The crypto world is not short of overnight wealth myths, but few have lost everything and then risen again. Old Chen is one of them: in 2018, he lost 800,000 in savings, mining machines turned into scrap metal, and his wife's bracelet was pawned; in 2021, he relied on accumulating 'spare change coins' to recover and even earn an additional 200,000. His story has no shortcuts, only countless nights of 'almost couldn’t hold on but still persevering' over three years.
In the winter of 2018, when Old Chen moved the last mining machine onto the truck, snowflakes were hitting his frostbitten hands painfully. He stared at the mining machines piled awkwardly in the truck, feeling as if his heart was filled with ice shards - these iron lumps, once regarded as 'money trees,' now couldn't even be sold for scrap price.
Bitcoin fell from 20,000 USD to over 3,000, the computing power couldn’t keep up, and the electricity costs were higher than the coins mined. He lost over 800,000 in total, all the savings he had accumulated from running an auto repair shop for over ten years, even his wife's dowry bracelet was secretly pawned.
'Don't mess with cryptocurrencies anymore, find a proper job.' His wife sat in the empty garage, tears hitting the greasy toolbox, her voice trembling. Old Chen said nothing, squatting on the ground picking up mining machine parts, not even noticing when his fingers were cut by screws. It wasn't that he was unwilling to admit defeat, but he was panicking - the auto repair shop had already cashed out to fill the hole in the mining circle, and at over forty, aside from fixing cars and tinkering with machines, he seemed to have no other skills.
'Is this how my life is going to end?' He stared blankly at the parts on the ground, his mind flooded with memories of the years spent waking early and working late in the auto repair shop, and then recalling the current predicament, he felt a lump in his throat, even breathing felt heavy.
Since then, Old Chen hasn’t touched the mining machines again, keeping only an old notebook, flipping through the K-line charts every night. He doesn’t chase trends or follow communities; he just watches the moving averages of Bitcoin and Ethereum, jotting down the daily fluctuations and trading volumes, noting beside them, '2019.5.6, BTC breaks the 60-day line, reduce holdings' '2020.3.12, after a big drop, the 30-day line stabilizes, enter with a small amount.'
During the day, he worked at the used car dealership, helping people with transfers and inspections, getting sunburned in the summer and freezing his hands in the winter, earning 6,000 yuan a month. Every time he was paid, he would first set aside living expenses, and convert the rest into small amounts of Bitcoin, buying just a few hundred yuan at a time, like saving spare change. Once a colleague joked with him, 'Still dreaming of getting rich?' He just smiled, but in his heart he pondered: 'Take it slow, it’s better than lying down to admit defeat, what if?'
In 2020, when the pandemic was at its worst, the used car dealership had no business. Old Chen stayed at home, watching Bitcoin drop significantly again, and the money in his account shrank. His wife advised him, 'Don’t throw money away any longer, we can barely get by,' but he pulled out that notebook filled with notes, pointed to the records from 2018 and said: 'Look, the last time it dropped so hard, it eventually went back up.'
'This circle is like the four seasons; there’s winter, so there will be spring, just have to wait.' Though he said this, he couldn’t sleep at night, staring at the ceiling thinking: 'Will I really not make it this time?' But then he remembered the look in his wife’s eyes when he pawned the bracelet and gritted his teeth - the next day he bought Bitcoin again with the only 2,000 yuan he had left for living expenses. 'Trust it once more, just to hold on for my own unwillingness.'
The turning point came in 2021. After spring began, Bitcoin gradually rose, and those 'spare change coins' that Old Chen had accumulated unknowingly doubled in value. Some advised him to 'sell quickly, take the profit, don’t lose it all again,' but he stared at the notes in his notebook that recorded '2017 bull market peak, moving averages in a bullish arrangement for 4 months,' and hesitated in his heart: 'It’s only just started rising, if I sell too early, won’t all the previous suffering be in vain?'
He held back the impulse to sell, still only checking the market once a day, spending the rest of his time working and cooking, but he flipped through his notes more often at night, and there was a bit more hope in his heart.
Until November of that year, Bitcoin surged to over 60,000 USD. He watched the 5-day moving average start to turn, and suddenly felt a tension in his heart - 'It's about time, can't be greedy.' He didn't sell everything at once, but sold a bit every day, watching the numbers in his account gradually rise, from negative to break-even, then slowly surpassing the previous loss of 800,000, and finally gaining more than 200,000. That day he sat in front of the computer, repeatedly confirming the account balance, his hands trembling slightly, and his eyes suddenly got warm: 'It's been three years, finally not in vain.'
At night, Old Chen took his wife out for her favorite hotpot, placing the bracelet he bought with his earnings in front of her. His wife held the bracelet, tears fell again, but this time it was with a smile. Old Chen took a sip of beer and said, 'Actually, I was scared too. During the toughest times in 2020, looking at the meager amount in my account, I also thought about giving up. But then I realized, this circle isn’t about gambling on luck, it’s about enduring cycles - when others can’t hold on, you can; when others panic, you stay steady, there will always be opportunities.' He recalled those nights spent squatting in the garage picking up parts, remembering the freezing hands in the used car dealership, and suddenly felt that those difficult days were actually paving the way for today.
Now Old Chen still works at a used car dealership, but he no longer has to worry about money. He still checks the K-line every night, but he’s no longer in a rush to make money; instead, he spends more time studying the underlying logic of projects.
Someone asked him, 'The crypto world is so hard, how do you keep going?' He always said: 'What persistence is there? I never regarded it as a casino for overnight wealth, but as a job that requires slow learning and waiting. Just like fixing cars, you have to understand the principles of the engine first, then adjust it slowly, there’s no hurry.'
In fact, he knows in his heart that what has supported him through this time is not just his judgment of the cycles, but also that phrase he tells himself when he almost gives up: 'Just wait a bit longer, spring will come eventually.' And in the crypto world, there’s always such a spring, left for those willing to settle down and endure.
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