For skeptics, a piece of the same is a quick way to make cheap money.
For exiled activists Li Ying, it is a means of financed a pro-democracy community that questions Chinese censorship and the authoritarian regime.
Li, 32, is better known according to his handle on the social media platform X: “Professor Li is not your teacher.” He built a series of more than 2 million by publishing information that the Chinese authorities do not want people to see.
Last December, he extended to launch $ li, a form of cryptocurrency modeled after his own avatar on social networks – a tabby cat drawn by hand. The objective was to provide financial support to its data initiatives on the crowd of the interior of China on social issues such as the overwork of students and workers in order to promote change.
But its movement divided the Chinese diaspora. While some supporters have rallied behind Li, many militants and former Li supporters condemned the launch as fraud and an act of self-suens.
When he started, $ Li reached market capitalization in the tens of millions of US dollars. But the price quickly plunged. At the time of the report, the $ Li market capitalization had dropped by more than 80%, less than $ 2 million.
Li concedes that his personal reputation has shot, but he says that the launch of the play has stimulated a debate on the way in which cryptocurrency could be used to finance the activities of dissident groups out of the reach of governments – especially the long arm of the Chinese Communist Party.
As an exiled influencer contesting the Beijing censorship machine, Li said he had faced threats and pressure from the Chinese authorities.
Li said he had lost his job in Italy, had frozen his bank accounts in China and had trouble making a living thanks to individual donations. In 2023, he publicly revealed that his advertising revenues from X only made € 568 per month (around US $ 650) – well below the average monthly income in Italy.
“I had no choice but to launch a cryptocurrency,” said Li to RFA.
According to a press release published by Li on X, $ Li had a total offer of 1 billion pieces, with prices left to market forces. A foundation was to be established to supervise the medal, with 19.5% of the tokens held by the Foundation and 2% held by Li itself.
Li said he frozen the majority of his own assets because he did not intend to sell. The rest was used for payments to staff involved in initiatives promoting democracy in China.
One of the managers of the Foundation, the influencer based in Canada “Toronto Squareface”, said in an article on his X account that the use of funds would be determined by a democratic process. All transactions would be registered publicly and transparent as part of Blockchain technology.
In a press release on X, Li said that he planned to use the Foundation to build the community support initiatives that promote freedom of expression and press freedom in China. $ Li will not hold any presale, which means that there will be no sales of early access to any investor, and the team does not have the power to hit additional tokens.
According to the latest data from a GMGN trading platform, there are 6,283 $ Li holders.
今天我们很高兴的宣布 ， 我们在 Sol 上发行了我们的迷因币 $ Li ， 以帮助我们的团队持续运营这个账号。 $ Li 将以一个基金会架构, 后续会邀请更多业内人士作为基金会成员 ， ， 确保基金会的去中心化 ， 以完全公开透明的方式进行运作。… pic.twitter.com/prholwu9lx
– li (@li_daomeme) December 18, 2024
Shortly after its launch, certain platforms reported $ Li as a high-risk skill or token and prohibit its exchanges. Li explained to RFA that it was mainly because these platforms have a Chinese property, such as the OKX chain portfolio. He added that $ Li had been labeled a scam in the context of a political attack by the Chinese authorities.
Despite the insurance offered by Li on the management of $ Li, many of his supporters turned against him after his launch, accusing him of betrayal and opportunism.
“He (Li) has changed under immense pressure and the temptation of money,” wrote Huang Yicheng, an organizer and exile who participated in the anti-cook demonstrations of China. He announced on X that he cut links with Li.
Huang accused li of taking advantage of the public’s confidence to get rich, which Li denies. Others say that under the guise of promoting democracy in China, Li’s real objective was to exploit investors.
Some criticisms have even made comparisons with Guo Wengui, the self -proclaimed Chinese dissident and vocal supporter of Donald Trump. Guo has been sentenced to several charges of fraud and money laundering for allegedly used his online influence on scam subscribers on more than a billion dollars, especially through a fraudulent cryptocurrency program.
Supporters of Li, however, consider the launch of the same corner as an innovation in the civic movement.
“Li burst into the stage as a disruptor that no one expected,” said Jiangbu, who prefers to be identified by a pseudonym for security reasons. He is an activist of non -governmental organization based in Paris by focusing on social issues in China.
Jiangbu, who has once led demonstrations abroad against the zero -cove policy of China, said that he knew the slow grind of traditional non -profit work – guaranteeing subsidies, writing reports, performing programs.
“What Li has done was creating money in thin,” said Jiangbu, who was a coordinator for one of the initiatives funded by $ Li. “The project is effective, and everyone gets a small reward and has a real feeling of participation. It’s incredibly innovative. ”
According to Aaron Zhang, a member of the Li team which is also identified by a pseudonym due to security problems, the staff chose $ li as a payment mechanism due to the anonymity of the cryptocurrency. This made it difficult for the Chinese government to trace transactions to individual investors, thus protecting their safety.
Despite the criticisms that Lis was confronted with, he said that he had succeeded in building a cryptocurrency-based community capable of launching initiatives with a real impact on China.
“Each time you come back from the abyss,” said Li, “you come back stronger.”
Edited by Mat Pennington.