2019—2020: The 312 Crash, From Liquidation to a Comeback The time came to October 25, 2019. That night, right after the evening news ended, someone suddenly started flooding the group chat: President Xi talked about blockchain! The country is going to prioritize blockchain! At first, I didn’t believe it. Wasn’t this thing always suppressed before? How did it suddenly become a national strategy? I quickly looked for the news video, and it really was true. The market instantly heated up. Bitcoin surged from over $7,000 all the way up to around $10,500 the next day. In just a few hours, it almost fully recovered the losses from September. But the EOS I held wasn’t so lucky. Although it rose a bit, it never returned to its previous highs, lingering around $4 for a long time. Even though they’re both cryptocurrencies, their fates had already started to diverge. Later, I kept pondering whether there was another reason behind suddenly elevating blockchain to such an important position. At that time, the Yancheng police were investigating the huge PlusToken pyramid scheme case, and the disclosed amount of involved cryptocurrencies was staggering, including over 200,000 BTC and more than 800,000 ETH. I had a bold guess then: Could it be to create a better market environment for the subsequent disposal of these seized cryptocurrencies? After all, what was confiscated were coins, but if they needed to be liquidated or handled later, the proceeds might be in RMB. Of course, this is just my personal speculation, with no evidence proving the policy was introduced for this reason

By October 25th, after the evening news broadcast ended, messages started circulating in the group about Xi Dada emphasizing the importance of blockchain. Blah blah, at first I didn't believe it, then I went to find the live TV broadcast to watch, and indeed it was being discussed. Bitcoin immediately surged from 7:30 PM that night all the way to noon the next day. About 17 hours, it rose from over $7,000 to $10,500. The September decline was recovered. But my EOS probably stayed around $4 for a long time and couldn't follow the rebound. Later, I personally analyzed that this arrangement might have been to help Yancheng dispose of seized digital currencies. They wiped out the market, seizing over 200,000 bitcoins and over 800,000 Ethereum, and only by selling and converting them into RMB could they get promoted and receive bonuses. A total of over 30 billion RMB was handed over to the national treasury. Now just the bitcoins alone might be worth over 16 billion USD. Since Yancheng's disposal volume was so large, Bitcoin naturally returned to where it came from, even lower than the previous $7,000 starting point, only $6,500. The sudden surge caused by an unexpected event cannot stop the long-term trend correction. Without continuous buying, there is no long-term bull market. By the end of December, Bitcoin started rising again, climbing from $6,500 all the way to $10,500 in February. ETC was even more dramatic, rising from three or four dollars to $12. I also took longer and longer trend positions. In the blink of an eye, by February 2020, the domestic epidemic fully broke out, and the entire city was locked down. The Chinese people pressed the pause button. The real world came to a halt but the crypto market was booming, ridiculous, such a big event, as if it didn't exist, no need to think, it was time to short. But until Europe and North America started reporting the epidemic...