Two Cautionary Tales for Digital Money Investors

Announcement of Debt from Years of Trading Coins

A long-term investor involved in digital money trading recently issued a liability announcement, revealing his investment journey over the years.

This investor first came into contact with Digital Money in November 2013, when the price of Bitcoin was close to the peak of 8000 yuan. Although the market subsequently entered a bear market due to policy impacts, he still made a small profit in 2014. As a student, he initially regarded trading coins as a form of entertainment and did not have an urgent mindset to make money.

However, starting in 2015, the digital money market gradually became his spiritual sustenance. He began to frequently participate in futures trading, using high-risk operations to stimulate himself. When the price of Bitcoin was around 5800 yuan, he borrowed 5 BTC for trading. Although he once made a profit of over 600,000 yuan, he ultimately fell into a debt crisis, owing 13.9 BTC.

He could have exited profitably, but his inner reluctance and worries about his studies drove him to continue pursuing high profits. He used others' 657,000 RMB, 11 bitcoins, 100 ETH, 2000 ETC, and 500 LTC for futures trading, hoping to turn losses into profits, but ultimately lost everything.

The digital money market has its own survival rules, which are a summary of past experiences. Non-professionals should not easily ignore these rules. The shortcuts to losing everything include chasing after rising prices, panic selling, high-leverage futures trading, margin trading, and frequent short-term operations. In contrast, a solid investment approach should involve working diligently, investing spare money, holding for the long term, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Relying on profits from a bull market often involves a significant element of luck. Behavior like that of this investor, who is addicted to futures trading, may bring temporary pleasure but could ultimately ruin a lifetime. Financial losses can be compensated, but losing the trust and integrity of others is far more serious. It is only when one is at the end of their rope that they must publicly disclose their debt situation to seek help.

Some comments pointed out that even with huge funds, such investors may repeat the same mistakes. If they can incur significant losses even in such a strong bull market, they may suffer even greater losses if they switch to other markets.

Spot trading is relatively safe; as long as you are not investing in air coins, you will not completely lose your assets even if the market falls. However, futures leveraged trading carries extremely high risks, and once a liquidation occurs, you may lose all your investment. The larger the investment scale, the greater the risk.

The Thrilling Experience of Accidentally Sending Wallet Recovery Phrase to WeChat Group

The experience of another digital money investor reminds us of the importance of information security. He accidentally sent his wallet mnemonic phrase to a WeChat group of a hundred people, nearly resulting in the loss of digital money worth over a hundred thousand yuan.

After the incident, the investor quickly took action, first transferring 38 ETH to a safe address, and keeping a small amount of ETH as miner fees for transferring other coins. During the transfer process, he discovered that someone had already transferred away 0.028 ETH. Nevertheless, he still successfully transferred most of his assets.

However, due to certain tokens being locked, they cannot be transferred immediately. Fortunately, the person attempting to move these tokens gave up after several failed attempts. In the end, this "thief" only obtained ETH worth about 33 yuan.

In order to turn the situation around, investors tried various methods, including disbanding WeChat groups, seeking official help to determine the token unlock time, designing automatic coin transfer programs, and so on. He also tracked relevant addresses through the blockchain explorer and eventually pinpointed the person who transferred the ETH.

After learning about the remaining token unlock time, the investors successfully transferred all their assets at the first opportunity, avoiding greater losses.

The lessons learned from this event include:

1. Fully understand the importance of mnemonic phrases and avoid using online tools to transmit sensitive information.
2. Understand the transparency of blockchain, transaction records are traceable.
3. Actively seek solutions when encountering problems and seek help from trustworthy individuals when necessary.

In the decentralized digital asset world, the leakage of private keys can be the most terrifying thing. Compared to forgetting, leaking private keys in public is much more dangerous.

Both of these cases emphasize the importance of exercising caution and adhering to basic security principles in Digital Money investment. Whether it's avoiding excessive speculation or properly safeguarding private key information, these are key lessons that Digital Money investors need to keep in mind.