From the edge of the rooftop to settling down: my five years of ups and downs in the cryptocurrency world.
In the summer of 2018, I sat on the floor of my rented apartment, staring at the string of continuously dropping numbers on my phone screen, while cigarette butts piled up into a small mountain in the greasy ashtray. My bank card balance was down to three digits, which was the hundred thousand savings I had accumulated over three years of work, now reduced to mere bubbles in three months due to the slogan of the 'blockchain revolution.'
At that time, I had just graduated not long ago and was working in an internet company, earning an eight-thousand-yuan salary each month. In the company’s pantry, there were always people excitedly talking about 'Bitcoin' and 'Ethereum,' saying that so-and-so had bought coins and changed their car, or that so-and-so had quit their job to trade coins full-time. I felt an itch, thinking this was a shortcut to 'crossing social classes,' and jumped in without much homework.
At first, I did taste the sweetness. The altcoin I bought following others rose 30% in a week, and I was so excited that I couldn't sleep at night, thinking I was born for this. Soon after, I added leverage, wanting to 'follow up on my success' and make the down payment for a house all at once. Looking back now, I realize I was just like a gambler, seeing only the profit numbers and completely blind to the risks behind them.
The crash came unexpectedly. That day I was at work, and my phone app kept popping up red alerts, showing my account balance shrinking at a visible speed. By the time I reacted and wanted to close my positions, the system had already warned of a 'liquidation.' My hand holding the phone trembled uncontrollably as I ran to the stairwell to call home; I couldn't get out more than a few words before I burst into tears. Of that hundred thousand, a significant portion was my parents' retirement savings accumulated over half a lifetime.
After feeling down for a whole month, I deleted all the 'cryptocurrency group chats' from my phone and started to seriously catch up on my studies. I read about the underlying technology of blockchain, the white papers of cryptocurrencies, learned from candlestick chart analysis to risk management strategies, turning all the 'tips' I had heard before into solid knowledge. I realized that my biggest mistake was treating investment as speculation and mistaking luck for ability.
When I re-entered the market, I set three iron rules for myself: only invest spare money, never touch leverage, and keep a single currency position to no more than 20% of total funds. I no longer chased after the hyped-up new coins but focused on projects with real application scenarios and solid technical teams. After work each day, I spent two hours studying market dynamics and attended online technical sharing sessions on weekends, gradually forming my own investment logic.
In the second half of 2020, the cryptocurrency market迎来了新一轮周期. This time I was not greedy and strictly followed my preset profit-taking and stop-loss strategies. Although I did not become 'rich overnight,' my account balance steadily grew. I divided the money I earned into three parts: one part continued to be invested, one part was saved in the bank, and one part was used to improve myself — I enrolled in a programming course and obtained a financial planner certification.
Last spring, I used the savings I had accumulated over the years to make a down payment on a two-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of the city. On the day I received the property certificate, I took my parents to see the new house; my mother touched the latex paint on the wall and repeatedly asked me, 'Is this really our own home?' Earlier this year, I added a car for commuting; although it’s not a luxury car, I feel very secure every time I drive it to work overtime.
Now, I occasionally have friends asking me 'which coin can make money,' and I always advise them to first understand 'why to buy.' My experiences over these years have taught me that there are no shortcuts in any field; the so-called 'opportunities' only favor those who are prepared. The cryptocurrency world is never a casino; those who can truly sustain themselves are always those who treat it as a career rather than speculation.
From losses to profits, from a rented apartment to my own home, I have walked this road for five years. Those candlestick charts that once kept me awake at night have now become my tools for market analysis; those painful lessons that made me cry have turned into my current confidence. Investment is ultimately a practice; what I earn is not just money, but also reverence for the market, restraint of desires, and control over myself.
