Common mistakes new Bitcoin users should avoid

[burungmalam]

Many people enter Bitcoin with good intentions, but end up losing funds
not because of scams alone, but due to basic mistakes.

From what I’ve observed, some common mistakes new users make are:
- Keeping all funds on exchanges for long periods
- Not backing up seed phrases properly
- Downloading fake wallets or clicking phishing links
- Sending transactions without understanding fees or confirmations

Bitcoin gives full financial control, but that also means full responsibility.

In your experience:
- Which mistake causes the most losses for beginners?
- What is the first security habit every new Bitcoin user should learn?

Hopefully this discussion can help newcomers avoid costly errors.

[Chibit01]

You miss to add using wallet with faulty programming which have been one of the issue some who use higher amount to pay as fee and the lesser amount end up on the receiving wallet.

Clipboard virus; which is commonly caused by pirated softwares which also includes installing of pirated OS, games, cheat codes for games etc.

Trusting third party dapps, connecting your wallet and granting permission to third party sites you really don’t know what there true intentions are can put your funds at risk.

Better ways to stay safe is be extremely careful and cautious double check before anything, safe keep your phrase and private key and never expose your backup and if possible avoid connecting the device you use for wallet to internet constantly.

[GreatArkansas]

- Which mistake causes the most losses for beginners?

My own mistakes way back were getting lured by altcoins. For sure, a lot will relate to it. I started to get introduced to Bitcoin before, and I only own Bitcoin; I accumulate, and I have some internet gigs to earn Bitcoin with, only Bitcoin.
After that, I got introduced with these random altcoins, and to make it short, I lost a lot of Bitcoin because some of my Bitcoin were converted to random altcoins before.

[TastyChillySauce00]

Taking a screenshot of their seed phrase and storing it in both phone and cloud storage is one way to lose their entire bitcoin. Newbie does this a lot more than you expected.

Single account compromise and the entire bitcoin get stolen. Never ever store seed phrase in phone unencrypted like that.

[SilverCryptoBullet]

From what I’ve observed, some common mistakes new users make are:
- Keeping all funds on exchanges for long periods
- Not backing up seed phrases properly
- Downloading fake wallets or clicking phishing links
- Sending transactions without understanding fees or confirmations

People need to do own research for finding available educational resources for learning about most basics and vital things for their practice. Anything related to money must be practiced as most carefully as possible.

If they want to learn, they will find and can find resources for learning.
Events made you scare about custodial wallets, centralized exchanges.
Reminder: do not keep your money in online accounts.
How to back up a seed phrase?
Make sure to avoid wasting BTC for too high fees – step by step guide (Electrum).
Minimize your transaction fee with Electrum wallet.
21 tips for securing your bitcoin.
Security and Privacy Encylopedia.
Cryptocurrency security checklist.

[Outhue]

From what I’ve observed, some common mistakes new users make are:
- Keeping all funds on exchanges for long periods
- Not backing up seed phrases properly
- Downloading fake wallets or clicking phishing links
- Sending transactions without understanding fees or confirmations

There will always be funds left on crypto exchanges by users because they need to trade, and they don't have to move their funds from their wallet to the exchange and from the exchange back to their wallet, trading is based on time, you will need to enter while there is a chance or it gets too late very quickly.

I believe it is better that traders are taking out their gains once a trade turned successful, some traders are too greedy that they will leave their coins on the exchange unit the amount is big enough, traders should only leave the money that are going trade with on exchange and always withdraw any extra amount of gains from exchanges, it seem this will still be a thing for a long time because centralised exchange still remains the best platform for trading.

[X-ray]

There will always be funds left on crypto exchanges by users because they need to trade, and they don't have to move their funds from their wallet to the exchange and from the exchange back to their wallet, trading is based on time, you will need to enter while there is a chance or it gets too late very quickly.

I believe it is better that traders are taking out their gains once a trade turned successful, some traders are too greedy that they will leave their coins on the exchange unit the amount is big enough, traders should only leave the money that are going trade with on exchange and always withdraw any extra amount of gains from exchanges, it seem this will still be a thing for a long time because centralised exchange still remains the best platform for trading.

The only disadvantage with this is that the fee for withdrawal will add up and will most likely to tire you out.

It's good for once in a while but doing it routinely after trading ended while you make 5-10 trading every week will definitely become burden. My solution for this is just allocate money we can afford to lose in exchange.

But anyway if the profit outweigh the fee required for routine withdrawal then I guess that will work.

[Alone055]

I think basic things come at the second number when it comes to newbies losing funds because scams take the first position since newbies in crypto market mostly have the misconception that making money through cryptocurrencies is easy and one can make a lot of money within a short period, and since they lack knowledge and don't know how things work and how people make money in this market, they believe anything that is fed to them and think that they are actually getting helped and the strangers approaching them are angels sent by God to help them gain financial freedom in life.

