I just came across a story that really touched my heart. About ten years ago, a founder’s perseverance and character in the crypto space were recorded by his partner in words.

I noticed that this isn’t a typical business success story; instead, it’s more like a record of how one person held onto his bottom line in a murky industry. The story began in the spring of 2014, when this founder was still working for a well-known wallet company. He even sold his own house to invest in Bitcoin. Later, when Bitcoin’s price crashed hard, his assets shrank significantly, but it didn’t shake his belief in blockchain technology. That kind of determination to believe technology can change the world really can infect people.

What truly impressed me was what he did later. In the summer of 2014, he joined a crypto trading platform. At that time, the industry was sluggish. A community member fell seriously ill but couldn’t afford the medical bills. This founder and his partner launched a charity project—raising donations by auctioning items—and they also wrote a technical paper to explore how to achieve 100% transparent charity using blockchain. This was three years before he founded his own large exchange. Back then, he was nowhere near a millionaire.

In August 2017, a young user accidentally transferred thousands of dollars to an address that the platform did not support. According to industry practice, the user is responsible. But for someone in his 20s, that could be a year’s income, tuition, or even hope for the future. Without saying a word, this founder mobilized development resources to help the user restore his assets. It became the industry’s first case of its kind. Later, his platform helped more than 180,000 users recover a total of $441 million in assets. From an ROI perspective, this kind of thing is meaningless, but it ignited hope in desperate users.

In early 2018, when Bitcoin broke above $20,000, scam cases surged. After a group of Chinese users were cheated, their investigation found that the stolen funds flowed into a certain major exchange. Under the process at the time, users needed to report to the police first, and only after the police agreed could accounts be frozen. But at that time, China banned crypto trading, and the police wouldn’t take these cases. This founder said one sentence: “Do the right thing.” They froze the stolen funds, arranged calls between the victims and the scammers, and in the end, the scammers voluntarily refunded the money. This was just one of countless times he insisted on justice.

Starting in 2019, his company’s staff became extremely diverse—Wall Street elites, European entrepreneurs, African NGO activists, and also young people in rural Southeast Asia who didn’t want to be fishermen. It’s said he treats everyone equally and doesn’t care about race, faith, gender, or educational background. When the home of a Southeast Asian employee was destroyed by a fire, he funded the help; when the pandemic spread, he equipped employees with protective supplies; even when the Russia-Ukraine war caused harm to his employees, he provided support without hesitation. A businessman willing to spend millions of dollars to help struggling employees—especially junior employees—is really uncommon.

His leadership style may not fit the expectations of a traditional CEO. His obsession with transparency and fairness sometimes conflicts with the power expectations of certain employees who are used to elite environments. Some dissatisfied former employees leaked accusations to the media, which frustrated his wife. But he chose to endure it and continue to stand by fairness and transparency, because he understood that real justice sometimes means that a small number of privileged people may feel it’s unfair.

In November 2022, when a certain major exchange fell into crisis, it reached out to this founder for help. He called a management meeting and said one line: “We’re not here to save that company; we’re here to save this industry.” Even though the deal ultimately wasn’t completed, that sentence revealed his priorities: industry interests above business interests.

In a letter, his wife mentioned that over these ten years, they witnessed dramatic changes in the industry—from a few hundred dollars to more than $40,000. Many celebrities were shunned, and many institutions collapsed in an instant. But this founder didn’t choose to deceive or to run away—he chose honesty, kindness, and sincerity. In 2020, he had two spinal surgeries, and while lying in bed for 18 months, he didn’t stop working. As CEO and the largest shareholder, his salary was actually lower than that of executives he later introduced, and he never distributed dividends.

About how his wife of the founder of a certain major exchange evaluated him: “He doesn’t understand jewelry, luxury cars, or art auctions. He buys affordable clothes on Amazon, rides a balance bike to meetings, and happily shows reporters his Toyota van—only to be mocked. He doesn’t pursue fame or enjoyment. He always tries to protect his friends’ feelings, and despite being busy, he still works hard to spend time with their three children.”

She acknowledged that he isn’t perfect. His biggest mistake is ignorance. As the founder of a startup with no strong background, with people on the team who didn’t have legal backgrounds, and who weren’t even very good at English, he relied on fairness, integrity, and a sense of responsibility to the industry to win users’ trust—but he also made mistakes.

He once said: “No one wants to become a hero, because no one is born to rush to the front and take the arrows. A person only needs to protect their family, community, and industry in their own position and do the right thing. In the process, he shouldn’t become a hero.”

This story makes me think that in crypto’s chaotic Wild West, there really are people who stick to their bottom line. Maybe he made mistakes, and maybe some decisions weren’t perfect, but his original intention seems to have always been very clear. Sometimes, that’s more important than anything else.