Shenzhen's Airdrop Hunters Are Now Turning to Hong Kong Stock IPOs

marsbitPublished on 2026-04-24Last updated on 2026-04-24

Abstract

Shenzhen, a city synonymous with ambition and rapid growth, has long been a hub for those capitalizing on information and opportunity gaps. From its origins as a small fishing village, it has transformed into a global center for electronics, manufacturing, and innovation, home to giants like Huawei, Tencent, and DJI. Arez, a typical Shenzhen entrepreneur in his early thirties, runs an airdrop farming studio in Nanshan. In 2023, his team profited significantly from major airdrops including Arbitrum, Starknet, and LayerZero. At its peak, the operation managed thousands of on-chain addresses, utilizing scripts, IP proxies, KYC resources, and capital rotation to maximize returns. Now, like many others in Shenzhen’s dynamic speculative economy, Arez and his peers are shifting focus—this time to Hong Kong’s IPO market, seeking new avenues for profit in ever-evolving financial landscapes.

Vibrant cities always attract ambitious people, and Shenzhen is one such city.

Over forty years ago, Shenzhen was still a stretch of rice paddies and a few fishing villages on the eastern bank of the Pearl River Estuary. But in the following forty years, it turned Huaqiangbei into the world's largest distribution center for electronic components, turned Dafen Village into a global oil painting factory, and became the birthplace of Huawei, Tencent, DJI, and BYD. In this city, there are too many people who capitalize on price differences through information, liquidity, and regulatory asymmetries.

Arez is a typical Shenzhen native like that.

He is in his early thirties and runs an airdrop hunting studio with friends in an office building in Nanshan. He once made a lot of money for the team from the Arbitrum, Starknet, and LayerZero airdrops in 2023. At its peak, he maintained thousands of on-chain addresses, running scripts, IP proxies, KYC resources, and fund rotations.

Related Questions

QWhat is the main topic of the article?

AThe article discusses how 'Airdrop Hunters' in Shenzhen, who previously focused on cryptocurrency airdrops, are now shifting their focus to participating in Hong Kong's IPO market.

QWho is Arez and what does he do?

AArez is a typical Shenzhen entrepreneur in his early thirties who runs an 'Airdrop Hunter' studio. He and his team made significant profits from airdrops like Arbitrum, Starknet, and LayerZero in 2023.

QWhat are some of Shenzhen's key economic achievements mentioned in the article?

AShenzhen transformed from farmland and fishing villages into a major economic hub. It developed Huaqiangbei into the world's largest electronics components market, turned Dafen Village into a global oil painting factory, and is the birthplace of companies like Huawei, Tencent, DJI, and BYD.

QWhat specific activities did Arez's airdrop hunting studio engage in at its peak?

AAt its peak, Arez's studio managed thousands of on-chain addresses and handled tasks such as running scripts, IP proxying, sourcing KYC resources, and managing capital rotation.

QWhat broader economic behavior does the article suggest is common in Shenzhen?

AThe article suggests that it is common in Shenzhen for people to capitalize on information, liquidity, and regulatory asymmetries to profit from price differences.

Related Reads

Fei-Fei Li's Team Clarifies the Concept of 'World Models', Sora Merely a Renderer

"World Models" has become a widely used yet confusing term in AI. To address this, a team led by Fei-Fei Li and World Labs proposed a functional taxonomy based on the Partially Observable Markov Decision Process framework. This taxonomy categorizes systems called "world models" into three distinct projections: Renderers, Simulators, and Planners. Renderers, like OpenAI's Sora and other video generation models, focus on producing photorealistic visual outputs for human perception. They prioritize visual fidelity over physical accuracy. Simulators, such as NVIDIA Omniverse, aim to compute precise future environmental states for computational tasks like engineering analysis or digital twins. Planners, like Vision-Language-Action models, take in observations and goals to output executable actions for robots or agents. The article clarifies that most current "world models," including Sora, are primarily Renderers. They generate convincing visuals but lack the core ability to simulate state transitions based on actions, a key requirement for a true world model in classic reinforcement learning definitions. This conceptual confusion has practical implications, leading to potential misalignment in technology selection, investment, and public understanding of AI capabilities. Clear categorization is crucial. It helps enterprises avoid costly mistakes (e.g., using a renderer for robot training), allows investors to accurately assess markets, and enables researchers to build comparable benchmarks. While future systems may integrate these functions, recognizing current boundaries is essential for honest assessment and progress.

