Author: Eric, Foresight News
Luo Yonghao returns to X after a 6-year hiatus.
At 13:00 Beijing Time on May 13, Luo Yonghao posted "Testing" simultaneously on both his old and new X accounts, announcing his comeback.
Updates on Luo Yonghao's new X account stopped in June 2020. This time, he is reviving his old account after "suddenly remembering the password in the middle of the night." The account's cover photo has been changed to the logo of his podcast "Luo Yonghao's Crossroads," and new tweets also feature some past podcast episodes.
However, compared to podcasts, Luo Yonghao's own remarks are clearly more entertaining. Since the official operation of his new account, Luo has already exchanged numerous verbal jabs with "crypto folks." The pinned tweet on this account remains a reminder for everyone not to fall for cryptocurrency scams that falsely use his name.
X is considered the "headquarters" of the Web3 industry, so Luo Yonghao's return inevitably involves sparring with active crypto participants. But if we talk about Luo Yonghao's connection with Web3, it might date back to 8 years ago.
The years 2017 and 2018 were the height of the crypto "ICO frenzy" and widely recognized as the first wave of explosive wealth generation from tokens. Luo Yonghao also stated on X that if he had been shameless, the money he could have made back then would have been enough to buy an island. "How many scammers came to me back then, saying I didn't even need to endorse them, just not publicly deny it, and they would give me this much and that much."
In May 2018, Luo Yonghao complained on Weibo about former front-line programmer Wang Qianchuang from Smartisan, saying he was "not focusing on work, trading cryptocurrencies all day, and hadn't made much money." Luo also mentioned that he had invested over 1 million yuan in Bitcoin earlier, which had grown to over 30 million yuan by the time of his post. According to Guancha.cn's report, Wang Qianchuang's obsession with crypto trading caused Luo Yonghao's dissatisfaction, leading to such remarks.
This was the first time Luo Yonghao publicly mentioned cryptocurrency-related content on social media, but his earliest public expression of views on blockchain was in late May 2018 during the "Wang Feng's Ten Questions" event.
During that event, Luo stated his firm belief that blockchain technology could change the world and that Smartisan had been actively researching and learning about related applications. When asked about blockchain phones, Luo Yonghao was even more direct: "A blockchain phone will definitely be made, but the details are not convenient to disclose yet."
Additionally, Luo Yonghao revealed that in the early days of Smartisan, he "followed friends' hype" and invested 1 million yuan in Bitcoin, which later grew to over 30 million. "I don't like speculative business, so I won't spend energy trading coins. Before the country's relevant policies are formally introduced, I won't consider doing an ICO either."
It is widely speculated that the "friend" Luo referred to is likely Li Xiaolai, who was also an English teacher at New Oriental early on alongside Luo and later became famous overnight in 2017 due to Bitcoin. According to public information, Luo Yonghao joined the shareholder lineup of Figerman (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., a company affiliated with Mixin, in 2016. Besides founder Feng Xiaodong, the other shareholder of this company was Luo's good friend Li Xiaolai.
In February 2023, Luo Yonghao withdrew from the shareholder lineup. In September of the same year, Mixin was hacked, with losses reaching $200 million. Achieving a 30x return on Bitcoin and exiting the project before it was attacked, Luo Yonghao's investment in the Web3 industry can be considered quite successful.
While successful in his Bitcoin investment, Luo Yonghao's company operations were less smooth. In the same year he participated in "Wang Feng's Ten Questions," Smartisan was reported to have a broken capital chain, owed supplier payments, and faced continuous layoffs and disputes. The situation did not improve the following year. In November 2019, Luo Yonghao posted on Weibo saying he had been placed on a court-ordered list of high-spending restrictions and published an article titled "A 'Deadbeat' CEO's Confession."
At that time, online discussions about Luo Yonghao were intense, and crypto influencers on Weibo were not about to let this wave of traffic pass.
Sun Yuchen was the first to "strike," offering Luo Yonghao an annual salary of one million yuan to serve as the entrepreneurial spirit spokesperson for Tron, promising an additional investment of 10 million yuan if the effect was good. A few days ago, Luo Yonghao stated on X that among the several offers extended, Sun Yuchen's was the "most stingy."
At that time, Xu Kun, Chief Strategy Officer of OKEx, also posted on Weibo expressing hope to invite Luo Yonghao to join OKEx.
Facing these invitations, Luo Yonghao responded in the early hours: "Thank you, friends in the crypto circle, for thinking highly of me, but I know how to issue tokens myself. I just don't plan to do it. Regardless, thank you for your kindness."
Over six years after his last "zero-distance contact" with the crypto world, our "Old Luo" has returned to the former Twitter. Faced with this familiar yet unfamiliar environment, his statements have even led many to suspect that the person behind this account is not Luo Yonghao himself. Many people's impression of Old Luo may still be of his former unrestrained and confrontational style, but perhaps time has tempered Luo Yonghao's demeanor somewhat. Just like the crypto world of 2017 and the Web3 of 2026, they are completely worlds apart.
Regardless, on the X platform, Luo Yonghao will inevitably face the surrealism of the crypto world in the future. How will the always fiercely principled Old Luo, after an absence from Web3 for nearly 7 years, create new stories with this industry he once had a love-hate relationship with? We can all look forward to it together.
