50 Lessons from Crypto Market Investing: Focus on Revenue and Users in Bear Markets, Growth and Speculation in Bull Markets
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50 Lessons from Crypto Market Investing: Focus on Revenue and Users in Bear Markets, Growth and Speculation in Bull Markets
To break free from the bear market pattern and make room for a new investment paradigm in the bull market.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: 0XKYLE
Translated by: TechFlow
This article outlines 50 key lessons the author learned in the cryptocurrency market during 2023, which he hopes will benefit readers navigating the 2024 bull market.
Before diving into the 50 lessons, the author emphasizes one core belief he holds above all: let go of bear market mentality to make room for a new investment mindset in the bull market.
He believes that crypto bull markets are highly reflexive. Despite recent market volatility, waiting for pullbacks before buying is not an effective strategy. Timing the top is largely meaningless. Even though the author himself is bullish, he admits having made this mistake over the past few weeks.
Below are the detailed lessons the author learned in the world of cryptocurrency in 2023—lessons that extend beyond trading and touch on alignment between knowledge and action in life.
Trading
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Patience is a position.
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Do not trade your P&L.
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Bulls keep buying, bears reduce exposure. In attention-driven markets, assets receiving capital attention signal strength due to strong reflexivity. Conversely, underperforming assets receive less attention and are likely to remain overlooked, resulting in weaker price appreciation.
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Use alt/BTC and alt/ETH charts when conducting technical analysis.
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Trading should be process-driven—write down the steps you intend to take and repeat them consistently.
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Your life is usually emotion-guided, but trading is the opposite—you cannot follow emotions. Do not cut positions “because it feels bad” or add exposure “because it feels good.”
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Most of your profits will come from just a few good trades within a month or year, but you must stay engaged with the market over long periods to capture these opportunities. You can’t step away and expect to re-enter at the perfect moment.
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Slow and steady—there’s no need to rush. Opportunities will exist tomorrow and years from now.
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Become proficient in the frameworks I commonly use in crypto trading; previously discussed in my articles.
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In bear markets, focus on revenue and users—valuations return to normal levels, so fundamental metrics matter most.
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In bull markets, focus on growth and speculation—key metrics become more reflexive, such as narratives, founders, and flywheels.
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Pay attention to trades.
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Checking the price of long-term holdings daily may seem harmless, but it exposes you to daily market noise and subconsciously prompts you to re-evaluate your investments.
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Your trading edge is closely tied to your personality and life goals. Know yourself and identify what kind of trader you are.
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Once you know your trading style, don’t try to improve in other areas. Instead, refine your own approach. You won’t see Warren Buffett trying to master algorithmic trading.
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Don’t trade out of boredom—its impact is massive.
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Use leverage to buy when the public is fearful, hold spot longs when the public uses leverage to buy, and exit when the public is euphoric.
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In a bull market, you might think about “making as much as possible,” but you should instead focus on “losing as little as possible,” because the market will do a lot of the work for you.
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Trading and investing are dynamic—the coin you went long on an hour ago is no longer the same coin; this is why you must continuously plan for different scenarios.
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Your portfolio is like a battleship—set the trend with core positions; adjust according to market conditions; allocate flexible positions for volatility. Changing core positions takes too much time and capital.
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You must have a selling process because your emotions won’t do it for you.
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Using price targets as exit points is flawed because they are arbitrary—SOL at 60? 80? 120? 150? You can’t determine when to sell based solely on price.
On-Chain
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Always test your trades.
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For emerging projects, focus on the people—they control all market attention. Active teams and strong founders are storytellers who drive narratives and attract greater market interest.
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Crypto Twitter is always late to the market. When you see the entire platform pushing something, following along is usually unwise.
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Crypto Twitter is also toxic and time-consuming. Minimize exposure—use TweetDeck only for research purposes.
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In bear markets, assume negative expectancy for everything, as many projects won’t survive. But in bull markets, adopt a positive mindset, as it leads to larger gains.
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Never chase beta (second-tier assets). It’s better to go long on leaders.
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Narrative rotation is a game of short-term outperformance and long-term underperformance.
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Position sizing matters: a 10x gain on a 0.1% allocation earns less than a 2x gain on a 50% allocation.
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Cryptocurrency easily distracts investors. Teams that strategically announce events and milestones are drivers of value—always bet on them, as it signals stronger tokens.
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For low-market-cap altcoins, always consider exiting when attention fades.
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The trap most people fall into with small/mid-cap projects is convincing themselves they’re investing for the long term once momentum cools, hoping for further price surges. Don’t fool yourself.
Psychology
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Don’t envy others—use them as inspiration. You can’t spend their money, and they can’t spend yours. The only benchmark is yourself.
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FOMO kills discipline. When you feel FOMO, handle it wisely.
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Laziness is the original sin—it severely impacts your investing (laziness in research, trying new protocols, deep thinking).
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Every great trader must recognize and overcome four main things: making mistakes, losing money, FOMO, and missing profitable opportunities.
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Fear of being wrong stems from ego—overcome it by realizing your life isn’t defined by trading. So what if you’re wrong? It’s not everything. Your friends and family probably don’t even care that you made a bad trade.
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Fear of losing money comes from not fully accepting risk—accept that markets produce uncertain outcomes.
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Avoiding losses is impossible. Trading losses are like a restaurant’s cost of buying vegetables—an operational expense, fundamentally irrelevant.
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If you can’t suppress emotions, learn to manage them and turn them into advantages. When you feel excitement, treat it as a sell signal (and vice versa).
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Stop trying to impose your will on the market. Stop expecting anything from it.
Life Advice
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Never say yes immediately, but rarely say no. If you do say yes, it must be something that moves you forward or adds value.
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Consistent “okay” effort is far better than occasional “amazing” performance. Most success simply comes from showing up every day, even when you don’t do much.
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Happiness comes from pursuing goals, not achieving them. As the saying goes, “If you’re present in the process, you’ve already succeeded.”
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Fear exists only in your mind. Why aren’t children afraid of insects or things we fear? Answer: We’re born neutral, then taught to fear. The reverse is also true—we can be taught not to fear. It’s all about perspective.
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Don’t compare yourself to others. Instead, ask whether you truly enjoy what you’re doing, or are doing it merely for social status (prestigious jobs, etc.).
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Studies show that human connection contributes to happiness.
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There won’t be a sudden day when you wake up motivated to do task XXX. The best time to do what you fear is now.
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Life is simple, but not easy.
I hope these lessons provide helpful guidance for your investment journey and personal life in 2024.
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