CCTV made Li Xiaolai famous. How has it reported on Bitcoin over the years?

Today, CCTV’s report on cryptocurrency flooded the WeChat Moments.

CCTV2's "World Finance" column quoted Bloomberg data, saying that since the beginning of this year, the world's major cryptocurrencies have risen by nearly 70%, while gold has only risen by 20%. The strong rise of cryptocurrencies has not only outperformed gold, but also exceeded the global stock market, bond market and commodity market.

If we look at the return on investment alone, cryptocurrencies can be said to be one of the best performing investment assets this year. The best performing cryptocurrency may be Ethereum, which has risen 169.4% this year, while Bitcoin has risen 49.48%.

The main reason for the rise in cryptocurrencies is, on the one hand, DeFi, the so-called decentralized finance. The acceptance of decentralized finance is increasing, and cryptocurrencies are the main tool in this regard. On the other hand, due to the epidemic, the introduction of huge stimulus may stimulate inflation and weaken the US dollar. Supporters believe that major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin provide an option for preserving value.

Looking back at history, since CCTV first reported on Bitcoin in 2013, it has made special reports on Bitcoin in financial news many times.

2013 - Li Xiaolai becomes the richest person in Bitcoin

On May 3, 2013, CCTV-2's "Economic Half Hour" program conducted a special exploration of Bitcoin.

The opportunity for the report came from the "4.20" 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Lushan County, Sichuan. The disaster area received a variety of donations, the strangest of which was the more than 230 bitcoins received by the charity organization One Foundation.

It was also in this year that Li Xiaolai claimed in an interview with CCTV that he had "six-digit bitcoins" in his hands. As a result, he became the "richest man in Bitcoin in China" and became an instant hit, becoming the industry's number one internet celebrity.

Later, Bao Erye said indignantly that when CCTV was interviewing at Garage Coffee, Wu Gang was not there, Zhao Dong was not there, and Su Qi (founder of Garage Coffee) asked Li Xiaolai to be interviewed. When Li Xiaolai came over, he said that he had six-digit bitcoins. CCTV did not even look at his bitcoin address and directly exposed him.

"I just bought six figures in Bitcoin, and laughed at the fact that I bought 100,000 Bitcoins. Everyone believed it. The fake became real, do you understand?"

From then on, Li Xiaolai became a frequent guest on CCTV interviews, and the title of “Bitcoin’s richest man” became deeply rooted in people’s hearts.

In addition to Li Xiaolai, other bigwigs interviewed by CCTV this year include Xu Mingxing, the founder of OK Group and the head of OKCoin trading platform at the time. As the central bank prohibits third-party payment platforms from opening Bitcoin trading platforms, Xu Mingxing said helplessly in front of the camera: "We used to think that the hardest thing to buy with money in the world is love. Now it seems that the hardest thing to buy with money is Bitcoin."

2017 - Witnessing Bubbles and Madness

2017 was the craziest year in Bitcoin’s history.

On July 12, 2017, CCTV reporters went into the mountains and conducted an in-depth investigation of Bitcoin mines, reporting on the current situation of Bitcoin mines: thousands of mining machines and dozens of industrial fans running day and night, and about ten bitcoins can be mined a day.

Since then, CCTV has begun to report intensively on Bitcoin, and 2017 is also a legendary bull market in the history of cryptocurrency!

On August 9, 2017, CCTV2 Channel broadcast the "Global Financial Link" program, explaining the recent price trends of Bitcoin and other digital currencies.

On September 4, 2017, the central bank issued a document clearly calling for a halt to token issuance financing, namely the 1CO ban, and CCTV cooperated in reporting it.

On November 28, 2017, CCTV-2 Finance's "CCTV Financial Commentary" column conducted an in-depth discussion on the question "When will the Bitcoin craze end?" and conducted a lengthy 26-minute analysis of the Bitcoin surge.

That month, the price of Bitcoin exceeded 10,000 US dollars, but the madness did not end. Bitcoin soared to a high of 20,000 US dollars.

2018 - Questioning the Bear Market

In 2018, cryptocurrencies began to enter a bear market. While CCTV was reporting on cryptocurrencies, it began to explore the technical value of blockchain.

On May 17, CCTV-13 News broadcast a report titled "Bitcoin: A Virtual Currency That Can Be Used for Real Shopping". The program interviewed a foreign guy named Jack, who used 0.02 bitcoins as a means of payment to complete a purchase at a coffee shop in Beijing. Li Xiaolai also appeared in the interview as a "senior bitcoin player".

On May 21, CCTV Finance Channel's Economic Information Network program made an in-depth report on the current virtual currency market, exposing the three major chaos in the current Chinese virtual currency market:

1: The dream of getting rich quickly keeps the "cryptocurrency market" hot; 2: "Air coins" appear frequently, and the number of newly issued tokens increases more than 30 times; 3: Celebrities endorse the market, and the game of rising and falling makes it easy to make money.

