MTLNOVEL Chapter 384: The Throne Forged by Trampling
"Bitcoin?"
Sakurada Miyuki, while earnestly massaging her shoulders, caught Lu Liang scanning through some related documents out of the corner of her eye and blurted out subconsciously.
"Have you heard of it?" Lu Liang was surprised. Bitcoin's full name is Bitcoin, also abbreviated as BTC.
Sakurada Miyuki hesitated for a moment, nodded, and talked about how, when school started a few days ago, a student from Han Country was involved with it, and even got many classmates playing with Bitcoin.
They even asked her if she wanted to join, but she refused.
Manli, having been exposed to a lot of information, understood that it was a kind of anarchist form of cryptocurrency, created by someone claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, a person of Japanese descent.
The currency was launched in '08 and had been developing for nine years. In the early years, one was only worth a few cents of a US Dollar, even requiring fifty Bitcoins to buy a single hamburger.
However, in the past two years, it had started to grow rapidly. At the end of the year before last, one was worth only 12 dollars, but by the end of last year, it had risen to 220 dollars.
This year's development was even more explosive. In January, it rose to 500 dollars, in March to 1700 dollars, and in May to 3200 dollars.
This also drove the sales of international high-end graphics cards because the production of Bitcoin involved computers performing complex mathematical operations to verify the legitimacy of transactions and earning a corresponding number of Bitcoins as a reward.
Also known as hash calculation, it required extremely high computing power, and the computing capabilities of high-end graphics cards enabled them to complete a large number of computational tasks in a short time, thus improving efficiency.
This act was also known as electronic 'mining'.
However, by mid-August this year, which was last month, Bitcoin underwent a hard fork and produced a new cryptocurrency called Bitcoin Cash, also known as BCC.
Although Bitcoin Cash was a derivative of Bitcoin, it was a bit like Big A's SSE Composite Index and the Growth Enterprise Market Index.
Although they both belonged to the Big A market, investors' funds were ultimately limited. If they went to SSE, they generally wouldn't go to Growth Enterprise Market, inevitably causing a diversion of funds.
This event triggered a significant fluctuation in the price of Bitcoin, with a one-night drop of 45%, causing over a hundred thousand people to be liquidated, losing all their capital.
Since then, Bitcoin has also been seriously wounded, with its price falling continuously, and today, it is only left at 1340 dollars.
Sakurada Miyuki's eyes gleamed as she spoke confidently. At this moment, she was the talented woman of Kyoto University, not the inconsequential Nakamori Akina who came and left at Lu Liang's beck and call.
Lu Liang's eyes narrowed slightly, and his mouth curved into a smile. Suddenly, he reached out and pulled Miyuki into his embrace, shattering her halo of confidence.
Miyuki's eyes suddenly dimmed, and she asked timidly, "Mr. Lu, did I say something wrong?"
"There was something, but it was not too significant."
Lu Liang laughed and pointed at the name Satoshi Nakamoto: "He's not an individual. It's a codename for an organization."
Even if Bitcoin fell to 1340 dollars, because there were 21 million coins, the total market cap was still 28.14 billion dollars.
Not to mention, it once rose to 3200 dollars, indicating it once had a market cap of over 67 billion dollars.
Such a vast market could not possibly belong to an individual. Perhaps it originally was, but not any longer.
Wen Chao's investigation revealed that at least three multinational conglomerates were involved in the Bitcoin market.
They were Korea Samsung, Neon Toshiba, and the United States' Motorola.
Only then could it be explained why Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, had not been found after so many years.
If he were an existing person, as long as he was still living on earth, even the butterflies of the Amazon could be found.
Unless he was not an individual, or perhaps it was no longer important, that's why his identity remains a mystery to this day.
The silhouettes of these three conglomerates couldn't help but make Lu Liang think of the United States' proposed Return to Asia-Pacific Strategy.
Fighting and killing were things of the past. Now, everyone had nuclear capabilities, with submarines carrying more than a dozen giant waves lurking beneath the Pacific Ocean. Cultural and economic colonization was the current approach.
Lu Liang cast aside the messy thoughts in his head, took Miyuki's chin in his hand, and asked, "Is it that you don't want to play, or that you don't have the money to?"
Sakurada Miyuki was silent for a long time before slowly speaking: "Maybe it's both."
She majored in economics and minored in finance; how could she possibly not be interested in the capital market?
But there were two reasons. Firstly, she had no money. After all, she was still in debt and couldn't afford to get involved.
Secondly, her father had ended up in ruin because he had illicitly used public funds to speculate on foreign exchange.
This made her both love and fear the market.
Lu Liang smiled, seemingly seeing through her concerns, and said softly, "The capital market is not to blame. It's just a tool. The key is the person who uses it."
Although this statement sounded cruel, attributing all the fault to someone who had passed away, it was also the truth.
Death did not mean one was free from wrongdoing. On the contrary, he knew he was wrong, but couldn't face up to it, so he chose to escape.
Sakurada Miyuki, upon hearing these words, remained silent for even longer. Lu Liang picked up his phone, transferred two million dollars to her, and said, "Take it and have fun. If you lose, it's on me, but if you earn, you take 10%."
