Surviving the Crypto Roller Coaster: A Personal Journey through the Ups and Downs of the Market

A lot of people seem to be confused about where we are in the market and questioning if there is any opportunity left. Today, I feel that this is something worth taking about from a personal perspective. I’m sharing it because it may help you on your journey of learning and it might even inspire you if you are not where you think you should be. I have been seeing the below image circulate on twitter regarding last cycle mania phase and I think It’s time I share a little story as to why this image is so important to remember and learn from.

I’m going to give you a personal anecdote of encouragement and tell you about the reality of this market and all markets. First, a little background. I got into crypto in late 2020. I had always studied the equity markets but crypto was a foreign world. I remember sitting in my apartment late at night reading over a newsletter that I had followed for years and it all of a sudden occurred to me that the guy writing about crypto was making ridiculous returns on his investments. He was outperforming the stock pickers by a mile. His picks were not returning 10-20% a year they were doing more like 10-20x every few months. 

For me that was the tip of the spear. I then turned to where I always went for knowledge, Twitter. Twitter is full of niche corners of the internet spreading information that was previously hard to find. Anyway, long story short, after a little searching I found what we call CT or crypto twitter. It was there that my entire world was turned upside down about what was financially possible. In real time I was seeing people turn (or at least claim to turn 10k into several million dollars) of course the human brain has always been after a good get rich quick scheme, so I had to investigate. This investigation led me to defi and using on chain protocols like dexes. 

Now this all happened in about March of 2021 for reference. 

At the time, I had lost my job in real estate due to lockdowns and was down to just the savings in my brokerage account. I made the decision to sell out of equities and go all in crypto. Now mind you this wasn’t an extremely large sum of money but it was a few thousand dollars. This was just before the first big run of the cycle and ultimately the first big top in the market. So as my investigation into on chain tokens led me down the rabbit hole I really had no idea what I was doing but clearly the market was going up and as most people do when they first find crypto, they buy into influencer shilled tokens. 

So as the market had already run up quite a bit from December through February I was entering the highest risk, right in the final innings before the first top. I can’t remember exactly how much I made but it was a decent sum maybe 10-20k on top of what I had. Then of course not knowing what I was doing I had no idea about sentiment or trading. Elon went on SNL and shilled DOGE and everyone thought it was going to the moon. Wrong. That was the top in the spring and what came next was my first real mugging the market gave me. I couldn’t believe that it might be over. I saw all these people make all this money yet I wasn’t a millionaire yet. Surely the market was going to keep going for me right? 

It didn’t. What happened next was a huge 56% correction on BTC and alts got completely slaughtered into that summer. Not only did I not make the money I needed to live but now I was facing a serious hole.

After having lost nearly all my gains I began trying to trade. Something I had absolutely no business in doing at the time. It was a disaster. I was an emotional mess, selling the bottoms on the daily and buying the tops. It was a financial and psychological beat down.

I had no money in my bank account and I couldn’t pay my rent at the end of the month. I survived by taking whatever jobs I could find on craigslist. It was one of the low points of my life. 

However, little did I know that the money I had left was all I needed. You see I had done a lot of research into NFTs and was able to find one interesting collection that stood out among the rest. At the time I decided I would buy two of these NFTs. They weren’t worth much only about 2.5 ETH at the time but to me they were my only chance. I hit rock bottom in mid July with the market but what would transpire over the course of the next 3 months was life changing, or at least temporarily. 

The value of the NFTs exploded from 1 ETH where I bought them to a 220 ETH floor. Remember, ETH was trading above 4k at the time. So in the span of just 3 months I went from barely getting by to being a millionaire on paper. 

Now, again that was just the start of my journey I did not end up keeping the millions of course and the next 2 and a half years were 10x more gut wrenching than that summer to say the least but those stories are for another lesson.

For today, there are a few reasons I am telling you this important lesson I learned. 

First, is not to get discouraged with where you may be at. Simply survive, whatever you have to do. If you think everyone is making money and you aren’t, you are mistaken. By rule, only a handful of people are actually doing well in this market and keeping what they make and that’s a fact. The other extremely important fact to remember from this story is that the vast majority of the gains will be in the final few months of the bull market. As long as you survive and can make it to that point there is no telling what can happen for you. 

The second point that I want to make is that patience and conviction rule all. Often times we are sitting on a gold mine and don’t even know it. I’m sure many of you have horror stories of tokens you sold that went on to do 100-1000x. I know I sure do. The important thing is to not ever think about what would’ve, could’ve, or should’ve been. It’s a losers mindset. Focus on what you can control going forward and find the next great investment idea, this time just don’t sell it. It’s why doing your research and building that conviction is so important. It’s what helps you truly hold on for those life changing gains. Even when things seem bleak remember that they can always turn around in the blink of an eye. Do the work. Stay the course.

I guess a third and final takeaway would be that the mania is swift and violent but it NEVER lasts long. Or at least as long as you hope. A good rule of thumb I find, is that if something goes up parabolic for a week straight it’s almost a guarantee that’s the top and you should be taking profits. 

So there you have it, after seeing the image above I wanted to remind you all of what a true mania stage looks like and how quickly fortunes can be made. I want you stay encouraged and believe what can happen for you even in just a short time span. My personal story is neither good nor bad its just something that I hope you can learn from as I have. I also hope that it gives you inspiration to never quit knowing you’re always one good idea away from a gold mine. As one of my favorite traders liked to say and I have found to be very true “it doesn’t take a lot of time to make a lot of money, it just takes a lot of time to get ready for it.”