Jimmy Zong spent billions of dollars worth of crypto in order to feel validated by frats and sororities and now
He's completely broke. I guess David. What can we learn from all this? Yeah, we got to talk about it because a minute documentary
Just dropped on Jimmy Zong Andrew the rise in the fall long story short Andrew
He was a self-described fat ugly weird kid growing up in Cobb County, Georgia
Very very very non Asian area mostly white right so he wants to be cool. He's good at computer science Andrew
He gets on Bitcoin early. He kind of semi steals a bunch of it from the Silk Road, which was a dark web thing
Andrew basically he becomes worth three billion dollars at one point and he spent about thirty million dollars
Impressing all his friends or quote-unquote friends in the white frats and white sororities the FBI
Seizes all of his crypto and now he's got nothing right and we don't even know if he has a lot of the same friends
Anymore, so essentially his life is ruined
Potentially he's still a uber or lyft driver around town. We don't know but anyways guys
This is a true story and it also relates to a lot of people a lot of other stories that we've heard of and even
People in our own lives
So if you guys are ready to hear our commentary on this
Please hit that like button and check out other episodes of the hot pop boys right after this
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised Andrew, you know listen to this story
I think you feel a lot of different emotions, especially if you're an Asian guy and you've seen this before
I feel like it could make you sad it can make you mad or you could just be like, yo
That reminds me of that guy that I grew up with. Yeah
I mean, here's some even other names that who have a similar story Joe Lowe who's actually a wanted criminal right now by the
Government my by Interpol. Yeah, actually, yeah, he took five billion dollars from the Malaysian government
Yeah, but he was spending it on Hollywood people and running those circles trying to be feel validated
Also, sadly it kind of reminds people of the story of Tony share rest in peace
But you know like if you guys read about that story
It kind of seems like he was trying to impress a lot of people and validate himself in a certain way
Which may have led him down a certain path. Um, and yeah, it's just even people from our own upbringing. So I guess David
one thing that's a common thread and I don't want to blame it on everything, but it seems like being a
nerdy Chinese guy
Even with a billion dollars, it doesn't change everything and maybe that's what these guys were hoping to do
They were hoping to feel accepted
Maybe some of these guys were not put in a great position to impress a lot of people
But regardless they have a lot of money, but it still doesn't work out the way they want
Yeah, I mean we're gonna get into the comment section then our own takeaways and or the first comment was
Basically people in the crypto community defending him and these are these are non-asian people
I'm gonna get into the Asian comments later
But some of the crypto people feel like the FBI did him wrong because some of the coins were stolen from the Silk Road
Which is dark web
It's a lot of drug money
But some of them were legitimately his that he just mined when he was like being a early adopter
Yeah, no, and I'm not trying to like villainize Jimmy Zong because actually if you read the details
He didn't really like steal and commit a real crime of of anything
Especially because also the dark web is already like criminal thing that they got in trouble for their own thing
Anyways, basically, he's not really a criminal so but I that's why I think people feel bad for him and you can empathize because listen
it was like you could almost sum it up like
That nerd gets a lot of money wants to impress people
FBI ends up knocking him for it kind of unfairly takes everything now. He's broken has no friends. I feel bad
Would you say though two years ago Andrew you saw a lot of Jimmy Zong's because crypto was pumping
You know Bitcoin was at 60 K
Is it true that a lot of people who are deep deep deep in a crypto possibly are in a similar situation?
Would you you get so rich beyond your wildest dreams and you want to live like a rock star or a celebrity?
