Author: Yuanshan Insight
Zhang Xue arrived 20 years early. How early did Saylor and Tom Lee arrive?
Zhang Xue Motorcycles flooded the screen. I looked into it and was a bit stunned, and it also made me think of our crypto version of Zhang Xue.
Didn't finish junior high, lost his father at 10, at 19 chased a TV station's car for 3 hours in the rain on a broken motorcycle, just to get a shot of him riding.
Founded Zhang Xue Motorcycles in 2024, delivered the first batch of bikes in 2025,
In 2026, at the WSBK World Superbike Championship, he crushed the欧美日 (European, American, Japanese) giants like Ducati, Yamaha, Kawasaki that had dominated the track for decades.
Two wins in two days, leading by nearly 4 seconds. But what really made me sit up wasn't the inspirational story, it was the data.
Last year's output value was 750 million, R&D investment was 69.58 million, annual loss was 22.78 million. In January this year, secured 90 million in Series A funding, valuation at 1.09 billion.
The 820RR starts at 43,800, while imported bikes with the same configuration cost at least 100,000. Pre-orders opened for 100 hours, with 5,543 orders locked in.
A company losing money, built a bike that crushes century-old giants, sells it for less than half their price, and orders are still queuing up.
Then I discovered something even more interesting.
Crypto now has people doing the exact same thing: losing money, frantically accumulating.
- Strategy's Saylor, holds 738,000 BTC, but last week he spent $1.28 billion to buy 17,994 more BTC.
- BitMine's Tom Lee, has accumulated 4.4 million ETH, with an unrealized loss of about $7.4 billion, and has been adding to his position weekly in February and March.
Zhang Xue, Saylor, Tom Lee, three people in three different fields, but the underlying action is exactly the same: when everyone thinks they're crazy, they're using losses to exchange for筹码 (chips/position).
But the difference lies in the speed of verification.
Zhang Xue's answer came in two days.
First round lead by 3.669 seconds, won again in the second round. Every penny spent on R&D got a direct response on the track.
Saylor and Tom Lee's answers are still on the way. BTC and ETH don't have a track to race on; the return on their positions can only be verified with time.
But after looking into Zhang Xue's background, one detail left a deep impression on me.
He only founded the company in 2024 and delivered the first batch of bikes in 2025. There was only one year in between. In that year, he lost money building bikes, no one believed him, "What kind of motorcycle can a junior high dropout build?". Then last weekend, the answer came.
Before the answer is revealed, "madman" and "pioneer" look exactly the same.
Most people in the world who bet against the trend end up losing. But occasionally, there are a few who aren't crazy, they just arrived early.
Zhang Xue arrived 20 years early. How early did Saylor and Tom Lee arrive?
