Man loses life savings trying to escape ‘mediocre life’ by betting on Bitcoin

Many of us are familiar with the innovative cryptocurrency Bitcoin - it could, potentially, be the future of finance, but right now, it’s volatile.

In the Reddit thread r/bitcoin, an anonymous Redditor detailed his story of going beyond just owning Bitcoin - by betting on future price trends to help him and his wife to “exit our mediocre life.”

“During the last years, me and my wife have put in Bitcoins everything we had and slowly managed to reach 1.7 BTC, our entire life savings, 10 years of grinding and accepting odd jobs trying to save every dollar possible and buying every BTC amount we could,” the Redditor wrote.

When BTC began to rise from “$30k to $40k,” the Redditor said that he started to watch YouTube videos to explain how to “earn more,” “trade futures,” and “leverage.”

“In [a] matter of hours my YouTube feed was completely flooded by videos of Michael Saylor, one of the world['s] top CEOs betting hard on BTC by doubling and tripling down his BTC holdings and claiming it would easily go to a million each BTC, I was HOOKED,” he wrote.

Wanting to be a “hero” for his wife, he made the decision (despite not knowing what he was doing) to bet on future trades, which resulted in him managing to turn “1.7 BTCs into 2.1 BTCs.”

“I have put all ours 2.1 BTCs on a leveraged future for BTC going to $100k, and I was already envisioning the 21 BTCs (worth about $1m) in profit. I saw this as a gateway to exit our mediocre life,” the Redditor said.

But, it didn’t work in his favor.

“ BTC went from touching $50k down to $47k, and our whole life savings have been wiped out,” he wrote.

The Redditor also noted that he hasn’t mentioned the situation to his wife and is “simply devastated” as the money was supposed to help them in the future.

He concluded his post by offering advice to people on how not to fall into the “marketing traps.”

“Just HODL [hold on for dear life], BTC is the best thing ever happened to humanity, just HODL and don’t risk your beloved BTCs like I did.”

Fellow Redditors took to the comments expressed why leveraged funds should be treated with care.

“That s*** is legit dangerous, and the average investor shouldn’t touch it with a 10m pole,” someone wrote.

“Cautionary tale - when you are trying something new, only place a small bet to ensure you understand the consequences. Never bet the farm, never,” another added.

Someone else wants him to come clean to his wife and plan to rebuild his funds.

“Sorry to hear that, man. Be honest with your wife. Tell her your heart and beg for forgiveness. Then come up with a plan and rebuild your stack. And don’t ever attempt to surprise your spouse by making a move with your entire combined life savings again. She has a right to know and not be surprised, either good or bad,” they wrote.

The "hodling”  method ( which is the misspelling of “hold” allows investors to avoid losing money due to cryptocurrencies’ short-term volatility while gaining profits from long-term value appreciation.

Investors may be subjected to dramatic ups and downs in asset values, implying that they must have significantly higher risk tolerances than investors in traditional financial vehicles.

To avoid forced sales or meet unanticipated liquidity needs, they must have sufficient capital capacity.