When Chinese encryption tycoons start buying gold

Twelve minutes north of Singapore Changi Airport, a vault known as Le Freeport stands at the end of the runway, one of the highest security private vaults in the world.

This building, costing approximately 100 million Singapore dollars, is known as the “Knox Fort of Asia.” Without a single window, it maintains a constant temperature of 21°C and a humidity level of 55% year-round, perfectly suited for the ideal storage environment of artworks.

Behind the heavily guarded steel gates lie billions of dollars worth of gold, silver, and rare artworks: all of which can enter without customs declaration and without paying a single tax.

Three years ago, one of Asia's youngest billionaire crypto tycoons, Wu Jihan, founder of Bitmain, picked up this rumored vault, which was said to cost as much as 100 million Singapore dollars, for 40 million Singapore dollars (approximately 210 million RMB).

This transaction was confirmed by Bloomberg back then, with the buyer being the BitDeer operated by Wu Jihan. At that time, few people mocked that this was a “distraction” from the industry giant, questioning why it wasn't more appealing to mine Bitcoin on-chain instead of going to buy an off-chain vault?

But when gold skyrockets past $4000/ounce in 2025, looking back at this acquisition, it would be more accurate to say that rather than straying off topic, it was a brilliant move made in advance.

However, Wu Jihan's acquisition of Le Freeport involved much more than just concrete and steel gates. This fortress was designed from the outset as a tax-free enclave tailored for super-rich individuals and institutions: high-level security, discreet exhibition spaces, and the ability to elegantly bypass numerous tariff barriers.

It exposes a fact that those Chinese tycoons who became rich overnight through Bitcoin have long set their sights on the oldest safe-haven asset in human history: gold.

Golden Nursing Home

In May 2010, Le Freeport was officially opened in Singapore. This building was designed from the beginning as an infrastructure, located right next to the airport, with internal passages that can almost directly reach the runway, allowing valuable items to be transported from the cabin to the vault in just a few minutes.

The supportive stance of the Singapore government is reflected in the equity structure. The National Heritage Board and the National Arts Council of Singapore were the initial shareholders of Le Freeport.

At that time, Singapore was upgrading from a “trading port” to an “asset port,” and Le Freeport was included in the global art and wealth management center plan, taking advantage of the Zero GST Warehouse Scheme, becoming one of the few vaults in the world that features tax exemption, bonded storage, and cross-border settlement.

Under such a system arrangement, Le Freeport quickly came into the sight of global wealthy individuals and institutions. Not only can large physical assets be stored here; it is also open to non-Singaporean holders, without the need for immigration procedures or customs duties.

If a Picasso masterpiece worth 50 million is placed in Le Freeport, it means saving tens of millions in tax burden calculated at a tax rate of 10%-30%.

Since Le Freeport does not publicly share internal storage photos, we can only catch a glimpse of the interior through images released by the newly established vault next door, The Reserve.

Here gathered a top tier group of institutional tenants, including one of the world's major gold traders, JPMorgan, the subsidiary CFASS under Christie's, as well as international financial institutions such as UBS and Deutsche Bank, which facilitated a large number of gold bars for cross-border transfer and custody.

However, some countries are strengthening regulations on luxury goods and offshore assets, and these institutions have begun to gradually terminate their leases, leading Le Freeport into long-term losses.

Since 2017, Le Freeport has been classified as a “problem asset” in the market, and the owner began attempting to sell it, until five years later, when a buyer finally emerged - Wu Jihan.

At that time, the cryptocurrency market was undergoing a real winter. The collapse of the LUNA algorithmic stablecoin raised doubts about the entire chain's credit system; Three Arrows Capital went bankrupt, Celsius and BlockFi followed suit with their crises, the deleveraging chain transmitted layer by layer, ultimately culminating in the collapse of the FTX empire, exposing the risks of counterparty completely.

During this period, Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Wu Jihan, through Bitdeer, purchased this vault, which was previously regarded as a “hot potato,” for approximately 40 million SGD (about 210 million RMB).

Wu Jihan co-founded Bitmain, the world's largest cryptocurrency mining hardware manufacturer, which once controlled about 75% of the global Bitcoin hashing power, making him one of the key figures in the last mining cycle. After the spin-off of Bitdeer, he exited the control of Bitmain as a permanent resident of Singapore, shifting his focus to the hashing power and infrastructure business of Bitdeer.

