Last December's market movement left a deep impression on me. Bitcoin plummeted from 100,000 to 87,000, with over $200 million in liquidation in a single day. Many people were crying out that the crypto world was over. But that day, I actually felt a bit happy—not out of schadenfreude, but because I neither lost money nor was I affected; I even made some profit from the decline.

It’s a bit painful to admit, but since I entered the crypto space in 2019 with 30,000 yuan, Bitcoin had just rebounded from its 2018 lows, and everywhere in the market there were voices saying "a bull market is coming." But anyone who has truly been in the crypto world knows there’s no real "pattern" to follow. Six years have passed in the blink of an eye, and those 30,000 yuan mean something different to me now.

I’ve seen a lot. There are those who become overnight millionaires, but more often, people lose everything in a flash. When Bitcoin hit $126,000 in October 2025, many thought the sky was falling—yet, just three months later, it retraced over 30%. Those playing with high leverage? They had long been ruthlessly wiped out by the market.

Why did I survive, and even make a small profit? Ultimately, it’s because I relied on a few "dumb methods," but most retail investors simply look down on them.

**First trap: Don’t panic during rapid rises and slow declines**

The most classic way to get "liquidated" in crypto is FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). When a coin rapidly surges, retail investors’ eyes turn red, thinking it’s a chance to get rich overnight. But based on my experience, after a quick rally, a slow decline often signals the market’s "shakeout."

Take a DeFi token I traded in 2025 as an example. I bought in, and within less than a week, it rose 50%. It sounded great, but then it started to decline slowly. I felt really uncomfortable at the time, but I didn’t rush to sell. Looking closely at the chart: trading volume was shrinking, and the price remained above key support levels. What does this indicate? It’s a typical shakeout pattern. And what happened later? It indeed continued to rise.

So the core logic is: **Watch the trading volume, watch the support levels.** A decline with insufficient volume is often just a shakeout, not a top.