Don't blame yourself too much OP. Sometimes, making mistakes is pretty normal when it comes to investing.
I will not ask how much you invested in that scam group, but what I will say is, that making a mistake for the first time is still good, but if you make the same mistake twice then you have a problem already.

Learning from your mistakes would be the best thing that you can do moving forward. Another thing that you can do is to maybe watch some videos online that can help you determine how the scammers are scamming people. TBH, the way they scammed you is just one of the most common ways how they're scamming newbies. Screenshots are pretty much useless now because like you said, they might be fake accounts. You can delete those conversations already because that will not help you get your money back. You said that they're still contacting you. Maybe you can just block them.

I just hope that this will not happen to you again OP, and to other newbies out there. Now that we are near to the bull run, expect more and more scammers trying to scam you, so be vigilant, and always equip yourself with knowledge. Know which are scams and which are not. Best tip for all newbies is to just invest in Bitcoin, and exclude other projects other companies or whatever type of investment it is.

It's been in my mind for years already but still, thanks for reminding me.
For sure, this kind of advice helps one or two investors out there who might forget to create their selling strategy for the upcoming bull run.

I didn't sell all of my assets way back in 2021, and what I did is to just watch the markets go up, and of course, watch the markets go down as well. I don't want to call myself greedy because of that decision, but I would say that it will be one of the most disappointing decisions that I've made in my investing journey.

1st priority in crypto is surviving. No, it isn't. It's knowledge. If you have knowledge, you will learn how to survive in the crypto market. If you have knowledge, you can make better decisions that will make you survive and lessen your losses. Profits in 2nd place? It's kind of connected because if you have knowledge, you will survive and therefore, you can make more money. Knowledge is what you need for you to survive and make money as well.

Overall, this tip will help newbies out there. Still, thanks for the reminder.

Having Curry back would be awesome, but at the same time, kind of makes me worried.

For the whole regular season, they're relying too much on Curry's offense. I don't see anything wrong with that, but if Curry isn't playing, no one can step up on offense to lead the team. I mean how can they lose to an average team in Spurs that has no Wembanyama. I thought that their current roster would be better than last season because they solved their problem last season which is a big man that can help Looney defend the paint, but it seems like they're much worse than that. I don't know the reason, and I don't want to blame any of them, but if they are underperforming this year, I will not be surprised if the Warriors management will break the big 3 of Steph, Klay, and Dray just to get another all-star player that will help the team win the title.

As for Wiggins, he's underperforming for the majority of the season. Yes, there are times that he's scoring 20 points, but he wasn't the Wiggins that we saw when they won the title back in 2022. They need that old Wiggins if they want to win the title. Sadly, we might not see it anymore. I guess I'll just hope that the Warriors will at least stay on the play-in spot.

I might disagree with this one. The Lakers are different without him. He's the considered captain of the team, and those 2 wins don't mean that the team is better without him. I mean just imagine the Lakers not having Le-GM playing for the whole regular season. They might be out of the playoff picture. The team is better with him. Lebron can just be a passer if he wants to because he's a great passer as well. I also don't agree with him not trusting his teammates. He is averaging around 8 APG which is tied at 7th with 9.7 APG on his last 10 games. If he doesn't trust his teammates, he might've lower than 8 or even 5 APG as average, but that isn't the case.

It's a combined effort of Dinwiddie and Russell that leads them to victory.
I don't if it's only me, but Lillard has been one of the worst defenders right now in the league. He's defending Russell one-on-one and if you're a great defender, you must be at his front at all times, but on that play, he just let Russell drive through the basket, and shoot that floater. If you're a good defender then at least contest that shot, but Lillard is just a shitty defender. As for that last possession, Dinwiddie made a great defensive play against Lillard again.

Anyway, it's just a bad night for him I guess. He will come back in their next game.

Thanks for the reminder OP.
TBH, I felt this when I was starting in trading. The feeling that you might end up losing your money whenever you enter a trade. The feeling of being anxious and constantly thinking of losing my capital.

I guess I need to commend those full-time traders out there who managed to become successful in trading. I mean for sure, they have experienced it as well when they were starting, but they're dedicated or motivated to become successful in trading hence, they became one. As for me, trading isn't for me, and will never be for me. I lost quite a lot of money in trading already, and I don't want to continue trading just to lose my money, and at the same time, risk my life.

