North of Singapore Changi Airport, a twelve-minute drive away, stands one of the world's most secure private vaults at the end of the runway—Le Freeport.
This building, costing approximately S$100 million, is known as "Asia's Fort Knox." Without a single window, it maintains a constant temperature of 21°C and humidity of 55% year-round, perfectly suited for storing artworks.
Behind the heavily guarded steel doors lie hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold and silver, and various rare artworks: requiring neither customs declaration nor taxation upon entry.
Three years ago, Jihan Wu, one of Asia's youngest crypto billionaires and founder of BitDeer, acquired this vault, rumored to have cost as much as 100 million Singapore dollars, for 40 million Singapore dollars (approximately 210 million RMB). This deal was confirmed by Bloomberg at the time, and the buyer was BitDeer, operated by Jihan Wu. At the time, few ridiculed it as a "mistake" by a crypto giant; why not just focus on mining on-chain Bitcoin instead of buying an off-chain vault? But when gold surged past $4,000 per ounce in 2025, and we return to this acquisition, it's less a digression and more a brilliant, preemptive bet. However, Wu Jihan's acquisition of Le Freeport wasn't just about concrete and steel gates. This fortress was designed from the outset as a bonded enclave for the super-rich and institutions: high-level security, discreet exhibition spaces, and the ability to elegantly circumvent numerous tariff barriers. It reveals a fact: those Chinese tycoons who amassed fortunes overnight through Bitcoin had long ago set their sights on the oldest safe-haven asset in human history: gold. A Golden Retirement Home In May 2010, Le Freeport officially opened in Singapore. Designed from the outset as infrastructure, the building is located adjacent to the airport, with internal passageways almost directly connecting to the runway. Valuables can be transported from the aircraft cabin to the vault in just a few minutes. The Singapore government's support is reflected in its shareholding structure. The National Heritage Board of Singapore and the National Arts Council were among Le Freeport's initial shareholders. At the time, Singapore was upgrading from a "trading port" to an "asset port." Le Freeport was included in the Global Art and Wealth Management Center plan and partnered with the Zero GST Warehouse Scheme, becoming one of the few global vaults that combined tax exemption, bonded status, and cross-border settlement. Under this system, Le Freeport quickly attracted the attention of wealthy individuals and institutions worldwide. It not only held large amounts of physical assets but was also open to non-Singaporean holders, requiring no entry procedures or customs duties. For example, a Picasso masterpiece worth 50 million could save tens of millions in taxes if placed in Le Freeport, assuming a tax rate of 10%–30%. Since Le Freeport hasn't released any photos of its internal vaults, we can only get a glimpse of what's inside from images released by The Reserve, a newly established vault next door. This vault once housed a group of top-tier institutional tenants, including JPMorgan Chase, one of the world's leading gold traders; CFASS, a subsidiary of Christie's; and international financial institutions such as UBS and Deutsche Bank. Large quantities of gold bars were transferred and held in custody through it. However, as some countries tightened regulations on luxury goods and offshore assets, these institutions began to withdraw from the market, and Le Freeport fell into a long-term loss-making situation. Starting in 2017, Le Freeport was classified as a "problematic asset" in the market, and the owner began attempting to sell it. It wasn't until five years later that a buyer finally appeared—Jihan Wu. At that time, the crypto market was experiencing a true winter. The collapse of the LUNA algorithmic stablecoin triggered doubts about the entire on-chain credit system; Three Arrows Capital went bankrupt, and Celsius and BlockFi subsequently collapsed, the deleveraging chain spreading layer by layer, ultimately ending with the collapse of the FTX empire and the full exposure of counterparty risks. During this period, Chinese crypto entrepreneur Jihan Wu, through Bitdeer, acquired this previously considered "hot potato" for approximately S$40 million (about RMB 210 million). Wu co-founded Bitmain, the world's largest mining machine manufacturer, which at one point controlled about 75% of the world's Bitcoin hashrate and was one of the key figures in the previous mining cycle. After spinning off Bitdeer, he relinquished control of Bitmain as a Singapore permanent resident, focusing his efforts on Bitdeer's hashrate and infrastructure business. He hasn't publicly commented much on the acquisition, only confirming it when questioned by Bloomberg. Today, Le