Overseas A8 Crypto Veteran's Trading Insights: Never HODL Any Altcoins, Recognize Only One True God—BTC
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Overseas A8 Crypto Veteran's Trading Insights: Never HODL Any Altcoins, Recognize Only One True God—BTC
Value life, stay away from contracts; make independent decisions, don't use your own money to verify others' trading logic.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsOriginal source: Miles Deutscher & Zeneca
Translation: Wenser, Odaily Star Daily
Editor's note: As the so-called "Trump effect" gradually fades and its ripple effects on the global economic and political landscape continue to spread, mainstream cryptocurrencies including BTC have recently experienced significant declines. Voices claiming "the bull market is over, and the bear market has arrived" are widespread. The recent cooling of meme coin trends and AI Agent concept tokens have further reignited fears of a bear market. At times like these, confidence matters more than ever. With this in mind, Odaily Star Daily compiles key insights and hard-earned lessons from two influential English-speaking crypto thought leaders—both A8-tier figures—to help readers stay in the game. We hope that when spring returns, every participant in the crypto industry will emerge from the storm to see clear skies and bright moonlight.
NFT Whale and A8 Influencer Zeneca: Sell Early, Always Win; Screenshot = Sell Signal
In the last cycle, I earned eight figures. Here are some lessons I’ve learned:
1. Selling early always wins
Selling sooner is usually better—even if you miss out on further gains—than holding too long and watching your profits vanish.
This is because you’ll eventually realize that nearly everything tends toward zero.
So even if you sold early and left money on the table, looking back months or years later, you’ll think: “I was a genius!”
2. Screenshot means sell
The moment you take a screenshot showing how much profit you've made, that’s the time to sell.
You don’t need to sell your entire position, but reducing your position by 20–50% at that point is often an excellent move.
3. Ignore the noise
Most people on X (formerly Twitter) and crypto-related apps have no idea what they're talking about.
Often, the loudest and most confident voices know the least; those who are quiet and reflective tend to be the wisest.
4. Confidence cannot be borrowed
Clearly, you can't borrow confidence from others when making investment decisions.
If you buy something just because someone else did—or told you it might go parabolic—you’re almost certainly going to get rekt.
Then those same people will blame you for your loss, while you’re still anxiously waiting for their next tweet or YouTube video to tell you what to do next.
5. Stop caring about what others think
Stop trying to impress people.
This is general life advice, but it’s especially relevant in crypto.
Wanting to impress friends and family—that they may like or follow you—is one thing.
But trying to impress strangers online for clout? Don’t be silly.
6. Bitcoin is the only real deal
Bitcoin came first, then everything else.
It took me a long time to truly understand this.
Yes, altcoins sometimes outperform Bitcoin—and sometimes for extended periods—but in the long run, everything ultimately flows back into Bitcoin.
Most people try to trade altcoins to achieve returns far exceeding Bitcoin’s; fewer than 5% actually succeed.
It’s like trying to beat the S&P 500 index fund. For most people, the best strategy is simply buying and holding the index fund.
7. Don’t fall for FOMO driven by herd mentality
The crypto space constantly distorts your thinking—it’s almost pathological.
In the last cycle, many of us—including smart people like yourself—refused to sell JPEGs (NFTs) priced at $50K because we thought “they were undervalued.”
Herd mentality is real. Going against the crowd takes immense courage—try doing it.
8. Stay grounded in reality; don’t lose touch with real value
From now on, broaden your perspective and spend time with people outside the crypto world.
1 SOL or 0.08 ETH might not seem like much (unit bias is real), but consider how much you could accumulate daily or annually, and what that amount could actually do for you in real life.
Also, most people would be thrilled with a 10% annual return on investment—and rightly so.
In fact, that’s a solid return, except crypto distorts all perceptions of ROI and value.
9. Value compounding; focus on certainty
Compounding is incredibly powerful.
You don’t need 100x returns. Often, consecutive 2x gains are sufficient. Even achieving 10–50% annual compounded growth is extremely valuable (have you ever calculated how explosive high-percentage compounding becomes over multiple years?) (Odaily Star Daily note: This refers to exponential, explosive growth).
Another way to put it: "Most people overestimate what they can achieve in one year and underestimate what they can achieve in ten years."
Miles, the Crypto Researcher Who Lost and Rebuilt an A7 Fortune: Cut Profits and Losses Early, Respect Every Dollar
Here are 10 painful lessons I learned after paying millions in tuition fees.