If trading isn't for you, just do like what I'm doing. Buy and hold. Lesser profit yes, but fewer problems, lesser stress, lesser risks in health. Always take note that "HEALTH > MONEY".

Why the hurry? Do you have debt currently OP, and you need to pay it through your profits that's why you are "BEGGING" for the whales to pump the market up.
It's funny that an investor is relying on whales. I mean whales will always be there, but to rely on them so you can make a profit?

Shiba Inu as well? Are you at a loss currently? Anyway, it seems like the market is going in your favor and anytime, it will go up. Just be patient enough to take profits and soon, you can pay your debts. Good luck with your investments and I hope that you will be in profit after this bull run ends. Continue learning as well.

Based on Coingecko, we already have a new ATH at $69,427.72. Some said that it reached the $70,000 price already, but I didn't so.. yeah.

TBH, I'm not surprised that Bitcoin's price will surge, but what I didn't expect is the fact that Bitcoin's price is near its ATH already, and the halving event isn't finished yet. Don't be sorry for yourself OP because I am also surprised at what's happening with Bitcoin in these past few days. I really expect that Bitcoin will stay at $50,000-$60,000 this month, but I didn't expect that it will try and surpass its past ATH, and will try to reach the $70,000 price range.

Fortunately, many sellers near the ATH's why we aren't seeing its price staying above $69,000. My prediction though is that, whenever those sellers are gone, many buyers will come and try to buy near it's ATH, but based on history, Bitcoin's price will be going down after the halving event.

1. No it isn't. Investors are making profits because they know what they're doing when it comes to investing. Investors are making profits because they have knowledge that will help them to make better decisions. Luck might be a factor in making profits especially when you invest in a coin that has a low market cap, but most of the time, better decisions, and knowledge are the main reasons why investors are making profits.
2. Yes I'm a BTC holder, and I've been holding Bitcoin ever since I started my journey in cryptocurrency way back in 2017-2018. My belief that I will make money through investing in Bitcoin made me hold it as well, and I guess most here have the same reason as to why they choose to hold it.
3. Until the peak of the bull market or at least when I feel that we're in the peak already. I know, I know that there are some here who want to hold Bitcoin forever, but as an investor, I believe that if there's an opportunity to sell your assets, sell it. I support the technology, and I support crypto in general, but I'm investing to make money.

Easy to say, but difficult to implement.
Trust me, it's easy to say "I will buy it at the bottom" but the truth is, you don't know when it make a reversal.

Are you upset with those smart people? Why not be one of them instead so you can make the most profit like what they're doing? Kicking them for what? Because they're smart enough to gain profit while you OP, are losing your money. That's how life is. Some will go up, and some will go down. What's worse is that there are people out there who criticize other people because of what they're doing. I didn't know that being "smart" was a bad thing already. You can say like "I'll buy when it stops going down." but do you know when it will stop going down?

Just focus on yourself OP instead of criticizing these "smart" people that you're saying. Instead of focusing on criticizing on them, focus on being one of them.

Inactivity fees? This is the first time I heard of this being implemented on an exchange, but if it's on their TOS, I guess you agreed with it since you created an account without reading their TOS, and just clicked on that small box at the bottom. Their exchange, their rules. TBH, I didn't expect that this exchange would still be operating despite its popularity going down for years already because of new exchanges getting that limelight.

As for your "stolen" funds, you said that you can't withdraw them right? You have the chance to exchange it into a coin that you can withdraw on their exchange, but choose to hold that token that you can't even withdraw (possible shitcoin). Maybe your inactivity is the reason why you didn't exchange that token into another coin, but in the end, it's your fault because you know that you have tokens on that exchange and yet, you choose to be inactive.

"You paid them," you said. Paid what? You only deposit your coins to them, and basically, you can withdraw them anytime they want. Paying = giving money to them, and not getting it back.
With regards to help, nobody can help you here because only the exchange owners are the ones that will help you. Don't have high hopes TBH, because there's a chance that they will not give it back to you. Sad truth, but that's the reality.

Thanks for the reminder. I've been in the crypto space for many years already, and I'm confident enough to say that I will not fall into these scam projects, or me being hacked whatsoever. What I worry about is those newbies who don't know anything about cryptocurrency.