He has not publicly made many explanations about this acquisition, only confirming it when asked by Bloomberg.

The official website of Le Freeport clearly states that it is not just a vault, but a private experience exclusive to a select few.

Think about how people in the crypto world spend their entire lives figuring out how to secure their private keys; the real big money has long been sitting in vaults in Singapore, some of it in the form of family trust documents, and some engraved on steel plates as mnemonic phrases.

Not only Chinese tycoons, but also the emerging wealthy populations from India and Southeast Asia are quietly becoming regular visitors to Wu Jihan's Le Freeport.

Le Freeport has never made its client list public, but clues can be gleaned from information provided by international auction houses: many artworks “go directly into storage” after the transaction, and do not return to the market circulation.

A similar path occurs in Southeast Asia, where the billionaires who go public transfer part of their cash directly into Le Freeport: gold bars, silver, haute couture jewelry, limited edition Patek Philippe watches, vintage cars, and rare artworks are sent straight from the trading site into this hidden warehouse.

Considering that there may be hidden reserve “vault members” among the readers, I will explain the gold storage process here.

There are armed security guards at the entrance, and visitors must first use their passports to check their backgrounds online to confirm they are not high-risk individuals on the wanted list; to enter the core storage area, they must pass at least 5 checkpoints, including identity verification, biometric recognition, bulletproof doors, and security checks of personal belongings, etc. Hundreds of high-definition cameras are installed inside and outside the storage facility, monitoring 24/7 without any blind spots. Adding to the physical difficulty of “30 kilograms for a silver bar and 12.5 kilograms for a gold brick,” even if someone manages to break in, they can hardly take anything.

So while people outside are still discussing whether “gold can go up or not,” those inside are already discussing: how many bottles of Romanee-Conti at 150,000 each should be stored first, and on which shelf and which row should the Picassos and Rembrandts be hung, so that the ladies can take better-looking numbered photos.

The endpoint for workers is the provident fund account, while the endpoint for Asian billionaires is the windowless walls of Singapore.

Of course, the vault only occupies the advantage of physical space. To gain greater discourse power in the gold industry chain, one needs to penetrate further upstream.

The People of Fujian Have Stirred the Bloodline of Gold

Chinese aunties are still queuing at the gold shops to take advantage of the discount of 5 yuan per gram, while the old money families and the new blockchain elites are already arm-wrestling over tons: who has the final say on this matter.

In May of this year, a fintech company named Antalpha submitted a prospectus to Nasdaq. In the prospectus, Antalpha mentioned the mining company Bitmain, which was co-founded by Wu Jihan.

The document clearly states: “We are the main financing partner of Bitmain.” Both parties signed a memorandum of understanding, agreeing that Bitmain will continue to use Antalpha as its financing partner, and both parties will refer clients to each other.

This company once provided supply chain loans and customer financing for Bitmain, the world's largest miner manufacturer. That is the business legacy left by Wu Jihan's era.

Nowadays, when Wu Jihan has long left Bitmain, the one in power is another founder, the cryptocurrency tycoon from Fujian, China, Jian Ketuan.

There are many places in China that have faith in gold, but those who truly tie their personal destiny to gold are definitely at the forefront, especially the people of Fujian: Chen Jinghe from Longyan turned Fujian's “chicken rib mine” into a world-class mining giant, Zijin Mining with tenfold stock; Zhou Zongwen from Fuqing founded Zhou Dastone in Shuibei, making it one of the top three in the country through franchise chains; and people from Putian, who transitioned from wandering goldsmiths to contracting nearly half of China's gold wholesale and retail.

The gold mines are in Fujian, the gold shops are in Fujian, and the gold bosses come one after another, which inevitably makes people suspect that what flows in the veins of Fujian people is golden blood.

It is obvious that the bloodline of Zhen Ketuan has been ignited, how can the people of Fujian miss out on the business of on-chain gold?

He directly aimed the scope at Tether, the world's largest stablecoin issuer, which is now also among the top 30 gold buyers globally, a new “on-chain benefactor.”

In October this year, Tether announced a partnership with Antalpha to build an “On-Chain Gold Treasury” (Tokenized Gold Treasury), with plans to raise $200 million, using the gold token XAU₮ as the basis to create a “gold-collateralized digital credit system.”