Without doubt, each crypto cycle demands better emotional discipline.
For me, 2021 was disastrous. I reached seven-figure wealth—then lost nearly all of it.
In this current cycle, my performance has improved. Although drawdowns still surprised me, I managed to preserve most of my gains. That’s just how it is in crypto—you never stop learning.
1. Selling early beats selling late
I’ve never regretted selling too early, but I’ve often regretted not selling soon enough to lock in profits.
Rather than selling too late and ending up with nothing, gradually take profits along the way.
2. Take profits seriously
Many times, I converted profits into stablecoins, only to jump right back into chasing the next trade.
However, when I actually convert profits into fiat currency or invest them in other “real-world” assets, that money becomes harder to access (e.g., due to security considerations).
I suppose it depends on personality.
I have ADHD, so the more barriers I create against impulsive decisions, the better off I am.
3. Complacency kills
There was a period when I tricked myself into thinking I was making money—when in reality, I wasn’t making nearly enough.
Yeah, I pulled $100K off the table today—“Look at me, Mom! I’m making money!”
But in truth, I still held millions in altcoins with only paper gains.
I realized I kept checking my portfolio value as emotional comfort, rather than focusing on its actual stablecoin weight—which is far more important for preserving wealth.
Without a doubt, complacency is the biggest killer in crypto.
Ignoring warning signs = complacency;
Failing to take profits = complacency;
Slow reaction to new information = complacency;
Poor planning = complacency;
99% of mistakes in the market boil down to some form of complacency.
4. Respect every dollar
I saw a tweet that deeply resonated with me. (Odaily Star Daily note: Influencer Loopify previously tweeted that people truly don’t understand how valuable having $1 million in cash reserves really is. Even with a successful career, it takes a long time to accumulate. If you earn $400K annually at the top of your field, it still takes five years; if you earn $200K per year, it takes roughly ten.)
Those in crypto sometimes completely lose their sense of cost-effectiveness.
For example, I executed a trade last December that netted me $1.7 million in round-trip trading. Now, I’d give anything to have half that wealth back.
At the time, I didn’t care about money—because the euphoria easily clouds judgment.
Stay sober (even during mania); cherish every dollar, because one day you’ll value it far more.
5. Slowly build compounding gains
Most mistakes in markets stem fundamentally from chasing quick—and “easy”—returns.
But lasting wealth comes from compounding returns over time.
Treat every trade like a “bet,” aiming to increase your overall stack (just like in poker).
6. Don’t be misled by price targets or profit goals
The market doesn’t care about your arbitrary price targets—whether in dollar terms or multiples. Chasing targets is a guaranteed path to failure.
If you actually hit your target price, sell. Don’t get greedy or change your profit goal.
At the very least, use a smaller portion of your capital to chase new targets, while protecting your core principles.
7. Set stop-loss indicators
I’ve improved significantly here since last year. But there were still lapses (especially around March 2024). More effective stop-losses could have spared me much pain. It could be as simple as setting a predefined HTF (high time frame) support level or moving average, reducing exposure when structure breaks. Or it could be more advanced—like detecting LTF (low time frame) momentum loss and rebalancing during rallies.
In trending markets, this approach often works well. But at minimum, have some form of stop-loss mechanism instead of waiting for your position to go to zero.
8. Don’t borrow confidence from others
Every time I bought crypto based on someone else’s opinion (rather than my own analysis), the outcome was poor.
Take inspiration from others—but verify independently and build your own convictions.
Otherwise, you’ll end up holding tokens without genuine belief, and won’t know what to do when challenges arise.
9. Never long-hold any altcoin
“Investing” in altcoins is somewhat like navigating a maze.
Your default mindset should be that every purchase is essentially trading an altcoin against USD. (Odaily Star Daily note: Constantly monitor the exchange rate between altcoins and USD to assess potential price trends.)
I like this mental model because it formalizes the need for clear profit-taking and stop-loss plans. Many people slack off here.
“Investing” is no excuse for poor risk management. A trade might last 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, 6 months—or in rare cases, even 12 months.
But remember: this is trading. Your ultimate goal is accumulating more BTC or capital.
10. Never use leverage on contracts just for thrill-seeking
Since this cycle began, I’ve had only two sleepless nights—and both occurred when I held large leveraged futures positions.
Use leverage only to manage risk (e.g., hedging), not to amplify it.
If you’re in it for the long haul, spot holdings are generally more suitable.
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