marsbit6m ago

Fei-Fei Li's Team Clarifies the Concept of 'World Models', Sora Merely a Renderer

marsbit6m ago

From Web3 to AI Agent: Veteran Crypto VC Variant Bets $300 Million on Pivot

Variant Fund has announced the launch of Variant 4, a new $222 million early-stage venture fund. Its investment thesis has evolved from "digital ownership" to a broader theme of "sovereignty," focusing on technologies that enhance user agency—the control individuals have over their lives, assets, and identity. The firm distinguishes between mere automation and systems that genuinely empower users, emphasizing that the key question is who ultimately benefits: the user or the platform. This new framework encompasses Variant's existing investments in areas like public blockchains (Ethereum, Solana), developer infrastructure, decentralized finance (e.g., Uniswap), and consumer applications. It also informs recent early bets on projects such as Honcho (for self-custodial AI agent memory), Octet (cryptographic verification of physical location), and here.now (an "agent cloud" for owning and composing generative content). Variant's core mission remains to back founders building technologies that expand user sovereignty, moving towards an internet where users possess unprecedented agency rather than being the product.

marsbit12m ago

From Web3 to AI Agent: Veteran Crypto VC Variant Bets $300 Million on Pivot

marsbit12m ago

Solana Explosive Growth Pushes Its Monthly Perps Volume Beyond Prior Records

Despite bearish market conditions and price volatility, Solana is demonstrating significant strength in its derivatives market. The network's monthly perpetual futures volume has surged to a new record, exceeding $76.7 billion in May 2026—a 34% increase from the previous high. This growth reflects heightened speculative activity and trader engagement. Analysts note that perpetual contracts are becoming crucial financial primitives, with Solana positioning itself as a network for genuine on-chain price discovery and execution. Concurrently, Solana is experiencing a massive increase in stablecoin activity, processing over $79.9 billion in stablecoin volume in one week, underscoring its role as a major hub for on-chain liquidity and transactions.

bitcoinist20m ago

Solana Explosive Growth Pushes Its Monthly Perps Volume Beyond Prior Records

bitcoinist20m ago

Bloomberg Uncovered: How Do China's Wealthy Circumvent the Annual $50,000 Limit to Transfer Assets?

**Summary: How Wealthy Chinese Circumvent $50,000 Annual Foreign Exchange Limits** Despite China's strict capital controls, including an annual $50,000 per person foreign exchange quota, an estimated $150 billion in funds still leaves the country annually via various gray and underground channels. This report outlines the evolution of China's "capital wall" and the methods used to bypass it. **The Evolving Capital Controls:** * **Foundation (1994):** The system of "current account convertibility with strict capital account controls" was established. * **Quota Set (2007):** The $50,000 individual annual forex purchase limit was formalized. * **Crackdown Begins (2015-2017):** Following market volatility, enforcement tightened. Banks were required to scrutinize transactions, and channels like using UnionPay cards for Hong Kong insurance premiums or buying overseas property were blocked. * **Digital & Legal Upgrades (2024-2026):** Enhanced algorithms now flag suspicious patterns (e.g., "smurfing"). The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) provides Chinese tax authorities with data on citizens' offshore accounts. Unlicensed cross-border brokers have been targeted. **Five Primary Methods for Moving Capital:** 1. **Underground Banking / "Hawala" (Duiqiao):** The largest-scale method. No money crosses borders. Clients pay RMB to a domestic account; an overseas associate deposits equivalent foreign currency into the client's offshore account. Risks include high fees, account freezes, and legal penalties. 2. **"Smurfing" or "Ant Moving":** Using multiple individuals' $50,000 quotas to pool funds for one offshore recipient. Increasingly detected by anti-money laundering algorithms. 3. **Trade Invoice Manipulation:** Businesses over-invoice imports or under-invoice exports via offshore shell companies, creating a pretext to transfer excess funds abroad under the guise of trade. 4. **Channel Migration:** After a crackdown on internet brokers, funds flow toward more compliant but costly channels like major banks' cross-border wealth management services or Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) quotas. 5. **Structural Arrangements:** High-net-worth individuals use complex, high-cost legal structures involving offshore trusts, insurance, and investment migration programs to transfer asset ownership. **Regulatory Response: Focusing on People, Not Just Money** The current strategy extends oversight from enterprises to **individual residents**. Tools like CRS allow retroactive visibility into offshore assets. Cryptocurrencies, once seen as a potential loophole, are now actively monitored and prosecuted as an illegal channel. The underlying driver remains: with significant wealth concentrated among millions of affluent households seeking diversification amid domestic economic shifts, the incentive to move assets offshore persists despite regulatory barriers.

