Ten Years in the Crypto World: A Transformational Turning Point

Now my daughter is learning the piano, and as I watch her play, I suddenly think back to the hard days. Ten years ago, I lived in a run-down, tiny rental room in a village in the city. The place was damp and moldy, and when I couldn't sleep at night, I would scroll through crypto forums on my phone. At that time, I never imagined that getting into crypto could completely change my life.

After graduating from university, I worked as a sales assistant in a clothing store in the county town, earning a monthly salary of 3,500 yuan. After paying rent and utilities, I still had to send 1,500 yuan home. My family's house had been leaking for many years, and my mom would call me every time urging me to save money to repair it, but with this little salary, how could I manage? Until one day, a friend from my dormitory told me her cousin bought a car by trading cryptocurrencies, and when I heard this, I felt a strong urge, thinking maybe I could give it a try too.

I gritted my teeth and invested all the money I had saved for three months into a popular altcoin at the time. Every night, after my roommate fell asleep, I would hide under the covers to check the market, my eyes turning red from lack of sleep. When I made money for the first time, my account doubled, and I quickly transferred 5,000 yuan home. When my dad received the money, he asked me over the phone if I was doing anything illegal out there. At that moment, I was uncertain too and could only stubbornly say it was nothing.

However, the good times didn't last long; the crypto market crashed, and I followed the trend and leveraged my investments. As a result, overnight, all the money in my account disappeared. Creditors came to the clothing store to collect debts, and I hid in the warehouse, afraid to go out. When I returned to my rental room, I had only a few coins left in my pocket, barely enough to eat.

In 2018, I became a moderator on a crypto forum and gradually learned about blockchain technology. At that time, everyone was selling off, and I made a decisive move to mortgage my family’s land and invested everything into a DeFi project that no one believed in. I stood at the counter in the clothing store all day and stayed up late learning to code. One day my mom called and said my brother dropped out of school to work on a construction site. I squatted at the back door of the clothing store, crying uncontrollably, my tears soaking into my dirty work clothes.

By 2021, during the bull market, my account suddenly had a lot more zeros. I immediately moved my parents into an elevator apartment in the city and paid my brother's college tuition. Now, watching my daughter play the piano in our spacious home, reflecting on the past, it feels like a dream. These ten years of struggling in the crypto world have truly transformed my life for the better.