I Took A Break From Crypto. This Is What I Learned
Last week I did something that I don't normally do. I went on a long vacation to a beautiful tropical island and took a break from everything. While I do take trips on a regular basis, I almost always remain connected to what is happening in the "real world." Always keeping up to date on what is happening in the crypto markets, macro news, and just investing in general. While I was always technically on a holiday, my mind was still in a "grinding" mode that had me always thinking about what my next move was. What did I need to do to be able to achieve all of my goals. But I won't lie, the last few years have been draining on me, and probably most of you as well. And so I decided to take a complete break from everything, and cut myself off from everything else that was happening in the world. I had two main goals that I was hoping to achieve. The first was obviously to become refreshed, and re-charge my batteries so to speak. But, my second goal was to take a short step back from crypto during my trip. Hoping that this would allow me to come back and see everything more clearly. Thankfully I was able to achieve both of those goals. But I noticed much more than I was expecting.
After being away from crypto for just a week, I was overwhelmed by just how much news and developments I had missed out on. It literally took me several hours to catch up on everything. This is truly what sets the crypto markets so apart from nearly every other industry. With most markets, you would be completely fine spending 10 to 15 minutes a week or month just catching up on news. But compared to crypto, those other markets move at a snail's pace. The developments taking place in crypto in just one week is equal to at least 1-2 months of developments in other markets. It truly does require a lot of effort for passionate crypto enthusiasts to keep up to date on everything, and most people don't have the energy, passion, or time to be able to do it. But this is where the opportunity comes into to play. The crypto markets are incredibly young and have great opportunities nearly everywhere. If you are just able to put in the time, energy, research and outwork other people. You will be able to reap the rewards and potentially change your life financially. While it can be a lot of work to consume all the crypto market information on a daily basis, it is something that I greatly enjoy, and is probably why I'm so interested in this market. Everyday something new is happening, and also something big.
Being away for more than a week, I also completely missed out on the Ethereum and Tornado Cash situation. While I won't give you a play-by-play of the entire situation. I will however share my thoughts with you about it. As you may know, Bitcoin is my crypto of choice and also the blockchain that I'm the most passionate about, and also believe the most in. But, I'm also a huge fan of Ethereum as well. And right now this is Ethereum's moment, and it's time to shine. The long-delayed ETH merge is just a month away and that should be an incredibly bullish thing. The issuance rate of ETH is about to drop by 90%, staking rates are expected to double at least. Again, these should are bullish things, and the recent price surge of Ethereum is reflecting that. But, with that said. This tornado cash situation, and also funds from USDC throw real doubts about censorship in the Ethereum ecosystem. Yes, DeFi is decentralized finance, and the whole idea was that no one could have control over your finances. However, USDC is a main cornerstone in the DeFi markets, and if those funds can be frozen or blocked, especially when decentralized stablecoins like DAI are pegged with USDC. This throws some real doubts into the whole system. I'm not at all concerned about the ETH forks to keep a proof-of-work chain. In my opinion, these are just cash grabs that are trying to take advantage of the ETH merge and extract as much money as they possibly can from it. I will gladly receive those forks and sell them for more Ethereum or Bitcoin. I do have high confidence that the merge will go smoothly and will be a very bullish time for Ethereum. I have been accumulating as much as I possibly can before prices get out of hand again. I would also like to mention that this whole ETH censorship situation has grown my belief in Bitcoin even further. While bitcoin has been often criticized for having sometimes painfully slow developments and upgrades. The reason for this has always been to not break the chain, and also to maximize security and decentralization. Times like this make you appreciate those aspects much more.
My third observation I had after coming back from my trip was how people have such short timeframes and memories when it comes crypto prices. Just a month ago, bitcoin was still under $20k, and Ethereum was around $1,200 or even less. People would have been thrilled at the idea of bitcoin going back up to $24k, and Ethereum reaching $1.9k. However, the price of Bitcoin and Ethereum were rejected at $25k and $2k and have since slightly dropped down. If you were to read crypto Twitter, people would have you believing that this has been a fool's rally. That prices are going to drop much lower. But if you were to just go back one week, people were thrilled with the prices that we currently have. As I mentioned before, the problem is that people have a much shorter timeframe than they should. People can also be extremely greedy. After our coins reach price points that we have been hoping for. Instead of feeling glad and remembering that this is what we were always hoping for. Instead, we are already thinking about the next high price that we want, and become extremely disappointed if our coins see any drop in price before reaching those points. Remember that prices do not go straight up. There will be many ups and also many downs before we reach our final destination.
And finally as lame as it may sound, my last observation I had after being away for a decent amount of time is remembering just how much I love this market. As I touched on a bit above, there are always new things that happening that make each day new and exciting. The market is extremely volatile, but that allows great riches to be made or lost. I also greatly enjoy interacting with all of you as well. I kinda view my articles as my own personal soap box, where I enjoy sharing whatever I am thinking about at the moment. And I'm glad that people seem to enjoy them. While I wasn't feeling burnt out before my trip, I must say that it has refreshed my energy, helped me to refocus, and also greatly increased my motivation to do even better in the future. If any of you are feeling burnt out, tired from the markets, or even feeling confused about projects, I would highly recommend taking a step back and taking a short break as well. It can truly do wonders for you.
How about you? Have you been feeling burnt out from the crypto markets? What is the longest break you have taken from crypto?
As always, thank you for reading!
Of course the crypto market is so amazing with the rising and falling. It feels good to rise in short time. I think those who have invested have gained more than they lost. All the same the break was a good idea. It will help you refocus and do things better. Have fun!👍