The allure of the crypto market is undeniable. Stories of overnight millionaires and life-changing opportunities abound^[1-2]. However, this potential comes with a hefty dose of risk, often overlooked in the hype. While success stories exist, for every winner, there are countless losers^[3]. Unfortunately, in 2022, I became one of them.

This wasn't my first brush with loss. In 2018, the Credits project left me licking my wounds. However, I managed to cut my losses and move on. This time, with FTX, things were different.

FTX, with its infamous FTT token, was once a shining star. In the wake of the UST-LUNA collapse, FTX emerged as a savior, attempting to rescue struggling companies like Celsius^[4]. This, coupled with the seemingly attractive price point (around $25), convinced me that FTT had bottomed out and couldn't go lower. Blinded by optimism, I disregarded stop-loss orders, believing I'd snagged a steal.


November 2022 shattered my illusion. Accusations of user fund misappropriation sent shockwaves through the market, and FTT plummeted: the token's value nosedived over 90% in mere days^[5]. I clung to hope, but the price continued its relentless descent, even reaching $1 at one point. Finally, in January 2023, I faced reality and sold my FTT holdings at a staggering $2.50, marking a 90% loss, or roughly $900.


This experience was a harsh awakening. It exposed the fragility of trust in the crypto space. Rapidly growing exchanges, overnight sensations – everything can be a carefully crafted facade masking an elaborate scheme to exploit investors. This loss served as a brutal reminder: caution is paramount, and stop-loss orders are not optional.

I share my story not for pity, but as a cautionary tale and an invitation to share your experiences:

• Which project/token inflicted your biggest loss?
• What percentage and amount did you lose?
• How did this experience impact your investment journey?

---

References:
[1] Crypto Billionaires: 11 Individuals Who Struck it Crazy Rich with Cryptocurrencies
[2] From rags to riches: 5 ordinary people who are now crypto millionaires
[3] The Reasons Why 90% of Crypto Traders Lose Money
[4] FTX reportedly considers bailing out Celsius via asset bid
[5] Why Did FTX Collapse? Here’s What to Know

Many familiar with the "market sentiment chart" (describing the psychological stages of a market cycle) recognize its influence on price action. We have Disbelief, Hope, Optimism, Belief, Thrill, Euphoria, Complacency, Anxiety, Denial, Panic, Capitulation, Anger and back to Disbelief, but in short, the traditional market cycle typically outlines four phases:

• Accumulation: Prices slowly rise with low investor participation.
• Markup: Rallying prices attract more investors, accelerating the upward trend.
• Distribution: As the market peaks, profit-taking begins, slowing the rise.
• Markdown: Selling intensifies, leading to sharp price declines^[1].

While human behaviors may evolve slowly over millennia, I believe that their emotions driving investment decisions remain relatively constant. These choices fuel buying/selling patterns, shaping market fluctuations, then market fluctuations affect investor psychology, creating a feedback loop. Combined with capital flows and asset price movements, this loop generates the cyclical nature of financial markets.

Despite Bitcoin reaching 52.5k USD and the crypto market exceeding 2T USD, my subjective view positions it within the "Disbelief" stage, rather than "Hope". Diverse opinions exist, some anticipate an uptrend, while others await a drop to 20k USD for bargain buying. Perhaps a robust upward spike is needed for widespread optimism and hope to prevail.

However, that is just my subjective opinion, I would like to get your opinion:

• In your opinion, which stage best describes the current crypto market sentiment? What reasoning underlies your perspective?
• Do you believe market makers leverage sentiment charts to manipulate the crypto market? Why or why not?

---

References:
[1] Mastering the Market Cycle – Mindset and Strategies

Bitcoin's meteoric rise has sparked comparisons to gold, particularly as a hedge against inflation^[1]. Some even envision it supplanting the precious metal as the ultimate store of value^[2]. However, the path to surpassing gold's market cap of $13.47 trillion remains shrouded in uncertainty^[3-4].


Currently, Bitcoin stands at just 7.1% of that value, requiring a 14-fold increase to bridge the gap and reach $678,000 per unit. While optimists like PlanB predicted a $500,000 price point^[5], even that falls short of dethroning gold.