Newbies who are just starting, and the first thing that they will encounter is something that will scam them. Newbies will get lured by these scammers to invest in their project or whatever it is in exchange for some huge monthly interest. I worry about those newbies out there who are prone to scams and hacks especially now that we are near the bull run phase, and with this, newbies tend to decide based on what they feel not on what they know. They feel that they don't want to be the last on the ride thus, they will immediately invest their money into a project that they don't even know only to end up as a scam project. I also started as a newbie, and luckily I didn't fall into these scam attempts even though I've received many emails from them. What I did was I watched videos online on how scammers are scamming people so that I would know what to do if the time comes that they will come to me, convince me, and try to scam me.

Overall, this kind of advice will help maybe at least 1 or 2 or even more newbies out there, but there's no harm in constantly reminding these newbies to be vigilant. As for newbies out there, at least equip yourself with knowledge first before investing.

2 words for Simmons. "Nobody cares"
What the NBA fans will remember when it comes to him will be: 1. How he is hyping himself on Instagram posting "I'm ready" type of posts at the start of the season only to sit out for most of the regular season. 2. How he choked when he was still in Philadelphia and the infamous wide-open dunk, but he chose to pass it to another player.

I might remember the times when he was making those flashy passes back when he was still in Philly, and TBH he might be one of the most dominating PGs right now just because of his height if only he developed skills including shooting from the three-point line, perimeter shooting, and free throw shooting. Unfortunately, he didn't develop that skills hence, his NBA career is ruined forever. After this contract that he got, he will go back to his country and might play there, or choose to play overseas.

Horrible news indeed, but the Timberwolves might still be ok even though Towns is injured.

This is the reason why they re-signed Naz Reid to a multi-year deal. They needed a backup when things like this happened, and it happened so they will give more time to Reid for sure. Kind of unfortunate that KAT got injured, but this is the time for Reid to showcase himself "again" as he will be given more minutes. For me, he's one of the best role-player bigs out there, and he can give you an average of maybe 8-10 PPG and around 5 RPG, a good defender, and can stretch the defense with his ability to shoot threes as well.

Reid might not be as dominant as Towns in terms of offense, but he can still be a big help for the team. As for the Timberwolves and their playoff run, as you said, I don't know if they will be a good playoff team without KAT because losing a player who can score an average of 20 PPG every night is kind of demoralizing. They still got ANT though, and other role players must step up on offense on the playoffs.

Scam is the main reason why many investors (including me) are hesitant to buy these new tokens.

In the past years, I've seen many projects turn out to be scam projects or what they call a "rug pull". The good thing is that there are fewer scam projects compared to what it was like 3-4 years ago when ICO was a popular niche. Many projects joined the hype at that time, but some of them were just created to scam people, and that changed how investors see these new ones that are popping out.

You want to learn about an unknown token or in this case new token. The problem with this new project IMO is the lack of community behind it since it's a new one. There are times when a new project that has no community at all will be the same, but there are some who will have people who will support the projects for some reason. Learning about an unknown token will be hard IMO because there are many of them. If you want to learn more about them then maybe focus on the bottom 500 or 1000 in terms of market cap.

Well, that just shows that the market is unpredictable.

You can't time the market because it's very unpredictable. You might see it's price going up for a few hours then suddenly, it will go down. Just look at Bitcoin's price a few days ago when the Coinbase anomaly happened. It went down from I think around $68,000 to nearly $59,000 in just a span of a few minutes.

What's my take on what's happening right now? We're in a time where we need to wait for the market to correct before entering. We have been seeing the market going up for days already, and I don't see any reason for me to enter the market when the market is on the green. I mean we want to buy coins at a lower price, so it's better to just wait until the market corrects then that's the time for us to buy.

Altcoins isn't reputable? Reliable? Why are you generalizing all of altcoins?
Most of the altcoins might be like that, but some are trustworthy and have been there for a long time hence, they're considered safer altcoins to invest your money with compared to some altcoins. Some altcoins out there are considered "established" enough.

I think we will all agree if I say that Ethereum is considered a reliable altcoin to invest your money with because it has been the top altcoin for a long time in terms of market cap.

Investors love to gamble therefore, they want to test their luck. There are some investors out there hoping that they might earn huge money if they will invest into altcoins, especially those low market cap ones.

I'm not against what you said because, after all, I don't want to be an employee either. I will just say my own opinion regarding this one.

This is the reason why I prefer being a freelancer rather than somebody working in either the government or the private sector. The number of graduates is increasing every single year while on the other hand, the number of job slots isn't increasing or worse, decreasing every year. I've seen graduates who are working on a job that isn't in line with their degree. I've seen people who are constantly finding jobs even though they graduated already. I've seen people living from one place to another place because that is the only place where there's a job slot. Worse, I've seen people who graduated, but have a hard time having a job, and until now are jobless. Relying on government to secure a job is almost impossible unless you have somebody who will help you.

