The "mainstream" face once had a clear and almost stereotypical image: a founder with an investment banking background, well-dressed in a suit, and restrained in speech; projects certified by an incubator, following a standardized funding path and growth curve; before going public, the capital structure had already been carefully arranged, with who enters, who exits, who makes a market, all written in a single table.
The "mainstream" has its own narrative style, stable, replicable, and trustworthy. The "mainstream" also has its own operational logic, with the system selecting qualified players and then the system determining how much they are worth and how far they can go.
This system of the "mainstream" has indeed started to loosen in recent years. Many niche cultures have slowly begun to seep in, and the once firm boundaries have become less certain.
You can see graffiti entering art galleries, punk appearing at fashion weeks, and Hip-hop becoming a big winner at the Grammys. Bitcoin, once seen as a "tool of crime," has also transformed and become a focal point in Federal Reserve research reports and a line item in BlackRock's asset allocation chart.
Niche cultures are infiltrating the mainstream system, but their approach is not to become more "conventional," but to force the mainstream world to acknowledge that their existence has a stronger grassroots foundation and cultural influence.
In this process, the existing authority is not as effective, and standards are no longer the only ones. Those things that were once marginalized are beginning to have their own space to speak. The capital market also has to accept a new logic: being orthodox is not necessarily more reliable, and success is not guaranteed just because an organization endorses it.
In recent years, what has become increasingly popular is not those conventional projects, but a group of initially underestimated "atypical" entities: GameStop, which rose to fame through memes, AMC, which rewrote its narrative through a retail investor community; and Pinduoduo and Teemu, which broke through user communities with their ultimate product chains.
Niche entities can break through not because they are stronger than the mainstream, but because they are closer to "people." They are not planned from the top down but naturally grow from the bottom up. They often have a raw beauty, can be seen, liked, and believed in.
Bitcoin has always been the stranger in the "mainstream" system.
The so-called stranger, it does not speak the mainstream language, has not accepted mainstream training, and does not follow the mainstream rhythm. In the real world, "strangers" are usually difficult to be heard. Their intentions are easily misunderstood, their ways are seen as threats, and their challenge to the existing order is labeled as "dangerous" or "barbaric."
Bitcoin is no different. Technologically challenging central nodes, asset-wise challenging sovereign currencies, culturally challenging authoritative systems, it is not a financial asset created by financial elites but the victorious fruit of a niche culture, the most aggressive collective belief of the internet age.
In its first decade, Bitcoin circulated in the early stages among the geek community, cryptography forums, survivalists, and anarchists, like an alternative world currency system that was fundamentally not taken seriously by the mainstream.
Bitcoin first truly entered the public eye during the 2017 bull run. Its meteoric rise at that time sparked global attention and regulatory anxieties. However, it was merely hype and not genuine recognition.
It wasn't until after the 2020 pandemic, with global quantitative easing plunging traditional finance into a crisis of trust, stock market surges, dollar depreciation, bank runs... Bitcoin reentered the mainstream spotlight. This time, it was no longer just a speculative asset.
It was the first time Bitcoin was widely regarded as a tool against inflation and also became a way for ordinary people to protect their assets. During that period, it transitioned from the geek community to a larger public market, gradually evolving into a symbol of retail investors against institutions, becoming a core symbol of the "anti-authority narrative."
Bitcoin at that time was like a flag—not a product, but an attitude.
Today, Bitcoin has entered its third stage: being "accepted" by the mainstream but still remaining the "outsider."
It appears in ETF products, is included in asset allocation reports, and is openly discussed by presidents, central banks, and hedge funds. However, it has never truly changed itself, without regulatory dominance, organizational endorsements, or individual control.
The mainstream market has embraced its price, embraced its liquidity, and it has become part of passive income, but it has not accepted its spirit, nor is it asked what it really represents. It has been accepted but not claimed, and it does not need to be claimed.
So we say that Bitcoin is the most successful incursion of a niche culture into the capital market. Not because it has been granted permission, but because it has never sought permission, yet has reached its current position.
Norma Chu does not belong to the mainstream definition of the "entrepreneurial archetype." She embodies too many marginal labels: female, Asian, content-oriented, non-technical background...
In 2012, Norma Chu returned to Hong Kong from the United States and found that there was not a truly youth-oriented Chinese cooking platform on the internet. Her first job was as a stock analyst at HSBC, and she could have chosen to continue climbing the clear career ladder in the finance industry. But she didn't. She turned to the kitchen, started writing recipes, taking photos, making videos, not to chase traffic dividends, but out of the most basic motivation: "I love cooking, and I also love eating. I love cooking."