Historical trends paint a complex picture. While Bitcoin's price momentum seems to be waning compared to traditional indices like the DJIA, it's unclear if this deceleration will persist. Assuming current growth rates, 2028 is the earliest possible date for Bitcoin to reach gold's valuation. However, factoring in potential gold price inflation due to uncontrollable economic factors, the timeline could stretch to 2035-2040.


But surpassing gold might not be the ultimate victory. An exorbitant price could hinder Bitcoin's utility as a payment method, relegating it to government reserves. Perhaps a more achievable and beneficial goal lies in surpassing larger corporations like Microsoft ($3.026 trillion), placing Bitcoin's value at a more accessible $154,000 per unit.

I want to know your opinion:

• Do you think Bitcoin has any chance of catching up and then surpassing Gold in capitalization?
• If so, when in the future might that event take place?
• If this happens, will it be a good thing for Bitcoin?

---

References:
[1] GrayScale: October 2023: Rising demand for Bitcoin as Digital Gold
[2] ‘The Bitcoin Standard’: A review
[3] Gold vs. Bitcoin: Which Is Better?
[4] Top Assets by Market Cap
[5] Bitcoin Will be Scarcer Than Gold After Halving, $500K BTC Price Predicted

The cryptocurrency market, while young and volatile, holds undeniable potential. Stories of Bitcoin and altcoin millionaires have captured headlines and fueled the imaginations of investors seeking financial freedom^[1-3].

My most memorable success story began with XRP of Ripple project. In late 2017, at the market's peak, I invested in XRP at 0.2 USD. Within a month, it skyrocketed to 2 USD, a 10x return I'd never seen with traditional investments like real estate or gold.


Unable to stomach the potential downside, I sold, netting a cool 5k USD - a small sum for some, but life-changing for me. It allowed me to pay off student loans and buy my first phone, albeit an old iPhone  

While luck might have played a part, that early win solidified my belief in crypto's potential. It spurred me to stay involved for the past six years, both as a translator and as an investor, always seeking out promising tokens.

Now, I want to hear from you!

• Which project/token brought you the most significant profit?
• How did you use profit?
• What impact did your success have on your life?

---

References:
[1] Four ordinary people share how they got rich from crypto
[2] 5 People Who Became Rich Because of Bitcoin, And Their Stories
[3] 12 Bitcoin Success Stories: Meet Bitcoin Millionaires

Recently, the Solana network experienced its 11^th outage in the past 2 years, causing a stir in the crypto community. This network outage lasted nearly 5 hours, raising concerns about the stability of Solana blockchain platform^[1].

However, contrary to my prediction, investor confidence in the SOL token still does not seem to be affected too much. Even many of my friends are still looking for investment opportunities in SOL with the expectation that this currency will continue to grow in the new growth cycle.

I tried thinking of a few reasons why investors are still optimistic about SOL:

• Potential technology: despite many downtimes, Solana is very fast ~ 65k tps^[2]. Technology is a powerful tool for marketing.
• Diverse ecosystem: Solana has many dApps in most fields of DeFi, NFT, GameFi, so it attracts many users^[3]. Transaction fees on Solana are very low so everyone can participate and use the network easily.
• Support from large investors: Solana is backed by many large investment funds, Solana's brand is guaranteed^[4].
• SOL price is at a low zone compared to the old ATH of 256 USD.

It's easy to understand that with strong reasons like these, investors will continue to trust and invest in SOL tokens, despite the network's uncertain quality. I'm really interested in the optimistic sentiment of investors in the crypto market: crypto operates on the blockchain, but even though the blockchain has problems, token prices continue to grow.

If you are SOL token investore, I'd like to know your views on Solana and SOL:

• Did the Solana incident impact your decision to invest in SOL?
• Are you really bothered by the failure of the Solana blockchain?
• Do you believe that in the uptrend in 2025, the SOL token price will still grow and will not be negatively impacted by Solana blockchain outages?

---

References:
[1] Solana outage was caused by infinite loop bug previously seen on devnet
[2] Solana (SOL): Scaling Crypto to the Masses
[3] Solana ecosystem
[4] Dealroom: Solana

On Tuesday, February 6, the Solana network shut down again after nearly a year of stable operation. This is the 11th outage in the past 2 years. Perhaps users and investors are too familiar with this "incident", after 5 hours everything has returned to stability^[1].

