My Difficult Journey from the Mining Circle to the Cryptocurrency World in 2021

From stacking mining machines into mountains to learning to admit failure
— A true account of an ordinary person navigating through a bull and bear cycle
I didn’t enter the crypto world by trading coins.
I was pulled in by mining.
1. 2021: I Thought I Was on the “Certain” Side
In May 2021,
I invested 300,000 yuan and joined the mining circle with an uncle who used to run an old wine business.
Bought 5 units of 588 graphics cards to start mining Ethereum.
Back then, my logic was very simple: because I had no experience, I treated the crypto world like traditional business—invest in machines, mine for profit, then reinvest.
Mining is a hard asset.
Machines are there, coins will come.
Risks are controllable, returns are predictable.
I didn’t expect that before the machines arrived, the May 19th market crash would hit. At that time, I was driven by a stubborn spirit and didn’t fear or retreat. In June, Sichuan began to withdraw.
Looking back now, that was a clear risk signal.
But at the time, I didn’t retreat.
So I made my first decision to add more:
👉 20,000 yuan per machine, bought 20 more units. To lower the average cost and recover costs earlier.
In October, the market rebounded. Bitcoin hit new highs again, confirming my judgment as a new rookie.
👉 bought another 20 units. Planning to grow bigger and stronger. As you all know, the bull market ended in less than a month.
2. 2022: Mistaking the Rebound for a Reversal Was My Biggest Error
In March 2022,
The market rebounded again. The market was full of talk that this time was different, that it was a long-term bull. Of course, I believed it.
Now I realize that was just a breather during a decline.
But at that time, I made the most fatal judgment:
👉 bought another 20 mining machines.
By September 15, all machines were shut down as Ethereum switched to PoS.
Only then did I have to stop and review.
That’s when I finally understood the full picture:
Total investment in mining machines: 1.8 million yuan
Actual recovered principal: about 800,000 yuan
👉 net loss on single mining machines: 1 million yuan.
Even more brutal:
This 1.8 million yuan
was almost all my savings from years of running businesses.
This round, I didn’t just lose money,
I wiped out a phase of my life.
3. Unwillingness to Accept Reality Was Where the Loss Truly Began
After the mining failure,
I didn’t completely give up. I rested for two months and then started a new journey.
Subsequently, I borrowed about 1 million yuan in total,
trying to recover what I lost through crypto prices.
Bought:
200,000 yuan worth of over 1 Bitcoin
60 million Dogecoin
1,000 ETC
20,000 ETHW
In early 2023,
I still held onto my obsession with POW: borrowed another 300,000 yuan
and bought 10 E9s
2 Dogecoin kings
But the market shows no mercy.
Up to now:
Mining machines + ETC + ETHW
total losses of about 700,000 yuan.
4. The Most Painful Moment: 4 Million on Paper, I Didn’t Sell
Last November,
My account once reached 4 million yuan.
I didn’t sell.
It’s not that I didn’t know the risks,
but at that moment, my mindset was very typical:
I had lost too much before,
wanted to wait for a “confirmation,”
was unwilling to settle for just this level.
But the market never waits for you to understand.
5. I Finally Accept One Thing Now
I didn’t lose on a specific coin,
but on these things:
Treating trends as ability
Mistaking rebounds for reversals
Confusing unwillingness to accept loss as faith
Bringing living funds into investments
What truly crushed me
was not a single crash,
but the long-term drain from being on the wrong path.
Now I choose a different approach:
Reduce frequency
Control positions
Accept slow progress
Accept being ordinary
No longer dreaming of “turning it all around in one shot.”
Conclusion
Writing this down is not to seek sympathy,
nor to prove I’ve taken a wrong turn.
Just want to leave a record:
In this market,
being able to admit failure
and still stay in the game
is itself a form of survival.
There will be another round in the market.
But the premise is:
You haven’t been eliminated early by emotions and obsession.
Five years may not be long, nor short. Over these five years, I’ve learned so much. I’ll share more gradually in the future, and I hope my experience can help newcomers to the crypto world avoid some detours.