Lost Hundreds of Thousands of USD on Private Trades – When "Golden Tickets" Are No Longer Easy to Win

Last week, Vietnam’s crypto community was abuzz over a story in which many KOLs lost tens to hundreds of thousands of USD by participating in private sales—deals that were once seen as the “gold mines” of the 2017–2022 era.

The Golden Age of Private Sale In the bull run period, having a private slot virtually guaranteed victory. As GameFi exploded and the FOMO surged, the L1–L2 ecosystems attracted massive hype. Many projects, even if they were only on paper, helped investors x10, x100, even x1000 their accounts. That’s why plenty of people were willing to spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of USD just to secure an early purchase spot.

When the Role Flips But the market has changed. The “support marketing to get a slot” story is now all too familiar. Many KOLs—rather than benefiting—have turned into the “first liquidity pool” for the project team. Some cases that drew attention: @Thienthien1305 lost more than 30.000 USD after trusting a promise from the Portal project—one that had raised nearly 100 million USD since 2021.@Lecter_XFinance invested 500 USD into Rainmaker and got back only 11 USD.@NickyPham_HC put 180.000 USD into Mint Blockchain’s private round, and ultimately received about 1.000 USD. These figures show a clear reality: private sale is no longer a “sweet deal by default”.

Why Private Deals Are Harder to Cash In The private round valuation is set too high from the start.The vesting period is long; by the time tokens unlock, the market has already weakened.Liquidity is thin, and sell pressure is heavy from the early rounds themselves.Many projects raise well, but their product can’t generate real cash flow.

The market is becoming increasingly unforgiving. Informational advantages no longer guarantee profits.

Lessons Learned Private sale is no longer a golden ticket. Sometimes, buying on the exchange with clear signals is safer.KOLs can be wrong too. Don’t trust anyone absolutely without verifying for yourself.Invest only the amount of money you can afford to lose.Preserving capital matters more than chasing quick profits.Build a long-term strategy Surviving through many cycles is really about patience, risk management, and合理 capital allocation.

Crypto changes very fast. People who “made big” yesterday can become someone else’s liquidity today. In a more mature market, the most important skill is no longer finding early deals—it’s knowing how to keep your money and survive long enough to wait for real opportunities.