I am 37 this year, born in 1988, and I have reached a net worth of over 20 million through trading cryptocurrencies.
No one knows that I’ve been liquidated three times, slept under bridges, and survived an entire winter eating instant noodles.
Being able to escape the quagmire is not due to luck, but based on the five 'survival rules' that I learned through experience.
Rule one: position size is not a detail of operation; it’s a life-saving bottom line.
In 2018, I bet everything on ETH, only to be caught in a crash and unable to even pay my rent. After that, I established a rule: **never allocate more than 20% to one coin, and keep at least half of the overall position in cash**. When others are making huge gains, I don’t get greedy; when the market corrects, I don’t panic. If you want to survive in the crypto world, you must first learn to 'leave the green mountains'.
Rule two: cutting losses is not failure; it’s avoiding complete failure.
At the end of the bull market in 2021, I stubbornly held BTC as it dropped from 60,000 to 40,000, watching my account shrink from 8 million to just 1.2 million. Now I understand, **if the market is wrong, you need to exit quickly**; any coin that drops more than 15%, clear out immediately, no second-guessing. Don’t hope for luck; not cutting losses will only make your losses bigger.
Rule three: leverage can make you rich quickly, but it can also lead to the fastest demise.
I have dealt with contracts, with 10x leverage, losing 3 million overnight, only to wake up with an empty balance. Many people say you can double your money with leverage, but the truth is: **contracts are not a game for retail investors**. I now only trade spot, which may rise slowly but allows for stable survival.
Rule four: don’t chase trends, and don’t gamble on insider news.
Last year, the metaverse was incredibly popular, and I jumped into several hot projects, only to end up losing everything. Out of 500,000, only a few thousand remain. Most of the market's 'hotspots' are setups created by scammers. Now, I only focus on value and fundamentals, preferring to hold BTC and ETH steadily rather than gamble on worthless coins.
Rule five: don’t listen to others, don’t trust emotions.
Most of what you see in signals, insider news, and myths are scams. In 2019, I followed a 'master' to buy at the bottom, only for him to run away at the top, leaving me as the bag holder. Now I only look at on-chain data and capital flow, **not listening to news, not watching groups, not being swayed by emotions**. Stability is more important than aggressiveness; minimizing losses is the biggest win.
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Trading cryptocurrencies is not speculation; it’s a survival game.
Ironclad rules won’t make you rich overnight, but they will help you avoid irreparable losses.
To win in this market, it’s not about being smart, but about making fewer mistakes and surviving longer.
Remember this: a true expert doesn’t rely on becoming rich overnight, but rather on minimizing losses to gradually accumulate wealth.
