You might not believe it, but my experiences in the crypto space over the past few years have been nothing short of a roller coaster.

I first entered the market in 2017, starting out with a principal of 26,000 yuan trading spot. I was quite lucky those years, caught a few waves at the right time, and held all the way until the peak of the 2021 bull market—my account balance soared to 120 million yuan.

At that time, policy tightened suddenly, but I reacted quickly and managed to withdraw 110 million during the strictest period. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to leave 10 million in the market to keep playing, but I never expected what happened next. Then came the Luna incident, and that 10 million went straight to zero. It was all spot positions, and I watched helplessly as my assets evaporated—it was a terrible feeling.

After taking a break, I got the itch again at the beginning of 2024 and deposited 12,000 USDT to try my hand at futures. The first two months were wild—I managed to run it up to 300,000 USDT at the peak and felt like I was back in the game. But you all know what happened next—one heavy leveraged misjudgment, and I was liquidated back to zero.

I still wasn’t ready to give up, so I deposited a few more times, each time a little over 1,000 USDT, but every time it ended the same way: zeroed out. Now I’ve completely stopped touching futures; for me, it’s just a bottomless pit and I really can’t get a handle on the rhythm.

Looking back on this experience, spot trading brought me financial freedom, but futures knocked me right back to square one. The market will give you opportunities, but you have to know when to quit—greed is often your biggest enemy.