According to Herbert Sim, aka “The Bitcoin Man,” the most recent bull run didn’t even scratch the surface of what’s to come in the crypto market, as China is yet to throw its hat into the ring.
“The thing now is the Chinese are actually still in the midst of gearing up. They haven’t even really entered the crypto market yet. I know this first hand because I’m working with all the Chinese guys,” he says.
“That means the $69,000 Bitcoin price is the baseline for the bull run to start running.”
Sim tells Magazine that the previous bull runs have all been led by Chinese markets, not the Americans, despite them “wishing that” they were leading the pack.
“You should know that the true past three bull runs were led by Chinese markets, not the Americans. They wish they were the ones but it was actually from China.”
Sim has been in crypto since 2010, back when he was studying economics at university. He jumped in before “the industry” was even a thing, back when Bitcoin was worth next to nothing, hitting a peak at the time of just $0.40.
That year, Sim founded crypto research and content aggregator Crypto Chain University, which is still around today for experts in the industry to upload research papers and educate people about the Cypherpunk movement.
“A lot of contributors just upload articles themselves. There were also a lot of known Cypherpunks as well that were contributing,” he says.
He has been singing the praises of Bitcoin ever since, and if you’ve ever been to a crypto conference you may have seen him in Bitcoin chains or even a Bitcoin suit delivering a speech as a key authority in the space.
“I am the one right now that’s still trying to make crypto sexy,” he laughs.
Sim found success in the high-end fashion industry before venturing into crypto, thanks to his company WardrobeTrendsFashion.
“It’s a media company that became vastly popular across the Asia Pacific. In fact, I won an award from Google and another award for the best lifestyle website across Asia Pacific, including Australia,” he explains.
He ended up selling the company “for millions” but didn’t get so lucky on his next venture.
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He got lured into a shady deal attempting to purchase a nuclear power plant in Eastern Europe that involved dodgy businessmen and “a lot of corruption.”
It was a rough patch for Sim as it pretty much wiped out most of the money he made by selling WardrobeTrendsFashion.
Luck was on his side, however, as shortly after he got a call from crypto exchange Huobi to lead operations worldwide.
“They suddenly offered me a lifeline. They wanted to hire me as the global operations director reporting to the CEO,” he explains.
What led to Twitter Fame?
Sim is a bit of an anomaly in the crypto industry, as he was already well-known in the high-end fashion world.
So when he switched, he didn’t have to resort to promoting tons of shitcoins to quickly build his following.
While his X following is fairly impressive, his Instagram is almost 10 times bigger.
On X he has 272,700 followers, while his Instagram is sitting around 2.1 million followers.
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He tells Magazine that he entered the crypto industry with a legacy blue tick on X at a time when the feature was reserved for big celebrities, not like now, where you can get one for just a few bucks a month.
He was verified before Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao were.
In 2018, Sim saw a huge spike in Chinese followers after spearheading Huobi’s native crypto project, the Huobi token (HT).
“The token raised 400 million in 13 seconds. And because of that my name as the Bitcoin man became very vastly popular across China. So a lot of OGs in China know my name.”
What type of content do you like?
Sim says he’s always keeping tabs on what Blockstream CEO Adam Back and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin are up to.
“So these two are the guys that I really follow and obviously there’s Michael Saylor who came about a couple years ago. He’s also following me on Twitter.”
He says he really respects what Saylor is doing for Bitcoin advocacy and is stoked the MicroStrategy CEO hit him back with a follow but he’s still waiting for Buterin to do the same.
What type of content do you do?
Sim’s been around the block a few times and has seen so many crypto accounts flood into the industry lately that he feels like his voice is getting a bit lost in the crowd.
“You see more crypto bros doing the same and then obviously, my voice got diluted until I’m just a speck in the ocean. But that’s good because it means Bitcoin is exploding further,” he says.
His X feed is sort of like an Instagram feed, showing off the people he rubs elbows with on a regular basis.
Predictions?
Unlike most crypto influencers who chop and change their price predictions every time the weather changes, Sim claims to have held on to the same bold Bitcoin price prediction for the past seven years.
“I have been singing the same tune since 2017 that Bitcoin will hit $1 million by 2030,” Sims says.
With the recent approval of Bitcoin ETFs, Sim is playing his one-time wildcard, amending his prediction.
Now, he’s thinking that the million-dollar price tag could be hit by 2028.
“So those panic selling right now, good luck to them because when the bull run happens, which I’m predicting [at] $148K, they will all be left behind,” he adds.
He explains that this prediction stems from his strong belief that the Chinese will lead the next bull run. The number 148 is significant in Chinese culture, as it symbolizes “a lifetime of prosperity.”
Sim isn’t big on throwing out wild memecoin predictions. He tends to be more cautious compared to his seven-figure Bitcoin forecast.
“It’s my official recommendation that people maybe look for coins that are back to the basics.”
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Ciaran Lyons
Ciaran Lyons is an Australian crypto journalist. He’s also a standup comedian and has been a radio and TV presenter on Triple J, SBS and The Project.