The "mainstream" face was once so clear that it was almost stereotypical: founders from investment banks, wearing crisp suits and speaking cautiously; incubator-certified projects with standardized financing paths and growth curves; before listing, the capital structure was already meticulously arranged, with clear tables detailing who enters, who exits, and who makes the market.
The "mainstream" has its own narrative style: stable, replicable, and trustworthy. The "mainstream" also has its own operational logic, where the system selects qualified participants and then determines their value and potential.
This system of the "mainstream" has indeed begun to loosen in recent years. Many niche cultures have started to slowly seep in, and the once-solid boundaries have become less certain.
You can see graffiti entering art museums, punk walking the fashion week runway, and Hiphop becoming the big winner at the Grammys. Bitcoin, once viewed as a "criminal tool", has transformed into a key topic in Federal Reserve research reports and an item in BlackRock's asset allocation.
Niche cultures are conquering the mainstream system, not by becoming more "regulated", but by forcing the mainstream world to acknowledge their stronger grassroots foundation and cultural influence.
In this process, existing authorities have become less effective, and standards are no longer the only ones. Things previously marginalized have begun to have their own space to speak. The capital market has had to accept a new logic: those not of orthodox origin are not necessarily more reliable, and those not endorsed by organizations are not guaranteed to succeed.
In recent years, what has gone viral are increasingly not those projects following the standard path, but a batch of initially underestimated "atypical" ones: GameStop, which rose from meme, AMC, which rewrote narratives through retail communities; Pinduoduo and Temu, which penetrated user communities through extreme product chains.
Niche cultures break through not because they are stronger than the mainstream, but because they are closer to "people". They are not top-down planned, but naturally grow from bottom-up. They often carry a rough beauty, can be seen, liked, and believed.
Bitcoin's Advance, The Belief of Outsiders
Bitcoin has always been an outsider to the "mainstream" system.
As an outsider, it doesn't speak the mainstream language, hasn't accepted mainstream discipline, and doesn't follow mainstream rhythms. In real society, "outsiders" are usually hard to be heard. Their intentions are easily misunderstood, their methods seen as threats, and their challenges to existing order labeled as "dangerous" or "barbaric".
Bitcoin is exactly like this. Challenging central nodes technically, challenging sovereign currencies in asset form, challenging authority systems culturally - it's not a financial asset created by financial elites, but the victorious fruit of niche culture, the most aggressive collective belief of the internet era.
In its first decade, during its early stage, Bitcoin circulated in geek communities, cryptography forums, survivalist and anarchist circles, like a parallel world's monetary system, completely ignored by the mainstream.
Bitcoin first truly entered public view during the 2017 bull market. Its surge drew global attention and regulatory anxiety. But that was just heat, not real acceptance.
Until after the 2020 pandemic, global water release threw traditional finance into a trust crisis, with US stocks rising, the dollar depreciating, bank runs... Bitcoin re-entered mainstream view, this time not just as a speculative asset.
It was Bitcoin's first widespread view as an anti-inflation tool, becoming a way for ordinary people to protect their assets. During that time, it flowed from the geek community to a larger public market, gradually evolving into a symbol of retail investors challenging institutions, becoming the core symbol of an "anti-authority narrative".
Bitcoin at that time was like a flag - not a product, but an attitude.
Today, Bitcoin has entered its third stage: "accepted" by the mainstream, yet still an "outsider".
It appears in ETF products, is written into asset allocation reports, and is openly discussed by presidents, central banks, and hedge funds. But it has never truly changed itself, without regulatory leadership, organizational endorsement, or individual control.
The mainstream market accepted its price and liquidity, becoming part of passive income, but didn't accept its spirit, and it's no longer asked what it represents. It was accepted, but without belonging, and it doesn't need belonging.
So we say Bitcoin is the most successful advance of niche culture in the capital market. Not because it obtained permission, but because it never sought permission and reached its current position.
DDC, Another Direction of Niche Culture Breakthrough
[The rest of the translation continues in the same manner...]She said that she truly began to think about this matter not because of the hype, but because of the structure. "If I didn't have a background in stock analysis and the personal investment experience from 2021, I might not have seriously listened to that advice."
But she not only listened, but also decided to execute.
Norma formally proposed a transformation strategy to the board at the beginning of this year - incorporating BTC into the company's balance sheet, using DDC's operating cash flow for long-term BTC reserves. By May this year, they completed the acquisition of the first batch of 100 bitcoins and quickly completed a round of financing, making DDC the world's first bitcoin strategic reserve company driven by a female founder.
She didn't treat this as some kind of labeled "female entrepreneurial breakthrough". When asked, she casually said: "Sure it's cool, I'm the first. But more importantly, is this decision the most beneficial to shareholders."
This was not a beautiful platitude, nor was it to package the story, but a judgment method she had long established. She made this transformation not because the bitcoin reserve strategy became hot, but because she spent ten years understanding users, building trust, and continuing the narrative - which was precisely the starting point of bitcoin's existence.
Her understanding of bitcoin did not start from the technical white paper. Nor did it start from hype, getting rich quickly, or anonymity. Her path of understanding began with "trust": Why would someone be willing to believe in something they can't see or touch? This was actually the problem she had been dealing with for ten years - in content, in brand, in community.
