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2021-2022, Numerical Collection Investment Stage#

• 2021 was a bull market for global asset appreciation, and it was a year of celebration for many investors. During this year, China implemented a loose monetary policy, leading to a large influx of funds into the market. In this situation, various investment products were sought after by investors.
• In fact, in the first half of 2021, NFTs were still relatively unknown in China. The earliest to enter China in the first half of the year should be NFT China, but very few people paid attention to it. Huobi, which focused on the domestic market (at that time it was Li Lin), laid out the NFT ecosystem ibox on Huobi Token (HT). At the beginning, to avoid trouble, only the overseas version was available. However, there were so many excellent NFTs overseas that ibox didn't stand a chance. By May, ibox boldly entered the domestic market.
• Domestic ibox adopted several particularly advanced strategies, which paved the way for many Numerical Collection enthusiasts. In my opinion, it was a significant contribution to the ibox and Numerical Collection community:

1. They used WeChat official accounts for promotion and WeChat groups for community building, which was very in line with Chinese habits.
2. Numerical Collection images focused on introducing copyrights and emphasized compliance. Many collections were well-known IPs in China.
3. They optimized payment methods, initially using WeChat Pay, which was very convenient. Later, there were payment issues, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, benefiting early investors.
4. They later introduced the speculative methods commonly used in the cryptocurrency industry, which greatly fueled the Numerical Collection community. However, it was a short-term bubble.

ibox#

• After saying so much, I have a connection with ibox, and it has left me with many memories. I believe those who have played ibox have both love and hate for it.
• I entered ibox in September 2021 when I was under lockdown at home and bored. I was looking for investment opportunities and accidentally discovered an advertisement for ibox on the Huobi app.
• The advertisement for ibox on Huobi was very bold, stating that they used WeChat official accounts to enter the NFT platform and used WeChat Pay for purchases. Without much hesitation, I followed the advertisement and found a way to enter ibox. I started playing ibox with a skeptical attitude because I found out that ibox had been operating since May. They released music collections, NFT music, which I remember was quite popular. They released a large number of them, with tens of thousands of copies. The first batch was not even sold out, and each copy was very cheap, only 10 yuan. Only special numbers were worth more (Numerical Collection veterans know that the first batch of Numerical Collections had speculative numbers).
• The most interesting part was the Numerical Collection group. ibox was probably the first to establish a WeChat Numerical Collection group. When I started playing, there were only a few groups, and the groups were manually created by customer service. It took a long time for a few people to join the groups. To my surprise, around October, ibox exploded. Every day, new groups could be filled with 500 people in a few hours. It's still unbelievable to think about it now.
• After playing ibox for a while, I discovered something interesting. Every day at midnight, the prices of the collections would increase. Later, through discussions with group members, I found out that it was because WeChat Pay had a transaction limit, and many people had reached their limits. In the ibox community, everyone was very active. I remember one person with a panda avatar. ibox released a Numerical Collection related to the animated series "Havoc in Heaven" produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. This person might have invested in it and boasted every day that the prices of this series of Numerical Collections could increase. Whenever there was a new member in WeChat, he would recommend buying this series. At that time, ibox released new products that needed to be manually grabbed. There were so many people grabbing them because if you managed to grab one, you could sell it for a lot of money. The grabbing process was so lively that it felt like the phones were about to explode. I played ibox for almost a month, and it started to take off. The newly released collections would generally have several times the increase in value as long as you managed to grab one.
• However, by the end of September 2021, ibox encountered a crisis of trust due to payment issues. The reason was that WeChat Pay had a sudden transaction limit, and ibox believed that WeChat Pay was not a long-term solution. They wanted to find a new third-party payment platform, but at that time, there were no mature third-party payment platforms in the market. As a result, ibox closed the secondary market, and the purchased images could not be circulated. People couldn't sit still, and some people pessimistically believed that ibox had the intention of scamming money.
• Later, because ibox was still on the Huobi Chain, around November, ibox came up with a way to transfer NFTs using on-chain wallets to circulate the collections. It was actually the most basic transaction function of blockchain, and those who understood blockchain would understand. During this period, I remember ibox also released a blockchain game called "Pie Drawing" because blockchain games were very popular at that time. It has to be said that ibox on Huobi still had execution power. The off-market trading of ibox collections, influenced by public opinion, was much lower than expected. Only the collections related to the blockchain game showed some improvement, while others basically fell through. I remember I could buy a collection for just over ten yuan on WeChat. For the music record collections released by ibox, some people were selling them below the issue price, almost giving them away for free. ibox collapsed, and the only art that stood out was the "Genesis" collection. This gameplay lasted for several months in the Numerical Collection community. At that time, the first batch of collections was grabbed based on the time, and if you managed to grab one, you could make money. The only thing ibox did was to create a "Genesis" collection related to Chang'e, which gave the holders of this "Genesis" collection the right to purchase new products in advance. This actually had the meaning of speculation and borrowed from the methods used in the cryptocurrency industry. With the "Genesis" collection, you could buy new products and make money, which drove up the price of the "Genesis" collection. The price increase attracted new people to enter. At that time, when the Numerical Collection platform could be counted on fingers, Chang'e was speculated to be worth tens of thousands, which was really amazing.
• Time passed, and it was the end of December and the beginning of January. I remember ibox reopened the secondary market, and everyone in the group was confident. However, the prices were similar to off-market trading, and in terms of terminology, it could be said that it went to zero, with a lot of listings at the floor price. I was also helpless. I had invested 30,000 to 50,000 yuan, and maybe only had a little over 10,000 yuan left. During this period, ibox also imitated the "Genesis" collection and launched a promotion where holding collections could earn rankings and receive airdrops. I was still in the top 100 and received the "Zhen" collection, which was well-known in the ibox community. But I just didn't have the luck to make a fortune. Later, when the market was better, I sold the "Zhen" collection for a few thousand yuan.
• The turning point for the Numerical Collection community was during the Chinese New Year in 2022, as all Numerical Collection veterans know. Haha, it's a bit ironic that it exploded during that year's Spring Festival Gala. There were two highlights in the Spring Festival Gala: one was Shen Teng's sketch, where he said, "No one is speculating on dogs in the metaverse yet"; the other was the virtual character "Su Xiaomei" from the unique Beijing TV Spring Festival Gala. With the endorsement of a state-owned enterprise, it was already popular before the Chinese New Year, and after the Spring Festival Gala, it completely took off. Chang'e was directly valued at 100,000 yuan and was rumored to be worth 1 million yuan off-market. From February to May 2022, it was the sweetest period for Numerical Collections. The capital market needed a continuous influx of new people and funds. During that period, Numerical Collections exploded, with a large number of new collections being released. What was even more terrifying was that there were more new platforms appearing every day than new collections. The so-called "Genesis" collections on the new platforms were generally speculated to be worth over 10,000 yuan. Even with the crazy appearance of new platforms, new people kept taking over.
• From February to April, ibox, as an old platform, performed averagely and did not demonstrate the advantage of being an early player in the Numerical Collection community. But in May, it completely became the king of Numerical Collections, and countless Numerical Collection players looked up to ibox. Looking back, it was still the peak of Numerical Collections.

