A man was arrested in Hong Kong after making it ‘rain’ cash on the street in what is believed to be a cryptocurrency stunt.
Residents of the area of Sham Shui Po, reportedly one of the city’s poorest regions, were showered with bank notes on the afternoon of Friday, December 14. Videos from the scene show locals running through the streets and racing to pick up the bills.
A video was posted to the Epoch Cryptocurrency Facebook page, a man in a black hoodie is filmed getting out of a sports car before addressing the camera and saying: ‘Does anyone believe that money can fall from the sky?’
It is reported that the man in the black hoodie is Wong Ching-kit, a ‘cryptocurrency enthusiast and entrepreneur’, who owns the Epoch Cryptocurrency page, and is described as a ‘Bitcoin millionaire’, according to Shanghaiist.
In another video, Wong – who is believed to be behind the stunt – describes himself as a kind of ‘god’, who, like Robin Hood, ‘steals from the rich and gives to the poor’.
The 24-year-old cryptocurrency enthusiast was arrested on Sunday, December 16, just before he was supposed to be unleashing another stunt in the city. Authorities detained Wong as he was live-streaming a video, as well as holding a large amount of cash in one hand. He was reportedly arrested for ‘disorderly conduct in a public place’.
While his stunts have earned him a certain level of notoriety in the city, Wong isn’t always seen with the same positivity he seems to be sharing.
Instead, other cryptocurrency enthusiasts suggest Wong is more of a con artist, conducting these PR stunts for publicity alone, and saying he is nothing more than a ‘pyramid scheme’ operator.
One person wrote:
He’s not a Bitcoin Millionaire. He is running a pyramid-like scheme well known in the community. Disappointed this is getting so much uncritical attention
Police say they recovered around 600 bills from the scene of the stunt, amounting to only HK$6,000, while others reported he threw ‘100s of millions of HKD’.
Another person wrote:
China’s very own Trevon James, Wong Ching Kit Arrested.
As the next Carlos Matos, Trevon James, Wong Ching Kit is someone that gives crypto a bad name. If something is too good to be true, like money falling from the sky, one should stay far far away.
During his arrest, Wong carried on filming, and recorded himself sitting in the police van between two officers, saying: ‘I am now under arrest by police’, as Asia Crypto Today reports.
The 24-year-old was also shown being warned by police officers that he could not film or take pictures. By the end of the video, however, Wong said he had not been injured, and still had his cash from the stunt.
Many people, including those also involved in cryptocurrency, have spoken about Wong’s tactics and publicity stunts, saying that he has a reputation amongst those in the ‘crypto scene’.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.