Rekt: My Crypto Story

A Telegram Message I Got Through Whatsapp

 It was around 23rd of October 2017, I was at home and a message popped up on my Whatsapp and it was my friend "strong man". He said hey, do you have Telegram on your phone? I said huh?

He said "Telegram", I said dude, I don’t understand what the hell you are talking about. He mocked me a bit, and then he told me Telegram was just like Whatsapp, a texting app. Well, I said no, I don’t have Telegram, what’s up?

He sent me a link to download it from Playstore. I asked why I needed Telegram. He laughed and asked me to go on and download it. Few seconds later, I had the app on my phone and told him I got it. Right away, he sent me a link to an exclusive Bitcoin trade learning group.

Back then in 2017, there was an exceptional rave about BTC, apparently because of that sweet bull-run to an all time high ($20k) which had gotten it some attention from many quarters, including the guys in the Wall Street.

 That rave is even more now that it had hit a new ATH, everybody and his cat is talking about how Bitcoin is the new money, how it is revolutionizing the global banking system. I think everybody is right, Bitcoin is the new money, it is here to stay, it is revolutionizing the global banking system and there is no better time to get in than now, because the predictions on the upward movement of BTC in a couple of years from now is actually mind blowing.

 I think this was the kind of rave that precipitated my entry into the crypto world through those who had learned about its consistent rise over the years to that point.

 Learning The Ways Of The Crypto-preneur

 Anyway, I joined the telegram group, introduced myself and was warmly welcomed by those already present. I was told the forum needed a particular number of people, and then its membership for the year would be closed. I felt so lucky to hear this and privileged to be part of the forum. Apparently, the forum was the brainchild of someone’s (Teacher) benevolence, he had learned about the consistent rise of BTC over the years, he had learned how to trade it and he had already amassed a fortune from it, so the idea of this forum was merely to empower others and raise a community of traders. (What a man).

Soon enough, the classes had started right off and we started from the very beginning, because at the time, most of us in the forum hadn’t the slightest idea what Bitcoin was all about (Yeah, we might have heard it in passing). So we got an introduction into what Bitcoin was about, how it came to be and how it has become a tool for wealth generation.

 The amazing potentials of BTC whispered into our ears tuned us in and made sure we never missed classes. He was teaching us, using a funded account of one of his many exchanges. I saw pictorial confirmation of the volume of BTC in his trading portfolio, and to say I wasn’t motivated would be me telling a lie, and I never tell a lie (LOL).

During this period, I had a business that was struggling a bit, so the plan was to stabilize the business, raise some cash and kick off trading proper. So, in other words, I didn’t have money for trading yet, so I kept learning.

The learning was progressing organically, slow and steady because obviously in a new terrain, Teacher was being careful not to burn us out with too much information at once, so he’d make sure to fuse humour into his teachings, he made sure it wasn’t all serious, like most higher learning would be. He gradually introduced Fundamental and Technical Analysis (FA&TA) to our teachings to make sure we were properly grounded in the trade.

 Soon, some of us had started trading and were making really good progress, those of us who hadn’t started, for one reason or the other were seriously itching to go, I obviously chief among them.

 The plan of stabilizing my business wasn’t exactly panning out as I had projected, so I cut it loose. I sold my business for a small fortune with my mind set squarely on joining the new burgeoning crypto-entrepreneurs. I felt ready (I think circumstances made me think so), I have cash now, I have ample knowledge, at least enough to keep me afloat while I learn some more.

I didn’t mention that Teacher was a skilled trader in not just BTC, but Altcoins too. He was a whale, a one of a kind whale, not just because he possessed very heavy portfolio, but because he had grown that portfolio with very limited resource.

He built himself up, he built his portfolio and his reputation along with it and he was benevolent enough to pass down his knowledge free of charge. But in all his teachings, he barely talked about Alts, he would just brush past it and back to BTC. He was wise, he knew the dangers Alts posed to noobs and he was shielding us from it without us even knowing there were other coins aside BTC/ETH.

I got to find out the hard way why everything we were taught strictly revolved around those two major coins.

 I Kicked Off My Trading

Having sold my business and now with enough cash in hand, I funded my Exchange account and commenced trading. I portioned my capital in three places like Teacher had taught, as he always warned never to go all in. This way, you could average up or down, depending on where BTC price went and your capital would still be intact.

I was making consistent money from trading now, I was nowhere professional or even intermediary level but at my noob level, I was consistent with applying the knowledge I had garnered and every now and then I would dabble into ETH trading on the same Exchange – same principle, different rate of volatility.

I was trading actively now and was making new friends in the crypto community. New friends bred new more friends and the line extended so much and the exposure proved to be the beginning of my problems.

Altcoins Did The Damage

Soon, I found myself in many new Telegram groups, a lot more than I cared to count. I had strayed from my Teacher, from my disciplined practice; I had let myself get cornered into high risk high reward world of Alts.

Remember I was still a noob, relatively new in crypto and remember Teacher didn’t teach Alts, for obvious reasons (They’ll wreck you quicker than you can blink).

I got new kind of exposure now; away from what I had started with, this one promised profit in 10 folds compared to whatever BTC would give me (Yes, if you know what the hell you are doing).

This new faux teacher, obviously a fraud was part of a pump and dump group oblivious to us the now members. He/she would give us signals for Alts that were about to moon and we would blindly buy whatever coin that was called and wait to be made rich – we were made miserable instead.

We would go in at last minute, and the coins would be dumped so hard on us, we wouldn’t know what hit us.

FOMO became the order of the day for me, my new reality. An experience I wasn’t familiar with while trading BTC.

The problem with Alts is, since most of them are just merely tiny bits of satoshi, it was easy for just 2 whales to manipulate the movement of a particular coin.

In no time, I had many shit coins I had bought at ATH (Obviously when they were massively pumped) shrinking away in my portfolio. LOL. I had TRX, CND, POE MANNA in large quantity, and I was going beyond signals from my new groups to know when to sell. I went on Twitter and started following a lot more faux expert crypto analysts (obviously paid pumpers). I even followed Justin Sun on Twitter, trying to know when things might turn around.

I had lost my BTC portfolio to Alts trading now, everything I had there, I had moved to Alts, I was desperate to recover some parts of my capital, everything was fast going down the drain. I was feeling depressed and frustrated and powerless, I was mad and wanted to hit someone...anyone!

 It dawned on me that I was fighting an already lost battle, HODLing and hoping was all I could do but I just couldn’t keep my eyes away from my portfolio and it started affecting my mental health.

 I cut my losses, sold off everything and just sulked. I was REKT and I lost my drive and attraction to crypto, and I had been out since.

Take-Away From My Rant

 ·         Crypto-currency is the new money and BTC is the new bank, create an account today, be part of the movement.

·         If you intend to trade crypto professionally, then you need a guide, a teacher and you need discipline to keep to your teacher’s guidelines

·         Altcoins would wreck you fast because of its high volatility, so stay away unless you know what you are doing.

·         FOMO is bad for you but since it is psychological, you need strong willpower and wisdom to fight it.

·         Dont be reckless with your money, if you are taking risks, take calculated risks.

·         You need emotional intelligence to succeed in any business.

·         You need psychological maturity rid yourself of crowd mentality and do your own thing.