Li Xiaolai appeared on camera again and said in an interview with CCTV financial reporter: "99.9% of the time I am supported by others. People who are eager to make money are afraid of missing opportunities, and they can't judge. So, it depends on who is supporting them. Maybe the person who supports them has influence, which means that this thing may be favored."

While exposing the chaos of digital currency, CCTV began to report on the technical value of blockchain.

On June 3, CCTV-2’s “Dialogue” program broadcast a special topic titled “Dialogue on Blockchain.”

This is the first time that CCTV has held a seminar to discuss the hot topic of blockchain, and it is also the highest-level report on blockchain in history.

The column invited experts such as Don Tapscott, Chairman of Tapscott Group, Wang Zhiqin, Vice President of China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Chen Lei, CEO of Xunlei, Yuan Dao, Chairman of Zhongguancun Blockchain Industry Alliance, and Zhang Shousheng, founder of Danhua Capital, to interpret blockchain technology from several perspectives including current situation, development, future, and supervision.

In the second half of 2018, the cryptocurrency market entered a deep bear market, and CCTV began to pay close attention to the currency circle after the plunge.

On November 21, CCTV-2 Finance reported on the recent plunge of Bitcoin. CCTV believed that the hard fork of BCH caused the plunge of Bitcoin. At that time, data showed that the total market value of global cryptocurrencies was currently $82 billion, which had fallen by 75% compared with the high value in December last year.

On the evening of December 5, CCTV-2 Economic Channel broadcast a program titled "Bitcoin 'Mining Disaster' Storm". The program said that in just half a month, Bitcoin has fallen by 30%, and 70% from last year's peak, which has caused a big storm in the Bitcoin mining circle. In addition to investigating the current mining situation of Bitcoin mining machines, CCTV reporters also rushed to Inner Mongolia to explore the operating status of large mines.

2019 — Technological Revolution and Crypto Scams

In 2019, promoting blockchain technology and being wary of cryptocurrency scams once again became the main theme of CCTV reports.

On February 13, 2019, on the "First Time" column of CCTV-2 Financial Channel, the host mentioned Bitcoin in the column and recommended the Bitcoin-related book "Crypto Assets".

The host said that the book provides a relatively comprehensive introduction to the history, technology, recent market dynamics and regulatory status of Bitcoin and other crypto assets.

It is reported that the authors of the book "Crypto Assets" are Americans Chris Burniske and Jack Tatar.

Chris Burniske is the co-founder of the venture capital firm Placeholder Ventures and a buy-side analyst who paid early attention to the emerging asset class of crypto assets. He successfully prompted Wall Street to recognize that crypto assets are a new type of asset. In addition, he has also advocated ARK Investment Management's "Next Generation Internet Strategy" and led the company to become a public fund management company investing in Bitcoin.

Then, the big event came!

On October 25, 2019, CCTV News Network broadcast that the Political Bureau held its 18th collective study on the current status and trends of blockchain technology development on the afternoon of October 24. The integrated application of blockchain technology plays an important role in new technological innovation and industrial transformation. We must take blockchain as an important breakthrough for independent innovation of core technologies, clarify the main direction, increase investment, focus on conquering a number of key core technologies, and accelerate the innovation and development of blockchain technology and industry.

All of a sudden, blockchain became a popular buzzword among the nation. While praising blockchain, CCTV began to criticize cryptocurrency scams under the guise of "blockchain".

On November 18, 2019, CCTV1's "Focus Interview" broadcast the program "Blockchain is not a "Withdrawal Chain". The program pointed out that in the current blockchain craze, the most important thing to guard against and strengthen supervision is the so-called virtual digital currency, and relevant legislation should be accelerated.

On December 10, 2019, CCTV News reported on cryptocurrency again. The report pointed out that since 2019, a total of 6 newly discovered domestic virtual currency trading platforms have been closed. Relevant departments have currently processed 203 overseas virtual currency exchanges through technology in 7 batches, and closed nearly 10,000 virtual currency accounts through two large non-bank payment institutions.

2020——Central Bank Digital Currency and Technology Applications Landed

In 2020, the implementation of blockchain technology and central bank digital currency became the main focus of CCTV.

On March 26, 2020, CCTV News reported that Xicheng District in Beijing was the first to complete a pilot project on blockchain applications in Beijing's district-level government services. Through blockchain technology, it realized data and material sharing and business process optimization, making government services more efficient and making it more convenient for residents and businesses to do business.

In addition, CCTV has been intensively reporting on the digital RMB. CCTV Finance's interpretation shows that my country's legal digital currency is the People's Bank of China combining digital currency and electronic payment tools, with the goal of replacing part of the cash. Simply put, the People's Bank of China's digital currency can be regarded as digitized RMB cash. From the perspective of usage scenarios, the central bank's digital currency does not pay interest and can be used in small, retail, and high-frequency business scenarios, which is not much different from using paper money. It does not rely on bank accounts and payment accounts, and can be used as long as the user has a digital currency wallet.

Looking back at history, CCTV has witnessed the rise, prosperity, bubble and trough of Bitcoin. But now, without Teacher Li on the screen, it always feels like something is missing. What do you think?