Blockchain is a decentralized network that operates 24/7/365. Blockchain downtime is an extremely serious problem for users. This problem has existed for a long time and continues to need the Solana team to research and find a solution^[2].

What surprised me was not that the Solana network shut down, but that the SOL token price was not negatively affected by this bad news.

On the SOL token price chart, we do not have a serious decline, even at the moment, SOL token is already traded at over 100 USD.


This makes me feel that technology, which is heavily advertised by projects, is actually just one of many ways to market. Technology is only a part of supporting the price chart, technology does not have a direct impact on price. Technology does not determine token price fluctuations!

Ultimately, despite the extremely heated debate with each other about the technology of projects in the market, investors participate in the crypto market to seek profits. As long as the token increases in price and generates profits, that token is considered good, potential, and worth investing in. Blockchain stability is not too important to investors, only a very few investors actually use blockchain. If so, it is just an investment action to make a profit, not to solve an irreplaceable need of life.

For comparison, the EOS network has very good technology and has been operating stably for 2064 days, no downtime, no problems as Solana, but the EOS token price has divided 31 times compared to the 2018 peak. It is a bad choice for investment!


I want to hear your opinion on this issue:

• Are you entering the crypto market to pursue technology or profit?
• For you, is the project's technology important to the investment decision?

---

References:
[1] Solana Back Up Following Major 5-Hour Outage
[2] Solana Struggles: Understanding the Network’s Recent Outages

Satoshi Nakamoto is a famous figure in the crypto market, and perhaps worldwide at the moment, because he created Bitcoin - the first crypto and opened the blockchain & crypto era. There have been many searches for Satoshi's true identity but no one has been successful. There is someone claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto but cannot prove it when he cannot move BTC from Satoshi Nakamoto's address^[1].

For many people, Satoshi's anonymity is one of the most important assets of the Bitcoin blockchain because it keeps Bitcoin from being an asset managed by any individual^[2]. However, today I think of a case when Satoshi Nakamoto reappeared and made the crypto community vibrant again in many ways: discuss on crypto forums, move a few satoshis from his address, send a message to the crypto community via Inscription...

If I were Satoshi Nakamoto, I would probably send the entire 1M BTC to charities around the world. I would not dare to appear and have my identity revealed for fear of endangering my life. Bitcoin has succeeded beyond all initial expectations 

I have some questions for everyone: If you were Satoshi Nakamoto, what would you do?

• Would you dare to appear in public?
• Would you move 1M BTC and sell for USD?
• Would you participate in the development and upgrade process of Bitcoin blockchain?
• Would you agree to accept the invitation to El Salvador?
• Wouldl you continue to stay anonymous and observe the development of Bitcoin?
• Would you reveal this secret to your children before you die?

---

References:
[1] Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto?
[2] Why has Satoshi Nakamoto remained anonymous?

The potential crypto market always surprises us. There are serious and hard-working traders who still have to suffer losses when the market fluctuates, but sometimes luck can change the someone life. We have heard of cases where someone became a millionaire from DOGE^[1], SHIB^[2], PEPE^[3]... Recently we know another lucky teenager who became a millionaire thanks to JUP token airdrop.

He has made over $1 million on a Jupiter airdrop, he invested time and resources into the platform and was able to maximize his earnings by using various features:

The teenager shared his strategy in a 12-min video, saying: "I focused on actively using all of Jupiter's tools. It's about being smart with your moves on the platform. I made over $1,000,000 on the $JUP airdrop^[4]".

Although Airdrop/RetroActive hunters have been a popular profession over the past year as many projects have launched and there have been many campaigns to attract the community, success like this case is an exception. I think that he will receive many congratulations for working hard and receiving a well-deserved reward, but there will also be many people who are jealous. I hope he will use this great reward effectively for his life in the future.

I think events like this have a positive impact on the crypto market:

• The luck and becoming a millionaire of an individual are always attractive to everyone: the crypto market will have new investors.
• New projects will have more motivation to conduct big airdrops to be well promoted as Jupiter.
• Many Airdrop hunters will participate, helping projects test platforms to detect bugs before they are exploited by hackers.

