45 Days to Evaporate 2 Million Dollars: A Crypto OG's Darkest Moment and Rebirth Declaration

Author: TIGER

After thinking for a long time, I still decided to record this. This phase is painful, filled with self-doubt, frustration, and feelings of letting down my own efforts. More of a record than a review. A review might require more rationality.

First, I declare that I am not a perpetual profit blogger, nor do I have an invincible amount of capital. A loss of 2M is the result of years of accumulation, earned bit by bit, and it is also one of the largest drawdowns since I entered the circle.

1. Contracts on Hype

In 2018, I lost over 2000 Ethereum and 100 Bitcoin trading contracts, and that painful experience made me secretly vow never to touch contracts again except for hedging.

At the end of the year, Hyperliquid was booming. I opened with 50,000 and earned 100,000, and I identified Hype as one of the few innovations in this round that would continuously eat into Cex's market share, so I decided to heavily invest in Hype at a high position around 20.

Since Hype is a contract platform, it contradicted my own rule of not touching contracts, but I wanted to experience more of Hype's platform features, so I decided to open a position with three times leverage and unlimited margin. Ultimately, I put 1M in margin on the contract platform, which laid the groundwork for the huge losses that followed.

When I set the "never contract" flag in 2018, I would never have thought that in 2025, I would personally tear up that vow on Hyperliquid.

The sweet start of turning 50,000 into 100,000, the crazy decision to heavily invest at 20 dollars, and the fatal operation of using 1M margin with three times leverage… Behind these numbers lies a devil's whisper: "This time is really different."

2. AI agent

Yes, I missed the explosive rise of AI agents. And I bought in at a high position.
Actually, I didn't heavily invest, but as mentioned earlier, I had 1M in the Hype contract, and I chose to chase a bit of AI agent with 200,000 in leveraged positions. Compared to the Hype position, I thought it was much smaller, but I still underestimated the power of leverage.

In the end, I bought Virtual and AI6Z at the peak. The initial drop didn't feel significant because the market's heat and narrative were both positive. However, later I encountered market bloodsucking from Trump and the impact of Deepseek on the US AI sector, causing the entire crypto circle's faith in AI agents to collapse. I abandoned the position midway and ended up losing over 800,000 with less than 200,000 in margin.

When I chased AI agents with 200,000, I made a mistake that a seasoned trader should never make: treating leverage as a magnifying glass while forgetting that it is also a funhouse mirror. When Deepseek attacked the US stock market, my position collapsed in distortion, and 800,000 evaporated faster than negative news could spread.

After seven years, I stumbled again on contracts.

3. Meme

I realized the importance of memes early on, so I have been building my own toolkit, monitoring various chains and quickly purchasing smart money. Ultimately, the situation did not reach the expected results; all my efforts seemed very ridiculous.

Let’s mention a few major nodes:

1) Pnut

Continuously following and heavily investing in Pnut allowed me to earn up to 1M from him. But it was also from Pnut that, due to quick profit realization, my operations became more aggressive, and my risk appetite increased. In the past, my investment share in altcoins would not have been this large.

It can be said that this round's significant total amount drawdown had a lot to do with Pnut's success.

"1M profit is arsenic wrapped in sugar; it makes you forget the common sense of keeping a light position in altcoins."

2) Trump

All the various tools we created on-chain, monitoring, and the smart money comments from big accounts could not stop me from sleeping at 3 AM in the European time zone!

With my aggressive investment style at the time, I could have gotten a big result from 90% of the monitored addresses; putting in a few hundred K to earn 10M should not have been a problem.

However, being in Europe, I happened to be among those who watched the market for 20 hours and missed Trump. With my investment style and a bunch of self-made monitoring programs, I can truly say I missed a life opportunity.

The next day, besides waking up frustrated, I happened to encounter one of the most important moments in real life: welcoming my child in the delivery room.

When it rains, it pours. While I was busy in the delivery room, I saw in the bathroom that Trump's wife had issued a token, leading to Trump's flash crash. Since the inauguration had not yet arrived, Trump's flash crash of 40% made me think it was a good entry point, so I immediately sold a lot of altcoins and bought 40,000 at around 50.

Then I welcomed the newborn, and for 2-3 days, I had little time to think about and operate my leveraged AI agent tokens and the high-position Trump tokens I had bought.

Heavy losses.

When the baby's first cry coincided with Trump's token flash crash of 40%, I understood for the first time what it meant to be "double killed by fate."

3) Argentine President

The significant drawdown after Trump had already frustrated me. Theoretically, I missed out on a billion, and then the crazy losses in altcoins made me determined to cut my losses and exit. I planned to calm down my mood and state before making further plans.

However, coincidentally, the event of the Argentine president issuing a token caught my attention immediately.

This time I was awake and entered within 10 minutes of the opening. This was my moment in life, I told myself.

There wasn't enough in my wallet, so I withdrew from CEX, which took 10 minutes. After a few rounds of increasing my position, I put in 200,000 at an average price of 3 dollars.

After buying, I called my good brothers in the European time zone, the American time zone, and the Chinese time zone. (Clown)

While scrolling through the news, I confirmed the authenticity of the token issuance. Although I thought Trump's price was only 20 billion and there wouldn't be excess returns here, I was still obsessed with the "early" entry.

Soon, profits reached 50%, and I hovered my hand over the button to sell 75%, thinking about breaking even, only to find a 10% trading tax. After confirming multiple times, the price had already started to decline.

The window of opportunity to sell was too small; when it dropped to 2 dollars, I saw news of the dev selling off the pool. However, my aversion to losses made me think that as long as the president's token issuance event was not a false event, there would eventually be a rebound, and selling during the rebound would reduce my losses.

The subsequent decline and rug events are well known; ultimately, I lost 80%. Exhausted, I covered myself with a blanket at 5 AM to sleep; if I didn't sleep, I would die of a heart attack.

The 200,000 I bet on the Argentine president's token became the most expensive alarm clock— it taught me that the sun at five in the morning never illuminates the aftermath of a rug pull.

In Conclusion

"All 'wealth codes' are secretly marked with time zones— and you are always in the wrong one."

No matter how much you prepare, making a fortune requires a bit of "luck."

This is not a review, just a record of a heartbroken me.

To encourage myself, I have successfully made many correct decisions, created web2 products with millions of daily active users, and accumulated tens of millions of followers from scratch. I have experienced significant drawdowns several times, but I have always stood up.

This time, I believe I can too. From the ruins, I can grow stronger wings.

To unfamiliar friends, if possible, leave a message to cheer me on, and also help you accumulate some good fortune. Our opportunity has not yet arrived, but it is on the way.