'Chen Mo, is this how you plan to live your life? A monthly salary of 8,000, and you can't even afford a toilet!'
In the summer of 2020, at a university classmate reunion, Zhang Hao shook the Porsche keys in his hand, and a single sentence pierced my heart like a knife. At that time, I was 28, working as a graphic designer at an advertising company in Beijing, and indeed couldn't even afford a toilet.
'Look at this.' Zhang Hao handed me his phone, and on the screen was an app interface I had never seen before, 'I invested 200,000 last month, and now it has turned into 600,000.'
That was the first time I heard the term 'Ethereum', and it marked the beginning of my nightmare.
1. Entering the Crypto World: From Doubt to Madness
After the party ended, I couldn't sleep all night, browsing through all the articles about Bitcoin and blockchain. Those stories of getting rich overnight spun like a spell in my mind. Three days later, I took all my savings from five years of work—50,000—and trembling, I bought my first digital currency on an exchange.
'Remember, don't panic when it drops, buy more as it falls!' Zhang Hao's 'teaching' still echoes in my ears.
In the following two months, I experienced the most tormenting time of my life. Ethereum plummeted from 1,800 dollars to 900 dollars, and my 50,000 turned into 25,000 in an instant. I was absent-minded at work every day, refreshing the market every five minutes. Until one day, my boss called me into the office: 'Chen Mo, this is already the third time this week you've made mistakes in your designs.'
During the Spring Festival of 2021, a miracle happened. Bitcoin broke 50,000, and my Ethereum not only returned to profit but doubled. That night, I opened a bottle of Erguotou in my rented apartment and cried and laughed at the numbers on the computer screen.
2. Resignation All in: The Illusion of Getting Rich
'The bull market is here!' Zhang Hao was flooding the WeChat group with messages. Looking at the 100,000 in my account, I made a life-changing decision—to resign and trade cryptocurrencies full-time.
In March, I withdrew 200,000 with my credit card; in April, I got another 300,000 through online loans. I exchanged it all for the hottest 'animal coins' at the time—Dogecoin, Pigcoin, Catcoin... those altcoins that didn't even have white papers.
'Musk tweeted again!' 'This project party says there is major good news!' Messages from various WeChat groups became my gospel. At my craziest, I traded hundreds of times a day, even sleeping with my phone in my arms.
In May, my account broke 3 million. I will never forget that afternoon when I withdrew 1 million to my bank card and the bank manager personally called to confirm. The next day, I bought a BMW 5 series in full and drove it around my former company's building three times.
3. Drunkenness: Inflated Desires
After getting money, my life completely changed. I rented a high-end apartment in Guomao for 30,000 a month, my closet was stuffed with Gucci and LV, and suddenly I had countless 'friends' on WeChat. One time, I spent 180,000 in a KTV just to hear a group of strangers shout 'Mo Ge is awesome'.
In July, my assets reached an astonishing 10 million. Zhang Hao took me to meet the so-called 'big shots of the crypto world'. At a villa in Shunyi, someone pointed at the swimming pool and said: 'The water in here is all filled with Maotai.' That night, under the crowd's cheering, I added another 2 million to a newly issued 'metaverse concept coin'.
4. Avalanche Moment: The Awakening
If the story ended here, how good it would be.
One morning in August, I was awakened by the urgent ringing of my phone. Zhang Hao's voice was trembling: 'Run! The policy has come out!' I stumbled to open the trading app, and the screen was filled with glaring green—Bitcoin plummeted 30% in a single day, and my account shrank to less than 5 million.
The next three days were the longest 72 hours of my life. Various coins halved continuously, the exchange was lagging and unusable, and rights protection groups popped up like mushrooms after rain. When I finally managed to log into my account, the number that once reached eight digits now quietly displayed: 528,000.
Not enough to pay off the online loan.
5. Back to Square One: The Bitter Lesson
On the day I sold my BMW, the dealer pressured me down to 350,000. I squatted at the 4S store entrance, watching my beloved car being driven away, suddenly recalling that night a year ago when I drank Erguotou in my rented apartment. It turned out it only takes a policy document to go from heaven to hell.
Now, I'm back to my original profession as a designer, and after repaying my loans, there's hardly anything left from my monthly salary. Occasionally, when I see news from the crypto world, those familiar names still make my heart skip a beat. Last week, Zhang Hao came to me again, mysteriously saying he discovered a 'thousand times coin' opportunity.
I smiled and deleted all the market apps from my phone.
Postscript:
As I write this, Bitcoin has reached a new high again. But I know that in that crazy game, there will always be winners and more losers. If you are being tempted by those myths of getting rich, why not ask yourself: are you seeing the opportunity or the scythe?
The market is always right. Since the trend and market have emerged, adjusting in time and cooperating with the trend to get results within your understanding and pocketing them is certainly correct.
In this market, many people are in a desperate situation and have lost almost everything before they think about improving their understanding.
Don't let limited understanding hold you back!
Follow the operating logic
Come!