Original | Odaily Daily Report (@OdailyChina)
*Author | Dingdang (@XiaMiPP) *
After a 7-month consolidation period, ETH has finally risen back above 3000 USD today.
In this tough battle around ETH, there is one voice that is firm and high-profile. From publicly calling out trades to heavily investing in options, he has almost single-handedly taken up the banner for the ETH bulls in the Chinese-speaking community. He is Li Hua Yi, the founder of the secondary fund Trend Research, also known as “E Li Hua” among crypto investors. Today, he has finally welcomed his moment in the spotlight—holding 182,000 ETH, with unrealized gains exceeding 130 million dollars but “not selling a single coin.”
Why was he bold enough to publicly call for a bullish stance and continue to increase his positions when ETH was at $1450? And why did he resolutely steer clear of “casino” style trading after incurring a $2 million loss in options “tuition”?
From the frenzy of “mindless betting” in 2017, to the heavy blow of the bear market in 2018, and then to the dividends of the bull market in 2020, Yi Lihua has deeply realized: “Trend awareness far surpasses short-term skills; in a bull market, less turbulence is the way to go.” This interview is not only a glimpse into the positions and strategies of a top player but also a “trend investment manifesto” and “bull market survival guide” based on practical experience, penetrating the fog of the market. The logic he has verified with real money is worth careful reading and reflection for every investor caught in the wave of cryptocurrency.
1. Personal Experience: Trend Awareness and Cycle Judgment Far Surpasses Short-Term Skills
**Odaily Daily Report: First, please briefly introduce your professional background and what prompted you to enter the crypto industry?
Yili Hua: **I was previously engaged in equity investment. In 2015, during the investment process, I came into contact with crypto projects. After gradually deepening my understanding, I officially entered this industry by participating in Bitcoin mining.
**Odaily Daily Report: How has your investment philosophy changed throughout your career in cryptocurrency? Is there a particularly important experience that has had a profound impact on your current strategies and judgment methods?
Yili Hua: **First of all, during the period of 2017, the investments at that time were almost illogical; in the primary market, as long as you got the quota, you would invest, and in the secondary market, it was simply buying BTC and ETH. This led to me suffering heavy losses in the bear market of 2018 – 2019. The bull market of 2020 – 2021 allowed mindless betting to reap rewards. These two rounds of cyclical changes made us deeply realize that: trend recognition and cycle judgment are far more important than short-term skills.
At the same time, it is also clear that: Building an investment logic centered on trends is the key to navigating through cycles in the context of the long-term upward trend of Bitcoin. Most OGs have only established their fundamental investment framework after repeated trial and error.
2. Ethereum Ecosystem and Core Holding Logic
**Odaily Daily Report: We know that you have been very optimistic about Ethereum (ETH) recently. ETH has returned to $3000. How do you feel now?
Yili Hua: **Everything is as expected. If it weren’t for the interference of Middle Eastern geopolitics, ETH would have already reached 3000 dollars.
**Odaily Daily: Can you share your current ETH holdings publicly? What is the cost? Do you have specific profit-taking ranges and plans?
Yili Hua: **On-chain data is basically transparent, and we currently have no selling behavior. We believe the bull market has just begun, and as long as the trend continues, we will keep holding. Only when we judge that the bull market has ended will we consider selling.
Odaily Note: According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin (@EmberCN), as the price of Ethereum (ETH) reaches the $3,000 mark, the ETH held by Trend Research has currently realized a profit of $130 million. Data shows that Trend Research has cumulatively purchased and held 182,000 ETH, with an average price of approximately $2,250.
**Odaily Daily Report: Because you have been calling for more ETH, we saw someone on Twitter jokingly refer to you as “E Lihua.” What do you think of such a title? Would you mind? Do you have anything you want to respond?
Yili Hua: **The reason we publicly called for a bullish stance is that when ETH was at $1450, we believed it was a historic opportunity, and of course, we wanted to share that with everyone. Moreover, we have indeed been continuously buying, aligning our words with actions.
The term “E Lihua” also indicates that everyone is paying attention to ETH, whether it’s teasing or questioning, it’s all just after-dinner talk, and I don’t mind. I have let go of those who wrote negative articles about me back then; now that the bull market has arrived, it’s most important that we all win together.
**Odaily Daily Report: In June, you publicly held nearly 100,000 ETH call options on platform X, with a premium of 2 million dollars. However, the market performance that month was not satisfactory. What is your view on this investment? Do you have any reflections or adjustments in your subsequent strategy?
Yili Hua: **It is indeed a mistake worth reflecting on. We were too eager to bet on ETH surpassing $3000 and overlooked the black swan risk. At that time, the market situation was particularly good, and our paper profits were decent, so we wanted to make the next bet, but the Middle East conflict disrupted the rhythm. This also reminds us again: it is very difficult for any professional team to win money in the “casino” for a long time.