marsbit26m ago

Bloomberg Uncovered: How Do China's Wealthy Circumvent the Annual $50,000 Limit to Transfer Assets?

marsbit26m ago

Ethereum's Ballmer Moment: As Everyone Is Bearish, the Circulating Supply Is Disappearing

"Ethereum's Ballmer Moment: Circulation Shrinks Amid Bearish Sentiment" Amid widespread bearish sentiment, with prominent figures like Bankless founder David Hoffman selling ETH and young developers flocking to Solana, some argue Ethereum is entering its "Ballmer era"—akin to Microsoft's perceived stagnation under Steve Ballmer. While surface-level criticisms about slow protocol development, cautious leadership, and competitive pressure are valid, underlying fundamentals tell a different story. Approximately 30% of ETH is staked, major holders like BitMine are accumulating, and spot ETFs continue to absorb supply. Regulatory clarity, including the SEC/CFTC's March ruling on staking rewards and the potential passage of the CLARITY Act, is transforming crypto from a regulatory threat into a legitimized framework. This institutionalization, alongside a shrinking circulating supply (with net issuance around 0.23% annually), creates significant buy-side pressure independent of fee-based value capture. The broader crypto total addressable market is expanding through regulated stablecoins, tokenized assets, and institutional adoption. While public chains face competition from permissioned alternatives, the winning model appears to be permissioned assets settling on public chains like Ethereum and Solana. The author advocates a non-maximalist, barbell strategy: holding ETH for its institutional role and supply squeeze, SOL for consumer/throughput trends, BTC as a macro hedge, and a basket of next-gen L1s. Key bullish drivers for ETH include rapid circulation shrinkage, potential Q2 staked ETF approvals, regulatory tailwinds solidifying its role as a default settlement layer, and the optionality of an eventual "Satya moment" leadership shift. Despite bearish consensus, the current setup—where crypto is "not hot" and regulatory groundwork is being laid—presents a compelling investment opportunity. The crypto cycle's focus may have shifted to AI, but blockchain infrastructure is gaining a legal and institutional foothold precisely while attention is elsewhere.

marsbit26m ago

Ethereum's Ballmer Moment: As Everyone Is Bearish, the Circulating Supply Is Disappearing

marsbit26m ago

Trading

Spot
Futures

Hot Articles

How to Buy PEOPLE

Welcome to HTX.com! We've made purchasing ConstitutionDAO (PEOPLE) simple and convenient. Follow our step-by-step guide to embark on your crypto journey.Step 1: Create Your HTX AccountUse your email or phone number to sign up for a free account on HTX. Experience a hassle-free registration journey and unlock all features.Get My AccountStep 2: Go to Buy Crypto and Choose Your Payment MethodCredit/Debit Card: Use your Visa or Mastercard to buy ConstitutionDAO (PEOPLE) instantly.Balance: Use funds from your HTX account balance to trade seamlessly.Third Parties: We've added popular payment methods such as Google Pay and Apple Pay to enhance convenience.P2P: Trade directly with other users on HTX.Over-the-Counter (OTC): We offer tailor-made services and competitive exchange rates for traders.Step 3: Store Your ConstitutionDAO (PEOPLE)After purchasing your ConstitutionDAO (PEOPLE), store it in your HTX account. Alternatively, you can send it elsewhere via blockchain transfer or use it to trade other cryptocurrencies.Step 4: Trade ConstitutionDAO (PEOPLE)Easily trade ConstitutionDAO (PEOPLE) on HTX's spot market. Simply access your account, select your trading pair, execute your trades, and monitor in real-time. We offer a user-friendly experience for both beginners and seasoned traders.

6.9k Total ViewsPublished 2024.03.29Updated 2026.06.02

How to Buy PEOPLE

Discussions

Welcome to the HTX Community. Here, you can stay informed about the latest platform developments and gain access to professional market insights. Users' opinions on the price of PEOPLE (PEOPLE) are presented below.

活动图片

Top Questions