In the rental house in Shenzhen in 2018, I watched my account soar from 300,000 to nearly 3 million right before my eyes. At that time, I truly believed in the saying "Crypto can change your fate." But the market didn't give me much time to dream—three days later, it started to adjust, and by Christmas, my account was down to just over 600,000. That moment, I realized that obsessing over "waiting to break even" can drag a person to death.

Eight years of ups and downs, I have exchanged real money for three lessons, now sharing them with everyone.

**Lesson 1: Leverage is a knife, not wings**

Back then, I used 20x leverage to trade Ethereum, earning 400,000 in a day, thinking I was a genius. But during the "519" rally in 2021, I got liquidated of 600,000 in two hours. Since then, I understood—leverage can make you fly higher, but it can also make you fall harder. My current principle is simple: leverage no more than 3x, and no more than 5% of your holdings in a single coin. It sounds conservative, but it allows you to survive longer.

**Lesson 2: Don't look for family heirlooms in the casino**

Once, I heavily invested in a "Chinese Ethereum" concept coin, putting in 250,000, which eventually rose to 1.5 million. I was thinking of doubling my money, but in the end, I held on stubbornly, and the price fell to less than $0.001. The pain wasn't just losing money; it was watching my greed eat up all my chips. My current allocation is: 85% in mainstream coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and the remaining 15% as pocket money to try other opportunities.

**Lesson 3: Stop-loss is the last dignity**

Every trade has a hard stop-loss of 8%. When hit, I exit immediately—no stories. I often ask myself: if my account goes to zero overnight, can I still calmly go have hotpot? The crypto world never lacks opportunities; what’s missing is the capital to survive until the next opportunity.

This "survival light" has always been on. Do you want to follow?