It started not with greed, but with curiosity. Five years ago, on a rainy October evening, I, as if enchanted, stared at the screen where numbers flashed, unbound to any country. 'Bitcoin', 'Ethereum' — these words sounded like spells from the future. I was scared. Scared to lose, scared to do something wrong.

And then I created an account on Binance. I remember the interface — clean, almost sterile, like the cabin of a spaceship, into which I, an earthly inhabitant, didn't know how to enter. I sent the first deposit of 100 dollars feeling as if I was tossing a coin into a bottomless well. I bought a tiny fraction of Bitcoin and some strange coin with a cute logo because I liked its name. That coin, of course, I lost. It dissolved into oblivion, and that was my first, most important lesson. Binance was not a magic wardrobe where all outfits turn to gold. It was a tool. Sharp, precise, but impartial.

The first year became the year of apprenticeship. I studied not the market — I studied myself. My greed, when after the first jump I wanted to invest everything. My fear, when the chart turned red, and my hand instinctively reached for the 'Sell all' button. Binance was my mirror. The 'Staking' and 'Savings' functions became a revelation for me. It wasn't just 'buy and wait', but an opportunity to make assets work, like a garden where you plant seeds and water them with patience. I invested part of my Ether in staking and called it my 'digital garden'.

In the second year, the first real storm happened — a 'bear' market. Everyone around was shouting about a crash. The charts were falling like leaves in late autumn. Many of my acquaintances left, calling it all a 'scam'. But I... I opened Binance and saw not a catastrophe, but an opportunity. While everyone was selling, I methodically, piece by piece, bought assets I believed in. I wasn't guessing; I was studying. Binance Academy became my textbook. During that period, I didn't get rich in money, but I became rich in knowledge. I stopped being a passenger; I became the navigator.

The third year is the year of maturity. I was no longer afraid. I trusted the tool. Binance added an NFT marketplace, and for me, it became a window into art. I bought my first NFT — not as a speculator, but as a collector who bought a painting I liked. I mastered P2P trading to help a friend from another country send money to his family. It was exciting: a stranger from another part of the world and I were pressing buttons, and a minute later, his face on a video call was illuminated by a smile. Cryptocurrency gained a human face.

In the fourth year, Binance and I acted in unison. It felt like a dance. I used Launchpad to participate in new projects, automated strategies with bots (carefully, like a surgeon). My portfolio was no longer a bunch of random coins but a well-thought-out ecosystem. I could allocate part of the assets to high-risk experiments, keep part in stablecoins as a digital safety cushion, and allow myself a small gift from the staking income. It was the excitement of a gardener finally reaping the rewards.

Now, in the fifth year. Binance for me is not just an app on my phone. It is part of my digital identity, my financial hub. I look at the BTC/USDT chart with the same calmness as I look at the weather forecast. It's just information. I value security: whitelists, two-factor authentication — my ritual, like morning coffee.

But the most important thing these five years with Binance gave me — is not profit (although there is some), but freedom. The freedom to understand the new rules of the world. The freedom to be my own bank. The freedom from the fear of the unknown.

Sometimes I go back to the 'Spot' section and look at my first transaction. The very one with the lost coin. And I smile. It’s like looking at a photo where you are young, naive, and standing at the threshold of a great journey, not even suspecting what seas and oceans you will have to cross.

Binance was my ship. And the most valuable cargo I acquired over these five years was myself, the captain, knowing my waters. #OneUnstoppableCommunity