Freeport's official website clearly states that it's not just a vault, but a private experience exclusively for a select few. Consider that people in the cryptocurrency world spend their entire lives researching how to safeguard their private keys; truly large sums of money have long been lying in vaults in Singapore, some as family trust documents, others as mnemonic phrases engraved on steel plates. It's not just wealthy Chinese; emerging wealthy individuals from India and Southeast Asia are also quietly becoming new regulars at Wu Jihan's Le Freeport. Le Freeport has never publicly disclosed its client list, but clues can be gleaned from information from international auction houses: many artworks are "directly deposited into vaults" after being sold, never returning to the market. A similar process occurs in Southeast Asia, where billionaires who have listed their companies directly transfer a portion of their cash-out proceeds to Le Freeport: gold bars and silver, high-end jewelry, limited-edition Patek Philippe watches, vintage cars, and rare works of art are transported directly from the trading floor to this secretive warehouse. Considering that some readers may be potential "vault members," I will explain the deposit process here. Armed security guards are stationed at the entrance. Visitors first undergo a background check using their passports to confirm they are not wanted high-risk individuals. To enter the core vault area, one must pass through at least five checkpoints, including identity verification, biometrics, bulletproof doors, and personal belongings security checks. The vault is equipped with hundreds of high-definition cameras, providing 24/7 surveillance. Add to that the physical difficulty of "a 30-kilogram silver bar and a 12.5-kilogram gold brick," and even if someone broke in, they could hardly take anything away. So while people outside are still discussing "whether gold prices can rise further," those inside are already discussing: how many bottles of Romanée-Conti at 150,000 yuan a bottle should they stock up on first, and which shelf and row of Picasso and Rembrandt bottles should they hang on so that the ladies can take better photos and number them more attractively. The final destination for working-class people is their CPF account, while the final destination for Asian billionaires is these windowless walls in Singapore. Of course, the advantage of a gold vault is merely the physical space it occupies. To gain greater control over the gold industry chain, one needs to penetrate further upstream. While Chinese grandmothers are still queuing at gold shops for a 5 yuan per gram discount, established moneymakers and blockchain upstarts are already vying for dominance by the ton: who calls the shots in this market? In May of this year, a fintech company called Antalpha submitted its prospectus to Nasdaq. In its prospectus, Antalpha mentioned Bitmain, a mining company co-founded by "Jihan Wu". The document clearly states, "We are Bitmain's primary financing partner." The two parties signed a memorandum of understanding, agreeing that Bitmain would continue to utilize Antalpha as its financing partner, and that both parties would refer customers to each other. This company previously provided supply chain loans and customer financing to Bitmain, the world's largest mining machine manufacturer. That was a business legacy left from the era of Jihan Wu. Now, with Jihan Wu long gone from Bitmain, replaced by another founder, Jihan Wu, a crypto tycoon from Fujian, China, known as Micree Zhan. Many places in China have a belief in gold, but among those who truly tie their personal destinies to gold, Fujianese people are definitely at the forefront: Chen Jinghe from Longyan transformed Fujian's "chicken-rib mines" into a world-class mining giant, Zijin Mining, whose stock price increased tenfold; Zhou Zongwen from Fuqing founded Chow Tai Fook in Shuibei, achieving a top-three national ranking through franchising; and people from Putian went from peddlers making their way through the streets to controlling nearly half of China's gold wholesale and retail. Gold mines are in Fujian, gold shops are in Fujian, and gold bosses are everywhere, inevitably leading one to suspect that gold flows in the blood of the Fujianese. Clearly, Zhan Ketuan's bloodline has been ignited, and how could the Fujianese miss out on the business of gold? He aimed his scope directly at Tether, the world's largest stablecoin issuer and now a top 30 global gold buyer, a newly minted "on-chain gold tycoon." In October of this year, Tether announced a partnership with Antalpha to build an "on-chain gold treasury," planning to raise $200 million to create a "gold-backed digital credit system" based on the gold token XAU₮. The division of labor is also very similar to that in Fujian. Tether is responsible for pressing real gold into tokens and storing