The cryptocurrency market can create wealth myths overnight and can also lead to disappointment and exit in just one night. Only a few people can endure multiple bull and bear cycles in this market and persist for ten years.

Today, we have invited Bitget's experienced user Migo, a professional trader who graduated from Peking University and entered the crypto market in 2016. He witnessed the ICO craze and numerous deep bear market pullbacks, achieving a 9000-fold return over ten years, yet he has never left this market. He may not be the luckiest one, but he is one of the longest-standing people in this group. What supports him in staying is not luck, but discipline—and an unending curiosity about this market.

Peking University Alumni Leading the Way: Ethereum Doubled in a Week, Changing the Career Path

Migo entered the crypto market due to a friend's push.

While studying at Peking University, Migo had never engaged in any form of trading but rather had an extremely conservative investment style of "putting money in Alipay's money market fund," thinking that making a few yuan daily was quite good.

A turning point occurred in 2016. His childhood friend—also a Peking University alumnus and proficient in various computer technologies—mentioned Bitcoin and Ethereum to him. Ethereum just launched in 2015 and started the first wave of altcoin fervor in 2016. Coincidentally, that summer, an Italian friend of Migo purchased a few Ethereum for a few euros, pricing at three to four euros each, and after a summer, the price rose three to four times.

"Although it wasn't much money, at that time, anything you bought seemed to rise quite a bit, and fell quite a bit too." His friend told him he should give it a try.

Migo, usually conservative, decided to try his hand and invested a few thousand yuan. Doubling in a week made him feel the excitement of cryptocurrency.

Afterward, he started downloading apps that aggregated Ethereum news and prices, studying for two weeks. At that time, the core narrative of Ethereum was "a world-class decentralized supercomputer," which he found increasingly interesting as he delved into it. After his research, he made a decision that seemed bold at the time—investing his girlfriend's entire savings of 70,000 yuan into Ethereum and riding the wave into the 2017 bull market.

Notably, the childhood friend who led him into the circle later took a completely different path—focusing on primary market investments, joining Bitmain to manage VC business, and even participating in the company’s IPO. “We went in completely different directions; I am purely engaged in secondary market trading while he is in primary investments. Two Peking University students in the crypto industry both persevered, which is quite interesting.”

ICO Frenzy and Unforgettable Pullbacks:

2017 was the craziest year for the entire crypto market, with the logic of the ICO craze being extremely simple and crude: a newly issued token would almost certainly rise once it hit the exchange. Any random WeChat group would fill up to 500 people once a project white paper was shared, with everyone rushing to transfer funds for subscriptions, creating endless chains. “At that time, if you invested in any coin and it just doubled, you would be very disappointed—because most impressive projects at least went up five times, many even ten times, and exceptionally outstanding ones a hundred times. Especially between May and October 2017, it was truly intoxicating.”

Migo also invested in numerous ICO projects and learned many trading lessons: “For example, I often thought the market might drop, so I cleared out all my positions. Then, I would wake up to find it had risen by 30% to 40%. After missing out, I panicked and quickly bought back all the money. I realized my mindset was completely off.” This experience made him realize that he should either refrain from trading altogether or earnestly learn how to trade. From that moment on, he began to systematically study candlestick charts, starting with technical analysis and gradually practicing with real capital.

After the frenzy, two pullbacks followed sequentially.

The first one was on September 4, 2017. China announced the ban on ICOs and exchange operations, causing the market to plummet by 50% within a week. For Migo, this was not the worst—many of the altcoins and ICO tokens he held went to zero, resulting in an overall pullback of about 70% to 80%. “Most of my friends, probably only my childhood friend and one other guy stayed in the market; all the others basically left.”

The second one came in the first half of 2018. The ICO projects he had bet on in 2017 started to collapse: more than half of the teams directly fled, and the others, although they didn't run away, had tokens that remained unlisted on mainstream exchanges, making it impossible to cash out. “At that time, there were no DEXes, and if they didn't go on mainstream exchanges, there was no way to withdraw funds. That money just disappeared.”

With two major pullbacks overlapping, assets drastically shrank, and the people around him nearly all disappeared. But Migo did not leave.

Trading Methodology: Luck Determines the Upper Limit, Discipline Determines the Lower Limit

When discussing his trading methodology, Migo stated clearly:

“Luck determines your upper limit; it decides how much you can earn in one wave. But discipline determines your lower limit; discipline ensures that I don’t go bankrupt.”

Many people see Migo frequently calling trades on Twitter and claiming he has "been liquidated again," thinking he is a reckless gambler who does not account for risks. But after a deep conversation, they will find that there is a very clear position management logic within his trading system.

His core strategy is: use relatively small capital for contracts, and once the account reaches a certain scale, immediately withdraw at least half. “I might use tens of thousands yuan to achieve 50 times in a month. Then I will withdraw at least half. The remaining half continues to gamble there—there’s a chance of liquidation, and a chance of doubling. But as long as the withdrawn half goes into a better investment, the overall result is a win.”