yeah for sure and you want to spend it on the flashes people and the people that you kind of always
Fantasized or dreamt about or did you aspire to be accepted? Yeah, right. It's not really people who necessarily care about you
It's not the community. It's not necessarily your family
Hopefully you are spending some on your family
But like you're really spending on it to release dopamine and just feel cool
But it's so fleeting and it's so shallow because in those circles you can kind of pay your way to get in
But it doesn't mean it stays with you and you know
Everybody knows somebody in their life whether they've observed them from afar or close in like middle school or high school
That was kind of like this, you know, they're not they're not to the same level
These are like the the 15 out of 10. I mean listen
We don't know any of these crypto billionaires
But you knew a guy in high school that kind of was like this like his family owned some restaurants
He had a little bit of cash and he what would try to throw parties
Yeah people his name was Michael Finn and I'm just saying, you know to hide the identity
but this guy was
obsessed with like all the prettiest white people at school like he wanted to be accepted by them so bad that he would like
It almost felt like he was like their slave
I'm just saying man
A lot of people said that why is there so many parallels with the story of Tony Hsieh the billionaire of zappos calm Andrew as
Well as Joe Lowe
Obviously, you know, we had mentioned them earlier. What are some of the similarities in story? Yeah, I mean, it's just these
Asian guys Chinese guys trying particularly Chinese
I'm not saying it only happens to Chinese but these three guys happen to be Chinese or Taiwanese
Okay of some sort they are growing up in very very non-asian areas and they want to be accepted by the cool pretty white
People right who is that at Georgia State Bulldogs, right or uh, I'm sorry University of Georgia
That's gonna be frats and sororities right mostly white people, right?
Right, and I believe that Tony Hsieh wanted to be accepted by a lot of uh, I don't know models probably
Yeah, and I don't want to like blame it on wanting to be around white people
but I think it's just more speaks to their
Insecurities as people and they're kind of like lack of self-love and they're possibly, you know
level of self-hate
Maybe that drives them to want to like live this crazy life and spend all this money around people who don't actually care about them
You know, I wish that they were more around an Asian community or maybe that doesn't solve anything
Maybe there's people within the Asian community that still act like this, too
Of course, I'm Andrew the Asian mail message boards read it and stuff like that
They had a ton of things a ton of comments
Somebody said it's sad to think that some Asian males upon becoming wealthy want to be seen in the cool crowd thinking they will be
Accepted when in reality that is often not the case. They want your money. Not you
They want what your talents and labor produce not you
Yeah, I mean and I want to say I think nowadays it's changing a little bit
It's not just about being Asian, but obviously these guys
First example, like maybe Jimmy he's like if you look at him, he clearly stands out of the friend group
He's clearly not looking like everybody. He's not like a buff Asian guy
Yeah, it looks like a giant version of the guy from the Korean cartoon lookism
Kind of yeah
Before the transformation, right? Right, right
I mean it is I'm not gonna lie like they probably called him like and by the way, Jimmy
If you see there's no disrespect to you, but uh, like Jabba the Hutt or something
No, I'm sure that they were teasing him behind his back or nicknames
And I mean, I'm assuming that the women were not all attracted to him and he wasn't he
He was just trying to spend the money how he could but I don't know if he knew how to deploy the capital correctly, right?
Do you think he should have just lost weight maybe moved to Asia or something like that?
I don't even think he had that thinking growing up in Cobb County, Georgia
Yeah, that's probably what he should have did because you see some fat guys in Asia
Living it up. Honestly. Sometimes that's the answer if you really don't fit in somewhere and you're so far from fitting in
You know, you're so far from it like there is possibly an Asian guy who fits into that area
But it wasn't gonna be him and I was like dude if you feel that
Outsided you gotta change your whole scheme. You can't just throw money at it. It's no longer a matter of money
It's a matter of environment and then it's also you have to change yourself
Yeah, especially in America, which is a country if you guys know that has late late-stage capitalism a lot of people
They almost like our past money
No, they have enough money like just because you have a billion dollars if you're an extremely unappealing person
It doesn't mean everyone's gonna like you
Like Dan Bilzerian still gotta look like Dan Bilzerian and have a bunch of money, right?