With this thought process, as soon as they join Telegram and other social media platforms, they are approached by scammers with great earning schemes that will make them so much profit in no time with just a small investment, and they start thinking that this is it, they are not going to become rich, and they start taking instructions from them, join unknown trading apps and platforms and even make deposits in them, and they become even happier when they see that they have made so much money in those apps only to realize that they require to make a bigger deposit to actually withdraw the funds, and ironically, they do it, and then they start crying once the scammers blocks them and the platform vanishes all of a sudden or lose functionality.

[Outhue]

There will always be funds left on crypto exchanges by users because they need to trade, and they don't have to move their funds from their wallet to the exchange and from the exchange back to their wallet, trading is based on time, you will need to enter while there is a chance or it gets too late very quickly.

I believe it is better that traders are taking out their gains once a trade turned successful, some traders are too greedy that they will leave their coins on the exchange unit the amount is big enough, traders should only leave the money that are going trade with on exchange and always withdraw any extra amount of gains from exchanges, it seem this will still be a thing for a long time because centralised exchange still remains the best platform for trading.

The only disadvantage with this is that the fee for withdrawal will add up and will most likely to tire you out.

It's good for once in a while but doing it routinely after trading ended while you make 5-10 trading every week will definitely become burden. My solution for this is just allocate money we can afford to lose in exchange.

But anyway if the profit outweigh the fee required for routine withdrawal then I guess that will work.

Someone who trades with high amount of money wouldn't mind moving their funds out, only those who had $20 for trading will be worried about this but today things have changed, it takes so less amount to withdraw since ETH completed it's newest upgrade weeks ago, it takes less than $0.20 to withdraw on all available chains this days, from ETH to base, ArB, OP, BSC, STARK and many more, Ethereum has finally fixed the gas fee issue that many layer 1 and 2 failed to do for years, unless the traders prefer to move their profits out on Bitcoin only and even Bitcoin transaction fee is not big either.

[buwaytress]

Taking a screenshot of their seed phrase and storing it in both phone and cloud storage is one way to lose their entire bitcoin. Newbie does this a lot more than you expected.

Single account compromise and the entire bitcoin get stolen. Never ever store seed phrase in phone unencrypted like that.

Too many ways to say. If 2025 Louvre security still puts their pass as louvre and banking staff still use yellow post it's with security keys. Then maybe self custody is not the way for them.

Judging from countless people who lost access as well I would really suggest to consider custodial options. Against it myself of course but hey gotta be practical.

[Majestic-milf]

Taking a screenshot of their seed phrase and storing it in both phone and cloud storage is one way to lose their entire bitcoin. Newbie does this a lot more than you expected.

Single account compromise and the entire bitcoin get stolen. Never ever store seed phrase in phone unencrypted like that.

When the only idea of having Bitcoin is the fact that it would yield you profits in the future, most of these things are bound to happen because to them, they are ensuring maximum security of their seed phrases since some feel that having it on their phone would be much easier for access and saves them the trouble of going to look for it if it's stored somewhere else.
Basically, investing in Bitcoin requires that you must have known the do's and don'ts involved because there's nothing as sad as losing your Bitcoin as it's very hard to recover them if one careless act makes you part with them.

[Marvelockg]

From what I’ve observed, some common mistakes new users make are:
- Keeping all funds on exchanges for long periods
- Not backing up seed phrases properly

Keeping of ones funds out of an exchange is actually a good thing to do expecially if the funds is something you do not intend spending too soon but at the same time, talking of backing up your seed phrase can be misunderstood and with the bad advises on ways one can back up their seed phrase, if the right way of backing up your seed phrase is not rightly pointed out, newbie Investors might end up backing up their seed phrase online which is as good as them not backing it up in the first place.

The best way to back up your seed phrase is to hand write it down and to keep it safe in a place only you or only you and a trusted person knows. That way, you're at least sure that the safety of your asset is guaranteed. Like what most exchange suggest that you store your seed phrase in a Google drive or so because of the promise of security, they are all false and unsafe practices that has the tendency of endangering your asset.

[Die_empty]

Hopefully this discussion can help newcomers avoid costly errors.

Not knowing the difference between open-source wallets and closed-source wallets. Some newcomers may not be aware that they need to use wallets that can be scrutinized by the public, not those that are only accessible to developers. Fraudulent developers can include a backdoor and steal people's funds.

Banks do everything possible to protect their vaults. Newcomers should first learn how to keep their seed phrase safe from criminals and other people. Family members and friends shouldn't be trusted, hence keep them away from them.

Natural disasters or other emergencies are unpredictable. It is advisable to keep your seed phrase in different safe locations.

[Bbluez]

Many people enter Bitcoin with good intentions, but end up losing funds
not just because of scams, but also because of basic mistakes.