Wen Chao was Chinese, and right now, he was directly contacting Ota Ling or the Mitsui Sumitomo Group. The disadvantages of a Chinese identity overseas had not yet fully emerged.
Once the company expanded more overseas business, it would inevitably face difficulties adapting and integrating into the local environment.
He couldn't possibly stay in Tokyo forever; Lu Liang truly treated him as a successor to nurture. Sooner or later, he would have to call him back.
Wen Chao left, and with Tokyo's huge operation, it was unclear who would be chosen to take over, moreover ensuring the successor was a native.
Outsiders, Lu Liang couldn't trust.
The only option was to distinguish from domestic options and pick someone internally.
Sakurada Miyuki could barely be considered a candidate, because she had many important traits that traders normally didn't possess.
Her father misusing public funds to speculate on foreign exchange and causing the family's downfall also gave her a heart that revered the market.
Two million US dollars were just pocket change for Lu Liang, making money was best, but it was also fine not to. In any case, he could afford to lose.
Two years was the limit, and it happened to be her junior year of the new semester. Should she make twenty million before graduation, Lu Liang would let her join Xingheng Investment Company for good training, waiting to take over Wen Chao's position later.
"Mr. Lu, do you really trust me that much?" Sakurada Miyuki stared, dazed, at the seven-digit figure in US dollars that had appeared in her account.
This amount of money might be insignificant to Lu Liang, but for millions of ordinary people, including her, it was a massive sum.
Transferred directly into her account, all she had to do was wait for Lu Liang to leave Tokyo this time, and she could completely withdraw the money, take her mother, and flee to an unknown country to live a good life.
For an instant, she even thought about the city of the country she would travel to; São Paulo in Brazil, which had many Neon People and was also hailed by them as their second homeland.
"Miyuki, do you know that trusting someone is like liking someone—you don't need any reason."
Lu Liang showed a slight smile, caressing Miyuki's cheek. His emotional CPU, though disdainful, was very effective.
He was also in his thirties, at the age when he could deceive a young girl into looking at the big goldfish.
"Mr. Lu, thank you for your trust," Sakurada Miyuki spoke softly, yet her gaze was exceptionally firm.
"It's getting late, take a bath, and then go to sleep."
Lu Liang gave a faint smile without saying much. Sakurada Miyuki was just like that, timid and shy.
Although she was about the same age as Li Manli, their personalities were polar opposites—one extroverted, another introverted.
Even the ways they expressed their emotions were vastly different. One was like a storm, the fiercer it shook, the more surging and vigorous the love, no technique, all pure emotion.
She couldn't wait to merge with Lu Liang, to tell him how much she loved him.
The other was like the gentle spring rain, considerate and attuned to nuances, but even with a flushed face, unless unable to restrain herself, she would only let out a few soft moans.
The next morning, Lu Liang had breakfast at home and then went to Xingheng Investment Company.
Although there was still an hour until the agreed time, Ota Ling arrived two hours early, eagerly awaiting Lu Liang.
He was genuinely curious about what project could be referred to by Lu Liang as a major project.
It couldn't be a profit of several billion US dollars, could it?
"Bitcoin?" Ota frowned, clearly having heard of this cryptocurrency. He pondered for a long while, then suddenly asked, "Mr. Lu, how much do you know about this market?"
"As far as I know, Korea Samsung, Neon Toshiba, and Motorola from the United States, all have been involved."
Lu Liang answered truthfully, as Ota's question clearly indicated he knew something Lu Liang didn't.
Ota nodded, then added, "Not just them, but also BlackRock, Vanguard, and other top-tier institutions."
"I guessed as much."
Lu Liang smiled and nodded, the US Dollar undoubtedly being the world's primary currency, accounting for 48.25% of global currency circulation.
With just under half, the Federal Reserve could enjoy monetary dominance, freely raising and lowering interest rates, thereby affecting the global economy.
Bitcoin aimed at global unification and had not been killed off by the Federal Reserve thus far, indicating that it had the Federal Reserve's involvement.
It wasn't hard to guess that they wanted to use Bitcoin to achieve online payment uniformity, extend, and deepen their dominance in the currency market.
Ota eagerly anticipated Lu Liang's further explanation, but when Lu Liang didn't continue, he couldn't help asking, "That's it?"
"That's it," said Lu Liang with a chuckle, and after a pause, he added, "What if I do know? Could they still stop me from entering the market?"
"..."
Ota gave a self-deprecating smile, suddenly remembering that Lu Liang was not one of them; he was the man who had fiercely taken on Wall Street several times.
He had never been defeated until now and had recently been inexplicably mixing with Wall Street institutions.
They were afraid of angering Wall Street institutions and facing their targeted hostility later on, but Lu Liang was not afraid.
His prominent reputation in the international markets was almost built on a throne made by stepping over the heads of Wall Street institutions—otherwise, they wouldn't treat an Asian so courteously.
The more high-end the circle, the more severe the exclusivity.
It wasn't that they specifically established these rules, but if there weren't so many rigid conditions.
Then there would be too many people and not enough cake to divide.
Just like ordinary people, if there's a good thing or a profitable business, they would prefer close friends and family members, and it's only if that wasn't feasible that they would consider welcoming outsiders.
Lu Liang was the kind of presence that made it necessary for them to please, woo, and eventually recruit as a subordinate.