The Crypto Redemption

A week in crypto can be a really long time.

Just 6 days ago, I lamented that I was not early to crypto. It appears that the heavens have heard my cry and subsequently brought down prices from ATH by >50% on Sunday evening, to levels last seen maybe 6 months to a year ago.

It was pretty surreal as I received some text messages from friends checking up on how I was coping, while I was watching The Shawshank Redemption on Netflix.

For those who lost big money in this correction/crash and feel down and out, do check out the movie. One will gain perspective that money lost is nothing compared to freedom lost. 

So yes, there will be lots of references to The Shawshank Redemption in this post.

Chin Up In A Correction/Crash

I might empathise if you still find it hard to accumulate after this rout. Especially if you are anchored to March 2020 prices. But seriously, 2020 vs 2021 metrics akin to comparing chalk and cheese.

Please do not sell now though. It is always a bad time to sell at the low. Giving up would be akin to Andy Dufresne submitting to the Sisters without putting on a fight.

Chin up if you are just getting raped by…… the market. It’s no big deal!

If you want to 10x, you have to put up with a few -50%. That is the price for the entry ticket to this lottery. Chin up and soldier on.

Market Manipulation Is Rife?

The institutions are coming. Dalio owns SOME bitcoins.

Most of the elite and rich are angry that some plebians have accumulated 7, 8 or even 9 digits in the last few years, fueled by 3 or 4-digit annualised returns. Hey, even Elon booked a 50% return when Tesla sold 10% of their Bitcoins a month ago.

Imagine how these pissed off, entitled class feels when the institutions present to them with 5% solutions.

The warden is a manipulator and would never let Andy go, even if he was innocent. Similarly, if you are leveraged, you will be manipulated/liquidated by the institutions.

The money managers are feeling the heat from their clients and they are turning the screw on to accumulate more coins. It probably does not take a big short to liquidate all the highly geared longs.

My best advice to beginners and noobs like me? Crypto returns on its own are already many times that of tradfi. No need to juice it up, my friend.

Digital National Currencies Are A Net Negative

As a populace, we are giving away more and more of our privacy in search of convenience. It has reached a tipping point and diminishing marginal returns has set in. It’s time to exchange for more privacy.

And this is why I am not a huge fan of enforced digital payments. These days, I prefer cash any time of the day.

It is bordering on insanity to trust authority 100% of the time. Power sometimes corrupts, not to mention about abuse and the occasional mistakes. An innocent (albeit unlucky) man like Andy had to become untraceable to overcome the injustice. His escape would have been impossible with a digital national currency.

An enforced digital national currency would likely push me to allocate even more to crypto.

Can You Adapt To Crypto?

I am neither IT savvy nor conversant in coding. Back in late 2017, even though I assessed the space decently, I did not enter crypto because I was sure that I would be the sheep being preyed upon.

I had assumed that I was institutionalised in Traditional Finance.

But well, we all have to learn and adapt, right?

It has been half a year and I do think I am doing fine thus far.

Maybe I have evolved from being a Brooks to a Red.

Hoping To Join Crypto OGs on Degen Island

Morgan Freeman started off his career pretty late and only became an A-lister after his fifties. He is now a legend in his own right. The best narrator one could ever hope for.

I know the odds of me being an Andy Dufresne is really low. I do not possess that kind of temperament, ingenuity and grit.

Even right now, I find it hard to back up the truck in this bear market, but well, at least I am doubling both the size and frequency of my usual purchases. That has helped to reduce the % loss and also increase my crypto yield to 4 digit a month.

But hey, maybe with some luck, the help of a community (Crypto Twitter is freakishly good edutainment) and some further effort on my own, I could be a Red and get to Degen Island within a decade’s time.

Not NGMI? Maybe, a HUGE maybe.

Thank you for reading!

Addendum: I started writing this article on Mon morning and by Tue morning, the bounce has reached 30-50%. Few.