At three in the morning, on the night Bitcoin surged to twenty thousand dollars, my hands were shaking.

The numbers on the screen jumped from seven digits to eight digits. After ten years, I could finally say to my account balance: enough.

This isn't luck. It's the result of countless liquidations that led to a few iron rules, so simple that no one takes them seriously.

First, only play with money you can afford to lose.

In 2015, I invested two hundred thousand for my wedding, and I still remember the look in my fiancée's eyes the night it went to zero.

Later, I only withdrew five thousand from my salary each month. Losing didn't affect my meals, and earning didn't increase my stakes. The principal is life; you can't gamble with life.

Second, you can make money regardless of rises or falls, but greed will definitely lead to death.

In 2017, altcoins skyrocketed, and I heavily invested in a 'hundredfold project'. I made four million in three days but didn’t cash out, fantasizing about doubling my gains.

On the fourth day, the project team fled, and the page was left with a 404 error. From then on, I withdrew 50% of every profit to my bank card; the money in hand is your money.

Third, don’t believe anyone’s 'insider information'.

I joined three hundred communities and heard countless wealth secrets. What truly changed my fate was reading the Ethereum white paper in 2019 and using my grocery money to buy 30 ETH.

Hold on to it until 2021. You will never earn money outside your understanding; relying on others will eventually have your bowl taken away.

Fourth, set your stop-loss line before opening a position.

I established hard rules: any trade that loses more than 20% must be cut. This allowed me to exit entirely before the LUNA crash in 2022, while those in the group shouting 'faith' lost eight years of accumulation in a week. The market doesn't care how hard you try; it only recognizes how long you survive.

Ten years have felt like a dream. The deepest realization is: trading cryptocurrencies is not the path to freedom; letting go of trading is.

I once thought financial freedom meant account numbers; now I understand it means being able to sleep peacefully at three in the morning, feeling unperturbed by skyrocketing or plummeting prices, and finally having time to accompany my daughter as she grows up instead of staring at K-lines waiting for her to finish school.

Money comes and goes, but time, peace, and love, once missed, are truly gone. This is what the market has really wanted to teach me in ten years of trading cryptocurrencies.

I used to wander alone in the dark; now the light is in my hands.

The light is always on; will you follow? @今酒