I have been participating in the crypto market since 2017 and have also received a few airdrops but usually they are only worth a few USD. Maybe I should collect more luck before becoming an Airdrop hunter

I want to hear your story in the Airdrop sector:

• Have you ever participated in Airdrop?
• What is the most valuable Airdrop you have ever received?
• How did that airdrop help change your position and journey in the crypto market?

---

References:
[1] Truck Driver That Made $3 Million from Dogecoin (DOGE) is Now Selling His Bags to Invest in This New Memecoin
[2] From $1,000 to $1 Million, How Shiba Inu Made People Millionaires
[3] Becoming Millionaires in 2 Weeks: How 3 Addresses Got Rich with PEPE
[4] A Teenager Made Over $1M On $JUP Airdrop: 'I Invested Time, Resources Into This'

The crypto market is warming up after the recovery of BTC and many Altcoins, the community is talking about expectations, about new ATHs in 2024 and 2025. It seems like everyone is very optimistic, very excited to think about a good future in this crypto market. Everyone is thinking about the profits they will have after this cycle, and I'm sure everyone has a plan to use those profits most effectively.

I also have a lot of plans, but other than reinvesting in the market during the crypto winter to buy more tokens and get more profits in the next cycle, I think profits from the crypto market should bring positive values to my real life.

I know that this crypto market is really potential and creates extremely large profits in the uptrend. A token's price increase of 1000% in an uptrend year is considered a weak increase and not an effective investment in the crypto market, stock investors are always surprised about this. But the market also contains many risks and creates pressure when investing, holding and trading. Many investors I know have looked much older after just 1 cycle in this market. It would be bad if profits continued to put more pressure on their lives, we only have 1 life to live  

I am not a professional investor, I DCA so there is less pressure. But to be honest, I still cannot escape all the negative impacts of the market. I hold BTC and I'm happy when the BTC price increases, I'm sad when the BTC price drops, even though I have determined to hold BTC for 1-2 years and will not sell regardless of any fluctuations during that time. I think many other investors also have similar feelings, things will be worse for traders participating in Margin and Future!

To balance those negative emotions, I always spend 50% of my profits from the crypto market to spend on family needs, usually buying gifts for members. The biggest joy I can mention is that in the previous cycle, I took profits in BTC and used the profits to buy a new iPad for my daughter to use. She loves it and even named the Ipad as "iBit" because I told her: the Ipad is gift from Bitcoin (and not from BTC Spot ETF of BlackRock). Don't worry, I still don't want to teach her DCA BTC, her childhood needs to be protected  

I know this joy is very small for many others, but it is big enough to give me more motivation to try harder in this market. There's nothing better than when profits from the crypto market become the joy of the person I love the most  

I know many people who enter the market and are very successful, they have huge profits but all they do is invest. They almost forget that they also need to spend and use the profits from the crypto market to make their lives better.

I want to hear from you:

• Have you ever been profitable and taken profits in the crypto market?
• How did you use that profit? Do you use that profit or reinvest it?
• Do you think using profits is also important for your investment journey?

The market always has more losers than winners, no matter what token it is, even BTC and ETH, of course memecoins are no exception. We cannot expect that the majority of investors will make a profit, because profits do not suddenly appear out of thin air, that is the rule of this market. In addition, there are many fraudulent projects in each field: Layer-1, DeFi, GameFi... Memecoins is also a field with many fraudulent projects, it is no exception.

I see it positively that memecoins can have promotional value and attract investors to the market. Many people only know BTC and DOGE, they don't even know ETH or USDT. Even memecoins have created a whole meme culture in the crypto market 

I think memecoins are not bad, but it would be a mistake if investors put too much hope and capital into memecoins. The risk of memecoins is too great, many times greater than the opportunity, so investors should be cautious.
It will be more appropriate if capital is spent on good projects: strong teams, effective solutions, and famous partners and investment funds.

We can't stop them, they will buy memecoins because they like memes and hear people talking about memecoins. I hope they don't lose too much money on memecoins, so they will have more money to invest in better projects.

I believe that profits have a direct impact on our perspective. Memecoins are very interesting and have a very clear trend, it would be better if we approach them with a technical analysis approach because it is difficult for fundamental analysis to be useful with memecoins.

With the growth of the crypto community, more carefully analyzed projects, more experienced investors, useful and free information available everywhere, I hope fraudulent or weak projects will no longer exist and money will only flow to projects that are truly good and valuable to the market.