Right, right. Um, somebody said hearing about his family troubles and lack of acceptance in school
It's hard not to feel bad for him. Although what he did was wrong
He was just trying to achieve what he could not as a kid
Somebody said great documentary so sad that Jimmy still got rejected from women even when he had a suitcase full of cash
I burst out laughing when I learned that even though it was hard to think about
Yeah, basically long story short Andrew
There is a story where Jimmy Zong had a suitcase full of
$700,000 to impress women to like hook up with him and they still did not this is in his FBI testimony
Yeah, well, that's because that's weird
That's not how you hook up with women who are especially not
Professionals at that job
I don't understand like see this is the weird thing about a lot of people who come from a who
Makes such a huge jump from being kind of like outcast right outcast and then they just get a bunch of money
They think that they can literally wear money and they're like, yeah, I got money ladies, and I'm like, whoa guys
Come on, if you understand human nature, that's not exactly how things work, especially in America
Maybe that might work in some parts of a different country, but that's not how it's gonna work in
America somebody said almost everyone forgets about Asian males altogether much less
Prioritizing mental health we even forget to take care of our own mental health
It's important that we have to have the ability to live our lives fully
That we make use of our talents because it's just gonna life is always gonna be way more difficult for it us than some white
Chad, you know and this seems like such a trivial thing to say sometimes like a like a
Almost like a solution but David I wish these guys like all these guys played more team sports
I think playing team sports would have helped them
Find just like just not think like this
That's what I think like I don't know doing martial arts or something would just help you not think so in a way
Ridiculous like yeah, I have money. I'll just spend it and I'll be cool
I'm like dude like if you play a sport you already know like you can have all the money in the world
They don't make you better at that sport everything like it still kind of teaches you about meritocracy is what I'm saying
Somebody said Jimmy Zong deserve better
We all must learn a lesson from this and make sure that we should only be concerned about ourselves in our community
This was obviously off the Asian board
Um, I agree, you know, I just think that a lot of people they don't receive the right coaching from what I read Andrew
He had a very strained relationship with his Chinese mainland immigrant parents
They probably did not provide a lot of good parenting outside of like study hard, right? Yeah. Yeah
I mean, they probably weren't great communicators
I mean
I'm sure they were great parents in the sense that they provided him a life and took care of them and everything like that
But as far as like teaching some kid in
Georgia how to grow up and how to maneuver and how to be happy because think about it
Listen immigrant parents can teach you how to survive teach you how to work hard oftentimes
But some of the things that they're missing and not fully to their fault
They're missing how to teach you how to maneuver around life and how to be happy
Those are the things that it's very very hard for immigrant parents to teach. Yeah, it's almost like they can teach you basketball skills
But they can't teach you the flow of the game like five on five schematics and like knowing well
They can't teach you a passion for the game
You can't teach that somebody said he should have migrated and moved to an island destination and he could have lived like a king instead
Believe the in the American dream and about how America is better, but it did not work the way that he did
He was basically also referencing that some white tech guys that come up on like a hundred million or a billion dollars do move to
The islands there have been several cases in the past documented
Yeah, and I think that at the end of the day if you
Introduce yourself to people by throwing money at them. You're not starting that friendship or relationship on the right foot anyways
So obviously I think that the people who move to the islands like a cheap island in Bali and spending a million a year
You could live literally like a king there
It's like I mean, I don't know if that's like a better life too, but maybe you're just less sad
I guess I don't know sounds like he was like frozen in a very high school like mean girls mindset
you know trying to rise up the
You know like glee or whatever sort of like Hollywood high school like image that he had that was super blue pill
He was like he it's weird because he has some aspects of like understanding crypto
Which is like super outside of the matrix and right into the you know thinking different
But then when it came to a social life, he was just thinking like he was like 12, man
Maybe he felt like that. Those were his friends though, and he just wanted to spend money on his friends, too
I mean he could have really felt like you know, not everybody has a
Big group of great friends
They just have the people around them right and their whole worldview is being determined by that fishbowl that they're growing up in
This is the other final comment. Somebody said holy hell
I went to college at you at UGA as an outcasted Asian guy who also just wanted to fit in with the all-exclusive
White Greek life social scene just like Jimmy
So I felt everything that Jimmy did
And everything that he was going through in terms of social life in Athens GA as an Asian guy cast aside by all the pretty
But instead of doing what Jimmy did I found social acceptance in run escape instead which is a gigantic online RPG
So basically saying I was living in the same town as him going to the same school
And I was getting millions of not real money, but virtual currency GP from run escape
So I'm something of a Jimmy Zong myself. I
think dude, I you know, we know a lot of kids of
Particularly nerdy families that are out in the boonies or out in areas where there's no other Asians like in the south and
It can be uncomfortable, right? You're saying their parents might be like researchers at the local University or or might I?
