Right after I got off the presentation where the president of Ecuador was speaking about how his country was going to be opening to new business, my buddy called and said there was blood on the streets.
Over a decade I have been involved in crypto, I have only kept my sanity this long because a while ago I decided not to look at the prices.
My friend said Terra Luna had lost 94%, I checked a little while ago and it was 97%. Shortly after, I began seeing the posts talking about how some had attempted suicide over the losses...
Of course, I feel bad for anyone who thinks there's no way there could be a better tomorrow. By the same token, when those people took extreme risks as they did they were doing it in pursuit of a better tomorrow.
My aunt recently married some dude who apparently is into crypto. He really isn't, he's just desperate because he hasn't had a steady income for a couple of months and has decided to take risks he couldn't possibly understand. Before the downtrend began I actually told him I didn't think he should be trading because at any moment I was expecting a big correction, I told him I didn't care if he lost everything but I didn't want my aunt to blame me.
Don't get me wrong, the markets are there for a reason. Although cryptocurrency markets shouldn't exist in an ideal world, they do add value to the blockchain ecosystem as things stand.
However, we've got people taking loans out against their homes, taking what essentially amounts to all-or-nothing bets, and thinking somehow they've gotten lucky enough to find an endless fountain of money when in reality all they're doing is incurring into more debt while trying to get out of it.
One silver lining is that if you take a risk once and you survive it you might be more likely to try again. All the same, it is disheartening to understand a lot of people who have for the first time dared to try crypto now see themselves in such a difficult situation.
Sometimes the only way out is through...I heard another good quote this week, "He who has a why can endure almost any how."
If you're into crypto just for the money then you're most vulnerable, easy prey, all someone has to do is make you believe a lot of people are behind a project and making money from it.
What's worse, if you do come to believe you can actually predict the crypto market then the risks that you take are greater...not without first going a little mad by waking up at 4:00 am to check the charts.
The best thing I ever did was get a job at a blockchain company and dedicate my own efforts to making sure my investment was solid.
I do check on trends, and I can still get overwhelmed from time to time by the amount and speed of blockchain development. But if it wasn't challenging, would it be as much fun?
Crypto can actually be fun. You can find joy beyond thinking about all the nice things you could buy if you get lucky. You can create your own luck, easily start almost any kind of business, and work many dreams into reality...but you're after that passive income with extra emphasis on passive.
Luna might recover, I've seen crazier things happen in crypto. But the craziest thing I've yet seen is how many full-grown adults go around bragging about the fact that they're investing and they couldn't tell you the first thing about how their money is supposed to be making more money.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a United States-based suicide prevention network of over 160 crisis centers that provides 24/7 service via a toll-free hotline with the number 1-800-273-8255