“Sell half of tokens, each time your investment doubles”: my rules of investment, based on my fiascos, and some advice for beginners

Anna Tutova is a co-founder of the consulting agency and crypto media group Coinstelegram and YouTube channel White Crypto where she made interviews with key crypto leaders, such as Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum, CZ, founder of Binance, government officials, etc. She is also a co-producer of a documentary film about crypto called Encrypted and a partner at the Fintech company KYC-Pay.

In her interview for buidlbee, Anna tells about her biggest fiascos in crypto, shares ways to get tokens without investment, and explains why the crypto industry is still very young and small compared to other markets.

“Crypto is easily manipulated by one person”

When I entered crypto in 2017, I had no specific expectations — I was just excited. Since then, both I and the industry have matured.

Big banks, which in 2017 were saying that crypto is a scam, currently offer options for crypto investments to their clients. Before those, they were interested only in blockchain as technology and tokenization solutions, and now they even explore DeFi. For instance, in November, J.P. Morgan executed its first cross-border transaction using DeFi. 

More and more institutional investors started investing in crypto. For example, BlackRock, one of the biggest investment companies in the world, launched Bitcoin trust and iShares Blockchain and Tech ETF. We also see big corporations adding Bitcoin to their corporate treasuries: MicroStrategy, Tesla, Block (ex-Square), etc. 

Still, the crypto industry is small in comparison to traditional markets. We can see how easily markets can be manipulated even by one person in the case of low-capitalization or mid-capitalization assets.

Furthermore, the crypto market is quite fragile, as we had seen with the collapse of FTX, Luna, and UST when the prices dropped significantly just in a few days, and billions of dollars were just wiped out. 

“I think the next bull run will start around 2024”

I am not a trader; I am a long-term holder. Until January 2021, I invested only in Bitcoin and Ethereum and didn’t consider any other assets.

While it is theoretically possible for Bitcoin to crash to zero, it would require a major security breach or a complete loss of confidence in the technology, which seems unlikely given the decentralized nature of the network and its global spread. 

It is also possible that Bitcoin could be superseded by a newer, better cryptocurrency or payment system, but this scenario would likely take several years or even decades to unfold. Ultimately, the value of Bitcoin is tied to its utility and demand, and it is unlikely that either of these would drop to zero.

In 2021, I started investing in altcoins. When considering which altcoins to invest in, I choose primarily blue chips, often from the top 200 or top 300 on CoinMarketCap.

When deciding whether to invest in a token or not, I check what the company does, what big partnerships they have, what Tier-1 investors they got, and the growth potential.

But, of course, I had my losses. In the crypto winter, I lost 30% of my portfolio. But in terms of the initial investment amount, I didn’t lose much, and I think my investments will easily recover in the next bull market. It should start around 2024. 

As for my other mistakes, here are my biggest fiascos and what I have learned from them:

1. Losing private keys from a wallet.
   Lesson: check the private key several times, write it down, and keep it in several places.
2. Holding crypto on a centralized exchange just because it was convenient to hold altcoins there, and my assets were frozen for half a year.
   Lesson: not your keys — not your crypto. After buying crypto on centralized exchanges, immediately withdraw it to a decentralized wallet.
3. Not fixing profits.
   Lesson: It may be good not to sell anything on the rising bull market, but it is necessary to remember that at some point, there will be a big drop and bear market again, so it is better to fix at least part of the profits. One of the strategies is to sell half of the tokens each time your investment doubles.

“If you don’t have much money to invest now, better spend time learning. Then start working in crypto”

I do think that the easiest and safest way to make money from cryptocurrency is just to work in this industry and earn in cryptocurrency. Bitcoin and Ethereum will always rise in the long term, but they won’t make you a millionaire from the small initial investment.

If you expect higher returns and want to quickly make a big sum from $100 or something, you can start learning trading and trade with leverage. Still, in that case, you should be ready to lose it all.

Also read: Why you probably will not become a successful trader: Data Scientist explains

If you don’t have much money to invest now, you probably don’t have a high-paying job or a profitable business, so the best way is just to learn and get into the crypto industry full-time, which will open many doors for you and you will get a lot of opportunities, as well financial ones.

As for learning, you can do it on YouTube, for example. Among crypto YouTube channels, I like Bankless, Blockworks, Delphi Digital, and Tim Ferris. I watch a lot of interviews on YouTube as well. That’s how I know about some new projects or news updates about projects.

Once you are more or less proficient in crypto, you can earn in cryptocurrencies. Such jobs are usually higher paid, so you can have more money to invest. And if you work for startups, you can get their tokens early. 

There are as well variants to earn crypto even without initial investments. For example, for airdrops or bounty campaigns, you can get project tokens for free for actions such as joining the project’s social media and sharing info about them.