It was in June 2020 that I came across a post by a blogger named "Yikou Matcha" on Zhihu, and then I began to understand and get in touch with this circle full of opportunities and risks. At that time, I knew nothing about the cryptocurrency circle, but I was also full of curiosity and longing. Between 20 and 2022, I was almost always in the community, focusing on the secondary market. At the same time, I also followed the hot spots and participated in the explosion of blockchain games in 2021, as well as CL's new listings and other projects.
New to the market
I just graduated from college in 2020 and had only more than 10,000 yuan in my hand. At that time, I especially liked to play contracts. Although I was always hovering between losses and profits, I had little capital and no big risks. I remember one time, I talked to my mother about the charm of the currency circle at the dinner table, saying that this industry was full of opportunities and that I would definitely make a lot of money. Although she didn't understand, she still listened to me patiently. After dinner, she saw that I was so confident, so she transferred 2,000 yuan directly to me, saying that it would be used as start-up capital to support me. As a result, that night, I hurriedly opened a contract order, and then... it was blown up in less than a few hours. I completely lost sleep that night, and my mind was full of regret and distress. After all, 2,000 yuan at that time was half a month's salary. Until today, I haven't dared to tell her that the two thousand yuan was lost in less than one night.
First bucket of gold.
In February 2021, after watching BTC experience a big pullback and firmly believing it was just the beginning of a bull market, I borrowed 30,000 from my dad, added my own funds, and gathered 50,000. I unhesitatingly went all in on ETC and even took part of the tokens to open a 3x margin contract. I remember that ETC was less than 10 dollars at the time. By May, ETC skyrocketed, peaking at over 160 dollars, directly soaring! Of course, I couldn't hold on, and near the previous high of 42 dollars, I dumped everything. I made about 300,000, which was my first bucket of gold entering the crypto space.
Experience with IPOs.
Besides the continuous rise in the secondary market, that year's IPOs were also thriving, full of opportunities.
In 2021, the IPO activities on platforms like Huobi, FTX, and Coinlist were practically 'giving away money.' As long as you got selected, you could profit several times by the opening. I created 10 accounts to participate in Coinlist, and I remember at the beginning, any selected account could immediately sell at a premium of 5-10 times off-market, with no risk of account bans or drops. I also benefited from major profits like Bico and IMX, with profits in dozens of times. As I earned more money, I created more accounts, at one point having over 500. Unfortunately, that was also the endpoint of the IPO sector. Later, not only did the selected projects yield little profit, but the accounts themselves also encountered issues. Various platforms had bans, blank pages, and withdrawal restrictions; ultimately, all those 500+ accounts were completely lost. Worse, the money deposited couldn't be withdrawn even now. This wave directly went to zero, becoming a major pain point in my crypto career.
The peak and retracement of blockchain gaming.
In the second half of 2021, the blockchain gaming sector exploded, and the secondary market for AXS also saw a crazy rise. I also joined this trend, participating in BNX and RACA. I got into BNX relatively early and made a decent profit. However, due to continuous reinvestment, I remember buying a card with 600 attributes worth 500,000. After buying the card, the game basically halted. Because of reinvestment, I lost most of my previous profits. As for RACA, I didn't invest much and relied on daily mining and selling for small profits, but the hype of the sector quickly faded, and I couldn’t sell the NFTs, ending up barely doubling my principal.
By early 2022, due to still playing contracts, I had almost lost all my principal. The secondary market also began to turn bearish, leaving me confused for half a year. Later, I saw on Twitter that a prominent figure made a fortune through .bnb domains, where a three-letter domain sold for 100 BNB! It was astonishing! So, I decided to enter farming.
Farming: From ignorance to small gains.
When I first started farming, I was truly clueless. I followed a bunch of farming big shots on Twitter, watching their tweets and following their tutorials. I created 10 accounts and did whatever they did.
In October 2022, APT became popular, and I mainly focused on the APT testnet, participating in everything related to DEX and cross-chain. I took part in everything I could on the testnet. I also did a few Mint-NFTs on various testnets, and unexpectedly, the NFT I casually minted earned me an APT airdrop, while the testnet I was primarily focusing on received no airdrops.
ARB: No self-judgment.
When farming ARB, it was already late 2022. At that time, there was an Odyssey NFT on ARB priced at 40 dollars each. After reviewing many farming bloggers' analyses, they all said it was a standard for airdrops, with no NFT meaning no qualification for airdrops. Since I joined late, I thought the snapshot might have already passed, so I only created 10 accounts. Fortunately, these 10 accounts also received the basic airdrop, which means I kept up.
Looking back now, I had no personal judgment or system regarding farming. I was easily swayed. I didn't know about the step-by-step approach to starting accounts and missed a big opportunity.
Starknet: Tenacious persistence.
Immediately after the ARB airdrop, with my funds slightly more abundant, I decided to engage with Starknet, preparing 100 accounts. The earliest Starknet network was simply terrible, with lousy wallets and painfully slow on-chain interactions. Each transaction took 3-10 minutes, making me want to give up. I don't even know how I persisted through that. But in the end, out of the 100 accounts, 60 successfully received airdrops.
However, because I had previously sold the Tia airdrop, I chose to take a different approach with this batch of airdrops, and the result is not worth mentioning. Profits retraced by 70%, which was a profound lesson.
ZKSYNC: A painful experience of being reversed.
ZKSYNC was launched alongside Starknet, and I also created 100 accounts. I did everything manually without using scripts, always paying attention to wallet synchronization and the similarity of on-chain behaviors. However, the results were unexpected; in the end, not a single airdrop came to any of the 100 accounts, all got reversed. This lesson made me realize that relying solely on manual operations and experience doesn't always guarantee victory.
In addition to the aforementioned projects, I also received airdrops from projects like Sui, Wormhole, Jup, Tia, L0, etc.
Except for the airdrops from APT, ARB, and Sui, which I converted into U, I basically didn't sell most of the other airdrops. I wanted to be a diamond hand, but the market cap kept retracing, ultimately causing me to miss the best monetization opportunity. As the saying goes: 'Money earned by luck will eventually be lost through skill.'
Summary.
In the crypto space, there is no absolute success, nor absolute failure, only a continuous process of learning and adjusting.
I hope that in 2025, everyone can achieve satisfactory results. Remember to secure your profits! Cash out promptly!
