Behind Moore Threads' 300 Billion Surge: Co-founder’s Crypto History Dug Up

[BlockBeats] On December 5, “China’s first GPU stock” Moore Threads was listed on the STAR Market. On the first day, its price surged nearly 470%, and its market value directly broke through 300 billion yuan. Those who won the IPO lottery made a net profit of 267,000 yuan per lot, while early investors like Tencent and ByteDance saw returns of over 35 times, with some institutions’ returns even soaring to 6,200 times.

But behind the excitement, some old issues have resurfaced.

Moore Threads co-founder Li Feng actually has a “history” in the crypto world. Back in 2017, he, along with Li Xiaolai and others, launched a project called “Malegecoin (MGD)”—yes, that fantasy-sounding token. The white paper was full of grand claims, most of the team’s background was fabricated, but thanks to the ICO craze at the time, they still managed to raise 5,000 ETH. The project team said they would use 25% for R&D, but as for the rest of the money? No one knows where it went. Later, because the name was too sensitive, regulators summoned them for a talk, and they renamed it “Alpaca Coin” and kept going.

Things got even worse in 2018. The founder of a leading exchange, Star, publicly accused Li Feng of borrowing 1,500 BTC and then disappearing. At the time, that was worth about $10 million; at today’s prices, it’s already risen to $135 million. Star said lawsuits were filed in both China and the US, but due to legal definitions and enforcement issues with virtual assets, the debt was never recovered.

According to the agreement Star posted, the loan even had a guarantor—Hu Zhibin. The original agreement was signed on December 17, 2014, and was supposed to mature on December 16, 2016. But due to “Party B’s personal reasons for an extension,” it was renewed on March 30, 2017. In the end, Li Feng defaulted again, completely infuriating Star, leading to their eventual public falling out.