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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 large-scale monetary easing, 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, and there were very few people paying attention to platforms like NFT China. Huobi, which focused on the domestic market (at that time it was Li Lin), established the NFT ecosystem iBox on Huobi Token (HT). Initially, only overseas versions were available to avoid trouble, but there were so many excellent NFTs overseas that iBox didn't have a chance to take off. In May, iBox boldly entered the domestic market.
• iBox in China adopted several particularly advanced strategies, which paved the way for many subsequent numerical collectors. In my opinion, it was a significant contribution to the iBox and numerical collection community:

1. They used WeChat public accounts for promotion and WeChat groups for community building, which is in line with Chinese habits.
2. The 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, due to payment issues, they encountered obstacles, but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise and benefited early investors.
4. They later introduced speculative methods from 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 that those who have played iBox have both love and hate for it.
• I entered iBox in September 2021 when I was at home due to lockdown, feeling bored and looking for investment opportunities. I accidentally discovered an advertisement for iBox on the Huobi app.
• The advertisement for iBox on Huobi was bold, stating that they entered the NFT platform through WeChat public accounts and used WeChat Pay for purchases. Without much hesitation, I followed the advertisement and found a way to enter iBox. I jumped into the pit and discovered that iBox had been operating since May. I played iBox with a skeptical attitude. I remember that at that time, iBox rode the trend and released music collections, specifically NFT music. They released a large number of them, with tens of thousands of copies. The first batch was not 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 iBox community. iBox was probably the first to establish WeChat numerical collection groups. 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 within a few hours. Looking back, it was unbelievable.
• After playing iBox for a short time, 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 transaction limits, and many people had reached their limits. In the iBox community, everyone was very active. The most memorable person was someone with a panda avatar. iBox released a series of numerical collections based on the animated film "Havoc in Heaven" produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. He may have invested in it and boasted every day that the prices of this series of numerical collections would rise. Whenever there was a new member on 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 trying to grab 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 my phone was going 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.
• However, by the end of September 2021, iBox experienced 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 intentions to scam 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, which is the most basic transaction function of blockchain. I remember that during this period, iBox also released a blockchain game called "Drawing Pies" because blockchain games were very popular at that time. It has to be said that iBox on Huobi had execution power. The off-market iBox collections, influenced by public opinion, were much lower in price than expected. Only the collections related to the blockchain game showed some improvement, while others basically plummeted. I remember that on WeChat, I could buy a collection for just over ten yuan. 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 artistic rise was the unique "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 timing, and if you managed to grab one, you would make money. iBox introduced a "Genesis" collection related to Chang'e, and those who held this "Genesis" collection had the privilege of purchasing new products. This actually had the meaning of speculation and borrowed from the gameplay of the cryptocurrency industry. With the "Genesis" collection, you could buy new products and make money. This drove up the price of the "Genesis" collection, attracting new people. At that time, when the numerical collection platform could be counted on one hand, Chang'e was speculated to be worth tens of thousands, which was truly astonishing.
• Time went by, and it was the end of December and the beginning of January. I remember iBox resumed its secondary market, and everyone in the group was confident. However, the prices were similar to off-market transactions, and in terms of terminology, it could be said that they hit rock bottom. Prices dropped to the floor, and there were many listings at that price. I was also helpless. At that time, I invested 30,000 to 50,000 yuan, and maybe only had a little over 10,000 yuan left. During this period, iBox imitated the "Genesis" collection and played a game 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 didn't have the luck to become rich. Later, when the market was better, I sold the "Zhen" collection for a few thousand yuan.
• The big turning point for the numerical collection community was during the Chinese New Year in 2022, as all the numerical collection veterans know. Haha, it's a bit ironic that it exploded during that year's Spring Festival Gala. There were two highlights of the Spring Festival Gala: one was Shen Teng's sketch, where he said, "No one is dealing with 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 listed at 100,000 yuan and was rumored to be worth one 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 coming in.
• 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. They 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 remained, and old players still cherished the time when it emerged in 2021.
2. In the numerical collection community, 18 was a celebrity and a highly controversial figure. Those who were trapped hated 18 to the bone, while those who profited greatly respected 18. At the same time, 18 was the pioneer of speculative collections, which in a sense changed the taste of numerical collections, but the way they conducted speculation was admirable.
3. At that time, the mainstream gameplay was the "Genesis" collection, but after a while, everyone became tired of it. It was difficult to grab the "Genesis" collection, as the robots were faster. Later, they optimized it to a lottery system, 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 potentially have priority purchases, which revitalized all collections and made it possible for each collection to generate income. 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 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. Even the cheapest collection was priced at three to four thousand 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 appeared on the hot search list on Weibo, becoming the white moonlight in the hearts of old players.