Original Title: "From State-Owned Enterprise Factory Director to Losing 3 Million, Peak Brother's Lens Captures the Disappointment of a Crypto Trader"

Original Source: Deep Tide TechFlow

When you open Crypto Twitter, you can always see those showing off their assets exceeding 8 figures, coin circle geniuses who make a fortune in a single contract.

Whether it's through filters or actual skill, achieving great success in the coin circle is not something that belongs to every ordinary person.

Recently, the well-known Bilibili content creator "Peak Brother Roaming the World" (Peak Brother) used his camera to document the story of a man who was once a deputy factory director at a state-owned enterprise in Handan, Hebei Province. This man lost 3 million due to crypto trading, leading to a downfall in his life.

At the time of writing, the video had already reached 750,000 views, and discussions about this story on social media have been ongoing.

Tearing apart the glamorous illusion of sudden wealth, this is a real story of an ordinary crypto trader trapped by information asymmetry and greed.

From Director to Debt-Ridden Ride-Hailing Driver

As the original interview did not mention the specific name of the protagonist, but the interviewee's Bilibili ID is "Rebirth in Zhejiang," the following text will refer to him as Brother Rebirth.

Once upon a time, Brother Rebirth's life was enviable.

According to his revelation in front of the camera, he used to be the deputy director of a coal washing plant at a state-owned enterprise in Handan, Hebei Province, with a post-tax monthly salary of 9,000 yuan. He lived in a house without a mortgage, drove an Audi, managed 20-30 people, and his deputy department-level cadre status also earned him respect from others.

In 2018, Brother Rebirth got married to his wife, and they had a five-year-old daughter, leading a happy and harmonious family life.

"We can also be considered a well-off family... content with what we have. This kind of contentment brings a sense of distant warmth in his recollection."

Back then, he took his daughter to play in Shandong and Zhengzhou, practicing the concept of "raising a daughter in wealth." His parents' retirement savings provided the family with no financial pressure. Such days were as stable as a rock, and it's hard to find any traces of collapse.

Now, everything has turned to ashes.

At the beginning of the video, Brother Rebirth showed the interfaces of various loan apps on his phone and his debt situation. One of the apps showed a debt of over 100,000 yuan, and his total losses from crypto trading amounted to 3 million yuan. Every day, he works hard to repay the high amount of debt.

Now he drives for ride-hailing services 13-14 hours a day, earning 300 yuan in revenue. After deducting car rental and living expenses, he is left with only 100 yuan. Renting a single room with ensuite bathroom for 600 yuan/month is his last vestige of dignity.

Million-yuan debt looms over him, with annual interest reaching 200,000 to 300,000 yuan. Most of the loans are already severely overdue, and debt collection calls are constant.

Facing the question of why he agreed to be interviewed by Peak Brother and potentially be exposed to the public, Brother Resurgence had this to say:

"The main reason I refused your interview initially was because I was afraid it would affect my job. Now, since I don't plan to go back to that job anymore, I can't go back, so I have no concerns. I'm just working hard outside, earning money for myself to repay my debts."

In contrast to the courage to face the camera and life is the collapse of his family:

Two months ago, his wife divorced him due to the debt crisis, taking their daughter with her. His parents also fell into despair, with his father's text message particularly heartbreaking: "This family no longer has you, everything about you is over."

His five-year-old daughter, too young to understand the truth, only knows that "Daddy is out working."

From a state-owned enterprise executive to a debt-ridden driver, the interviewee's fall from grace is truly lamentable. The rapid descent can be attributed to the frenzy of leveraged trading in the crypto world and the obsession with using debt to turn the tide.

Altcoins, High Leverage, No Stop-Loss

His story may also be a microcosm of countless ordinary crypto traders—swallowed by greed and illusions, often not in a single gamble, but over a process.

In front of the camera, Brother Resurgence also confessed his journey in the crypto world: From initial gains to high leverage, the 3 million yuan loss was not an overnight crash but the accumulation of countless reckless behaviors.

Brother Resurgence's crypto awakening began with earlier stamp and coin trading. In the 2010s, stamps and coins, as an online financial product supposedly backed by stamps, attracted numerous retail investors. After dipping his toes, Brother Resurgence made a small profit, narrowly escaping a crash, and building confidence in "buying low and selling high."

He admitted that he was cautious at the time, but such gains sowed the seeds of speculation.

In 2020, he entered the crypto world, starting with spot trading, initially cautious but soon consumed by greed.

To gain more profit, he began chasing altcoins and ventured into futures contracts. Futures trading allowed leverage to amplify the principal, with 10x, 50x, or even 100x leverage multiplying profits and risks.

As he described it himself, starting with a few hundred dollars, he was initially able to achieve a 40-50% profit, so he gradually increased his position, adding more to both the initial investment and leverage.

Reborn Brother described this as "dulling the knife on flesh," never once went all-in with borrowed money, more like boiling a frog in warm water. Today, lose $20,000, tomorrow go borrow another $20,000 to deposit and gamble with.