ibox did several things that are still considered exemplary in terms of speculation:

1. Changed the management team, with the original Huobi ibox exiting and 18 Planning ibox taking over. Although it was a new team, the foundation of the old ibox platform was still there, and old players still cherished the time when it emerged in 2021.
2. 18 was a celebrity in the Numerical Collection community and was very controversial. Those who were trapped hated it to the bone, while those who profited greatly respected it. At the same time, 18 was the pioneer of speculative collections, which in a sense changed the taste of Numerical Collections, but the way of speculation was admirable.
3. At that time, the mainstream gameplay was the "Genesis" collection, but over time, everyone became tired of it. It was difficult to grab the "Genesis" collections, as the robots were faster. Later, it was optimized to be based on lottery results, but it still couldn't compete with a large number of registered users. ibox was the first to break through. 18 proposed that all collections on the platform could have priority purchases, which revitalized all collections and made it possible for each collection to generate profits. The capital market is driven by expectations, and the strong expectation of making money drove every speculator to buy in. At that time, it was still a bull market, and ibox's refreshing gameplay stimulated a market surge.
4. Personally drawing pie in the community, 18 was probably the one who interacted the most with collectors in the Numerical Collection community. From the moment I entered ibox, 18 organized meetings. Tencent Meetings were very lively at that time. There were probably hundreds of WeChat groups, and 18 would speak in each group every day, drawing pie and saying that the platform would get better, implying that collection prices would rise.

In this way, ibox welcomed a bull market in May 2022, and it basically surpassed all other platforms. The price of the cheapest collection was around 3,000 to 4,000 yuan, and it lasted for half a month. Any new collection that came out was worth tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands! At that time, ibox even briefly made it to the hot search on Weibo, becoming the white moonlight in the hearts of old players.