That Guy Who Dropped $12 Million Over A Hong Kong Neighborhood Isn’t A Bitcoin Millionaire, After All

ByJoseph Gibsonon January 2, 2019inArticles›How Much Does

You may have seen news reports recently of a real life Jack Napier who took $12 million in cash to the impoverished Hong Kong neighborhood of Sham Shui Po and dropped it all into the streets. These initial reports identified 24-year-old Wong Ching Kit as a “Bitcoin millionaire,” but now, a report from CCN is offering clarification – or more accurately, contradiction – of this point from Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong president Leonhard Weese. Weese says:

“He’s not a Bitcoin Millionaire. He is running a pyramid-like scheme well known in the community. Disappointed this is getting so much uncritical attention.”

“Uncritical” is right, given that Wong is reported to be well known as a scam artist throughout Hong Kong, having turned up in several local media reports for his schemes going back to 2012. Back then, he was charged with stealing cell phones while working as a swimming instructor, but that was small potatoes compared to his later work, like his involvement in what has been dubbed the “London gold trading scams” in 2017. Hong Kong’s Commercial Crime Bureau chief inspector Marina Yin Hiu-yu broke down that scam in the summer of last year, explaining that it involved hiring young women to convince investors to put some money into gold, then taking the money and splitting without ever supplying any. She went on:

“The girls claimed to be successful investment consultants. They also displayed a posh lifestyle on social media by showing off deluxe cars and watches. Some victims hadn’t even met the so-called financial stars before they agreed to open accounts, signed documents to authorise brokers to trade on their behalf and passed the account password to the girls.”

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VIVEK PRAKASH/AFP/Getty Images

Wong was suspected of being behind some of these crimes back then, and his most recent caper involved selling a $3,000 cryptocurrency mining computer ($3,000 is reportedly a “substantially higher” price than any legitimate product of that kind). Here’s a clipping from the South China Morning Post’s report on that story:

“The young man has given media interviews under various monikers, promoting investment products, including a HK$27,500 computer he claimed could be used for cryptocurrency mining. Company search reports showed Wong owns a company called Coin’s Group. The firm was initially called Oscar Holding Group in 2017 but the name was changed on July 3 this year.”

Not only is Wong reportedly not involved with Bitcoin “in any way,” there’s also some doubt as to how much cash he actually dropped over that Hong Kong neighborhood on December 16th, with some reports claiming the figure was actually more like $300,000.

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An Anonymous Trader Places $1M Bet That Bitcoin Will Hit $50,000 Next Year

ByJoseph Gibsonon January 4, 2018inArticles›How Much Does

Bitcoin has seen better days, but investors in the cryptocurrency believe steep drops and climbs come with the territory. One investor on the online currency trading platform LedgerX put that belief where his wallet was with the purchase of 275 call options to purchase bitcoins at $50,000 sometime between now and December 28th, 2018 – a clear indication in the trader’s belief that the cryptocurrency’s value will rocket past that point in the next year, according to CNBC. That indication is especially clear given the amount the investor put into those call options: They reportedly had a volume-weighted average price of $3,600, which brings the total investment to almost $1 million.

It’s very possible that the investor (or investors) in question has begun to sweat a bit regarding his investment. When the CNBC story on the gambit was posted, Bitcoin was trading at almost $16,700 per bitcoin, while as of this writing it stands significantly lower, at about $14,400. But hey, Bitcoin wouldn’t be worth gambling on if it didn’t come with risks, right? Speaking of risks, here’s how CNBC characterizes the investment/bet:

“An investor would lose the bet if Bitcoin doesn’t reach $50,000 in that time period, but would reap profits if it climbs well above that level.” ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images

That’s the long and the short of it, and now the waiting game begins to see if Bitcoin can reverse recent trends and climb to that all-important $50,000 margin or beyond. Nick Colas of DataTrek Research probably wouldn’t be too optimistic about the likelihood of such a climb if he was asked – according to his recent prediction about Bitcoin’s future prospects:

“Bottom line: bitcoin can rally to $22,000 and still be reasonably priced, or plummet to $6,500 and also be correctly valued. We expect to see bitcoin trade for both prices in 2018.”

The gamble is also a new frontier for LedgerX, which is a young company at less than five years old and has only been offering bitcoin trading functions since October of this year.

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