Therefore, we are even more convinced of the belief in trend investing and avoid participating in such high-risk behaviors. This is also what I want to express: both primary investment and options trading actually fall under uncertain risk behaviors; only trend investing is what we believe to be the fair path that can lead us to the end.
**Odaily Daily Report: In addition to firmly holding ETH, you have also expressed optimism about Ethereum ecosystem projects such as UNI and AAVE multiple times. May I ask if you have made position allocations? What is the approximate percentage?
Yili Hua: **We are optimistic about the overall ETH ecosystem. As leaders within it, UNI and AAVE naturally have a position in our portfolio, currently accounting for about 20% of the overall allocation. We hope that the leading projects in the ecosystem can outperform ETH, and we will make timely adjustments based on market performance and timing in the future.
**Odaily Daily Report: Do you have confidence in these altcoins based on the correlation logic of ETH’s rise, or do you value their own cash flow and value capture ability? Additionally, emerging platforms like Hyperliquid, which are not based on ETH, have also performed impressively recently. What are your thoughts? Will you consider investing?
Yili Hua: **The main focus is on ecological linkage configuration based on the trend judgment of ETH. In the face of trends, any analysis is meaningless. We tend to only buy the leaders, even if it’s the leader in the Meme track. Therefore, our project investment decisions are entirely based on a long-term optimistic view of ETH. With ETH returning to 3000 USD, the industry bull market is about to return, and all quality projects will rise, but our energy is limited, and we cannot cover everything.
3. Positioning and Strategy of LD Capital and Trend Research
Odaily Daily Report: It is well known that you are the founder of LD Capital, but in the past year we have seen you focus more on the development of Trend Research. What are the differences in operation and positioning between the two? What meaning and vision does the name Trend Research represent?
Yili Hua: LD Capital is a well-established investment institution focused on the cryptocurrency primary market. Over the past 8 years, it has invested in more than 200 projects, mainly focusing on team support, ecosystem incubation, and early-stage strategic investment.
Trend Research is an investment fund focused on the secondary market. Due to different positioning directions, team differences, and fund structures, it has become a relatively independent brand name and development goal. The reason for the name “Trend” is that I firmly believe that trend investing is the most replicable and fair long-term path. In fact, Buffett and Duan Yongping are also typical representatives of trend investing. We hope to build Trend Research into a sustainable, cross-cycle evergreen fund that can carry this philosophy in both the crypto space and the stock market. We will continuously strive to enhance our investment research capabilities and investment strategies.
**Odaily Daily Report: Is the funding source for Trend Research internal funds or the participation of external investors? Is it convenient to disclose the current size of the managed funds?
Yili Hua: **Most of the funds are self-owned by the team, and the on-chain information is relatively transparent. At the same time, we hope to continually expand the team and scale under appropriate circumstances. We believe that establishing the underlying logic of investment is the most important. The team’s partners have over 10 years of experience in crypto investment and trading, so we look forward to steady growth step by step.
**Odaily Daily Report: In terms of specific strategies, does Trend Research prefer long-term value investing or focus more on short-term trend capturing? Where is the current funding focus mainly located?
Yili Hua: **We focus on trend-driven value investing, with short-term strategies involving only small-scale adjustments or opportunistic trades. As everyone can see, we have been continuously increasing our positions without any selling behavior, and we may reduce borrowing leverage at certain times (risk is extremely low ).
The current focus is still on the cryptocurrency industry, and in the future, we will further expand into categories such as stocks. We are researching opportunities in the coin-stock track, and whether to expand will depend on the alignment of team capabilities and market opportunities.
Odaily Daily Report: This year, new projects generally lack support after listing, and price performance is below expectations. How has the primary project previously invested by LD Capital performed? Has this prompted you to reassess the layout logic of the primary market? Will you continue to participate in primary projects in the future?
Yili Hua: Indeed, like most institutions, we have also endured significant pressure in the primary market. Most projects have performed very poorly, which is a direct reason for our shift towards secondary investments. However, we are using our own funds, while others are LPs, but I don’t know whether to call it a blessing or a curse.
To be frank, we currently haven’t found a clear underlying logic for large-scale primary investments. Investing at the primary level is a high-risk behavior, and we have no means to constrain the project parties. Asian funds are also completely in a weak position regarding pricing power and exit liquidity, which makes us very cautious about primary investments right now. However, if it’s a founder that we are particularly familiar with and optimistic about, we will continue to add investments at the primary level. Recently, we have also started investing in coin-stock companies while helping quality primary projects with service acceleration; this is our current strategy.
4. AI Narrative, Macroeconomics and Market Structure
**Odaily Daily Report: You mentioned that Wall Street’s investment in crypto is on par with AI narratives, while also pointing out that there is a bubble in AI. Are you referring to the bubble in the crypto space or the broader tech sector? What is your view on the AI Agent sector in the crypto space?