Gone are the days when just a few pages WhitePaper could raise tens of millions of dollars!

At least, Wanchain is still active so far and although the WAN token has not made an ATH in 2021, its price has recovered impressively from the bottom. In 2022-2023 it will not create a new deeper bottom, anyway this is no longer important to you. Congratulations on your success and profit from WAN token 

The crypto market is recovering very impressively, as BTC has returned to the 40K USD zone and we are witnessing the birth of many new projects in many sectors: Infrastructure, DePIN, NFT, GameFi, SocialFi, RWA, Staking, reStaking... Each project has its own solutions, its own technology, its own vision, but for me, they are not really as attractive to investors as the ICO projects in 2017-2018.

Although ICOs in 2017-2018 caused many investors to lose money, we have witnessed many bold ideas brought to the blockchain: decentralization of the power grid - medical databases - BTC mining systems - data storage - exchanges, paying traffic/education fees with crypto... Some ideas have failed but some have been realized by good projects in 2020.

At that time, I also thought about creating my own crypto project, inspired by my translation work: a translation platform for crypto projects in the blockchain/crypto market.

• New crypto projects can order translations into multiple languages.
• An automatic translation system will be built with the support from AI and a dictionary of terms in the blockchain/crypto industry.
• A team of professional translators will help check the translations and edit it and send it back to the projects.
• The community can contribute comments on the translation to receive rewards.
• Payments are made using Translation Platform Token or ERC-20 TPT tokens.

I knew that idea was quite crazy because I personally knew nothing about programming smart contracts or managing a project. My project was never implemented but it also became a sweet memory in 2017.

I look forward to hearing from you:

• Have you ever planned to bring an idea/solution to the blockchain?
• What is that idea? Please elaborate.
• Do you plan to implement it in the future?

I consider BTC an asset, not a payment method.

Currently, people in some countries can use BTC to pay via the Lightning Network very quickly and cheaply, but their effects on the economy are not too different. Privacy concerns can be replaced by the ability to easily manage and retrieve bank accounts. A normal person tends to choose the latter.

In El Salvador, economic success comes from the publicity that BTC brings to the country, helping to attract tourists and investment. This would not have happened if BTC were widely accepted globally.

Additionally, governments do not want to give up economic management through fiat. I'm not saying the government is always right, they can even make the situation worse, but at least the government has the necessary tools at hand to save the economy when necessary through fiat.

Therefore, I think I should just continue to consider BTC as a financial tool in the investment field, I am not willing to spend in BTC, and I am also not willing to accept payment in BTC 

Many memecoins have recently been listed by major CEXs and caused their prices to increase dramatically, whales also intervened to push up their price. I agree that memecoins were manipulated and pumped up to create profits for whales, while many other investors lost money.

But from a marketing perspective: thanks to memecoins, many people knew crypto market, they joined just for fun, not investment, but then they became Bitcoin and Altcoins investors.

I think memecoin can be the best marketer for the crypto market 

A few weeks ago, Bitcoin dev Luke Dashjr proposed updating Bitcoin to remove the BRC-20 token but was met with fierce opposition, perhaps because Miners did not want to give up the huge transaction fees from Inscription. Now that the Halving is coming, the market's attention is on the Halving, not the worthless Inscription. I believe that Inscription will soon be forgotten on Bitcoin and other blockchains in the uptrend, only a few truly outstanding tokens like ORDI will still exist because of being listed on major CEXs.

You joined this market since 2014 as a Miner? Surprisingly!
I didn't even know FLAP coin, but it's good that it brought you profit in this market.
Memecoin should be considered a fun investment instead of a serious one with the goal of making investors millionaires like some really lucky people on TV 

The crypto market is experiencing a resurgence, with Bitcoin reaching 49k USD and numerous altcoins breaking free from the crypto winter's grip. Memecoins, too, have joined the recovery trend, with many new ones emerging. The memecoin craze shows no signs of slowing down, fueled by the promise of life-changing opportunities. Stories of investors striking it rich with DOGE^[1], SHIB^[2], and PEPE^[3] abound, prompting me to delve into the world of memes and memecoins.

