I had an extremely profitable run with Yield Farming $TITAN.
I was making money, no doubt. Every single day. Based on my capital invested, I was gaining about 10% a day from the reward alone (tokens earned for depositing capital in a contract, known as staking). $TITAN is the coin used by a protocol called Iron Finance, which makes stablecoins called $IRON. It was a very lucrative business, and its investors (stakers) were being paid close to the rate of 1500% in annual returns, which has increased to about 1800% at time of writing.
Watching my balance go up the first time was ecstasy, but seeing the price of the token go down was torture. Every minute of every day I spent looking at a screen, and I always my phone or my laptop within reach. I've never felt exhilaration like this.
When I saw the price of my token go from $1.45 to $3, I was already feeling pretty glad. I patted myself on the back and continued with my day.
Then it went up even more.
The next time I checked, it was a few days later at dinner. The token was now at $21 and climbing. I spit my water and ran upstairs to get to my laptop. I looked long and hard at the charts. Was it ready to drop again? Is it going to climb? I took a quick peek through all my channels, on discord or telegram, and then again looked at the charts and in-depth statistics. The project had only $100 million worth of invested capital when I first joined, about a week ago. Now it was close to 10 times that, or nearly $1 billion.
I took a deep breath, and made my decision.
I added more capital.
...
Three days later it was sitting at $25. Then $30.
People were starting to get wary. A well known celebrity reveals that he was also invested in the token.
I haven't slept well in five days.
My eyes started to hurt physically.
The token kept climbing, hitting $45 and $50 on the same day. My eyes hurt because I was checking my phone every minute in bed, at my table, during my meals, even while brushing my teeth.
I started to panic, I kept crunching the numbers in my head. How far can it keep growing? Or are we already standing on the cliff's edge?
Each hour that passed seemed like a day. I was losing track of time. Forgetting to eat or shower. My bed became a nest of nightmares, dreaming about whether I'll wake up a millionaire or with nothing.
I was also losing touch with real life. I barely texted my partner, me and my friend could only talk about crypto. At work, my eyes wandered and I couldn't focus for longer than a few minutes before my mind wandered to the market.
Even as I was eating, I had my phone in one hand checking the charts. I knew that if this continued, I would be a shell of a man. I was already a shadow of my former outgoing and active self. And so I sold my investment.
I couldn't think of anything other than my portfolio balance.
I knew I had to do a sanity check. What was I invested for? What's more important to me?
The bible says, "the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." Not money. The love of money.
I had to justify to myself why I kept on going, why I had all these sleepless nights and tasteless meals. My eyes and my head hurt daily just from the screen exposure. I struggled with making conversation about anything other than cryptocurrency.
I knew it was time to stop. And I'm glad I did. It was seeping into my mind like radioactive waste, corrupting my thoughts and creativity. Greed demands more money and power, and it will cannibalize every other part of your life and being if you allow it to.
Conclusion: Nothing matters more than your health and happiness.
Despite selling most of my investment, I still made a handsome sum. But more importantly, the minute I sold, it felt like a layer of thick, dead skin had fallen off of my face. I slept soundly for the first night in weeks. The next day, I ate my food without checking my phone. I talked to my brother. I helped my dad move a couch. I felt a lot closer to my family after giving up those yields.
In the end, nothing really mattered as much as my health and happiness. Money is just a tool to get the things I want and need. Right now, it's earning a nice slow dividend, and I can focus on living my life again. I'm still invested in crypto, but I've chosen some projects which are more stable, and also more beneficial to the world as a whole.
Even though I was no longer making a lot, I was still making enough to live by my own personal definition of happiness: ordering a meal without looking at the price. Is that the doorbell? I guess my UberEats is here.
That's all for now crypto-cowboys. Talk to you soon!
