Crypto Trader Loses $250,000 In January, Swears Off Leverage: I'm A 'Changed Man Now'

An anonymous cryptocurrency trader, aptly named "Tarded Degen Gambler," shared a screenshot of a massive six-figure trading loss on X (formerly Twitter). But the reaction he received to sharing his losses was anything but encouraging.

What Happened: The trader in question went viral with a Jan. 3 post showing a $161,000 liquidation loss:

As he clarifies in the replies, the screenshot is missing another $40,000 in unrealized profits from the previous today.

By his own account, "Tarded Degen Gambler" had gone from $20,000 to $425,000 between August and December 2023 but lost $250,000 in January 2024.

After his viral post, he went on a proverbial tear, complaining about massive losses in the following days with messages like "Want to kill myself so bad" and consistent updates of his trading positions, mostly losses.

But the straw that broke the camel's back was a Jan. 22 post, where he complained about stress, headaches and "nausea every hour."

That invited a response from "PC Principal," another anonymous cryptocurrency trader, that starts off with the words: "Forgive me if this sounds harsh but you need to stop being a f--ng gambler and start acting like an adult."

The stern advice given was to "trade like a normal person" with basic risk management rules, get off social media, and use the exchange's cooldown feature to prevent bad decisions. Undisciplined or emotional trades would inevitably lead to losing it all.

Read Also: How to Trade Cryptocurrency

Why It Matters: Rags-to-riches stories are a dime a dozen in the cryptocurrency space: the dogwifhat millionaire and the Vitalik Buterin moonshot come to mind. 

But many big wins in cryptocurrency trading also involve insider trading - such as this $550,000 profit - or advanced trading strategies and a lot of capital, such as a multi-million dollar winning trade in which a trader turned $681,000 into $6.77 million in three hours.

As PC Principal puts it: "There's no glory in being a r---d that runs up $10k into a million in a week." Without the skills and the knowledge gained along the way, the riches are most likely only temporary. It even happened to the "Dogecoin millionaire," who went from $3 million to $50,000 in Dogecoin DOGE/USD.

Consistent investments over time, even into a memecoin like Shiba Inu SHIB/USD are the safer strategy - you'd be a half-millionaire by putting $10 into SHIB every month since 2021.

What's Next: In a Jan. 23 screenshot, "Degen Tarded Gambler" confirmed the liquidation, adding that "I'm changed man now" and vowing to use "0 leverage" in the future to not get fully liquidated again.

Read Next: 'Vivek Wanted This:' Trump Pledges Yet Again To Reject CBDCs, Calls Them 'Dangerous Threat To Freedom'

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