In the winter night of 2015, the smell of smoke mixed with instant noodles in an internet cafe outside the school.

I held 3000 yuan of living expenses, staring at a screen full of English trading pages, gritting my teeth to buy 1.5 bitcoins, with the unit price just over 2200 yuan at that time.

My friend laughed at me: "Why not buy a game skin instead?" I didn't respond, just felt that this number was different.

No one could predict that six years later, in 2021, the market surged, and my account peaked at 1.2 million.

The friend who once laughed at me for being "naive and having too much money" now chased me, asking if I had any insider information. I could only wave my hand: "There are no secrets, it’s just that I didn’t lose my principal."

Over the years in the crypto world, I’ve never played gimmicks, relying solely on three "life-saving rules" to steadily get to today.

The first rule is to only recognize well-known mainstream coins.

In 2017, with the proliferation of pyramid scheme coins, someone tried to pull me into the "Interstellar XX chain," boasting that it could multiply tenfold.

I scoured the official website and forums, found that all the team information was fabricated, and immediately blacklisted and refused.

Half a month later, this coin indeed went to zero, and the person who pulled me in directly deleted me from their friend circle.

Since then, I only touch coins within the top 10 by market capitalization, as at least they won't disappear silently.

The second rule is to cut losses faster than turning against someone.

I set a strict 5% stop-loss line for myself, and I must set it each time I open a position.

In 2018, Ethereum plummeted from 800 yuan, and as soon as it hit the stop-loss point of 760, I immediately liquidated my position.

Later it fell to over 100, but I didn’t suffer fundamentally.

Meanwhile, my classmates always said, "Just wait a bit, it will rebound," but in the end, they waited over two years, and by the time they broke even, they had long lost their initial enthusiasm.

The third rule is that leverage is a minefield; I won’t even touch it.

In 2020, my childhood friend played contracts with 10x leverage, boasting in the group chat after a few points of rise, but a small adjustment directly caused him to be liquidated, losing both the previous gains and the principal.

The crypto world has never been a casino; the money earned is always "the money that comes from cognitive realization."

One must understand the underlying logic of Bitcoin, clearly know the application value of Ethereum, and only then dare to hold onto chips during downturns.

I never use mortgage or retirement funds to take risks, only invest spare money, even if there was a 60% drop in 2022, it didn’t affect my normal life at all.

Now when people ask me for money-making tips, I always say: "Be less greedy, preserving the principal means you've already won half."

I used to wander alone in the dark night, but now the lamp is in my hand.

The lamp is always on, will you follow? @不贪的阿 K