Yili Hua: **AI is the main engine of the current bull market in the US stock market, but whether it can support a market value of trillions of dollars in the long term is still debatable. I believe there is no problem with AI itself; it is one of the most important development directions for humanity’s future.
In the crypto space, there hasn’t been a true breakthrough in AI+Crypto projects yet. We hope to see projects in the future that possess real technological innovation and practical applications, but currently, it is still in the early stages.
**Odaily Daily Report: What do you think about the capital siphoning effect under Bitcoin’s “super consensus”? Does this make it difficult for altcoins to obtain capital rotation? Does the traditional “altcoin season” still exist?
Yili Hua: **Bitcoin is currently the core asset of the institutional bull market, with firms like BlackRock and MicroStrategy only buying BTC, thus reinforcing the consensus. However, altcoins generally face issues of narrative fatigue and oversupply, making it difficult to realize their value.
In the future, only a few altcoins that truly have technological or value support will have rotation opportunities. Just like in the US stock market, most “zombie stocks” no longer have liquidity or pricing power.
**Odaily Daily Report: Recently, securities tokenization has been very popular, with major exchanges like Bybit, Kraken, etc., entering the blue-chip US stock token trading business. What is your view on the market prospects of securities tokenization? Will it further squeeze the liquidity of altcoins and the trading space in the market?
Yili Hua: **I believe this is a positive development. Most Web3 users only trade leading coins and star stocks, while there is likely very little interest in other categories. Traditional stock investors may enter a new market through tokenization channels. This represents an increment for the crypto market, rather than a zero-sum situation.
Odaily Daily Report: With the GENUIS bill making critical progress, stablecoin regulation seems to have made substantial breakthroughs. Do you think this policy advancement will truly bring in incremental funds? Will its impact result in short-term market volatility or long-term institutional structural positioning?
Yili Hua: Of course, favorable crypto policies are an important factor in this bull market. Without friendly crypto policies, massive traditional capital cannot smoothly and compliantly enter the crypto industry, which will bring in a large amount of funding and a long-term bull market foundation. This is also the core reason why we are optimistic about this bull market.
Odaily Daily Report: Many viewpoints suggest that the crypto industry is transitioning from a “technological dividend period” to a “regulatory dividend period”, and even to a “compliance arbitrage period”. Do you agree with this assessment? Will institutional players gradually replace retail investors as the main pricing force?
Yili Hua: This is an inevitable trend. Just like the U.S. stock market, pricing power will eventually return to institutions. The only choice for retail investors is to closely follow Wall Street and major institutions, and not to trade against the trend. Once institutions enter the market, certainty will be higher.
5. Trend Judgment and Investment Advice
Odaily Daily Report: At this point in time, how do you view the overall trend of the cryptocurrency market in the next 1-2 years? What macro variables or regulatory policies could become key variables?
Yili Hua: Supported by favorable policies and expectations of interest rate cuts, the crypto bull market is expected to continue. Of course, there will be many black swan events and normal fluctuations in between, but currently, there are no significant signs of a trend reversal. When a real major variable appears, we will make an analysis and judgment at the first opportunity.
**Odaily Daily Report: As a veteran in the cryptocurrency industry, what advice do you have for ordinary investors in the current environment?
Yili Hua: **I have given many suggestions on Twitter, and everyone can take a look. The most important and fair choice for everyone is trend investing. In a bull market, doing less is the best strategy. Avoid primary investments and heavy contract positions.
Holding 182,000 Ethereum (ETH), with unrealized gains exceeding $130 million yet “not a single share sold”! Veteran crypto investor Yi Lihua (nicknamed “E Lihua” in the circle) generously shared shocking holding data in a recent interview and revealed for the first time the core principles of his “trend investment” that has helped him navigate bull and bear markets. From the fervor of “brain-dead betting” in 2017, to the severe blows of the bear market in 2018, and then to the dividends of the bull market in 2020, he learned profound lessons with real money and tears: “Trend recognition far exceeds short-term techniques; less turbulence in a bull market is the way to go.” Why did he dare to publicly call for a bullish trend and continue to increase his holdings when ETH was at $1450? And why did he decisively steer away from “casino-style” trading after a $2 million options “tuition fee”? Faced with the siphoning effect of Bitcoin, the weakness of altcoins, and the cold winter in the primary market, how does he position himself? Why does he assert that the era of “institutional pricing power” has arrived, and that retail investors can only “keep up with Wall Street”? More importantly, how does he view the far-reaching impact of the current “regulatory dividend period” on the bull market? This interview is not only a perspective on the holdings and strategy review of a top player but also a “trend investment manifesto” and “bull market survival guide” based on practical experience that penetrates market fog. The logic validated by Yi Lihua with real money is worth careful reading and reflection for every investor caught in the crypto wave.