the reserves in private Swiss vaults; Antalpha is responsible for turning these tokens into liquid financial instruments, designing collateral structures, creating loan products, and establishing a network of gold vaults in Singapore, Dubai, and London, making "on-chain gold" a pledge that can be redeemed for physical gold bars at any time. In short, it's a living "modern version of the gold standard": Tether acts as the mint, Antalpha as the bank, and the setting has changed from Bretton Woods to Swiss vaults. According to public reports, Tether has already stockpiled approximately 80 tons of gold in Swiss vaults, equivalent to the official reserves of some small and medium-sized countries. However, Tether claims that for "security reasons," the vault refuses to disclose its specific address. Unlike central banks that "lock gold bars in cellars and keep them hidden for decades," XAU₮ is broken down and put on the blockchain, making it traceable, divisible, tradable, and usable as collateral. Gold that would otherwise lie dormant in cellars is transformed into a "dynamic liquidity" system that can be circulated, pledged, and wholesaled to institutions. Antalpha even had its own company, Aurelion, invest $134 million to directly purchase XAU₮, aiming to become "the first listed treasury company to use on-chain gold as a reserve asset." This is equivalent to rewriting the traditional old money approach of "stuffing gold bars into Swiss vaults" into "stuffing a line of XAU₮ on a listed company's balance sheet." A quote from Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino succinctly captures the essence of this logic: "Gold and Bitcoin are two poles of the same logic; one is the oldest store of value, the other the most modern." Gold prices are also making this new high-speed growth noteworthy: global gold investment has increased by over 50% this year, and XAU₮'s market capitalization has doubled in the same period. Those who fear risk and those who love to gamble are now, unusually, on the same path. They are attempting to answer a larger question: can humanity's oldest method of wealth storage be revived on the blockchain? In October 2025, gold prices surged past $4,000 per ounce, reaching a record high with a year-to-date gain exceeding 50%, making it one of the best-performing asset classes globally. On the surface, this appears to be another "gold bull market"; however, a deeper analysis reveals a power struggle among three forces reshuffling their positions in the gold market. First in line are central banks. For the past few years, global central banks have almost exclusively "bought on dips," using gold as a safety net for de-dollarization and hedging against sanctions. They are unconcerned about short-term fluctuations, focusing only on one question: in the worst-case scenario, can this gold still be used to exchange for food, weapons, or allies? The second row features Asia's super-rich. Money from China, Hong Kong, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia is quietly piling up a new wall of gold through vaults in Singapore, cellars in Switzerland, and family office trusts. They are no longer satisfied with buying a few kilograms of "paper gold" in banks; they are buying an entire wall: some deposit money in Singaporean banks, while others deposit gold bars directly in vaults—the two types of fixed deposits offer completely different levels of security. Wu Jihan's acquisition of Le Freeport is a node in this chain: from mining Bitcoin to managing gold bars and famous paintings for others, from "on-chain returns" to "off-chain security." The third row features crypto upstarts. Jihan Wu, Antalpha, and Tether are playing a different game: Wu bought the walls of the vault, while they bought the variable XAU₮ within it. In this structure, Tether mints real gold into tokens and locks them in a Swiss vault; Antalpha mints these tokens into assets and adds them to the balance sheets of listed companies and the collateral baskets of institutional clients. Thus, the role of gold has been quietly rewritten: for central banks, it remains the ultimate collateral; for Asian tycoons, it becomes a "family cold wallet" that can be passed down through generations; and for crypto upstarts, it is a layer of financial system that can be continuously layered to earn interest rate spreads and liquidity premiums. For most people, gold is just a chart and its weight; for these three groups, gold is a comprehensive bill involving family, sovereignty, and national security. Narratives change one after another, but what's firmly entrenched in their core holdings is actually incredibly old. After all, the road can be roundabout, the story can be fabricated, but capital is the most honest. Once the show is over and the lights come on, what they want is the security of being able to sleep soundly at night.
Catherine
Kikyo
Weatherly
Anais