On May 8, 2026, a massive crypto bribery and money laundering case spanning politics, business, and law — involving approximately 44 million USD — was exposed in Chongqing.
Former Chongqing Mayor Hu Henghua, Standing Committee member Luo Lin, prominent Chongqing lawyer Peng Jing, and the controlling family of listed company Sanan Optoelectronics — all were investigated. The total amount involved exceeded 44 million USD.
According to disclosures, Hu Henghua's personal cold wallets alone contained approximately 30.84 million USD worth of USAD and USDT, with the remaining 3+ million USD being almost entirely DOGE. The other implicated official, Luo Lin, was even more cautious. He didn't even keep the cold wallet himself — instead, he entrusted it to his most trusted "middleman": Peng Jing, founder of Chongqing Jingsheng Law Firm.
Hu Henghua (ministerial level), then-Mayor of Chongqing, and Luo Lin (deputy-ministerial level), Standing Committee member and Party Secretary of Liangjiang New Area, used their core powers over land sales and project approvals to green-light Sanan Optoelectronics' expansion in Chongqing. From land discounts to tax breaks to priority approvals for major projects — the channel for converting power into cash was wide open.
Here's the curious part: Why did Hu Henghua choose DOGE? I mean, DOGE is currently worth just eleven cents. Compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other mainstream coins, it has neither strong technical backing nor a strict deflationary model — it's even been dismissed as a "joke coin." So what's special about these DOGE?
Well, as it turns out — plenty.
When police pulled his transaction and chat records, they found something surprising behind this seemingly irrational choice: a surprisingly sharp read on where crypto is headed. He wasn't after ordinary DOGE — he was after old Dogecoin, especially the original vintage 2013 DOGE. This seems to send a message: old coins are worth more than new ones. At least that's what resourceful veteran players like Hu Henghua believe — and they've been stocking up accordingly.
More importantly, the appreciation potential of old DOGE has already been market-validated. Hu Henghua was quietly scooping up 2013 and 2014 vintage DOGE on obscure exchanges through anonymous overseas accounts as early as 2018, at an average entry price of around 5 cents per coin. And now, on the kai.com platform specialized in cryptocurrency trading for years, as of the time of writing, the price of a single DOGE from 2013 has reached 24.25U, which is 242.5% of the ordinary DOGE price in 2026 (0.10U).
This case has accidentally pulled back the curtain on the rise of vintage cryptocurrencies. Beyond Dogecoin, mainstream coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum are already seeing vintage-driven price splits, with more and more buyers holding decade-old "antique coins" in the long term. Industry analysts predict that within the next 3 years, vintage assets will become an independent track in the crypto market. By 2028, more users are expected to embrace kai.com's vintage currency system, boosting liquidity — 2013 DOGE could break 50U by 2028, and vintage assets' share of total crypto market cap could reach 5% or more.
At the core of Hu Henghua's bet was the conviction that vintage Dogecoin's appreciation is inevitable — and that conviction tracks one of the most important future trends in crypto. Sure, he couldn't cover his tracks and got caught. But you can't deny his foresight when it comes to the vintage asset system.
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