My journey in crypto started in January 2018 when a friend of mine took a considerable time to tell me world of cryptocurrency. I quickly admired Satoshi Nakamoto and also fell in love with the technology. But I also see it as an investment opportunity that could help me become financial freedom.
The peak of the 2017-2018 bull market had already happened and I was also learning how many people have been losing money because of bad actors in the ICO boom. I couldn't care much about all the risks involved in this new industry. After all, Bitcoin had reached $20,000 at its all-time high, and smart contract blockchains like Ethereum were already popular. I understood that scammers would take advantage of the hype and the ease of creating tokens to lure investors. But I knew the technology itself was promising.
I really started injecting a good amount of money into Crypto in 2020. At that time, the crypto space was way different than back then. Decentralized Exchanges (DEX), meme coins, and Crypto Twitter were, Elon Musk and other new things that appeared in the crypto space. To make clear, I already knew Dogecoin back then, but it didn't really catch my eye. It was just a funny coin among countless competitors.
The space had become hyper than what I knew in 2018. Celebrities like Elon Musk have boosted Dogecoin to the moon. You may be aware of what happened later. Countless meme coins entered the market with many crypto influencers hyping them on social media. With Decentralized Exchanges now in the game, anyone can create a token and list it with ease. A good recipe for scammers to steal money even more than those in the ICO era.
Crypto looks more like a gambling product than an investment. Most of the meme coins, shitcoins, or whatever you call them don't even put up to work to explain to investors what their projects are about. People will buy them anyway and are likely to lose money. I have been one of those investors too.
I had to lose so much money to make it that I put myself in financial hardship. I was not even realizing my losses because like a lottery I was more focused on randomly hitting my luck one day. The hype seen on social media when some influencers claimed to have turned less than $100 into more than $100,000 was too attractive.
After a self-assessment, I realized I was a gambler but not an investor. I was losing more than making it. I had to find the real reasons why I falling for the negative noises in the crypto space that made me act that way
The Fear Of Missing Out
I came to the realization that I was spending too much on social media than on blogs, and news outlets, reading and educating myself. Social media gave me a false sense of becoming a millionaire overnight no matter the legitimacy of the token I'm buying. Instead of searching for new projects on websites like CoinmarketCap or Coingecko, I was spending time on Dextools and Dexscreener. Nothing wrong with these websites, but they offer little about a token. Tokens are even listed there less than 24 hours after creation. The mentality of being there is "get it early before it lists onCoinmarketCap or Coingecko. The fear of missing out on a potential project as an early investor led me to buy almost anything there before even researching it.
Investing more than I could afford
That's literally the first investment rule. But when you dream of potentially making big like the other guys on social media, you are more likely to have a YOLO mentality. The problem is that when you invest more than you can afford, you become an emotional trader. You will panic sell at any dip and try to buy back at any hike. When so many swaps, you are not only putting your investment at risk, but you are also losing money paying gas fees.
Not thinking long-term
Investment is a long-term commitment that might take time to see the results. Yes, you could become a millionaire overnight but if you haven't strategies to make lose it gradually if you don't understand investment. It takes skills to be a good investor. If you think long-term, you are likely to do some research on the products you want to buy. Once this product is in your portfolio, you will have enough time to follow what they have up to and Dollar Cost Average (DCA) your investment whenever you are positive about it. If you do want to sell it, you will have a reasonable decision because you will have time to think about it.
To summarize, I will admit I have been losing more money than I was making it. Because cryptocurrency is such a cool and hot topic these days, many investors losing money don't even realize it. It's hard to realize it because the money you lose may seem insignificant to you. But when you add all the money you lost throughout your journey, you could be shocked.
I can't believe I have known crypto since 2018, but still, I'm not financially free. One thing I know for sure is that if I had been investing reasonably and kept up with knowledge back then, I could have reached my goal by buying the tokens I saw back then. Most of them had been doing good that the shitcoins I was chasing.
I would love if you could share your winning strategy so I can also learn from you as well??
