In 2022, my brother held a wedding, and in the best man's room, after a few rounds of drinks, he jokingly self-deprecated: "I'm already 31, yet I still have to rely on my parents for the dowry money."

In that moment, I raised my glass with a smile, but inside, it felt like a needle had pricked me. That night when I got home, I opened the exchange and watched as SOL dropped from 109U to 89U, thinking: "Is there going to be a rebound? Let's take a chance!"

So, I poured in all my savings of 90,000 that I had accumulated over two years.

In the following days, the market seemed to be playing with me. SOL rose from 80U to 95U, and I stared at that string of numbers, my heart racing as if it was going to jump out of my throat. At that moment, I felt like I was about to turn my fortunes around; taking profit? What a joke! This wave would definitely break a hundred!

But three days later, the market reversed and plunged into the abyss.

SOL collapsed all the way down to 40 dollars, and the liquidation alert lit up on the screen; my account was left with only 200U for fees. My hands trembled so much that I couldn't even click to exit, and tears welled up in my eyes. That night, I experienced for the first time what it meant to face the "knife of the crypto world"—it was so cold it made me sober.

Later, I understood that a true veteran is not the one who makes the most money, but the one who dares to cut losses, can remain calm, and knows when to retreat.

The crypto world is not a casino, but a psychological battle.

Not setting take-profit or stop-loss is just exchanging life for experience.

That 90,000 was the most expensive tuition I paid in the crypto world.

But it was also that liquidation that forced me to rewrite all my operational rules.

Now my account has multiplied dozens of times, but every time I open a position, I think of that joking remark and the remaining balance of 200U.

Brother, if you want to survive in the crypto world, remember:

The market can come back, but if the principal is gone, it’s truly gone.

The first rule of survival in the crypto world is not "how to get rich quickly," but—how to not die.

Now I've made it out, how about you? Ask yourself, do you willingly want to be a lifetime leek? Or do you want to become the one who laughs last?