Why do you buy cryptocurrencies? For investment or for speculation? If you dream of getting rich overnight and buy any coins when the price is rising, then you are so doomed.

Cryptocurrencies are like sirens who lure you to invest with their enchanting music and voices. You get blinded by their beauty and fail to realize you are embarking on a journey of no return. Try as you may, you just can’t figure out what’s going on with the market. It is so complicated and so bizarre. You never imagined it could be so hard. It’s even harder than breaking up with someone. Frankly, if I could go back and do it again, well I would not.

In the world of cryptocurrency, if you failed, does that say you didn’t hold coins long enough?

On May 22, 2014, Ripple Labs co-founder Jed McCaleb announced on the XRP community forum that he was planning on dumping his entire holdings of roughly 9 billion XRP that represented around 9% of the total XRP in existence.

“I have given away and donated some of my 9 billion XRP to charities such as MIRI, Literacy Bridge, Give Directly, Mission Bit and others. I plan to start selling all of my remaining XRP beginning in two weeks. Because I have immense respect for the community members and want to be transparent, I’m publicly announcing this before I start. So just fyi…. xrp sales incoming.”

It was not clear why McCaleb chose to dump, but not surprisingly, XRP prices immediately dropped 40 percent to just 0.01 yuan in just a few hours.

On the very same day, I wrote an article encouraging people to hold their XRPs, but most people already lost their confidence and sold their XRPs once and for all. Today, the price of XRP is 1.2 yuan, so if you didn’t sell your coins at that time, you would have earned a lot now.

The price I need to pay as an investor

When I went through bear markets in 2014 and 2015, I realized that I can only invest in coins like bitcoin that have its own community. I spend great time and energy studying bitcoin. I made mistakes and learned my lessons. I gradually become introverted, spending less with my family and friends. I cut myself from the rest of the world. Sometimes I get so lonely and talk to myself. It sounds miserable, like being in a labyrinth, and I am desperate to find a way out.

But I know all these are what I must pay.

Have faith in bitcoin

The inception of Bitcoin helped open a door onto a whole new world for us. It shows that people are actually placing trust in technology. I know that the PBOC is not supportive of bitcoin and the idea of decentralization, but this is just another challenge bitcoin is facing. If bitcoin failed to survive all the tough regulations, you cannot blame the PBOC but bitcoin itself.