Brother, do you think the most exciting thing in the cryptocurrency world is the 100x coin?
Too young！
The real excitement is the collapse of the exchange.
You were showing off your earnings one second ago, and the next second the app couldn’t be opened, and the customer service avatar was grayer than your wallet.
Before FTX collapsed, its founder SBF was still posting his daily life on Twitter, but on-chain data had already shown that $59 million had been "lost."
Today, we are not talking about getting rich quickly, but only about how to save your life - 5 warning signs of a sudden disaster, teaching you how to “escape the poison” accurately.
Signal 1: On-chain assets are moving in the middle of the night, and the boss’s wallet is busier than yours
Blood and tears case: In October 2023, before FTX collapsed, on-chain data showed that its affiliated company Alameda Research quietly transferred $59 million worth of ETH and FTT to Wintermute, Binance, and Coinbase.
There were also operations on the Solana chain, with $134 million worth of SOL being transferred from a cold wallet in a process called “user distribution,” but in fact, there was something fishy going on.
When BitForex ran away in 2024, $57 million in the hot wallet was emptied overnight, and users couldn’t even find the withdrawal button.
Life-saving operation:
Keep a close eye on your cold wallet. If you see frequent transfers, it’s a sign that your boss is preparing to run away.
Use Nansen and Arkham to set up "large transfer alarm".
90% of assets are stored in hardware wallets, and the remaining 10% is kept in exchanges, so even a sudden collapse will not cause any serious damage.
Signal 2: The team disappears en masse and the boss starts to cry poor
Classic script: In 2020, FCoin founder Zhang Jian wrote a long article complaining about "data errors", and then announced the destruction of team tokens and the cessation of maintenance.
As a result, the server crashed as soon as the user submitted a withdrawal request.
AEX was not doing much better in 2022. First, it blamed LUNA for its collapse, and then said "wait for police notification" - $1 billion in assets were locked up just like that.
Seeing through the routine:
The CEO suddenly resigned, the team lost contact, and the office was deserted (before BitForex ran away, the registered address was actually fake).
The founder deleted his tweets, changed his profile picture, and posted a long "confession". This is the signal that "your coins are gone."
Signal 3: Large investors withdraw their capital, while retail investors are still waiting for a “reversal”
Data slaps us in the face: It has been proven in the P2P era that if large investors withdraw more than 3 million yuan, the platform will collapse.
Before FTX collapsed, institutions such as Genesis Trading transferred out $380 million in FTT, but retail investors were still thinking, "If the big guys don't run away, then I won't run away."
Follow the trend strategy:
Track smart money and monitor whale addresses.
When big investors transfer their assets, you should run away.
Asset stratification: 33% in cold wallets, 33% in leading exchanges, 34% in DeFi, don’t put all your money on Bitcoin.
Signal 4: Cash withdrawal stuck + customer service disappeared, more terrible than fraudulent SMS
Three steps of thunderstorm:
Withdrawal delay: AEX uses "technical upgrade" as an excuse to delay withdrawals for 72 hours.
Limit routine: Huobi limits the withdrawal of 1,000U per day, which is a disguised way of freezing assets.
Complete shutdown: UEX’s platform currency was directly reduced to zero before the collapse, and the withdrawal channel was permanently closed.
Self-help guide: Be aware of the transaction fee trap, low transaction fees may be a bait.
Test the withdrawal channel regularly, verify 100U withdrawals every month, and clear the position if it is stuck for more than 24 hours.
Signal 5: Negative news is everywhere, and the "leeks" group is frantically forwarding "inside information"
Fatal pusher: In 2022, Coindesk published an article (Alameda Financial Vulnerability), causing FTX's market value to evaporate by 90% in three days.
In 2024, before BitForex ran away, even the middle-aged women in the cryptocurrency circle were spreading the news that their boss had bought a luxury car.
Public opinion monitoring:
48-hour rule: If the amount of negative discussion increases by 300% and mainstream media starts to follow up, it means the countdown to withdrawing coins has begun.
Anti-fraud tips: Official announcement of “normal” – risk factor +50%; screenshot of “police intervention” appears in rights protection group – risk factor +100%.
The ultimate life-saving plan for professional players:
Technical flow to save life:
Use a multi-signature cold wallet: 3/5 private keys are stored in a decentralized manner. It is not safe anywhere. Store them with relatives, friends, banks, or law firms.
Set up on-chain monitoring tools: for example, automatically alarm when "exchange balance falls below 20% of reserve funds".
Withdrawal schedule: withdraw money every week in a bull market and monthly in a bear market to prevent exchanges from increasing leverage or running away.
Traffic light supervision:
Compliance platform: Licensed exchanges such as Coinbase and OKX are audited regularly, so the risk of running away is low.
High-risk platforms: For exchanges registered in "regulatory exemption zones" (such as Seychelles and Malta), the probability of running away is doubled.
Rules for survival in the cryptocurrency world:
Your private key is king: the exchange is just a parking lot, the cold wallet is the safe.
Risk hedging: Exchange 10% of your assets into stablecoins to save your life in extreme market conditions.
Dynamic tracking: Pay attention to the policy changes of the SEC and the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission, and stay away from "three-no" platforms.
"In a bull market, withdraw your money to prevent being left out, and in a bear market, withdraw your money to prevent being run away - horizontal banner: Don't withdraw your money, you'll be out of luck."
