Written by: The Giant Mirror of History

There must be a reason for unusual occurrences.

On February 20, during the traditional Chinese New Year, Bitdeer, a Bitcoin mining company founded by Wu Jihan, sold all of its remaining holdings of 943 Bitcoins. This disclosure marks the complete liquidation of approximately 2000 Bitcoins that the company originally planned to hold until the end of 2025. The official response given was that the decision to sell Bitcoin was made to reserve liquidity for several non-binding land acquisition opportunities.

The action of this mining company founded by Wu Jihan liquidating Bitcoin at this moment inevitably sparked community debate and speculation. It is important to note that this comes at a time when Bitcoin is experiencing a consolidation phase after the crash event caused by Binance, known as the 1011 crash. The first speculation is that Wu likely knows some insider information and has fled in advance; a black swan event is likely to happen next. This particular conspiracy theory is widely circulated and has attracted considerable attention on social media; we neither claim it to be 100% true nor 100% false. We simply acknowledge that such a possibility cannot be ruled out.

The second speculation is that mining companies typically sell some newly mined Bitcoins to cover operational costs, including electricity, server hosting, and hardware expenses. For publicly traded mining companies, maintaining a certain amount of reserves to seize price rise opportunities is a common practice. However, it also indirectly indicates that Bitdeer faces operational cost expenditures as a critical issue that urgently needs resolution. Otherwise, it would not liquidate all of its Bitcoins, which is a relatively rare move.

As early as April 2025, media reports indicated that Matrix Finance, under Wu Jihan, had provided a $200 million credit line to Bitdeer's Bitcoin mining operations to support its global Bitcoin mining expansion. These loans had a floating interest rate of 9% plus a market reference rate, with a repayment period of 24 months and fixed monthly repayments. Loans were secured against Bitdeer's Sealminer mining hardware. This means that Bitdeer's cost expenditures, in addition to regular operational costs, also include the repayment costs for the loans.

The third speculation is that Wu Jihan might be gradually transforming the company, which primarily focuses on Bitcoin mining, into an AI computing power center. Bitcoin mining is no longer the core of its business. Essentially, a mining company only needs to replace ASIC miners with GPU servers to shift from "mining Bitcoin" to "providing computing power for AI companies." The business logic is fundamentally the same: converting electricity into computing power and then selling that computing power for profit.

Compared to the heavy damage inflicted on the cryptocurrency sphere by the "1011 crash event" created by Binance, Bitcoin has entered a phase of disinterest in a bear market. It will be difficult to return to the original bull market levels within a short period. Subjectively, this speculation seems reasonable. In contrast, the current development of the AI industry is booming and vibrant, with new startups and AI agents emerging continuously, showing a scene of irrational prosperity. Even during the recent Hong Kong Consensus Conference, the narrative had shifted from Bitcoin-dominated discourse to AI agent-led discourse, as the industry seeks narratives that transcend simple financial speculation. There have even been shocking voices declaring "the cryptocurrency world is done."

Wu Jihan himself responded on social media platform X regarding the "liquidation of Bitcoin," stating, "Having a position of zero now does not mean it will always be so in the future." That said, when will the future actually be? This is a subjectively vague time concept.

In fact, if we trace back Wu Jihan's past liquidation history, this instance of liquidating Bitcoin holdings is not his first operation. After Bitcoin surged to $900 at the end of 2013, it entered a major bear market in 2014. At that time, Wu Jihan chose to liquidate the Bitcoins he had gained by dozens of times, investing the substantial cash into more ambitious endeavors—establishing and expanding Bitmain, transitioning from a "speculator" and "evangelist" to a "mining tycoon" company that produces mining machines and monopolizes computing power.

In August 2017, to express his absolute optimism and support for BCH, Wu Jihan publicly declared during a live broadcast: when Bitcoin prices reached 20,000 yuan (near the pre-fork high), he had already "sold all" of his personally held Bitcoins, exchanging them for BCH. This action was viewed at the time as the ultimate "faith recharge" for BCH, generating significant controversy within the Bitcoin community.

Additionally, according to the 2018 prospectus that Bitmain prepared to submit to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and leaked financial reports: as of the end of March 2018, Bitmain held as many as 1.02 million BCH (accounting for over 5% of the circulating supply at the time), proving that it indeed utilized substantial funds to sell BTC and convert it into BCH, attempting to support BCH in the computing power and market capitalization wars.

However, at the same time, the financial reports also indicated that Bitmain still retained a certain amount of BTC and other cryptocurrency assets on its balance sheet, and the company-level treasury had not achieved a 100% "liquidation of Bitcoin."

The previous two liquidations of Bitcoin were for the establishment of Bitmain and for the faith recharge of BCH. This time, the liquidation of Bitcoin is it personal cashing out? Or is it an all-in for Bitdeer? Or is it a strategic transformation to an AI computing power center? We do not know. Even if it is an all-in for Bitdeer, the circumstances have changed drastically. The market will provide an answer. The only thing we know is that the market has indeed entered a deep bear phase. Although Wu Jihan is an individual, his liquidation actions are representative. In some way, they represent the voice and actions of a part of the early OGs of Bitcoin. Rather than recharging faith, it is better to cash out and exit. Start all-in in other industries with greater development potential.

If we continue to question, what are the underlying reasons for these industry phenomena? Is it the four-year cycle pattern of Bitcoin? Based on Bitcoin ETF listing data and liquidity, Wall Street observations, and some small countries' reserves, it seems quite unconvincing. Or is it that the aftermath of the 1011 crash event is slowly materializing?