For Web3, this time Cai Wensheng is determined to get his hands dirty
Author: Zhou, ChainCatcher
If there are any investors in the current cryptocurrency industry worth looking forward to, Cai Wensheng should be one of them.
Starting from the early domain name business, to the emergence of 58 Tongcheng, Baofeng Yingshi, and Meitu, and then actively promoting Meitu to hoard coins, suffering a paper loss of hundreds of millions and being criticized for speculating on coins, he cashed out to buy buildings and bet on Hong Kong Web3 after stepping down as chairman.
He is someone who has been repeatedly misunderstood by the times, yet also repeatedly validated by them.
This time, he has decided to "get his hands dirty."
Last time, the outcome was not good
In 2021, Cai Wensheng strongly advocated for Meitu to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum, with a total investment of about 100 million USD.
At the time of purchase, Cai Wensheng stated in his social circle: "Someone has to be the first to eat the crab. This should be considered the first Hong Kong listed company to purchase BTC digital currency, and also the first listed company in the world to use ETH Ethereum as a currency value reserve."
However, as a Hong Kong listed company, any major asset allocation requires board approval. Although he held over 25% of the shares and could promote the purchase as chairman, he could not prevent the sale.
In 2022, the cryptocurrency market plummeted, and Meitu faced a paper loss of over 280 million RMB, with the label of "speculating on coins" overwhelming the company. The stock price of Meitu on the Hong Kong stock market also hit a historical low.
The tolerance for paper losses in listed companies is sometimes less than that of individual investors—stock price pressure, shareholder doubts, and media attacks are external pressures that no one could withstand at that time.
In 2023, amid the doubts, he stepped down as chairman, and Wu Xinhong returned to take over, immediately starting to "tear off the Cai Wensheng label," with a strategic focus fully shifting to AI.
The ending of the story is quite ironic. Meitu announced in early December 2024 that it had sold all its cryptocurrencies, with a total cash consideration of about 180 million USD, realizing a profit of about 79.63 million USD, equivalent to approximately 571 million RMB.
If they had held on back then, Meitu would have been one of the earliest DAT companies on the Hong Kong stock market.
The trend has been validated, but it no longer concerns him.
Diving in and getting his hands dirty
From domain names, mobile internet, to Web3, there have always been people saying he is gambling in every era.
He once stated in an interview that what Web3 entrepreneurs do is often misunderstood, especially by traditional investors.
At the same time, he expressed his firm belief in the explosion of Web3, but the timing is difficult to predict, just like AI, which also experienced many years of dormancy before the explosion of ChatGPT.
According to RootData, Cai Wensheng's Longling Capital invested in the cryptocurrency exchange OKX (formerly OKCoin) in its early years. In 2018, he revealed that he had invested in more than 10 blockchain projects, including Theta, Ontology, Zipper, and others.
This time, he decided to double down.
After stepping down, Cai Wensheng chose to reduce his stake in Meitu, with his shareholding dropping from a peak of about 25% to less than 10%.
He bought a 25-story commercial building in Hong Kong for 650 million HKD, renaming it CAI Tower. He specifically stated: "CAI is an abbreviation for Crypto and AI, not my surname."
It is reported that CAI Tower does not charge rent, only requiring priority investment rights for the first round of financing, without discounting or holding control. He publicly stated that the goal is to incubate 5 unicorns within three years.
In November last year, Cai Wensheng said at Hong Kong Fintech Week that buying this building was to "start something," and now the building is fully occupied by AI and Web3 companies.
Capital operations also began. He successively acquired two Hong Kong listed companies—China New Economy Investment and China Financial Leasing, renaming them CAI Holdings and LONG Investment Group, respectively, to create a Web3+AI asset management platform.
In early 2026, CAI Holdings acquired equity in early projects Forestheaven and EXIO through the issuance of new shares, with the sellers being Longling Capital, wholly owned by Cai Wensheng.
Among them, EXIO is a licensed virtual asset trading platform in Hong Kong, holding the SFC Class 1 and Class 7 licenses, and is the first compliant exchange in Hong Kong with a brokerage background. Longling Capital is one of its early investors.
Incorporating this piece into CAI Holdings means that his ecological layout has extended from incubation to circulation—projects are nurtured in CAI Tower and can be traded compliantly on licensed exchanges once they mature.
Crypto OGs need a decent victory
Among the crypto OGs we are familiar with, Cai Wensheng is not the one who has benefited the most.
The early crypto OGs have had varying fates.
Some completely faded out after achieving financial freedom—Babi's founder Chang Jia, who was once the strongest advocate of long-termism in the crypto industry, shifted to AI entrepreneurship in 2023.
Kyle Samani, co-founder of Multicoin Capital, gained fame for his early bet on Solana, and publicly stated upon leaving the circle that "cryptocurrency is not as interesting as many people imagine."
Some stayed in the circle but shifted their focus—Shen Yu, once a representative figure in the mining circle, now has content about AI tools occupying a large part of his social media accounts.
And like Cai Wensheng, there are others who chose to stay, such as Xiao Feng and Feng Bo.
Xiao Feng transitioned from traditional finance, leading HashKey to pursue an institutional compliance route, operating with licenses and connecting with traditional capital; Feng Bo is laying out in a professional crypto VC manner, closer to the standard institutional investor approach.
They also have confidence in this industry, but their paths are completely different.
Cai Wensheng chose a "dirtier" path: not following the institutional route, not making purely financial bets, but personally rooting himself in Hong Kong and diving in.
At the 2023 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival, Cai Wensheng stated: "People who have gone from Web1 to Web3, this seems like a compliment, but it also shows that we have not succeeded from Web1 to Web3; we have always been on the road. But many people are no longer here from Web1 to Web3, yet we are still here, which shows we are veterans; veterans do not die, they just slowly wither away."
In early 2026, he predicted that Bitcoin would rise to 1.1 million USD, which would mean a total market value of about 21 trillion USD for Bitcoin. Previously, he publicly stated that he held about 10,000 Bitcoins, and there is currently no news indicating that he has exited.
Of course, the controversies behind this have not disappeared. Continuing to endorse in a bear market, is it a steadfastness against the trend or a story that must be told after being trapped? It remains difficult for outsiders to distinguish.
But the cash-out ammunition, the purchased building, the acquired companies—these are all actions backed by real money.
This industry has experienced too many undignified endings. Project parties running away, whales dumping and fleeing, OGs quietly leaving the scene, often leaving only news about the movements of whale addresses in the public eye.
This industry does not lack people shouting orders; what it lacks is those who truly stay and get their hands dirty.
A bull market and a cash-out cannot solve the root problems of the industry; ultimately, it still relies on projects that truly emerge and ecosystems that truly land to win a decent victory for crypto OGs.
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