Crypto Gist: How I Made My First Million With Crypto

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?

Hi, I’m Michael 

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

The best! The absolute best!

I love the energy!  When did you get started with crypto?

I first heard about crypto in 2018, but I opened my first wallet in 2019. I was a student from a humble background, and I was trying to supplement my allowance. Before then, I had tried multiple side hustles. I had written, worked as a personal trainer, and hosted parties to make money. In fact, the first cash I invested in crypto was made from organising a school party.

Oh Wow! That’s industrious. So how did you get started in crypto?

I’d say hustling. I wanted to earn an income and be independent, so I am always on the lookout for new ways to make money. I first heard about crypto from; I think it was from a medium article. It was talking about price gains, etcetera. I didn’t understand it. I thought it was stocks or something and only limited to the US because I hadn’t heard people talking about it in Nigeria. 

I thought it’d be cool to invest in this and cash out too, but as I said, I’d didn’t have a lot of information about it, so I thought it wasn’t for me. For some reason, crypto started popping more into my feed. I think you might have experienced it such that when you read or google about something, it keeps coming up on your radar. Well, it did. I would read sometimes and mostly ignored it. The more I read, the more confusing it was for me.

How so?

I first thought it was stocks, then it became money, and the features were super confusing. Like they’d say it was decentralised, and I’m like, how’s that my business as long as I get to spend it?

Interesting, so what convinced you?

Several more people started talking about it, and I could ask questions and get clarity. Even when I invested, I didn’t fully understand it, but I got enough information to understand it was an innovation bridging barriers in the financial ecosystem. As long as it solved a problem, I believed it would grow, and more people would get familiar with it. From what I calculated, an innovation meant money in the future. 

That’s a nice perspective, and I guess it paid off, right?

It wasn’t easy, but yes, it did. I think crypto newbies are the luckiest. They can easily access information about crypto and buy crypto. They didn’t have to do it the hard way like some of us. My first time buying crypto was simply crazy. I first had to change Naira to dollars, open an account with a VPN account, and then buy the cryptocurrency. I not only lost money via the currency exchange, but then it took longer to process, and the cryptocurrency would have changed in that time. But now you can easily buy crypto with naira and learn about it without stress. 

It’s still stressful for beginners getting familiar with the crypto community, but at least they don’t have to go through certain hurdles I faced. 

That’s true!

Getting started, I even got more confused. I didn’t know how to read the market, and It seemed like I was gambling with my funds. And I was wary about withdrawal costs too, so I couldn’t precisely access my profits either, not that there were any. I don’t think I made any profits for months. If anyone told you crypto was an easy way to get rich fast, hold them because they lied!

Hahaha! 

It was majorly a test run, and I soon realised that I wouldn’t make any money if I didn’t understand it. Fortunately, by then, a few of my guys now had also invested so we could share our crypto woes. From lamentations and complaints, I’d pick up a few lessons, like not staying up to date with happenings in the space and not taking note of the history and trends of previous events.

Eventually, I read some books on market analysis, and then I started making profits. Or I thought I was? Honestly, the first year wasn’t my smoothest. I say crypto is the best because it gave me a boost, but I suffered losses and almost gave up. It’s safe to say if you’ve never felt like quitting at a point, you’ve never really traded crypto.

I was frustrated, but I took more notes and took time to track my profits. I went to classes worn out because I didn’t sleep or was thinking about my portfolio.

That’s something!

It paid off eventually. I made my first million ever with crypto! I won’t lie; I went to a club and blew off some of it. 

Hehe, you earned it!

Yes, I did! It was worth it. I am more settled with myself. A lot of things went down; I may have been close to tears at one point. But yeah, that’s a journey I’d be happy to take again. It was hard, but I had a lot of lessons, and now I have diversified my profits into other business ventures. I still make losses, but now I don’t beat myself up about it; I simply pick up and learn from it.

That’s amazing! If you could share some of your lessons with the crypto community, what would you recommend?

You have a lot of tools and information at your fingertips. Use it! I think that’s very important. Forget everything you think you know because you’d discover you know nothing. Don’t compare others' stories to yours. My guy! What works for someone else might lead to losses. Be analytical; don’t just chase the profits; trust me, it pays off!

That’s insightful. Thank you for your time, Michael.

It was great to be here also. 

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