He honestly stated that he goes bankrupt every year, sometimes even once every few months. “This is normal. You are using very small capital, betting on something that is highly volatile. You have to accept that liquidation will come and be prepared for it.”

In his view, the spot account and contract account are two completely different logics.

“Spot is where wealth accumulation is most likely to happen. As long as you dollar-cost average into Bitcoin or Ethereum, the number of coins will increase. As long as you see the long-term trend for it, these accumulations will eventually be realized.” He even started setting up a retirement fund for his parents years ago, purchasing Bitcoin weekly while allocating some Ethereum as a long-term asset reserve.

Contracts, on the other hand, are a different matter. “Contracts are primarily for short-term trading, expecting liquidation is a given, and any profit must have half withdrawn. That is a hard rule.”

The funds withdrawn he would use for dollar-cost averaging quality assets, or purchasing physical gold. “I go to a construction bank every month to reserve a gold bar directly. This prevents me from impulsively turning it back into contract funds. The money in exchanges is not yours, and the figures in your bank account are also virtual; you need to transform it into tangible assets of real life—buy a house, buy a car, travel with family—that’s what truly belongs to you.”

He summarized the essential difference between spot and contracts in one sentence: “Spot is to accumulate wealth, while contracts are to strive for excess returns. The two should not be confused.”

Predicting Market Scripts: The Relative Science Behind "Blind Statements" Is Capturing Liquidity

Migo has a series of widely circulated Bitcoin level predictions on Twitter, starting from 73,000 rising to 80,000, then dropping below 60,000 and going back to 94,000, 74,000, 137,000…these predictions tend to be quite accurate on a large scale, gaining him a lot of attention and sparking some controversies.

He is remarkably calm about it: “To some extent, it is just blind statements. All future predictions are blind, I'm not a deity. But there is logic supporting it—it’s relatively scientific blind statements.”

His core analytical framework is built on the logic of capturing liquidity.

“A bear market is a zero-sum game, the overall capital pool is shrinking. When liquidity is insufficient, if the market oscillates at a certain position for too long, it will definitely move to an extreme position to capture liquidity. Either it will push up to draw a batch of people in, or it will crash down to shake a batch of people out, thus completing the redistribution of liquidity.”

He provided a concrete example to illustrate this logic: “If bad news is pouring in—Trump, Iran, Israel fighting like that—and Bitcoin doesn’t break below 60,000 dollars, what does that indicate? It indicates there isn't enough fuel for it to keep falling; the market needs to go up first to trap a batch of long positions, and these people will be forced to cut losses in the subsequent decline, which can lead to a genuine effective drop. That’s why I said, let it rise to 80,000 first, then drop below 60,000. This is not random; it is based on a judgment of the market liquidity logic, combined with years of chart observation experience and intuition.”

Additionally, Migo pointed out that the November 3 midterm elections in the U.S. will be an important time node: “Before the elections, they will likely find ways to boost the stock market. If the stock market takes off, funds will flow into the crypto market, and Bitcoin will rise alongside. But be aware, this market trend may end early because by then, the market makers will already be very profitable and will take a lead to escape, leaving retail investors trapped at the peak. So as we approach October, I will personally become very cautious.”

Why Choose to Trade on Bitget: No Hiccups During Big Market Movements

Regarding his choice of trading tools, Migo gave a straightforward evaluation of Bitget.

“Having used all exchanges, Bitget's App is the smoothest. For instance, during the big market movement on October 11, other platforms were severely lagging, but Bitget never lagged once, nor did it crash. This is crucial.”

He revealed his normal trading volume: a small position of 5 to 10 BTC and a large position of 50 to 100 BTC bought in two or three batches. “Liquidity is entirely unproblematic, and slippage won't have a particularly large impact.”

Regarding fees, he also mentioned that with the VIP rate added, “the fees are basically negligible”—this is a real cost-saving measure for traders.

Advice for New Entrants: Going Bankrupt Twice Is the Start of an Investment Career

At the end of the interview, Migo shared a few pieces of advice for newcomers.

First, never borrow money to trade crypto. “Don’t use money you don’t have; don’t take out loans to trade crypto. This is a very irresponsible action and carries immense risk.”

Second, manage spot and contracts separately. “Use the spot account to dollar-cost average quality assets and accumulate wealth, while the contract account is for short-term trading, expecting liquidation is a default condition, and any profit must have half withdrawn.”

Third, turn the earned money into tangible things. “The money in exchanges isn’t yours. The money in your bank account is also virtual. If you don’t convert it into joy in life, like buying a house, a car, or travelling with family, then that money is virtual. Spending the money on yourself is what truly makes it yours.”

Fourth, learning to take profits is harder than learning to cut losses. “Learning to cut losses may take just one time. But taking profits, one might be learning it for a lifetime. Because everyone has greed.”

He concluded with a statement that might be the most concise summary of his ten years of trading career: “I often say that going bankrupt twice is the beginning of an investment career. One bankruptcy may not be enough to learn more things.”