I heard a case some time ago that I still remember vividly.

A trader took a huge hit in the market—300,000 USDT almost entirely evaporated, with only 10,000 USDT left in the account. That feeling of falling from a great height is probably like standing on the edge of a cliff and looking down into the abyss. At that time, this person was already on the verge of collapse, thinking she might never recover from this in her lifetime.

The result? Five months later, not only did she fill the hole, but she also made an extra 50,000 USDT.

Sounds like some kind of magical operation? In fact, the method was surprisingly simple, even a bit “clumsy”—but it was precisely this clumsiness that hit the core logic of surviving in the crypto world.

Looking back at her early trading records, it was practically a textbook example of what not to do as a beginner: whenever she saw a coin soaring, she couldn’t resist jumping in; after the price plunged, she stubbornly refused to cut her losses, always telling herself, “Let’s wait a bit, maybe it’ll rebound.” Once emotions took over, going all in became routine. There was no strategy whatsoever.

The turning point started with a “forced break”—an entire week without touching any trades, just doing one thing: pulling out all the losing trades and reviewing them one by one. The conclusion was painful but clear: 90% of the losses came from two fatal flaws—emotional trading and lack of stop-loss discipline. The former made her constantly chase pumps and dumps, while the latter turned small losses into big holes.

To address these two issues, she set two iron rules: the maximum loss per trade was locked at 5%, and if the total daily loss hit 10%, she would stop immediately—even if the market presented more tempting opportunities later, she wouldn’t move.

Next was the practical application of the “steady profit method.” She only traded near key price levels of mainstream coins like BTC and ETH—support or resistance levels—with stop-losses precisely set 1.5% outside the critical level, never relying on luck. More importantly: as soon as a single trade reached 5% profit, she would immediately pull out the principal and use only the pure profit to continue trading. This way, even if subsequent trades went wrong, the principal remained safe and risk was minimized.

Finally, there was a small move: she carved out 2,000 USDT from the 10,000 USDT to spread across three small-cap coins. But this wasn’t blind buying—each pick went through two rounds of screening: first, on-chain data showed large holders’ positions were stable with no signs of mass selling; second, exchange reserves were steadily decreasing, which usually meant funds were quietly accumulating, with strong expectations of a pump.

Just these three strategies. In three months, 10,000 USDT became 150,000 USDT; after five months, not only was the loss recovered, but there was an extra 50,000 USDT in profit.

To be honest, in this market, 10,000 USDT is never a dead end. What’s truly fatal is the obsession with recovering losses quickly—always thinking of going all-in to make a comeback, but usually sinking deeper as a result. 99% of people die in this psychological trap.

The survival rule in crypto is actually very simple: it’s not about who runs faster, but who survives longer. Patience, discipline, risk control—these things that seem “slow” are often the fastest shortcuts.