly illustrates how the stock market has a so-called value component, a trading component, and a component involving speculation or market manipulation, which can be difficult to discern. But on Crypto, it's particularly clear and obvious.

Chase : So it was all done to the fullest extent, no one was acting, no one was acting.

Class representative : Yes. It's not an act.

Chase : No, it's not an act. Because it's not defined as security yet, there are very few regulations governing it. So many people start doing wrong, right? It's hard to avoid.

Industry Figures: Justin Sun, Tether, and the Truth Behind Excessive Profits

Class Representative : Now, let's introduce someone who doesn't act at all. Or perhaps he's entirely acting, like the Marquis of Nanlong from the novel *A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality*, which I've been watching recently. He's playing himself, a deeply scheming person. Sun Ge, Sun Yuchen, you should know a lot about his story. I think he's a good case study. Can you tell us about the characters in this story and their underlying motives? It's all very confusing; he's everywhere, so it's unclear whether he's really rich or just pretending. How do you tell? Can you give us some inside information?

Chase : Insider information... Let's talk about Nanlonghou first. After all, he's a descendant of Cangkun Shangren, right? They'd definitely keep it a secret. In the cultivation world of Wang Yu (the author of *A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality*), it's all about intrigue and backstabbing. You can't help it; that's his protective shield. Even so, he still got tricked, right? So it's hard to say. As for Sun Ge, I have no personal interaction with him, so I can't really comment on him. But he's genuinely wealthy; that's common knowledge in the industry. Knowing he's very rich might be a question mark for outsiders, but within the industry, it's 100% certain.

Class representative : So what information does this person in the industry know? It should be publicly available information, right? Does he have a publicly available address?

Chase : It's the publicly available address on the blockchain. They have a public chain called Tron, right? You know USDT, right? Actually, USDT's largest parking space is on Tron. In other words, Tron and USDT have a symbiotic relationship, at least before. And think about how much currency USDT has printed—I forget if it's 60% or some other percentage—I can check now, but it's better to share the real data. There are currently 4.7 billion in Tron, the so-called TVL. USDT has 80 billion in Tron. What does that mean? It means its largest holding is Ethereum at 46.77%, and the second largest is Tron at 43.07%, which is over 80%.

Chase : USDT and Tether have an annual revenue of $15 billion. Their net profit is almost... Think about it, OpenAI loses billions a year, Anthropic loses billions a year, and the combined revenue of those two is less than Tether's. You lose less money than they earn.

Class representative : Where does Tether get its revenue? Is it from these transaction fees?

Chase : No, Tether is the issuer of USDT. The underlying logic is, for example, you give me $1, and I use that dollar to buy T-bill (US Treasury bonds). After buying the T-bill, I give you the USDT token. So for you, you've exchanged $1 for a USDT token, right? It's a one-to-one exchange, and you can go out and have fun. But for me, every dollar that comes in, I can earn the interest from the T-bill issued by the Federal Reserve. As long as my scale is large enough, I can keep earning this interest rate spread of 3.5%. That's the amount of interest I earn right now, around $15 billion a year.

Class representative : Haha. Sun Ge is really rich. Shall we continue? Shall we continue?

Chase : You're really rich. Haha. I'm not close to Sun Ge, but I can give you some links to gossip stuff. You can check them out. It's not good to talk about people in public like this.

Wealth distribution and the metaphor of "cultivating immortality"

Class Representative : Hmm...that's true. How about we talk about the stories of people getting rich quick in the crypto world? Who are these people? We just talked about the essence or value of this place, and its current state, right? For example, it's not a staged event. It's actually a very clear trading platform. I think its underlying logic is actually quite clear. So, who are these people involved?

Chase : I've observed this myself; in all the crypto gatherings, the proportion of beautiful women is exceptionally high.

Class representative : That's amazing.

Chase : The proportion of gold diggers is probably particularly high. This can be verified. (Of course) there are also many good women; more than half of my former colleagues were women, and they were all very outstanding. The crypto industry as a whole is essentially a separate world, a separate country. It has everything. The entire Spectrum, from the far left to the far right, has it all. Imagine, on the far right, there's the US president, people with the highest power, and their families involved, doing all sorts of things in the crypto world. On the far left, there are people in jail who have swindled billions from others. It has all kinds of people.

Class Representative : From my perspective, I'm someone who understands technology, and I've even made a few videos about Web3, so I know a bit about it. But I feel completely outside this circle. Aside from buying one Bitcoin, I have absolutely no connection to it. Occasionally, I see people around me saying they're working on Web3. It seems like only a minority of them are making money, but some people seem to have figured out the rules of the game and can rapidly amplify their wealth—the so-called "get rich quick." What percentage of people in this industry do you think truly understand this game?

