Zhang Xue arrived 20 years ago. How long ago did Saylor and Tom Lee arrive?

null

Author: Yuanshan Dongjian

Zhang Xue arrived 20 years early. How early have Saylor and Tom Lee arrived?

Zhang Xue’s motorcycle post went viral—he dug into it and couldn’t quite hold it together. It also reminded me of Zhang Xue in our crypto community.

He didn’t finish junior high. His father died when he was 10. At 19, he rode a beat-up motorcycle in the rain and chased a TV station’s vehicle for three hours—just to get filmed riding the bike for a shot.

He founded Zhang Xue Motorcycles in 2024 and delivered the first batch of vehicles in 2025.

By 2026, he had already crushed the European and Japanese giants—Ducati, Yamaha, Kawasaki, and others—who had dominated the tracks for decades at WSBK, the World Superbike Championship.

Two days, two championships, leading by nearly 4 seconds. But what really keeps me from staying still isn’t the inspirational story—it’s the data.

Last year, output value was 750 million, with R&D spending of 69.58 million, and a full-year loss of 22.78 million. This January, he raised 90 million in Series A, valuing the company at 1.09 billion.

The 820RR starts at 43,800. With the same configuration, an imported bike costs at least 100,000. With pre-orders opening for 100 hours, 5,543 units were locked in.

A company that’s losing money made a vehicle that crushes century-old giants—yet it sells for less than half the price of theirs, and the orders are still lined up.

Then I found something even more interesting.

Crypto now has people doing the exact same kind of operation: losing money, then going all-in and adding positions like crazy.

Strategy’s Saylor—he holds 738,000 BTC, but last week he still spent $1.28 billion to buy 17,994 BTC.

BitMine’s Tom Lee—he has hoarded 4.4 million ETH, with an unrealized loss of about $7.4 billion; in February and March, every week he keeps adding more.

Zhang Xue, Saylor, and Tom Lee—three people, three tracks, but their underlying move is completely the same: when everyone thinks he’s crazy, he’s using losses to buy chips.

The difference is verification speed.

Zhang Xue’s answer came out in two days.

In the first round, he led by 3.669 seconds; in the second round, he won the championship again. Every dollar spent on R&D—and the track answered immediately.

Saylor and Tom Lee’s answers are still on the way. BTC and ETH don’t have a track to run on—returns on positions can only be verified by time.

But after digging through Zhang Xue’s experience, there’s one detail that really stuck with me.

He founded the company only in 2024 and delivered the first batch of vehicles only in 2025. In between, there was just one year. In that year, he lost money building the bikes; nobody believed him. “What kind of motorcycle are you making as a junior high kid?” Then this past weekend, the answer showed up.

Before the answer was revealed, “madman” and “pioneer” looked exactly the same.

Most people who bet against the trend do end up losing. But occasionally, there are a few—those aren’t crazy. They’re just early.

Zhang Xue arrived 20 years early. How early have Saylor and Tom Lee arrived?