The New York Times has revealed that a Chinese second-generation wealthy individual named Jerry Yu has invested $6.33 million in a Bitcoin mining facility in a small town in the United States called Qianning, potentially bypassing Chinese and American regulations to move funds overseas.
Background:
China Crackdown: Shandong police have cracked down on an underground bank case involving nearly 70 billion yuan, related to illegal trading of virtual currencies.
China’s Chaos: Courts have recognized Bitcoin mining machines as having “property attributes,” but mining is illegal and contracts are invalid.
Contents:
Who is Jerry Yu?
Exposed for unpaid construction fees
Spending $6.3 million to become the largest shareholder of a Bitcoin mining facility
Does Jerry Yu have a red background?
Since the Chinese government issued a ban on cryptocurrency mining in 2021, many Chinese miners have fled to other countries, spending millions of dollars to build or invest in cryptocurrency mining facilities.
The New York Times recently reported that a 23-year-old Chinese second-generation wealthy individual named Jerry Yu, currently studying at New York University, has invested $6.33 million in a Bitcoin mining facility in Qianning, Texas, a small town with a population of less than 300 people. These mining facilities may have become a channel for Chinese individuals to evade US and Chinese regulations and move money into the US.
According to reports, Jerry Yu is a Chinese citizen with US residency who currently lives in a top-tier Manhattan apartment worth $8 million. He is also a major shareholder of BitRush, a Texas-based Bitcoin mining company.
Jerry Yu | Source: The New York Times
Initially, everyone thought that Jerry Yu was just a wealthy second-generation studying in the United States, until BitRush was sued for unpaid mining solution fees by Crypton, a company. In a series of lawsuits, Jerry’s transaction records with BitRush were made public, leading to scrutiny of his source of funds and personal background.
The New York Times reported that the Bitcoin mining facility in Qianning consists of dozens of small buildings and can accommodate 6,000 Bitcoin mining machines that operate day and night to mine BTC.
Based on publicly available transaction records, Jerry and the seller had a transaction worth approximately $6.33 million, which was not conducted in fiat currency but in the stablecoin USDT. This allows overseas investors to bypass scrutiny from the US banking system and the accompanying federal regulatory agencies, as well as evade China’s restrictions on capital outflow.
Since the source of funds for this transaction is not publicly recorded, and the purchase agreement does not specify who will pay this huge sum, publicly available financial clues indicate that the transaction took place on Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. A Binance spokesperson also stated that three Binance account wallets sent cryptocurrencies to the seller’s wallet, and the owners of these wallets are foreign individuals who are not US residents.
Furthermore, according to the New York Times report, Crypton, the company involved in the lawsuit with BitRush, stated that Jerry is “not only a Chinese citizen but also a citizen with high political influence and commercial status.” Although there is currently no conclusive evidence to support Crypton’s claim, records from WireScreen, a company providing Chinese business intelligence, show that when Jerry signed mortgage documents for the Manhattan apartment, two names recorded were Yu Hao and Sun Xiaoying, which match the names of a Chinese couple who own company shares worth over $100 million, potentially being his parents.
Gavin Clarkson, BitRush’s lawyer, responded on behalf of Jerry, stating that the company complies with all federal, state, and local regulations, including banking regulations, and that Crypton’s allegations are “baseless and worthless.” He also declined to confirm the identity of the company’s shareholders.
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Second Generation Wealthy
Mining
Bitcoin
Mining Facility
United States