In 2018, I made a decision, and even now, my family still shakes their heads— I put all 80,000 yuan, saved over two years for a down payment on a wedding house, into Bitcoin when it was $450 each.

That period, I was a bit reckless, listening all day to people saying "The trend is here, missing out is your problem," and I went all in like a sleepwalker. A year later, in a hostel in Chiang Mai, my phone alerted me that my account balance skyrocketed to 2.3 million. I truly thought I was chosen by Lady Luck.

Then the bear market arrived, faster than any typhoon.

During those months at the end of 2018, watching the numbers in my account deflate like a leaking balloon, from 2.3 million down to 220,000. I sat in the corner of the hostel, even had to check bills and count on my fingers to cover the renewal costs. The cicadas outside grew unbearably loud, and I finally understood what "falling off the trend" really means.

In the following days, I experienced liquidation and getting cut, but these lessons forced me to summarize four life-saving rules:

**Rule 1: Never touch areas beyond your knowledge.** I once heard someone hype the metaverse land as appreciating, rushed in without understanding what it was, and lost 220,000 in a week before realizing that money outside your knowledge simply cannot be earned.

**Rule 2: Manage your positions well.** Currently, my allocation is: 50% in mainstream assets like $BTC and $ETH, 30% for cross-platform arbitrage to catch opportunities, and the remaining 20% tightly held as reserve funds. When $ETH retraced to 1200 yuan last year, I decisively added to my reserves, and I didn't miss the subsequent rebound.

**Rule 3: Never use leverage.** This lesson was the most painful—once, I played with full margin on futures and got liquidated overnight, returning to the starting point. Since then, I’ve turned off futures trading on my exchange. This isn’t a profits amplifier; it’s essentially a principal collector.

**Rule 4: The ability to discern information is crucial.** Those pump groups and online influencers recommending coins are all traps. Only look at on-chain data and white papers. Before the FTX collapse in 2022, I noticed irregular reserve data, withdrew my assets early, and avoided a major loss.

Now I no longer dream of explosive gains. I’m satisfied with a stable 20% annual return, and this year I’ve reached 18%.

Surviving in the crypto world is truly better than anything else.