Why One Engineer Bet His "ETH10K" License Plate on Ethereum—And Never Looked Back

The Code Speaks: Trust Through Transparency

“Because it can be verified,” Wesley replied without hesitation when asked why Ethereum earned his unwavering conviction.

For an engineer immersed in smart contract development, the answer cuts straight to the core of what matters. Unlike Solana—a powerful but opaque system where on-chain verification remains limited—Ethereum’s EVM architecture provides complete visibility. Every contract’s bytecode can be inspected before interaction. Every rule is auditable. No black boxes. No leaps of faith required.

This principle didn’t emerge from hype or market sentiment. It crystallized through hard-won lessons during his years navigating DeFi’s wild cycles, beginning with his arrival into Web3 during the 2018-2019 wave when a cryptocurrency exchange collapse flooded a Hong Kong startup with dozens of unemployed practitioners. Wesley joined as a backend engineer just as the office chatter shifted to crypto terminology and market dynamics he barely understood.

The Arbitrage Foundation: Building Wealth Through Discipline

By 2019, Wesley had allocated positions in ETH and Synthetix (SNX)—“a year ahead of DeFi Summer’s explosion,” he recalls with understatement.

His real breakthrough came not from directional bets but from identifying structural inefficiencies. Working with colleagues, he developed algorithms targeting the funding rate differential between spot and perpetual markets. The spread seemed thin—almost meaningless on surface inspection. Yet executed at scale with disciplined execution, annualized returns approached 80-90% by late 2020.

The problem was simple: he had almost no capital to deploy.

He gathered a single PDF document and visited former classmates scattered across investment banking and private wealth management. Wesley didn’t pitch “crypto alchemy.” Instead, he explained spot-contract basis mechanics, holding costs, and carry using frameworks traditional finance professionals already understood. The pitch was irresistible to those seeking cryptocurrency exposure without unbearable volatility.

Nearly $10 million materialized across Hong Kong and Singapore. Operating essentially alone, Wesley connected exchange APIs for algorithmic execution. First-year returns hit approximately 87%—pure discipline, zero luck.

The Epiphany: Code Over Ego

Success triggered an uncomfortable realization: he was orchestrating API calls without truly comprehending blockchain architecture itself.

Wesley resigned, methodically worked through Ethereum’s Yellow Paper, learned Solidity from first principles, studied bytecode, and built diagnostic tools. He absorbed knowledge from core developers at leading protocols, cementing his engineering foundation until “getting it to run” shifted from fragile to robust.

By 2021, DeFi Summer had confirmed Ethereum’s supremacy in his mind—not through price appreciation but through architectural superiority. Lending protocols, exchanges, vaults, derivatives stacked together like verifiable Lego blocks. Each component could be inspected, each interaction audited.

Yet euphoria clouded judgment during that bull market. He purchased a BAYC for 35 ETH as the floor rocketed to 140 ETH—never selling. He deployed hundreds of ETH into Otherside collections anchored by Koda and Azuki. The collapse was swift. Blue-chip turned worthless almost overnight.

“I realized these materialized symbols—they don’t actually suit me,” Wesley reflected. The NFT experiment taught him that external validation through ownership tokens contradicted his engineering worldview.

When the 2022 bear market arrived, it brought clarity.

The Reckoning: Return to First Principles

Ethereum plunged from 4,871 to 880. Liquidation temptation struck hard around the 800-900 range. Wesley held.

He began systematic accumulation starting near $1,200. When prices dropped $50, he treated it as a crash and added funds. This discipline replaced emotion with mathematics. With the other hand, he systematically liquidated what once promised fulfillment—the ocean-view Australian villa, the sports cars, even the “ETH10K” license plate registered when ETH hovered around $3,000.

He sold everything. A checked suitcase became his entire possession. Six months across Southeast Asia—digital nomad, connected only through conversation and genuine human interaction rather than material symbols and boasting. The emptiness that had haunted his Perth mansion (where only one room in 300 square meters saw regular use) transformed into liberation.

The clear lesson: cash flow derives from repeatable strategy. Wealth accumulates through systematic investment, not ego-driven acquisition.

Why Ethereum Deserves $10K and Beyond

By 2023, Wesley cleared all external client accounts, running only personal capital using low-leverage, market-neutral strategies. Simultaneously, he took contract work—smart contract auditing, NFT development—funded through fixed fees and commission structures.

Even at current ETH price levels around $2.93K, his funding rate arbitrage system continues generating approximately 10% annualized returns. Many predicted this edge would evaporate. Five years into execution, it persists.

“The methods aren’t flashy,” Wesley explained. “Verify what’s verifiable. Hedge what’s hedgeable. Don’t run naked on unprotected positions.”

Bitcoin occupies its rightful throne as digital gold—he respects this absolutely. A long-term portfolio containing both BTC and ETH makes sense mathematically. Yet his personal conviction concentrates almost entirely on Ethereum alone.

“You could call it professional bias,” he acknowledged. “But in my mind, Ethereum operates like iOS or Android—a genuine operating system for financial primitives, not just a settlement layer.”

The philosophical distinction matters. One is infrastructure. The other is passive store-of-value.

The License Plate Returns: Belief Materialized

On the day Ethereum surged past $4,350—bright license plate lights glowing red in Perth’s dusk—Wesley redeemed the “ETH10K” plate he’d surrendered during the bear market’s darkness.

Not vanity. Not social performance. An explanation tendered to his past self.

The small metal plate represented a thesis that held through leverage unwinds, API outages that liquidated client accounts (which he compensated from his own earnings), FTX’s catastrophic failure, and the hollow promise of material excess.

“When the red brake lights illuminate, the clouds drift backward into memory,” he texted friends during his latest departure for Southeast Asia.

His learning pathway for newcomers remains deliberately unsexy: start with Python coding fundamentals on Udemy, deepen understanding through O’Reilly’s technical writing, solidify algorithmic thinking via Coursera’s data structures specialization. Learn by doing. Understand by repetition. Then build.

The Underlying Rule for Cycles

As Ethereum approached new frontiers and that license plate caught the bright glow of its own lights, Wesley embodied a single philosophy: the market will always fluctuate, but the methods must remain verifiable. The code can be audited. The strategy can be back-tested. The leverage can be constrained.

Low leverage. Heavy auditing. Verifiability. These remain the coordinates for traversing any cycle.

If Ethereum ultimately reaches $10,000, that “ETH10K” license plate will serve as his daily reminder: drive carefully. Stay humble. Let the code decide, not the ego.