"A meme is a piece of content (an image, video, or text) that is humorous in nature, spreads quickly across the internet, and can be remixed and transformed over time. In a more general context, it’s an idea that spreads quickly from person to person within a culture^[4]."

"Meme coins are a cryptocurrency genre loosely defined as having an exuberant online community supporting the currency's growth^[5]."

In essence, memecoins are the crypto equivalent of memes, designed to inject humor and excitement into the crypto landscape. But unlike other asset classes – forex, stocks, bonds, and commodities – memecoins exist exclusively in the crypto realm.

This unique distinction reflects the freshness and optimism of the crypto market. Participants in this space are primarily young individuals who embrace innovation and financial exploration rather than sticking to traditional assets like gold, oil, and foreign currencies. Their optimism translates into humor, giving rise to the likes of Dogecoin and ShibaInu. The meme wave is unstoppable, fueled by the boundless creativity of human humor.

I think, humor also plays a crucial role in mitigating psychological stress in the crypto market's inherent volatility. When prices experience sharp swings, investors often express their emotions through memes, poking fun at themselves and others. This self-deprecating humor helps lighten the mood and diffuse tension. Memes, in turn, give birth to new memes, and from these, new memecoins emerge.

But memecoins aren't merely vehicles for humor or lottery tickets. They also hold significant value in the broader crypto ecosystem:

• Attracting attention: Memecoins' inherent intrigue captivates the community, bringing crypto closer to potential investors.
• Accessibility: Often priced very low, memecoins are easily accessible to newcomers, lowering the barrier to entry.
• Price appeal: Their volatile nature can lead to meteoric price increases, fueling investor optimism, breaking down fear, and generating FOMO.
• Burn mechanism: Memecoins with high transaction volumes burn significant transaction fees, reducing the supply of native tokens and supporting their price.

The Avalanche Foundation's recent decision to invest in memecoins further underscores their growing importance^[6], even among those who dismiss them as mere "trash" in the market.

I love dogs and I bought DOGE in 2018 at 1 DOGE = 0.0025 USD but sold them at the beginning of 2021 when 1 DOGE = 0.1 USD. It's a pity because I couldn't hold until 1 DOGE = 0.7 to get x280 profit. Maybe I'm not destined for DOGE and memecoins 

I want to hear your opinion about memecoin in the crypto market:

• Do you support the existence of memecoin in the crypto market?
• Have you ever invested in memecoin? Which memecoin is that?
• Has your investment in memecoin brought you joy, profit or loss?

---

References:
[1] Truck Driver That Made $3 Million from Dogecoin (DOGE) is Now Selling His Bags to Invest in This New Memecoin
[2] From $1,000 to $1 Million, How Shiba Inu Made People Millionaires
[3] Becoming Millionaires in 2 Weeks: How 3 Addresses Got Rich with PEPE
[4] Buffer: Meme
[5] Investopedia: Meme Coin Explained
[6] Avalanche Foundation to Purchase Meme Coins as Part of Culture Drive

Each cycle has its own story: 2017 is ICO, 2021 is IEO and IDO. We always have new ways to attract new investors and new cash flows into the crypto market. Opportunities are always available to all, and so are risks.

We have to accept the fact that most projects will fail and disappear, only a few really good projects will survive and dominate the market. Similarly, most investors will lose money, only a few will profit 

The ICO craze of 2017-2018 was a wild ride that left an indelible mark on the crypto landscape. While some projects like Cardano (ADA) emerged as giants, many others faded into obscurity, or worse^[1], were exposed as scams^[2].

Unfortunately, I was among those who experienced the sting of losses, having invested in the Credits (CS) project. Despite its promising initial promise, the CS token price plummeted over the years, dropped 266 times from its ATH price (https://www.tradingview.com/x/NX6DxDb7/). The experience was disheartening, and I've largely tried to put it behind me, focusing on my current work in translation.

I'm curious to hear your experiences during that era:

• Did you participate in any ICOs during 2017-2018?
• If participated, which one left the most lasting impression on you?
• That ICO turned out to be a success or a failure?
• That ICO brought you profit or loss?

---

References:
[1] Nearly Half of 2017’s Cryptocurrency 'ICO' Projects Have Already Died
[2] Over 80% ICO projects in 2017 are ‘identified scams,’ Statis study finds