Chase : First of all, the barrier to entry is not high. As long as you are diligent enough, even if you are a high school student, let's not talk about China, but even in China you know how to access the internet freely, earning tens of thousands of RMB a month is not a problem.

Class representative : Through what means? By transaction or something else?

Chase : By participating in new projects, like airdrops, right? It's actually a part of monetizing traffic. Because this industry has enough liquidity, or a big enough bubble, the economic returns you get for the same amount of time are definitely higher than if you were to do manufacturing or traditional primary and secondary industries.

Class representative : That sounds like the spiritual energy here is incredibly abundant. When Nascent Soul cultivators are fighting, or working on projects, and their Qi Refining stage is over, they're asking for some elixirs. Hahaha!

Chase : That's roughly the idea. Because he's not that aggressive. It seems like he has a lot of money, but there aren't actually that many people. Binance now has about 300 million users, registered users, those who have passed KYC and KYB. But actually, I think the truly active people in this industry are probably less than 1 million. Around 1 million.

Class representative : So what else can we do besides asking for elixirs?

Chase : There are many abstract things involved, like NFTs, which were popular last cycle, right? They're basically just small images. But it's the same model as the Dutch tulip mania. Many people participated, leading to many people becoming rich overnight. How did this sudden wealth come about, and what happened to it? It means that all newcomers can easily achieve the same average income as those with similar understanding, as long as they are diligent enough. Even if someone becomes incredibly wealthy one day, if they don't change, don't improve, and don't enhance their understanding, their money will gradually be distributed to others in the same circle. It's a dynamic process. Because as long as you don't spend the money, it remains in the same place. This is fake, right? It doesn't count as real money.

Chase : That's why I said this industry can capture (slip of the tongue) a lot of excess liquidity without affecting inflation in the real economy. The money's all there, so go ahead and play.

Class representative : It's about Happy Beans. Actually, it's the same thing as tulips, but there are many different kinds.

Chase : There are many styles. And everyone can make their own tulip. There is still an egalitarian concept in it.

Class representative : What are the Nascent Soul cultivators doing?

Chase : Nascent Soul cultivators are also divided into factions, many factions. Some are value-oriented, like Richard, or cash flow-oriented, like our boss. They already have a lot of money, so they may not care about cash flow; they care more about their industry status. Then there are the so-called Hacker Builders, who provide new technologies, such as FHE and ZK, which are also very interesting.

Class representative : Hahaha, refining elixirs.

Chase : And it's very useful. Why is it that without cryptocurrencies, technologies like ZK or FHE are difficult to implement on a large scale in the real world? First, they require a long period of infrastructure investment, and even then, the results aren't guaranteed. But in the crypto community, as long as something is widely recognized, has public good, or has value, it can be priced. That's what makes this community so appealing, I think.

Class representative : But it sounds like the people making big money are those who trade and operate in the market, not the technical people. Especially for those stories to hold true, which is the biggest problem here, the story is very appealing. And for that story to hold true, the technical investment required is actually very, very large. But it seems...

Chase : Yes, that's right.

Class representative : It's difficult to motivate truly skilled people to invest in this. There are two hurdles. First, they might not have enough money. Second, being too close to the money can be a problem. For example, I might think these things sound great and I want to invest, but I know there are many temptations and challenges, a lot of noise and cutthroat competition involved. I don't think I could survive so well here.

Chase : You've actually spoken for most people. Many people want to get into this industry, or do anything like that, but there are definitely various risks involved. Because it's still a relatively unregulated area, not fully formalized yet. But it's getting closer; Binance has already obtained a global license in Abu Dhabi, and compliance will continue to improve.

Advice for beginners: Bitcoin and stablecoins

Chase : Personally, I think everyone should first clear their minds of distractions. Try to understand what this industry is all about. What does it actually do? Why is there so much money in it? Why are so many talented people entering this industry? It's a high-talent, high-capital-density industry. If you don't understand it, it's not the industry's problem, it's yours. That's why I convinced myself to spend eight years doing nothing but diving into this. And it's especially friendly to young people; it doesn't care about your status or background, it only cares about your effort, your serious dedication to learning and studying. You can earn your living expenses, and your initial income will definitely be better than working for someone else. Especially for recent graduates.

Class representative : One last question for you. For our channel's typical audience, say someone in the tech industry who has accumulated some wealth through their work, and who wants to make money in the cryptocurrency world—not to mention participating in its development, but just profiting from it—what advice do you have for them in 2026?

Chase : My advice is that he should at least understand two key aspects of the crypto world first. One is BTC. Whether you treat it as a capital allocation, like gold, or whatever, you can start by buying a small initial position to try it out. But this isn't investment advice. The second thing is stablecoins. I've been sharing with my team since the year before that stablecoins will experience a major boom this year. Last year, this boom was almost certain, and this year it will materialize. This is because almost the entire banking system, the traditional financial system, will be challenged by stablecoin payments. This applies to C2C, B2B, and B2C transactions.