The division of labor is also very characteristic of Fujian: Tether is responsible for turning real gold into tokens and storing reserves in Swiss private vaults; Antalpha is responsible for transforming this token into a tradable financial instrument, designing collateral structures, creating loan products, and establishing a network of gold vaults in Singapore, Dubai, and London, so that “on-chain gold” becomes a pledge certificate that can be redeemed for physical gold bars at any time.

In simple terms, it is a living “modern version of the gold standard”: Tether acts as the mint, Antalpha acts as the ticket issuer, and the story background shifts from Bretton Woods to Swiss vaults.

According to public reports, Tether has stored about 80 tons of gold in a vault in Switzerland, equivalent to the official reserves of some small to medium-sized countries. However, Tether claims that due to “security concerns,” the vault refuses to disclose the specific address.

Unlike the central bank's operation of “locking gold bricks in a cellar and not seeing sunlight for decades,” XAU₮ is fragmented and put on the blockchain, making it traceable, divisible, tradable, and collateralizable. Gold, which could only lie in the cellar, is transformed into a complete set of “dynamic liquidity” that can circulate, be pledged, and be wholesaled to institutions.

Antalpha simply let its own company Aurelion take out 134 million USD to directly buy XAU₮, preparing to become “the first publicly listed treasury company with on-chain gold as reserve assets.” This is equivalent to rewriting the old money tradition of “stuffing gold bars into Swiss vaults” into: “stuffing a line of XAU₮ into the balance sheet of a publicly listed company.”

A statement from Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino highlights the framework of logic: “Gold and Bitcoin are two poles of the same logic, one being the oldest store of value and the other the most modern.”

Gold prices are also making their presence felt on this new highway: global gold investment has increased by over 50% this year, and the market value of XAU₮ has doubled in the same period. Those who fear risk and those who love to gamble are, for once, walking on the same path.

They are attempting to answer a larger proposition: Can the oldest method of wealth storage in humanity live once again on the blockchain?

Not following the old rules

In October 2025, gold prices surged past $4000/ounce like a water faucet being turned off, setting a new historical high, with an annual increase of over 50%, making it one of the best-performing asset classes in the world.

On the surface, this is yet another round of the “golden bull market”; looking deeper, it is three forces rearranging the power seats in gold.

The first row is the central banks. Over the past few years, global central banks have almost “bought the dip,” treating gold as a base for de-dollarization and hedging against sanctions. They don't care about short-term fluctuations, but only about one question: in the worst-case scenario, can this thing still be exchanged for food, weapons, or allies?

The second tier consists of Asia's super-rich. The money from China, Hong Kong, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia is quietly piling up into a new brick wall of gold through the vaults of Singapore, the cellars of Switzerland, and the trusts of family offices.

They are no longer satisfied with buying a few kilograms of “paper gold” at the bank, but instead are directly purchasing a wall: some people deposit money in banks in Singapore, while others store gold bars directly in vaults; the sense of security is completely different between these two types of fixed deposits.

Wu Jihan bought Le Freeport, which is a node on this chain: from mining Bitcoin to managing gold bars and famous paintings for others, shifting from “on-chain yield” to “off-chain security.”

The third tier is the new cryptocurrency elite. What Zhan Ketu, Antalpha, and Tether are playing is a different game: Wu Jihan bought the walls of the vault, while they bought the line of variables inside the vault - XAU₮.

In this structure, Tether mints real gold into tokens and locks them in Swiss vaults; Antalpha mints tokens into assets and places them in the balance sheets of listed companies and in the collateral baskets of institutional clients.

Thus, the role of gold has been quietly rewritten: for central banks, it remains the “ultimate collateral” kept in reserve; for Asian billionaires, it has become a “family cold wallet” that can be passed down through generations; for the new elite in cryptocurrency, it is a financial system that can continuously layer structures to earn interest rate spreads and liquidity premiums.

For most people, gold is just K-lines and weight in grams; for these three groups of people, gold is a comprehensive account involving family, sovereignty, and national security.

Narratives change one after another, but the things pressed in the bottom warehouse are actually old enough to be fatal. After all, no matter how the road twists and turns, and no matter how the story is crafted, only capital is the most honest. Once the show ends and the lights come on, what they want is the sense of security that allows them to sleep well at night.