Now about investing, I just don't know why you single-pointed out Bitcoin investment alone. Are other asset classes not worthy of investing anymore? Why not just say "Prepare your children for investing." Yes, we are in a Bitcointalk forum, say to us to prepare our children for investing in Bitcoin because it sounds like Bitcoin is the only investment out there. I understand what you're saying, but rephrase it, and use investing in general.

Chasing losses often leads to more losses.

The chances of you losing more money are higher because you are being driven by emotions. Sometimes, greedy gamblers often lose their money because the only thing that's on their mind is to recover that loss. No strategy whatsoever. Well, some games don't need a strategy and solely rely on luck, but still, if you're gambling, at least have some strategy that will help you make some decisions.

I'm pretty sure that many if not all of the gamblers already experienced this. That time when you need to use more money to get that loss. There are some instances that they recovered it plus they got profit at the end of the day, but most of them ended up losing more money. I also experienced this when I was starting to gamble. That feeling is when you don't want to lose money on that day, and you need to get those losses therefore, you will deposit more money.

Have a mindset where if you lose your gambling funds, you will use money just to recover it. Have a mindset where that money is what I consider as "lost money". Lost money meaning the money I used in gambling is considered lost for me. If I lost it then that's fine and I will not recover it. If I end up in profit then that's good. It's hard, but it helped me not to chase those losses of mine in the past.

Hope.

TBH, I can't think of any reason as to why I still want to invest in Bitcoin even though I'm seeing already that it is near its previous ATH aside from hoping that it will go even higher than that price. I mean we knew already that it would surpass that previous ATH, and there's a chance that it would reach 6-digits for the first time. Even though it reaches its previous ATH, there will be a time that I will not invest any more into Bitcoin especially when I know that it has reached its peak already. I don't see any reason at all as to why I will still invest in Bitcoin even though I knew that it reached its peak already.

Some say "Whatever the price is, just focus on DCA." Well, there's nothing wrong with that strategy, but at least learn when to stop buying it if needed. If you know that it is near it's peak already, just stop, focus on selling, and wait for the bear market to start.

Can I ask what your basis is for why you considering the Suns as the team that will be in the Conference Finals? I mean why not Timberwolves? Or the Thunder? They might be a young team especially the Thunder, but IMO, the Timberwolves have the potential as well though I'm not rooting for them to win in the West. With these young teams being at the top, it's hard to pick which team will win in the West now. At least in the East, we have a clear pick on which team might end up in the NBA Finals.

Speaking of Celtics-Cavaliers, the Celtics are the hottest team have the best record right now in the league, and are currently on a winning streak. They just destroying every single team that they are facing. They are 19-9 on the road, and I might watch this one, and thinking of betting on them as well.

I'm not a fan of him nor a hater, but I agree with you that LeBron will be remembered as one of the best NBA players we have ever seen in the league.
His accolades are just enough for him to be in the HOF soon. His achievements are some achievements that other players might be having a hard time breaking or they might not even break TBH, especially the point record. He's playing very impressive for a 39-year-old star. I wonder how he can keep himself in shape despite his age. I just hope that he will stay with the league even more, probably at least 2-3 years before he retires.

Many are looking at the previous ATH as the resistance hence, we are seeing Bitcoin going down to $66,000 again as it goes up near to it.
Well, the good thing is that we are at $68,000 again.

On Coingecko and Coinmarketcap, it seems like it hasn't been reached yet. The good thing is that many are optimistic about Bitcoin that's why many are buying it right now trying to ride the train. Like I said in the past, I will only think that we entered the bull market if the price of Bitcoin surpassed the previous ATH of ~$69,000 and stayed above that price for weeks. Until that doesn't happen, I don't consider we are on it yet. Nevertheless, it's a good sign that we are nearing breaking the previous ATH, and TBH, I didn't expect it to happen because, in the past, it took months after the Bitcoin halved before the previous ATH was surpassed. Now we are a few weeks away from the halving event and we are seeing Bitcoin trying to surpass it's previous ATH already. I'll stick to my prediction that Bitcoin will reach as high as $150,000 next year.

P.S. Oh not again. The price of Bitcoin went down to $65,000 again as it tried to go to $69,000.