Class representative : My understanding is that stablecoins are a great trading tool, but they don't offer particularly good investment opportunities. Is that correct?

Chase : If you want to look, of course you can look at US stocks, Circle, Robinhood, and Coin (Coinbase). You can check out all three. I think there are still undervalued stocks. For example... I can't name names, haha, there are undervalued ones. But the thing is, you have to understand why something is challenging. Because besides being bullish, you can also be bearish. If the challenged side doesn't react quickly enough, can't you also short it? Right? There are many strategies based on information, a fixed trend, that you can deploy.

About AI courses and learning methods

Class representative : I suddenly had an idea. I could invite you to Superlinear for a paid, closed-door sharing session. It's not investment advice, but I think you've done a lot of research, right? And these are things you can talk about with everyone.

Chase : Of course, of course, wait until I finish catching up on my AI course, hahaha. We didn't even have time to talk about AI, sigh~ hehehe.

Class Representative : A Great Opportunity to Sell the Course. You've actually been following this AI course for a while now. Before, you were incredibly busy with work, working over 10 hours a day on more than 1,000 projects – all that time just piled up, leaving no time to watch it. But now that you're quitting, you can finally watch this course. I've heard you have some insights; could you briefly share them with us?

Chase : This course is perfect for me now that the term "Vibe Coding" has emerged. For me, I might not focus on the details; I might first look at the framework, what can't be used, and what can't be done. For example, I just watched Duck's video today, where he explained that after importing an API key, you need to put it in the `.env` file, right? It shouldn't be passively uploaded. I think these are things that beginners, especially non-engineers, wouldn't know, and this should be emphasized. Even the initial "not-to-do list" is important.

Class representative : Let me tell Duck Bro about this list and summarize it. Hey~ have you watched that course on programming fundamentals in the AI ​​era?

Chase : After reading it, I think it's very useful. When I replied to your message the other day, I had just finished watching half of that course and had deployed my own local host agent to help me look up all that messy transaction data. It's stored on my phone, and it's calling different APIs to look up this information. It's very useful for me. In the future, we might even be able to create a separate MCP (Multi-Channel Programming Platform) to provide a Crypto API for YouKnow.

Class Representative : I think a big benefit of these courses for you is that the specific points they teach are useful—mindset, habits, and so on. But I think a unique value lies in the fact that Duck (the instructor) has enough understanding and a deep enough understanding of first principles, so he dares to say what things are useless and what learning methods are wrong. Many people don't dare to say that because they're afraid of being wrong. And because they lack confidence in their ideas. Duck has completely figured out why things were the way they were before and why they are different now. For example, he can say that using frameworks to learn AI is wrong. Most people don't dare to say that; most people only dare to equivocate.

Chase : You probably need 10 years of experience to understand this. For me, Brother Duck just guided me through the process. But when he guided me, there were many details I had to figure out on my own, and I don't know how many pitfalls I encountered.

Class representative : Yes, yes.

Chase : The reason I'm saying this is because I just wrote an article in the community today. Then someone said, "There are so many free resources online, why buy such an expensive course?" I said, "Compared to the pitfalls this course saves you, it saves you a whole day of time, so the money is well spent." You learn 10 minutes online, then waste a whole day. Basically, that's it. Online resources... are just a drop in the ocean. Look at the courses you two offer, I bought them immediately. I'll check them out when I have time. I've never hesitated. Why? Because I know they're very cheap, a few hundred dollars, especially for people in the crypto world, a few hundred dollars is practically nothing. Those few hundred dollars can help me gain direct access to a new field, understanding it in the most efficient way. This is extremely efficient for investors, especially for someone with my mindset. That's your value, and I fully recognize it.

Future plans: From a power holder to an influencer

Class representative : Thank you, thank you. Let's answer your question. Hmm... how do you think I should maximize the use of my domain knowledge? In terms of your overall value, when you have real power, what's the approximate ratio between real power and your domain knowledge?

Chase : 2:8 means that the actual power is 2.

Class representative : How do others perceive you?

Chase : It may appear upside down to others.

Class representative : In other people's eyes, I think it might be 99:1.

Chase : That's possible. I think I need to think about this first; it's quite normal. Even at a large company, a VP, or something like that, you often find yourself nobody cares when you leave. To be honest, I've always had an open mind. Like when I jumped from investment to crypto, it was the same. My first job was a very basic entry-level job, so I didn't care about that. What I care about is, first and foremost, my vision, my value, needs to be demonstrated. This value, this data, has already been input into my model, and I want to output it. But first, someone needs to ask the right questions, and second, I need a suitable platform for everyone to understand.