DDC's users are not traffic visitors who just scroll by, but those who are willing to stop and click on a cooking video. Norma doesn't create viral content, but a sensory expression. She narrates in the first person, creates closeness through a sense of companionship, and gradually builds a trust relationship unique to DDC. "Many people think we are a content e-commerce platform, but we have always been managing emotional trust," she said.
This high sensitivity to "trust" also became her starting point for understanding bitcoin.
Before transforming to a bitcoin strategic reserve, Norma began to re-examine the company's marketing approach. She said that in the past, advertising and discounts were for attracting traffic, but this method was becoming increasingly difficult to truly retain users. Later, she began to think about whether part of the budget could be used for user incentives in a Web3 way. "Web3 is a new method that allows users to be rewarded in the process," she said.
She faces Generation Z users who are used to watching one-minute cooking videos on TikTok and leaving their replicated dishes on Instagram. They believe in brands, but care more about whether the person behind the brand is genuine. Their consumption decisions are not always rational, but often stem from emotional identification or value expression.
"We are creating a bitcoin reward system," Norma said, "You can buy products or participate in social media interactions and have the opportunity to receive BTC rewards."
But she emphasized that this is not a simple remake of a membership system, but a new structural attempt. She wants to transform bitcoin from a trading symbol into a part of the user's long-term experience.
This is her understanding of bitcoin - not just "digital gold", but a certificate of time and trust. Norma has never focused on bitcoin's price, but its "Staying Power". This is the word she most likes to use to describe bitcoin, and what she hopes DDC will become.
She said: "Bitcoin has experienced so many suppressions and doubts, but it's still here." She hopes DDC will be a company that can cross cycles, survive even in turbulent times, and even become stronger.
She Wrote Bitcoin into the Company's Underlying Structure
Bitcoin strategic reserve is not just an asset allocation. For DDC, it's more like an attempt to fundamentally change the company's way of thinking.
Norma knows that the biggest challenge of strategic reserves is not buying coins, but continuously buying; not financing, but turning financing into a positive flywheel. She transplanted the rhythm she learned from content over the past ten years directly into the bitcoin allocation rhythm.
"I told the team that buying bitcoin is not just an action, but an entire mechanism." She didn't blindly invest money, but set up a comprehensive execution plan: buying in batches through financing tools like ATM, finding truly long-term strategic investors, and starting to establish communication channels in the crypto community.
Unlike MicroStrategy, DDC doesn't have massive cash on the books. Norma's strategy is more restrained - gradually holding through operations, using real business cash flow to buy bitcoin bit by bit.
"We are essentially still a food company, just choosing to invest part of our profits into long-term value," she said.
This approach might sound conservative, but in the crypto market, it's a very rare path.
Norma is very clear that when the capital market observes a bitcoin strategic reserve company, it looks at several core issues: first, can the company sustain itself long-term; second, during a bear market, can it avoid selling coins; third, does the management have a stable narrative vision and execution ability.
Her answer lies in DDC's three "atypical" advantages:
First, a different financing foundation. Norma has years of accumulation in Chinese and American capital markets, able to continuously add positions through OTC, convertible bonds, and private agreements, without relying on public markets. "We are now also talking about cooperation with family offices that have held coins for many years."
Second, a different narrative progression path. She chose to collaborate with bitcoin OGs to establish an "Influence Collective", where each member represents a community and a narrative channel.
Third, a different asset structure. DDC has no financial black holes and is not a shell company supported by hype. Its food business still maintains a 30-40% annual growth. In other words, it's a BTC strategic reserve company with "fundamentals" that can tell a narrative in bull markets and compete on cash flow in bear markets.
This balance is a rhythm she developed over more than ten years.
Norma said that without the early patience in content creation, without the resonant community built with Generation Z users, and without the organizational rhythm gained through time, DDC might never have understood bitcoin, let alone written it into the balance sheet.
A Foreigner Stands at Center Stage
Norma has never defined herself as a "Crypto person". But those seemingly "non-mainstream" labels about her unexpectedly resonate with bitcoin's spiritual core.
She is not anxious about bitcoin's narrative being dominated by the West, nor worried about Asian capital being absent from the main stage.
Her confidence also comes from real-world structural changes. She sees regulatory loosening, capital shifting, fund structure rewriting, and sees Generation Z understanding value in a completely different way. "Stablecoins educated the market, and Crypto was truly understood," she said. Investors who couldn't understand BTC a month ago are now discussing premium structures and coin-based asset allocation.
Norma is not someone who loudly declares a "decentralization revolution", but she is participating in the global wealth reconstruction through an extremely realistic path. In this process, she has also completed a self-reconstruction of identity.
In the past decade, she transformed from a content entrepreneur to a listed company CEO, and then became the world's first female founder to promote a bitcoin strategic reserve. She was once marginalized, but now, because of being "non-mainstream", she has become the starting point of a completely new narrative.
"Existence is difference, and difference is an advantage," she said. She knows her expression is different from many managers, and her rhythm is slower, but this "slowness" appears more resilient in a capital cycle of rapid replacement. "I may not be smarter than others, but I am persistent."
This is her common ground with BTC - both coming from the margins, both not being favored, and both persisting for too long. One is a builder of brand and community, the other a totem of the decentralized world. They originally did not belong to the main narrative of finance, but now, they converge on the same balance sheet.
These two "foreigners" have now walked to the center of the brilliant mainstream stage.
