Confessions of a 2018 “Tourist”. Please, learn from my mistakes.

I am going to start with a brief funny story, which nobody cares about, but has a lot in common with today.

So I was doing my Masters’ degree in Finance and in a course called “International Business” our professor gave us our assignment options. I chose the topic “Is Bitcoin a bubble?” (original discussion paper was from Roubini, 2018 who called the bear market a “Cryptic Apocalypse”)

I wasn’t very knowledgeable on crypto back then, so I went with the general media consensus and long story short, I ended up with the conclusion:

“Until then, we can only speculate and unless something major happens, it’s highly unlikely that Bitcoin will ever be able to reach numbers that are comparable to its peak in late 2017.”

After submitting my paper, I logged into Coinbase, sold my 0.25 BTC which I’ve bought late 2017 at around $11k, for just $6k. I then closed my laptop and thought my crypto adventure was over.

During that time, FUD was everywhere. The media were constantly bashing BTC and Cryptocurrencies, everything was a scam, everyone who bought it was dumb and BTC was going to 0. No crypto would exist by 2019. I thought I dodged a bullet.

But did I….

Late 2019 I got into stocks and started reading about crypto as a side effect. I thought I did a good choice. I thought I was smart, even if I sold at a loss. (lmao) BTC was trading for 3k for like a year and eventually bounced back to $6k. I wasn’t worried by then. The media and everyone around me kept the narrative that BTC and Cryptos are scams. I felt safe staying away from them.

Then… in 2020, we all know what happened. I just couldn’t believe my eyes. Everyone was talking about BTC being the next best thing since the Bretton Woods conference. All I heard was BTC! BTC at $20k!, *BTC at $30k! *

I just couldn’t believe it. I felt like a loser. Who would’ve believed me that I sold at $5k in 2018…

Eventually, I bought back in late 2020 at around $25-30k. My average is still around there and I’ve been buying small chunks ever since. You can call me dumb, that I am buying at the top but I don’t care. Ever since, I am now close to finishing my MSc in Digital Currencies and I fully believe in Bitcoin. I want to secure my future.

Here’s my takeaway:

During a bear market, everyone will tell you to give up. To sell everything and get out. Everything is a scam. Mainstream media, twitter, reddit, facebook, everywhere will be the same. People calling cryptocurrencies a scam. It’s their moment. They never got in and now it’s their time to laugh, while their own investments (if they even have any) are also bleeding.

Please, do your research, remind yourself of the fundamentals and the ideas behind your investments. Try to remain objective and remove your emotions. It’s okay that people are criticizing stuff. Without criticism, there would be no improvement. I appreciate “buttcoiners” or whatever, they challenge our thinking and help us improve the whole space.

So, don’t be a tourist. Don’t be 2018 me.