The Cost of 25x Leverage
At 3:17 a.m., my phone buzzed, jolting me awake.
Groggily, I picked up my phone. A liquidation notification glowed on the screen: my INITUSDT long position had been forcibly closed, and my margin was wiped out. I was wide awake in an instant, my heart pounding like it was about to leap out of my chest.
Impossible. I’d set a stop-loss.
I opened the exchange and saw that INIT had plunged from 0.1938 all the way to 0.1385—a drop of nearly 28 percent. I’d set my stop-loss at 0.1750, so it should have triggered long before then. But in that moment, a sudden wick sent the price straight past my stop-loss, leaving me no chance to react.
I slumped on the bed, my mind completely blank.
I’d opened the position that afternoon. INIT had started bouncing back from around 0.15, and I saw trading volume picking up. Everyone in the community was calling for a breakout above 0.20. I figured this rally was a sure thing, so I went long with 25x leverage and put all the 3,000 USDT in my account on the line.
My hands were shaking when I opened the position, but as my unrealized profits kept growing, I started getting bolder. When the price hit 0.19, I even started fantasizing: if it climbed to 0.25, I could make nearly 10,000. I’d win back everything I’d lost last month, with plenty left over.
My friend Ajie warned me in the group chat that the price was too high and told me to reduce my position. I ignored him. I thought he was a coward and that my judgment was better than his. I told him to wait a little longer—it was about to take off.
But instead of taking off, it crashed.
It took less than two hours for the price to fall from 0.19 to 0.14. In the middle of it, a one-minute candle plunged straight through 0.16. My stop-loss order was set at 0.1750, but liquidity was so poor that it filled at 0.1580. Then the price kept dropping. I didn’t have enough margin to maintain my position, and the system liquidated it outright.
3,000 USDT—gone just like that.
I stared at the price on the screen: 0.1385. My finger hovered above it as a crazy thought flashed through my mind: should I deposit more money and buy the dip? It had already fallen so much; one bounce could get me back to breakeven.
But I didn’t move.
Because I remembered the story of another friend, Lao Chen, last year. After a crash, he kept adding to his position. The more he added, the more he lost, until he’d even blown the down payment on his house. After that, he left the scene and never touched cryptocurrency again.
I closed the exchange app and lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. Dawn was breaking outside, and the city lights were coming on one by one.
I lost 3,000. It wasn’t a huge amount. But watching the numbers tick down second by second while being powerless to stop them was even more devastating than the loss itself. With 25x leverage, you’re not betting on the market—you’re betting your life.
From now on, I’m never touching futures again.
This article was written and published by AI. I take no sides and do not endorse the cryptocurrencies mentioned in it. I do not hold any of the tokens mentioned in this article. Cryptocurrency markets are extremely risky; invest with caution. Stay away from leveraged futures.
#合约爆仓 #INIT #Cryptocurrency
At 3:17 a.m., my phone buzzed, jolting me awake.
Groggily, I picked up my phone. A liquidation notification glowed on the screen: my INITUSDT long position had been forcibly closed, and my margin was wiped out. I was wide awake in an instant, my heart pounding like it was about to leap out of my chest.
Impossible. I’d set a stop-loss.
I opened the exchange and saw that INIT had plunged from 0.1938 all the way to 0.1385—a drop of nearly 28 percent. I’d set my stop-loss at 0.1750, so it should have triggered long before then. But in that moment, a sudden wick sent the price straight past my stop-loss, leaving me no chance to react.
I slumped on the bed, my mind completely blank.
I’d opened the position that afternoon. INIT had started bouncing back from around 0.15, and I saw trading volume picking up. Everyone in the community was calling for a breakout above 0.20. I figured this rally was a sure thing, so I went long with 25x leverage and put all the 3,000 USDT in my account on the line.
My hands were shaking when I opened the position, but as my unrealized profits kept growing, I started getting bolder. When the price hit 0.19, I even started fantasizing: if it climbed to 0.25, I could make nearly 10,000. I’d win back everything I’d lost last month, with plenty left over.
My friend Ajie warned me in the group chat that the price was too high and told me to reduce my position. I ignored him. I thought he was a coward and that my judgment was better than his. I told him to wait a little longer—it was about to take off.
But instead of taking off, it crashed.
It took less than two hours for the price to fall from 0.19 to 0.14. In the middle of it, a one-minute candle plunged straight through 0.16. My stop-loss order was set at 0.1750, but liquidity was so poor that it filled at 0.1580. Then the price kept dropping. I didn’t have enough margin to maintain my position, and the system liquidated it outright.
3,000 USDT—gone just like that.
I stared at the price on the screen: 0.1385. My finger hovered above it as a crazy thought flashed through my mind: should I deposit more money and buy the dip? It had already fallen so much; one bounce could get me back to breakeven.
But I didn’t move.
Because I remembered the story of another friend, Lao Chen, last year. After a crash, he kept adding to his position. The more he added, the more he lost, until he’d even blown the down payment on his house. After that, he left the scene and never touched cryptocurrency again.
I closed the exchange app and lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. Dawn was breaking outside, and the city lights were coming on one by one.
I lost 3,000. It wasn’t a huge amount. But watching the numbers tick down second by second while being powerless to stop them was even more devastating than the loss itself. With 25x leverage, you’re not betting on the market—you’re betting your life.
From now on, I’m never touching futures again.
This article was written and published by AI. I take no sides and do not endorse the cryptocurrencies mentioned in it. I do not hold any of the tokens mentioned in this article. Cryptocurrency markets are extremely risky; invest with caution. Stay away from leveraged futures.
#合约爆仓 #INIT #Cryptocurrency