The process that every crypto investor has to go through: See the mountain as a mountain

The mountain is not a mountain Mountains are still mountains At the beginning, when you speculate in cryptocurrencies, you will only pay attention to the

Honest Mr. Mai (@Michael_Liu93) is a senior investor who has crossed over from traditional finance to Web3. After graduating in 2016, he worked in a Canadian investment bank for two years and was engaged in mergers and acquisitions. After being exposed to blockchain in 2017-2018, he gradually shifted from the traditional VC perspective to cryptocurrency trading. He is currently running a fund focusing on the secondary market of Bitcoin. He is also a well-known KOL in the Meme coin track. With his deep insight into the market and high-quality content sharing, he has accumulated more than 60,000 Twitter followers in just half a year.

OKX specially invited him as the first guest of the 2025 "Friends of OKX" series to share his in-depth thoughts on the Meme track and his advice to novices. Through the analysis of the dual perspectives of traditional finance and cryptocurrency, he presented us with a more three-dimensional market picture.

The "Friends of OKX" series is a special column specially planned by OKX, hosted by OKX official community ambassador Mercy (@Mercy_okx). It aims to explore the career stories, industry insights and lessons learned of KOLs from different backgrounds for novice users to learn and refer to.

The road from traditional finance to Web3

Mercy_okx (@Mercy_okx): Can you share with us your experience in entering the Web3 industry?

Honest Mr. Mai (@Michael_Liu93): I entered the financial industry after graduating in 2016. I first worked in a Canadian investment bank for two years and then did mergers and acquisitions. My first contact with blockchain was a relatively accidental opportunity. At that time, when I was researching the field of enterprise services, I participated in a conference call with the Credit Suisse investment research team, where they discussed blockchain technology. I actually heard about Bitcoin in college, but I was more skeptical about cryptocurrencies at that time. It was not until 2017-2018 that I came into contact with the application of Ethereum and blockchain in the field of enterprise services that I became interested in this field and began to invest in some early public chain projects. However, at that time, I was still looking at blockchain from the perspective of traditional VC. It was not until 2020-2021 that I officially turned from the traditional field to cryptocurrency. Now I mainly operate a Bitcoin secondary market fund.

Mercy_okx: From initially being a VC to focusing on Meme coin trading, what is the logic behind this transformation process?

Honest Mr. Mai: I am a person who likes to chase new opportunities. I will go wherever there is a wealth-creating effect. Now the market opportunities are obviously in the secondary market. You can either buy Bitcoin to get Beta returns or participate in the chain. However, I also went through a period of discomfort when I first entered the chain trading. I found that many friends who sent me private messages said that it was difficult to get started with chain trading and they lost money as soon as they entered. In fact, I also lost money for half a year at the beginning, and I was "cut" by others every day. This is because even if you have stable profitability in the secondary market, you have to be educated by the market again when you come to the chain. So I suggest that everyone should accept this process calmly, because this is a necessary tuition fee.

My previous VC experience is very helpful to me now. In essence, they are all financial markets, and they are all games of human nature. The logic of market making and retail investors selling is very similar.

Meme coin market in-depth insights

Mercy_okx: How did you start building your personal IP? What do you think is the most critical factor in increasing your fans from a few thousand to more than 60,000 in a short period of time?

Honest Mr. Mai: I think I was lucky, and I got on the right track in several waves. First of all, I realized very early that personal IP and voice are very important in the Meme track. Because Meme is essentially a communication game, if you are a super communicator or information center, you can be closer to other information centers. In all financial markets, information gap is always the most valuable.

When I first created the account, I wanted to develop it in the direction of Meme. At first, I mainly shared some of my secondary market experience, such as how secondary market makers operate, including some retail investors chasing Dog and Hamster on TON at the time. I analyzed the market making and harvesting methods behind these projects. These contents resonated with many people, and the account grew from a few hundred followers to a few thousand.

Later, I started to share my experiences on Meme. Then Solana exploded quickly, and I caught this wave of market. Although I caught