A humorous detail from the original video interview was that the host, Peak Brother, considered his phased entry behavior somewhat cautious, but Reborn Brother immediately denied his own approach:

"It's not really cautious. If I have $20,000 for a futures contract today, I will use a very low leverage, not that high. Low leverage on meme coin contracts is generally not a problem... Because by then my mind had already twisted, desperate to make back the money, so I would start at what I considered the right moment with high leverage, 10 times, 50 times, even 100 times."

Evidently, Reborn Brother underestimated the volatility of meme coins in the crypto world, and getting liquidated was to be expected. Another reason he kept borrowing money to fill the gap was his lack of trading discipline.

Reborn Brother said his biggest flaw was not setting stop-loss orders. Even after setting a stop-loss, he would cancel it, fantasizing that there would be a rebound.

This kind of irrational gambling led to repeated liquidations, borrowing money each time, but as we all know, the final outcome.

Four Borrowings, Zero Turnarounds

In 2020, he depleted his $10,000 savings and experienced his first liquidation.

He borrowed 100,000 through platforms like Alipay and Anyi Hua, with family and friends contributing 120,000 to cover the $220,000 gap, depleting his parents' savings. After this, he promised to quit playing, but less than half a year later, he reignited his desire after seeing news of Bitcoin's surge, mistakenly believing he had a chance.

On the second occasion, he borrowed 150,000 through online lending and another 150,000 from family and friends, totaling 300,000, to continue high-leverage trading. After being liquidated, he deceived himself into thinking that he could slowly resolve the situation with just tens of thousands of dollars, but he had laid a greater hidden risk.

By 2023, his debt had soared to over 600,000. Repaying the loans from online platforms and family and friends became increasingly difficult. He sold his sister's less than 700-square-foot house for 500,000, with relatives contributing another 100,000, once again completely clearing his debts.

However, this brief "landing" did not bring him relief. Instead, it deepened the twisted mentality of disappointment that needed to be regained — selling the house to make his sister lose her dowry, shocking his parents into an emotional breakdown. He clearly felt self-reproach and openly stated that he was "living in a particularly suppressed manner."

The cryptocurrency world has its cycles, and stories of going from a low point to sudden wealth also influence the choices of the disillusioned, becoming a motivation to re-enter and win back what was lost.

Between 2024 and 2025, he mortgaged his own house, borrowed 700,000 yuan at high interest rates (20-30% interest), took out a 300,000 yuan online loan to continue trading coins, and thus pushed his total debt amount past a million yuan.

Of course, each time he borrowed money to enter a futures contract, he did not turn his situation around.

The cost of borrowing was not just money but also a collapse of trust. In order to raise money, he fabricated lies and deceived the trust of family and friends. Even friends who lied often knew that to cover up one lie, one often needed to tell an even bigger lie, overdraw more social and credit capital.

"Putting on a front in front of people and acting like a ghost behind their backs, not even having the most basic moral bottom line..." In the midst of torment, Rebirth Brother also faced a crisis of exposure.

A friend informed his wife, revealing the total amount of his debt, causing his wife to collapse and ask for a divorce. When his parents learned that he had mortgaged the house, they also fell into complete despair and left the following text message:

"You have fallen into evil ways, you have even mortgaged the house... This family no longer has you."

After being interviewed by Peak Brother, Rebirth Brother also created an account and warned everyone not to borrow money to engage in similar products, saying, "I have personally destroyed a once beautiful life."

The phrase "turning one's life around" can be the name of a subway station in Shenzhen, a fantasy of refusing to accept defeat when losing too much, but more likely, it is a bottomless pit of snowballing greed.

Cool Xi's Support, Long Road Ahead

After Peak Brother's video was circulated, Cool Xi, a popular Mandarin-speaking cryptocurrency influencer who loves trading futures contracts, made a post announcing that he would support Rebirth Brother with 50,000 yuan and additionally provide 60,000 yuan as a one-year monthly living stipend (5,000 yuan per month) to prevent him from continuing to trade coins.

Cool Xi naturally understood Rebirth Brother; both danced on the edge of a futures contract and had experienced the taste of liquidation. This wave of assistance, from a motivational perspective, appears more like a relief of one's past self.

However, any act of kindness should perhaps also have boundaries during its implementation.

The Reborn Brother's addiction to speculation cannot be ignored psychologically. With the obsession of "reversal" and the sunk cost fallacy, he may still continue down the path of no return, especially in the cryptocurrency culture where the narrative of "borrowing money for a turnaround" is prevalent. What's more, the person who lent him money is a character cool with the full effect of the drama.

If a contract master lends you money to help you and asks you to stop playing with contracts, will you stop at that?

Don't forget, in reality, the Reborn Brother is still supporting his expenses by driving for a ride-hailing service. The hard-earned money from this physical exertion is still too slow compared to the pleasure brought by the contract in a short time.

A million-dollar debt hangs over him like a shadow. We still don't know which path he will choose or whether it is for another turnaround to get rich quickly or to redeem that lost dignity.

Original Article Link

Welcome to join the official BlockBeats community:

Telegram Subscription Group: https://t.me/theblockbeats

Telegram Discussion Group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App

Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia