How I made 1,077% in two days last week
29th November 2021 |
Last week I made 1,077% over the course of two days in the crypto market.
I’m not telling you this to gloat. I’m telling you this because it’s an interesting story about the crypto markets. The story shows why it’s important to get to know them, and important to persist and understand how parts of the crypto world work.
So, let me set the scene and then explain how I did it.
Exchanges are annoying and also so much fun
One of the common pieces of feedback I get across my crypto publications at Southbank Investment Research, Sam Volkering’s Crypto Network and Crypto Profits Extreme, is the frustration people have with exchanges.
They have problems setting them up, interacting with the interfaces, getting funds into them, trading on them, getting funds out of them… it’s a long list.
Those are also just the issues with centralised exchanges. The complexity of decentralised exchanges is another level again.
Having been in this market for over a decade now, I’ve seen too many exchanges to remember. The number of exchange accounts I’ve set up over time is obscene.
And I’ve had good and horrific experiences with them.
The worst? Well Mt.Gox was never good to use. And… I am still waiting on about five and a half grand back from that debacle.
Then there was Cryptsy, which was the same thing as Mt.Gox, except for “alt-coins”. It just vanished one day. Then there was MintPal, which became Moopay but really was just a contrived steaming pile of cow manure from the outset.
Coinbase for many years now has been very good, though. I’ll admit that I first opened an account there in 2013… so I’m probably what you’d call one of its longer term supporters.
And even now I mean, I’ve got accounts with Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, Poloniex, Gemini, Bottlepay, Bitfinex, Bitpanda, Gate.io, HitBTC, FTX, Huobi, and many many more.
I don’t necessarily use them all. In fact, I rarely – if ever – use most of them. But I set up accounts to see what they’re like and to be ready to take advantage of opportunities that may come along.
What’s fascinating is they’ve all come a long way over the last decade. I mean a long way. They’re easier to use, have great mobile apps, and the breadth of services they offer is astounding.
I encourage you to get used to as many exchanges as you can. Open accounts. You don’t even have to use them, but sometimes obscure cryptos that might excite you can only be found on one of the smaller and lesser-known exchanges.
Note, I still don’t ever advocate holding large amounts on an exchange. Maybe it’s my chequered past with them failing, going bankrupt and losing crypto held on them…
The moral is: keep your hodls on wallets and devices which you have full access to and control of. You can keep some on exchanges to trade if you want, but always bear in mind if that an exchange fails, there is a good chance that you kiss goodbye to any crypto that you hold there.
Still, while exchanges are good, bad, ugly and everything in between, they are necessary. And sometimes, they can just be the most fun things in the world when it comes to this crazy market.
Which leads me to my story on how I made 1,077% in two days last week…
Big gains (at least in percentage terms)
I was having a look at some crypto that was listed on Gate.io as one of my recommendations in Crypto Profits Extreme was listed on there. Accordingly, I was just checking out the listing and the ease of transacting with that recommendation.
I noticed on the Gate.io menu bar a “hot” section called “Startup”. Curiously I clicked to find that Gate.io has a little section where new projects can raise funds to launch their token/project/network/etc.
What I really found interesting though was these “Startup” listings were all like 20-times, 50-times, some 1,000-times oversubscribed.
One was looking to raise $40,000. They ended up raising $48 million!
I also noted that it was free to participate in these “Startup” listings. Furthermore, when I looked at the charts on Gate.io when these tokens started trading… well, we’re talking about 1,000% and more for some of them within seconds of listing.
So, I figured I’d try and see if and how I could get involved.
I deposited a bunch of USDT into my account, and then applied for the next funding raise on Gate.io’s “Startup”.
I applied for $1,000 of tokens in the sale.
After the countdown clock expired, I checked to see if I was successful… I was!
Except…
The actual allocation wasn’t the full $1,000 I applied for. Due to the project being about 140-times oversubscribed, my allocation of tokens amounted to $1.44.
That’s right, from a $1,000 application I was allocated $1.44 of the token.
Bummer.
Anyway, I waited for the project to list on the boards. The countdown clock hit zero and the thing just took off!
Immediately it was up a couple of hundred per cent. I sold my $1.44 worth of tokens right away. All up, I cashed out for $4.52. Not exactly lifechanging money, but a 213% return.
Well, that was thrilling I thought. I might have a go at another one.
So I did the same thing. I applied for another, $1,000 worth, but this time I was allocated… 34 cents worth of tokens. This particular “Startup” reached 121,993% of its original funding goal.
Anyway, I waited for the listing and sold right into the immediate listing frenzy. I sold out for $1.37. Again, I am not going to get a Lambo(rghini) for that. But still, a 302% gain is never to be sniffed at.
This was a trajectory I was happy with. I kept going.
In total, I’ve now done this six times over the space of two days. Here are the results from this little experiment…
- $1.44 into $4.52 – 213% gain
- 34 cents into $1.37 – 302% gain
- $2.04 into $32.89 – 1,512% gain
- $1.44 into $3.84 – 166% gain
- $1.10 into $6.00 – 445% gain
- $1.04 into $38.48 – 3,600% gain
All up, I spent $7.40 on these “Startup” token sales.
And have walked away with $87.10. That makes a total gain of 1,077% in two days.
And… it was so much fun!
Look, the point of this little story is that exchanges are quirky, weird and have different elements that you discover and can play with.
The way these tokens sales are structured, you’re only ever going to get a tiny fraction of the allocation that you apply for. It’s certainly no way to build crypto wealth and you should only use money you’re comfortable potentially losing. It’s volatile but it sure is fun for a thrill seeking investor like me. And that’s the approach you need to take to exchanges and the crypto market: just have fun with it.
Remember to experiment, try, test, learn, be persistent and enjoy the ride.
Crypto to Know
Below is our “Crypto to Know” list where you’ll find several cryptos that we think you should be taking the time to learn and understand.
They each form an important part of the burgeoning crypto ecosystem.
Several of these cryptos are doing very different things to others.
What’s key is to learn that every crypto has its own use cases, its own guiding principles, and its own particular potential.
Each crypto is to be judged and assessed on its own merits.
Our aim here is to help you understand these cryptos and the wider crypto world.
These aren’t specific recommendations but a guide to help you learn and build your confidence in operating in this space.
We will add more names to this list over time. However, if you’re new to the world of crypto, these are the names where we think you should start your education and learning.
We’ve also added links to each one.
The links are to what we believe, in each case, is the best resource for learning about that crypto.
“Crypto to Know” watchlist
- Bitcoin –it/wiki/Main_Page
- Ethereum – ethereum.org/en/what-is-ethereum
- IOTA – docs.iota.org
- Tezos – https://tezos.com/learn/getting-started/
- Filecoin – docs.filecoin.io
- Cosmos – v1.cosmos.network/intro
- Binance – binance.com/en/about & research.binance.com/en/projects/bnb
- FTX – ftx.com & help.ftx.com/hc/en-us
- Solana – https://docs.solana.com/introduction
- Secret Network – https://scrt.network/about/about-secret-network
Sam Volkering
Editor, Sam Volkering’s Crypto Network
