After surviving in this market for ten years, my deepest insight comes down to one sentence: surviving is far more important than making quick profits.

On Christmas Eve 2018, my rented apartment in Shanghai was especially cold. Bitcoin dropped so fast in three days that it made me question my life choices—my account shrank from a floating profit of 4 million down to my 700,000 principal. Just three days before, I was calculating when I could achieve financial freedom; three days later, all I had left was the phrase "paper wealth, turned to ashes in the fire."

That 400,000 principal, along with my profits for the whole year, was completely wiped out by the market. But it was that crash that forced me to come up with three survival rules, paid for in real money. Relying on these, I climbed from 700,000 back up to my current eight-figure portfolio.

**Rule 1: Don’t treat leverage as wings—it’s a double-edged sword.**

Yes, 20x leverage once let me make 500,000 in a single day—it felt amazing. But when the “924” crackdown hit, my balance was almost wiped out in two hours—it felt like falling from the clouds straight into the ground. Now, my trading interface is permanently locked at 3x leverage, and no single coin position exceeds 5%. Don’t ask why I’m so conservative; the answer is I just want to survive a few more years.

**Rule 2: Mainstream coins are the anchor.**

I used to chase the “100x altcoin” dream too, holding onto 1.8 million in profits because I didn’t want to let go—then the project went to zero, and I lost everything. Now, 85% of my funds are honestly stored in mainstream coins like BTC and ETH, with the remaining 15% used to try out new coins. As long as I hold the basics, no matter how the market swings, I can stay on my feet.

**Rule 3: Stop-loss is the bottom line for survival.**

Holding on and averaging down after a 15% drop? I’ve tried it—the price was half an apartment. Now, every trade has a hard stop-loss at 8% set in advance. If it hits, I’m out—no hesitation. When losses go beyond 8%, it usually means my judgment was wrong. Admitting mistakes in time is the only way to keep my capital alive to recover.

There are plenty of opportunities in the market, but not much capital that survives long enough to catch them. My eight-figure account is, honestly, just the “interest” from following these three iron rules for ten years straight.

I used to grope blindly in the dark and got badly bruised. Now, I finally have a lamp in my hand—one that stays lit.