It is also for this reason that DayDayCook (referred to as DDC) did not follow the standard consumer product route from the beginning. It did not adopt a business model that reverse-engineered brand positioning from the supply chain, nor was it a capital-preferred traffic-driven project. Instead, it relied on content, interaction, and time to gradually build community trust.
From the start, she did not envision DayDayCook as it is today. Starting with sharing cooking content with more people, she slowly accumulated the essence of the brand, established her product system during the e-commerce process, expanded her products to North America, solidified her presence in the U.S. market, and eventually led the company to go public.
Norma recalled the early days of entrepreneurship, saying, "When we started a business in Hong Kong, both fundraising and recruitment were very difficult; upon entering the mainland, we also faced a high learning curve." She did not consider herself someone who could draw a complete blueprint from the beginning, but she always had one bottom line: put 'people' first, first understand the users, then consider the channels; first establish solid content, then discuss budget allocation; the strategy always serves the narrative, rather than the other way around.
This slow pace was not well-received in the early days of the capital market. It was not fast enough, not sexy enough, and did not have a clear tipping point. However, Norma proved one thing over more than a decade: a community built on content and companionship can also become a surviving brand.
She said, "We didn't even calculate GMV at the beginning. What I cared more about was whether this user stayed because they liked us."
It may sound somewhat emotional, but it is precisely this emotionality that has driven DDC to its current stage. It did not attract consumers by telling stories but by accompanying users, turning content into a relationship that encourages repeat purchases, shaping a sustainable content-consumption loop.
So, when she first bought Bitcoin in 2021, it was not at all abrupt; one could even say it was a natural progression. By then, she was already a seasoned entrepreneur deeply involved in community content for a decade, facing the Z generation of users, creating emotionally resonant content — and these were the essence of Bitcoin's earliest narratives.
That year, Hong Kong was becoming a transitional hub for Bitcoin funds and talent. Her social circle began frequently mentioning ETFs, Coinbase, and the story of MicroStrategy. An early shareholder suggested that she seriously study a Bitcoin strategic reserve and introduced her to the growth trajectory of MicroStrategy. After reviewing the materials and reading Michael Saylor's book, she began reevaluating the company's financial structure.
She said that the reason she truly started thinking about this wasn't because of the hype, but because of the structure. "If I didn't have a background in stock analysis, and didn't have the personal investment experience in 2021, I might not have taken that advice seriously at all."
But she not only listened, she also decided to act.
At the beginning of this year, Norma formally presented a transformation strategy to the board—a strategy to include Bitcoin in the company's balance sheet, using DDC's operating cash flow to gradually accumulate BTC. By May of this year, they had completed the first purchase of 100 bitcoins, followed by a quick round of financing, making DDC the world's first Bitcoin strategic reserve company driven by a female founder.
She didn't see this as some kind of stereotypical "female entrepreneurial breakthrough." When asked about it, she simply said, "Sure it's cool, I'm the first one. But more importantly, is this decision in the best interest of the shareholders."
This wasn't a pretty PR slogan, nor was it a story for packaging. It was a set of judgment criteria she had long established. She made this transformation not because the Bitcoin reserve strategy had become popular, but because she had spent ten years understanding users, building trust, and maintaining a narrative—and these happen to be the very foundation of Bitcoin's existence.
Her understanding of Bitcoin didn't start from a technical whitepaper. Nor did it start from hype, get-rich-quick schemes, or anonymity. Her path to understanding started from "trust": Why would someone be willing to trust something they can't see or touch? This has actually been a question she has been dealing with for the past decade—in content, in branding, in community.
DDC's users are not just fleeting traffic visitors, but those who are willing to pause, click on a cooking video. Norma doesn't create trending content, but rather an emotional expression. She tells stories in the first person, creates a sense of companionship, slowly establishing a trust relationship unique to DDC. "Many people think we are a content e-commerce platform, but what we've always been nurturing is emotional trust," she said.
This highly sensitive perception of "trust" also became her starting point for understanding Bitcoin.
Prior to transitioning to a Bitcoin strategic reserve, Norma began to reexamine the company's marketing approach. She said that in the past, advertising and discounts were used for user acquisition, but these methods were increasingly ineffective in retaining users. Later, she began to consider whether part of the budget could be used to incentivize users in a Web3 manner. "Web3 is a new way that allows users to receive rewards along the way," she said.
She is facing Gen Z users, who are accustomed to watching one-minute cooking videos on TikTok and sharing their recreated dishes on Instagram. They trust brands, but are more concerned 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 building a Bitcoin reward system,” Norma said, “where you can earn BTC rewards by purchasing products or engaging in social media interactions.”
