Sharing My Crypto Journey

Hey everyone, I'm snappyebit1!

I'm a computer science & Tourism student who spent four years in undergrad tutoring my peers in advanced math and other exam-based subjects. My greatest strength is in understanding the consensus mechanisms of blockchain. In 2023, I recorded a six-hour, in-depth course on the core technical principles of cryptocurrency. Oddly enough, the money I've actually made has largely come from "traffic" projects and MEME coins, though I do also have some research under my belt in the field of value speculation. (Hard to believe it's the same person, right?)

Back in 2021, my final year of university, I interned in every niche of the traditional finance industry, but everything felt either boring or hyper-competitive ("too 'involutionary'" as we say in Chinese).

At the time, the hottest paths were Investment Banking, Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Public Funds. I considered derivatives but ultimately felt the industry scope was too narrow (I even explored corn futures and researched how corn is used to feed pigs :p). I also dabbled in distressed assets but found it incredibly dull (though the dark humor of it is that the sector is booming right now).

Finally, I discovered a new investable asset class and decided to dive in: Crypto. I definitely had a bit of beginner's luck. The timing was strange. While I was first hearing about Bitcoin, I distinctly remember a schoolmate whose graduate school reference list included Blockchain: From Digital Currency to Credit Society.

She asked me to explain it to her, so I essentially read it and taught it simultaneously (I pride myself on my strong ability to quickly learn and lecture). I'm grateful I started with such a high-quality text; otherwise, I might have just ended up trading total altcoins (even though I'm currently up 7x on that).

The SHIB trade is noteworthy because of the incredibly precise exit point. On May 12, 2021, when the Federal Reserve announced a 4.2% CPI, I sold half. This was just before the infamous "519 Crash" (if you don't know about the crypto 519 event, ask an AI). My analysis was simple: the 2020-2021 bull run was fundamentally fueled by the unprecedented money printing post-pandemic.

A 4.2% CPI signaled that the Fed's cash injection had caused clear inflation, meaning they would quickly halt the money spigot and likely start raising rates, which would tank the market. I sold the rest later that year when the market hit a new high (because the Fed decided to temporarily hold off on rate hikes). Moomoo's official account recently published an article with a core thesis very similar to my thinking at the time:

My biggest gains in 2024 have been from the traffic-driven projects. 2024 has been a pivotal year for crypto. A large number of "Crypto Native" tokens have seen extremely low market interest, failing to attract real users. This has forced crypto exchanges to pivot their entire strategy toward user acquisition and traffic.

From an industry-wide perspective, 2024 has been dominated by traffic. Many Web3 projects, like Notcoin and Grass, offered extremely generous airdrops. Because these coins onboarded a massive number of new users, they all saw 5x+ gains after launch. I participated in everything from the primary market investment to secondary market trading—this has been my most lucrative project category since starting out.

Yes, most of my crypto income does not come from typical secondary market trading. I love finding scenarios where I can acquire the cheapest tokens—at 10% below normal market price—and sell them in the regular market for 10x or more. My MBTI is INTP; I'm not interested in making money the common way. I don't typically make money from the traders; I like to use my imagination to make money off the traders. (Of course, I also do things like various on-chain arbitrage.)

Beyond all the primary market observation and secondary trading, I did consider launching a few traffic projects myself, but they weren't ultimately successful. That remains a small, unfinished regret from this market cycle.

I believe the barrier of asset issuing must come down. Traditional stock IPOs and bond issuances are simply too high a hurdle for most startups. Crypto can and should become a primary funding route for many innovative tech companies. (The US Clarity Act and SEC Chair's Speeches have consistently underscored this.) Companies don't need to put 100% of their equity on the blockchain; they could simply use crypto instead of loyalty points or red packets for promotions.

In Coase's classic institutional economics text, The Nature of the Firm, the core argument is that the purpose of a firm is to lower transaction costs. For most businesses, these costs are primarily financing and distribution. The process is usually: swap equity for cash, then distribute the cash to users.

Why can't a company distribute equity directly to users? Traditional stock registration systems don't allow it. But what about a token? Formally, this works, as seen with StepN. However, StepN lacked cash flow—what if a company like Oura (a smart wearable device with app) did this? Or what if Amazon's points could be traded on a secondary market?

The ETH model of simply collecting fees is highly digestible and analyzable for traditional finance. While its current "P/E ratio" isn't great, it is the only profit-generating public chain. (As a science and engineering guy, my nature forces me to choose ETH.)

There is a difference between BTC/ETH and stablecoins like USDT/USDC. USDC is essentially on-chain US Dollars, and the US government can freeze malicious addresses. But BTC and ETH retain a high degree of decentralization at the issuance level. A stark example is North Korean hackers who have been identified holding 10,000 BTC, which the US has no power to freeze.

In this context, BTC and ETH play the role that gold and oil once did in the Gold-Dollar and Petrodollar eras (I encourage everyone to think deeply about this logic). Anyone who fears fiat currency over-issuance/inflation has historically sought refuge in gold. But gold is a hassle to transport and settle. As Bitcoin becomes more common, it can completely take on the role of an electronic-era anti-inflationary, safe-haven asset.

The most critical thing is to stick to your core investment logic.

I've personally explored many different angles—Ethereum tech upgrades, DeFi income growth, exchange traffic generation—and made money from all of them. But most people don't need to be so diversified in their strategies.

Those who focus on the macro economy should continue to do so; at least 10% of BTC and ETH are now held directly by Wall Street, making them highly sensitive to macro shifts. Those who love calculating income and P/E ratios can still analyze DeFi protocols; tokens for projects like Hyperliquid, an 11-person team generating $1.2 billion in annual revenue, are fundamentally driven.

For those who enjoy playing against the "whales" (market manipulators), their operations are often more easily tracked via on-chain records in crypto, though this doesn't make the risk any lower.

From an insider’s point of view, what OGs really care about is on- and off-ramping — moving money in and out safely.

I learned that the hard way. Back in early 2023, I sold 10,000 USDT through C2C on a well-known Web3 exchange. The buyer sent the money to my bank account within a minute, and once I saw the transfer record, I released the 10,000 USDT.

Five minutes later, I realized the funds were completely unusable. In Hong Kong, a bank can accept a cheque deposit first, but only the next day do they verify if the issuer’s account actually has enough balance. I immediately called the police.

To my surprise, reporting crypto-related scams in Hong Kong is actually very open now — there’s even a “crypto” category on the report form. But here came the problem: the exchange had no license in Hong Kong, so the police couldn’t contact the platform directly. I had to go through customer support to request the counterparty’s info.

That process took weeks, and eventually we found out the scammer used a Malaysian ID for KYC. There are many different types of Malaysian IDs, and we basically couldn’t get any usable information from it. A year later, the police officially closed the case due to lack of evidence.

After that, I stopped using C2C completely. Now I only trade on a few licensed exchanges that have direct banking connections. C2C risks are endless — not just bounced cheques but also dirty money issues. It’s terrifying once you’ve been through it.

As traditional brokers started adding crypto trading, I found it much easier to just buy crypto directly through my brokerage account, especially since I already hold Nasdaq index funds and U.S. tech/crypto stocks. It saves me from moving money between platforms all the time.

So now, I’ve started moving most of my crypto holdings to brokerages that integrate licensed exchanges — fewer apps to manage, fewer deposit/withdrawal hassles. The only downside is that most brokers still offer limited coins, so hopefully more of them will keep expanding their crypto listings to catch up with the market.