Class representative : So what is the so-called "maximizing leverage" outcome you're thinking of? Is it monetary income, influence, or something else? Actually, it's the same as your second question, we can ask it together. Your second question is about prioritizing IP and cash-rich business. Most people don't have money or influence, so since you're still choosing here, do you already have enough money?

Chase : I wouldn't say enough, but I'm not particularly worried about things like home or kids.

Class representative : So what is the outcome you want to maximize leverage?

Chase : My vision is that this industry has another 20-30 years, and I hope to be profiting from the industry's beta phase, with occasional alpha gains. That's one of my goals. As for money? In general, regarding industry growth, fame and fortune are the same thing to me. If you have fame, you'll naturally have profits.

Class Representative : Your situation is quite unique. Let me start with a relatively generic suggestion for someone with a different situation, and then I'll see if we can customize it. My generic suggestion is that starting with knowledge-based paid services is a very reasonable first step in starting a business. Because it's non-standardized with a high average order value, if you try to create a standardized product, it won't justify your time investment. The profit margin for standardized products is very low. And you already have a lot of knowledge, and there's a huge market demand for it. So I think this is a reasonable path. If you're interested, we can discuss whether we can help you with that. The key is to build a basic business and a basic income. Then you can see if you can leverage that to create more revenue. That's roughly the idea.

Class Representative : Also, I think it's very important for you to build your own assets within this framework. And ideally, these assets should be something that can generate cash. For example, isn't this community itself such an asset? And since you're in the crypto world, I don't know much about it, so I don't know what kind of assets exist. It sounds like launching a project like this is possible, or something like that?

Chase : If you want to get into the crypto world, I can take you on a wild ride. Haha, but under the current circumstances, it's not good for your reputation. However, when the crypto world is nearing maturity, that's the best time to cash out. I don't think my reputation is that important. Just yesterday, I was in a skiing group saying, "Everyone's going skiing," and someone said, "Hey, we caught a YouTube guru!" I said, "Don't call me a YouTube guru, call me a course-selling prodigy." But that's not my focus right now; I'm still focused on making that course good. So, I can think about, discuss, and talk about this later in the second half of the year.

Class representative : Anyway, you need to build your own asset. And if you want this asset to capture industry growth, then it definitely needs to appreciate in value along with that industry growth. I don't know what kind of asset is most suitable in this context. But I think you can definitely come up with better ideas. My own feeling is that building such an asset in the real world in 5 years is already very difficult; it might be faster in the crypto world. And you've already started developing your agent, which has the added benefit of AI, and you also have the added benefit of knowledge. My suggestion is to try to find a partner. You have such a large network in the industry, right? People trust you so much. Most people probably look at your actual authority, but there should be some who respect you as a person.

Chase : You're absolutely right.

Class representative : Then find someone here, whether it's a mentor who shares a business segment with you, or a new project with resources and endorsement, or a partner similar to you but complementary. I think both can help you build a more influential asset faster. And your vision—that's where my hesitation lies. I think your vision is particularly appealing, but it easily leads to a purely influence-driven approach, which might not be what you want.

Chase : I understand.

Class representative : Building a purely influence-based approach is actually very difficult. Influence depreciates very quickly. So, if you post something today, the best outcome is that everyone shares it and thinks what you said is great. But what about after three months? If you can't put it into practice, what's the use of it? You still need a big shot like CZ, right? Someone who can rally the industry and say, "We need to implement this as an industry standard," and then push for actual collaborations at the Nascent Soul stage. Only then is it possible.

Chase : Those are all at the Nascent Soul stage.

Class representative : An alliance of Nascent Soul cultivators should be able to do it, but it might be difficult for an individual.

Chase : You're absolutely right. These two suggestions you gave me are actually what I got from divination. Either I find a really good platform, or I find a really good partner.

Class representative : It depends on your personality. I think finding a platform is definitely a great method. Because you can always find a partner, but opportunities to find a platform are very hard to come by.

Chase : It depends on fate. In this industry, there's no platform bigger than Binance, right? It's just a position. You jump from that position at Binance to do something else elsewhere. The size of the platform and your role within it are both very important.

Class representative : In terms of position, this company in this industry is the top level. But it's not what you want to do.

Chase : Yeah~ It means you've reached the pinnacle in terms of fame, fortune, and especially real power. But it can't fulfill your ideals. This power can't be transformed into your ideals.

Class representative : What I mean is that someone believes in you, believes in your platform, and gives you the corresponding resources, then you can realize your ideals. But realizing your ideals is definitely not something that happens overnight.

Chase : In my opinion, he wants you to do a project that you can be proud of. I personally definitely have to work on it every day; it's become a habit. We can schedule another time to talk about other topics then.

Class representative : Okay, okay! Thank you so much for today's content, hahaha.

Chase : It's okay, it's okay, thank you, thank you.