However, she emphasized that this is not just a simple version of a membership system, but a new structural experiment. She wants to transform Bitcoin from a transaction symbol into a part of the user's long-term experience.
This is her understanding of Bitcoin, not just as “digital gold,” but as a credential of time and trust. What Norma values is not the price of Bitcoin, but its ‘Staying Power.’ This is her favorite term to describe Bitcoin and the kind of company she hopes DDC will become.
She said, “Bitcoin has endured so many suppressions and doubts, yet it persists.” She hopes DDC will also be that kind of company—a company that can withstand market cycles, survive upheavals, and even emerge stronger.
Bitcoin as a strategic reserve is not just an asset allocation. For DDC, it is more like an attempt to fundamentally change the company's way of thinking.
Norma understands that the biggest challenge of a strategic reserve is not buying the coins but continuously buying them; not fundraising but turning fundraising into a positive feedback loop. She has taken the rhythm she learned from content over the past decade and seamlessly integrated it into the Bitcoin allocation rhythm.
“I told the team that buying Bitcoin is not just an action, it's an entire mechanism.” She is not blindly investing but has set up a comprehensive execution plan: buying gradually in batches through financing tools like ATMs, seeking long-term strategic investors who truly understand, and initiating communication channels within the crypto community.
Unlike MicroStrategy, DDC does not have a massive cash reserve. Norma's strategy is more restrained, slowly accumulating Bitcoin within operations, relying on real business cash flow to gradually acquire Bitcoin.
“Fundamentally, we are still a food company, but we choose to invest a portion of our profits in long-term value,” she said.
While this approach may seem conservative, in the crypto market, it is a very rare path to take.
Norma is very clear that when the capital market observes a Bitcoin strategic reserve company, it focuses on several core questions: first, whether the company can sustainably self-finance; second, whether it has the ability to not sell coins when a bear market arrives; and third, whether the management team has a stable narrative vision and execution capability.
The answer she gives is the three "atypical" advantages of DDC:
First is a different financing foundation. Norma has accumulated years of experience in both the Chinese and American capital markets and can continue to buy the dip through OTC, convertible bonds, and private agreements, without relying on the public market. "We are now also in talks with some family offices that have held bitcoin for many years."
Second is a different Narrative advancement path. She chooses to collaborate with Bitcoin OGs in the community to establish an "Influence Collective," where each member represents a community and a narrative channel.
Third is a different asset structure. DDC is not a cash-burning financial black hole, nor is it a shell company whose valuation is propped up by hype. Its food business still maintains a 30-40% annual growth rate. In other words, it is a BTC strategic reserve company with fundamentals, able to tell a narrative in a bull market and compete based on cash flow in a bear market.
This balance is the sense of rhythm she has honed over the past decade.
Norma says that without the patience to produce early content, without resonating with Generation Z users, and without the organizational rhythm earned through time, DDC might not even be able to understand Bitcoin, let alone include it on its balance sheet.
Norma has never defined herself as a "Crypto person." But those seemingly "alternative" labels on her unexpectedly resonate with the spirit of Bitcoin as an asset.
She is not anxious about the Euro-American dominance of the Bitcoin narrative or the absence of Asian capital on the main stage.
Her confidence also comes from the structural changes in the real world. She sees the relaxation of regulations, shifts in capital, the rewriting of funding structures, and also sees Generation Z understanding value in a completely different way. "Stablecoins educated the market, and Crypto is truly understood." She says that an investor who couldn't understand BTC a month ago is now discussing premium structures and asset allocation based on coins.
Norma is not the type to loudly declare a "decentralization revolution," but she is participating in the global wealth reconfiguration through a very pragmatic path. And in this process, she has also completed a self-reconstruction of her identity.
Over the past decade, she has transitioned from a content creator to a public company CEO, and has become the world's first female founder to advocate for Bitcoin as a strategic reserve. Once marginalized, she has now become a starting point for a whole new narrative due to her "alternative" status.
"To exist is to be different, and difference is an advantage," she says. She knows her way of expression is different from many executives, and her pace is slower, but this "slowness" appears more resilient in a period of rapid capital turnover. "I may not be smarter than others, but I am very persistent."
This is where she and Bitcoin share a commonality—both come from the edge, both were underestimated, and both have persisted for too long. One is a builder of brand and community, the other is a totem of a decentralized world. Originally not part of the mainstream financial narrative, they are now converging on the same balance sheet.
These two "strangers in a strange land" have now stepped onto the dazzling mainstream stage.
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