From what I’ve observed, some common mistakes new users make are:
- Keeping all funds on exchanges for long periods
- Not backing up seed phrases properly
- Downloading fake wallets or clicking phishing links
- Sending transactions without understanding fees or confirmations

Bitcoin gives full financial control, but that also means full responsibility.

In your experience:
- Which mistake causes the most losses for beginners?
- What is the first security habit every new Bitcoin user should learn?

Hopefully this discussion can help newcomers avoid costly errors.

I feel good intentions are not enough reason to enter Bitcoin. One has to be fully invested in the knowledge as well. Knowing about Bitcoin, how to transact on the chain, and how to equip yourself with security knowledge to protect yourself. Beginners should take knowledge seriously and not just have good intentions

[reagansimms]

- Which mistake causes the most losses for beginners?

My own mistakes way back were getting lured by altcoins. For sure, a lot will relate to it. I started to get introduced to Bitcoin before, and I only own Bitcoin; I accumulate, and I have some internet gigs to earn Bitcoin with, only Bitcoin.
After that, I got introduced with these random altcoins, and to make it short, I lost a lot of Bitcoin because some of my Bitcoin were converted to random altcoins before.

Sometimes the temptation to get rich quickly makes beginners forget all the risks. Altcoins are very tempting because they can make someone rich overnight, but most beginners forget that Altcoins can also make them poor in a very short time. This kind of awareness needs to be raised among each individual to prevent them from making the same mistakes, and it's also important to remind other members not to overly trust Altcoins.
I also experienced the same thing as you, but it didn't last long because after I did some research, Bitcoin became the only reliable coin and didn't take up too much time to monitor market movements.

[zft]

In my experience, one of the biggest mistakes new Bitcoin users make is underestimating risk management and overtrading without a clear plan. Many beginners focus only on potential profits and ignore position sizing or emotional discipline. This is where automation tools can sometimes help reduce impulsive decisions, although they still require proper setup and understanding. I’ve noticed that even simple rule-based systems can be more effective than manual trading driven by emotions. For example, tools like darkbot.io are often discussed as one of many ways traders try to bring more structure into their approach, but they are not a substitute for learning the basics.

[xbetz.io]

Biggest loss I’ve seen for beginners is overconfidence combined with poor security. Many people understand “not your keys, not your coins” in theory but still keep funds on exchanges out of convenience. That works… until it doesn’t.

First habit every new user should learn: treat your seed phrase like cash + identity combined. Offline storage, no photos, no cloud, no sharing, ever. Bitcoin gives freedom but only if you respect the responsibility that comes with it.

[Achalugo BTC]

My own mistakes way back were getting lured by altcoins. For sure, a lot will relate to it. I started to get introduced to Bitcoin before, and I only own Bitcoin; I accumulate, and I have some internet gigs to earn Bitcoin with, only Bitcoin.
After that, I got introduced with these random altcoins, and to make it short, I lost a lot of Bitcoin because some of my Bitcoin were converted to random altcoins before.

There are people who are being deceived or mislead by altcoins, which made most of them to get rid of their Bitcoins.
That is why its essential for people to always ask questions when they are being introduced into new things, this will help them to understand and have the awareness of what they are into, which will also make them to make an informed decision that will benefit them because they are able to verify every information that comes their way.
So, for people to avoid any bad things to happen to them or from they not to have much losses, they should do the needful and make all the necessary adjustments in order to become successful through it.

[Lida93]

In your experience:
- Which mistake causes the most losses for beginners?
- What is the first security habit every new Bitcoin user should learn?

I didn't had the experience of losing my coins in my early stage as some newbies carelessly misplaces their keys and later do have a regret after a long time when the get to realise the importance of having those keys safely in one piece but can't remember where they wrote it down or kept it

I think the first security habit for all bitcoiners both seasoned and newbies is to cultivate a private lifestyle around their financial life, followed by other necessary security habits.

- Which mistake causes the most losses for beginners?

My own mistakes way back were getting lured by altcoins. For sure, a lot will relate to it

I can relate though it's a different experience in the depth for everyone but my own lessons learnt has really refined my mind.

[dunfida]

- Keeping all funds on exchanges for long periods

This one is the most common on which people do become that too confident on making exchangers as their main wallet on which we know  that once that exchange been hacked then say goodbye into your coins. Somehow if we do tend to compare the rate of exchange hacks as of these years or cycle on which it is more lesser compared in the past on which it is that being that known but of course we shouldnt be that too confident when it comes into this aspect since our coins/tokens are at risks. If you do value up your assets then its not bad or much cheaper if you do make out some transfers actively into your main non custodial wallet.

Mistakes do happen but if you are that loving to read up those guides and other experienced peoples advises then you would be able to avoid up these potential lose of funds. It all matters about on how sensible you are and applying it out into your assets.