Don't know any I mean they could I guess they could run a restaurant
But it's a little bit doubtful or they're like a professor at a community college
Sometimes if you run a restaurant at least you're part of like some type of restaurant community
I'm not saying that life is great either. I just think life is hard out there, man
When you're trying to be accepted as an Asian kid, especially if you're nerdy and you're not like, you know
You don't just don't get happen to be born super good-looking
I think it's easier for the girls, but even then the looks is gonna come into play a lot
Yeah, man, it's tough man. I don't I don't like I
Have a lot of empathy for it
I seen it like I seen a lot of people do some
Lower extent of what Jimmy Zong did a lot in my life, especially if you grow up in a non-asian area Andrew
Let's just get into our takeaways. I think this is gonna be kind of a long section
I mean
What do you think the Asian community thinks about when they see this because everybody's seen it in their life
Obviously if you grow up in an Asian enclave if you happen to be, you know
Like maybe really tall good-looking really social off the rip, you know, you probably seen less of this, but I've seen it a lot
I just wish
Nowadays in 2022 I can't like 2023
I mean like I think there's so many more resources out there in other communities that you can find
Even if you're a kid growing up in like a small town in Georgia and you totally don't fit in
There is some type of community that can't is positive that you can be part of you know
I mean that doesn't mean shuck away trying to be accepted by your environment because I still think that there is something to be said
about still trying to
Make the best of your situation, but regardless you got to use the resources at hand whether that's online
Whether that's through a certain group sports church
Video games like whatever it is. Like there's something there
Yeah, let us know in the comment section below what instances you guys have seen before
I think the one that really strikes me is Michael Finn from middle school in high school. I'm not gonna lie his
Profile photo is him being the best man at this one
Like really good-looking white dude that we all know from high school his wedding like this guy made it his profile pic
That's crazy shown with him. Yeah to be shown at his friend's wedding with two pretty white people, right?
That's crazy to me. That's like so I can only imagine what his dating profile looks like on the dating apps
It probably has him with all the white people that he hangs out with
Yeah, cuz he wants that value wants to show people like hey, you know, I'm not just a regular Asian guy
I can I got these friends
Do you think it's important to raise your kids around an Asian community at least nearby if not a full-on Asian enclave like the six
On the Bay Area when you hear stories like this whether that's Tony Shea j-o low and he was isolated in the UK at boarding school
I know that Tony Shea
Was from a non very non-asian area as well
You know what it is man
If you're gonna raise your kids in a area that has no other Asians in it
you better raise them to be strong and confident or
You expose them to the Asian community every so often if you're not gonna go out of your way to
Teach them to like
You know be around their own people or be except or feel like what it's like to be normal to be Asian
Then you have to make them very very strong. Yeah, right. That's like your only two options
You cannot not raise them strong and then also then be the only Asian kid is society changing
Like all these stories are people that are like 30 35 40
For somebody who's 25 and under are these cases still gonna happen a little bit, but I think it changes
Yeah
but I have seen kids like I feel like I've seen some like tick talkers try to seek validation from like the white crowd because
They're the only Asian kid at school. So their content on tik-tok is kind of like cringy or like
Borderline disrespectful to Asians. Yeah, it feels like quasi self-hate. Yeah a little bit and I'm just like I don't want to watch this stuff
but I'm like, I'm sure you're
You get comments from people at school and you like it. So why do you think so many of these guys are Chinese?
I think that it's because Andrew Chinese they have the least structured game plan
You don't mean like I just feel like other groups are smaller
They might keep it more tighter and they just have like different coaching
I just feel like the Chinese world is so spread out and you could be like the children of so many different things that there's
Just no plan. I think it just comes down to like the coaching and obviously
I think there's a lot of Chinese people who move to all different parts of the world
So, I don't know I mean I think we could go on and on there's no religion there's no clannishness
That's a whole nother video man
I think it goes to show you America is so big and there's so many different fishbowls of different sizes
You can be raised in a lot of the things that
The way you perceive life are determined by the fishbowl that you spent from like 0 to 17 in
Yeah, anyway guys, let us know what you think of the story of Jimmy's on in the comment section below
Have you seen this before in your own life? Let us know what you think until next time
peace