Moore Threads: From "Malegecoin Scandal" to 300 Billion Yuan Fortune — The Complex Journey Behind Li Feng's Success

The tech world loves a good comeback story. On December 5, Moore Threads, China’s homegrown GPU chip maker, went public on the STAR Market with explosive results. The stock opened at 650 yuan per share — a 468.78% jump from the 114.28 yuan issue price — giving the company a market cap exceeding 300 billion yuan and triggering a frenzy among retail investors chasing the “first domestic GPU stock.”

The winning lottery rate? A mere 0.03635%. You’d need roughly 2,750 applications just to bag a single 500-share lot, which netted early winners over 267,000 yuan in immediate gains. The excitement was real. But here’s what makes this story genuinely interesting: Moore Threads’ co-founder and Moore Academy dean Li Feng has a complicated past that most investors probably don’t know about.

The Growth Engine Behind Moore Threads

Moore Threads’ rise reflects China’s push to break free from GPU bottlenecks in AI computing. Since 2020, the company has raised over 9.498 billion yuan across eight funding rounds, backed by an impressive roster: Sequoia China, Shenzhen Capital Group, Tencent, and ByteDance among 80+ institutions. This “VC + state-backed capital + corporate venture arms” combination is the gold standard in Chinese tech investing.

The results on day one? E Fund Management alone booked nearly 1.9 billion yuan in paper profits. Early backers like Tencent and ByteDance saw 35x+ returns. One investor, Peixian Qianyao, walked away with a staggering 6,200x gain.

That’s the kind of wealth creation that gets headlines. But underneath, there’s a more complex picture.

The “Malegecoin” Experiment: When Absurdity Met Blockchain

Li Feng’s journey spans chips, AI, VR/AR, and other cutting-edge fields. But rewind to 2017, and there’s an awkward chapter: the Malegecoin (MGD) project.

Launched with industry figures including Li Xiaolai and Xue Manzi, MGD was pitched as “the first modern performance art piece based on blockchain.” The project raised 5,000 ETH through crowdfunding. The white paper promised an AI cloud system where each token connected to a self-learning digital entity, with 10% token allocation reserved until the year 2100.

The “team” was described as “CEOs, PhDs, returnees, and investment bankers” — though many were fictional. Despite the absurdity, hype propelled the fundraising to completion within a week. But authorities flagged the project’s name as inappropriate, forcing a rebrand to “Alpaca Coin.” As regulations tightened, the project quietly faded, token prices stagnated, and the chapter closed.

The Bitcoin Debt: A Story That Keeps Appreciating

If Malegecoin was the footnote, the Bitcoin debt dispute is the lingering question mark on Li Feng’s record.

In mid-2018, a prominent figure claimed Li Feng had borrowed 1,500 bitcoins (valued at roughly 80 million yuan at the time). When repayment didn’t materialize as agreed, it became public. Legal remedies were attempted in multiple jurisdictions, but enforcement proved difficult.

Here’s where the math gets interesting: In mid-2018, BTC traded around $7,000, making 1,500 coins worth approximately $10.5 million. Fast forward to today — with BTC now trading at $91.77K (as of January 2026) — that same amount would be worth roughly $137.65 million. The gap between the past and present value is staggering.

Both sides maintained their positions on whether this was a loan, an investment, or something else entirely. Chinese law treats Bitcoin as a “specific virtual commodity,” and civil disputes involving crypto have historically faced enforcement challenges.

The Bigger Picture

What’s remarkable isn’t just the wealth Moore Threads created on day one. It’s that Li Feng — despite a complicated past involving experimental blockchain projects and unresolved financial disputes — navigated his way to leading one of China’s most critical technology pushes.

Moore Threads now controls GPU chips (“Sudi” and “Chunxiao”) deployed in national projects like the Gui’an AI Computing Center, with partnerships extending across the industry. Cumulative losses of 5.939 billion yuan (2022-2025) haven’t dampened investor appetite because the market sees the strategic value.

The Moore Threads IPO tells us something important: in the race for technological independence, capital markets are willing to look past controversy if the end game — China’s own core GPU technology — justifies it.

Whether Li Feng’s earlier ventures were experiments, mistakes, or something more ambiguous remains open to interpretation. But his current mission is clear: positioning China’s graphics processing capabilities on the global stage.