As a novice in the cryptocurrency world, blindly trading without learning and not making money is actually an inevitable result of market rules.
The high-risk characteristics of the cryptocurrency market are inherently unfriendly to newcomers. There is no strict regulation here, and price fluctuations can be absurdly volatile — it is very common for mainstream coins to rise or fall by 10% in a single day, and it's not unusual for smaller coins to double or lose all value in a day. Not to mention the high leverage offered by platforms, where 10x or even 100x leverage can infinitely amplify risks. Newbies who do not understand the principles behind it can randomly add leverage, and even a slight fluctuation could wipe out their principal.
The operation model of 'not learning + blindly trading' is even more absurdly wrong. You might buy a coin just because you heard someone say it was good or because the price looked low, without understanding the project's value or being able to analyze price trends. After buying, either you are greedy and do not take profits when the price rises, or you are lucky and do not cut losses when the price falls, watching helplessly as profits evaporate or your principal shrinks. To make matters worse, putting all your money into one coin in a heavy bet means that if your judgment is wrong, you lose everything. Being led by emotions to chase highs and sell lows often results in buying at highs and selling at lows, leading to repeated losses.
Trading is essentially a probability game that requires strategy and discipline. Entering the market without learning is like crossing the street with your eyes closed; not losing money would be the oddity.
Your experience is a microcosm of retail investors in the cryptocurrency market — the more you trade, the less your principal becomes, while those who make money remain a minority.
After buying Bitcoin in 2020, frequently switching to coins like Ethereum, SOL, etc., may seem like chasing opportunities, but in reality, it gradually diluted your returns. Bitcoin, as a core asset, relies on consensus and liquidity to traverse cycles, with a 2.5x return being the result of time's compounding. The coins you switched to, while they may have performed well at certain stages, have weak risk resistance. For instance, SOL once surged a hundredfold but fell 95% due to vulnerabilities and bear markets, making it difficult for retail investors to grasp its cycles.
Frequent switching of assets also hides losses: transaction fees and slippage from exchanges can eat up 10% of your principal in just a few trades. Worse still, it’s hard to buy high and sell low; you often chase highs and sell low, causing your principal to shrink with each buy-sell transaction. What you intended as risk diversification turned into profit dilution, as converting high-quality assets into high-volatility coins naturally leads to diminishing returns.
The cryptocurrency market follows the principle of 'seven losses, two breakevens, and one gain', with even less than 5% being profitable. The market is a zero-sum game; institutions have advantages in capital and information, while retail investors operate based on feelings, becoming the targets of exploitation. Most people overestimate their judgment and deplete their principal through frequent operations, which is the norm for retail investors like you.
