Crypto Gist: Charles’ Journey Navigating Risky Crypto Investments

Crypto Gist is a series that highlights the stories of real people around Africa around cryptocurrencies. Our guests share their crypto experiences - intro to crypto, wins, scams, losses and lessons. Would you like to tell your story? Don’t hesitate. Fill out this form to share your story.

Hello, Can we meet you?

I’m Charles, a business owner in South Africa.

It’s fantastic to have you here, Charles. How would you describe your crypto experience in one word?

Not a word, but I’d say it's been full of lessons.

Good lessons?

Hahaha, not at first, but now I found a way to appreciate them. 

Intriguing! When did you first hear about crypto?

2019! That’s when I decided to invest in crypto.

No, hesitation?  Nice! A lot of people mention they hesitated first.

Well, not me. I liked the idea of a digital currency. I still get intrigued by it. Anyways I heard about crypto via an ad. I looked it up and got even more excited about my investment. However, I was no fool! I knew I lacked the knowledge to run a profitable crypto wallet.

What did you do then?

I still ventured and invested a small capital in crypto. I traded passively from 2019 to 2020. I made losses but still made profits, but I felt there was an opportunity to earn more. I am very busy, and running my personal business was tasking. I wanted to invest in crypto, but I felt I didn’t have the time. I regret that now because I realised I could have still handled it instead of losing it all.

What happened?

I’m a risk taker, which is necessary in my work. And that’s what I thought I was doing, taking a risk. It was a risk, true, but one that cost a lot. I met some folks who ran a crypto investment platform. The idea was to invest in crypto and get a guaranteed 20% profit every month. Maybe the “guaranteed” profit should have thrown me off, but it didn’t. They had a minimum investment of 25,000 rands. I wanted the best, so I invested about 50,000 rands. My business was doing excellent then, and I could transfer money I planned for expansion into it. 

I got my first two payments, and like the intelligent investor I was, I invested my profits back. As I mentioned, I invested money meant for expansion into the crypto team. I was expecting that after probably six months, I’d take out the money and launch a larger scale investment. 

How did that work out?

Obviously, they ran a long scam, and I fell super hard for it. The worst part is I got a few people inside, people curious about crypto but didn’t know how to invest. After six months, I thought I could go longer; the longer I stayed, the more money I’d get, or so I thought. About the 7th month, I started hearing ground talks about how it might be a scam. I immediately asked to withdraw my money, forfeiting the gains for the 7th month. I didn’t get a dime back.
Wow, that’s awful!

I lost my footing because if I pulled my money earlier, I would have earned a profit, or if I invested the money in the business, I could have made my profits eventually. I was mainly beating myself up about that, but who wouldn’t? 

Do you still invest in crypto today?

Not exactly! I still don’t have much time on my hands, less time than before. But I found a way to input crypto into my business. That’s with accepting payments in stablecoins, and that’s been amazing. And my customers shipping outside the country can easily pay me in USDT, and I earn from the price fluctuations because of the money that is moved around. In fact, with the recent inflation most of my funds are in stablecoins.

That’s great to hear.

Yeah, it calmed down my risk-taking personality. Now if someone has an idea, I research until I cover every detail. That’s what I didn’t do with my previous investment. When I reviewed the contract terms after the investment scheme shut down, I realised loopholes I could have seen that would have prevented me from making that investment in the first place. 

Now, I understand why you said it's been full of lessons. If you could advise crypto newbies today, what would be your recommendations?

You’d never have enough time, and while the idea of someone doing all the work for you sounds simple, it's very risky. It’s best to start with what you can afford to lose and then expand as you can in your own space. Crypto wasn’t created for you to make money, yes it’s an excellent investment, but the use cases of crypto should serve as an inspiration.

That’s insightful! It was great to have you here, Charles.

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