Finally, I was able to get this one down on paper, digital paper that is. After being silent in my blog for more than 3 months, promising a few peeps to contribute to some challenges, promising the same peeps to be more active, it was about time.
But NO!
No post about Collections, no post about Music or a story with Music in the mix. Nope, nothing of that sort.
Sorry. You peeps I made promises to. You'll have to wait for a little bit longer.
Rather a post that is a typical entry into Edje's diary.
Not that I - edje - ever started a diary, not in the digital space, not in the pen/paper space.
I'll make it easy on you since my gut tells me that this is gonna be a mucho longer post than I was set out to write. The paragraphs you find in this post:
- Investment/Divesting Methods: My Takeaways & Learnings
- Revisiting my Learnings: the one under 1
- My Most Recent IDO Experience: My Diary Entry
Most say "First Things First"
Therefore, I do it the other way around:
First the boring stuff, the third point on the agenda
and then the Learnings, the first two items on the agenda
Bored already?
skip this post altogether {not the best advice I can give, but at least an advice}
My Most Recent IDO experience {My Diary Entry}
To start with, you should know that I am a notorious HODLer. In almost anything. And - sometimes, unfortunately - in crypto investments as well. Have been around since 2016. Since 2017 playing around with tiny funds: The mother of all tokens as well as plenty of her offspring, the Alts. This means I am heading into my third bull run. Not saying I knew I was in a bull run back in 2017. Or what a bull run was. By now this is clear to me, I think, I hope {though hope is never a solution to anything, they say}.
A few months ago - as far as I can remember - a new token was socialised in the News section as well as community channels of this launchpad called Tenset (aka 10SET). Something about ETFX-something.
It caught my Interest!
Engraved in my mind to regularly check in on the progress.
In the meantime, a few other launch announcements. Other tokens. Also engraved in my mind to follow and enter with whatever allocation they will give out. When those happened, easy peasy. Between 100 and 200$ allocation. Some BUSD, USDT and USDC I had lying around did the job. Enter and forget modus.
But what about this ETFX thingy?
At some stage, forgot all about it.
And then, a weekend night just before the new week started. The urge to check upon this. The place to look: My NEWS folder in Telegram. Voilà: an announcement was made. A few days ago. Timeframe to enter, about to start; Monday 10AM. Allocation? More than a few dollars: 600 of them.
Time: start of night already.
Early rise the next day.
But the night owls need to wait.
BUT BUT BUT ... what chain?
Oopsy! Ethereum...
No funds. Bridge? Which one? Need it now!
Then I remembered Pancakeswap had a handful of bridges. One I used for an entry to another token, on yet another chain.
Voilà. That bridge also supported Ethereum.
Intermezzo: the Struggle to get Funds
Remember I didn't have much funds? The funds I had I did spend on the other IDO entries. "What to sell?", was the biggest question, expecting this one to receive quite a bigger allocation.
Fortunately, I found some funds a week before. Or better said, I knew I had funds in some staking pool over at a gambling house. Never gambled, but the staking rewards were always good, between 250% when I started a few years ago, with about 60% still today. The underlying asset value rock bottom but stable in the last years. Never wanted to exit, but tried it now. And when I tried, I wasn't able to move funds from the service to my wallet. Needed to gamble for 10 dollars to be allowed to transfer out.
WTF? The service told me last few years Dutch peeps are not allowed to gamble using their service. Am not a gambler AND am not allowed to gamble > "What to do?"
Ok, did send them a support ticket. Explaining the whole situation.
The response I got within a few hours: To exit one needs to gamble, everybody, no acceptions. No comment on me not being allowed by their Terms & Conditions (T&C) to gamble. Me being from the Netherlands. My subsequent question regarding their other T&C which told me: "We are allowed to block all your funds when you do something against our T&C", wasn't followed up with a response. Not quickly; Not slowly.
Days waiting ... still no response ...
What now?
Ok, let's do the gambling thingy. 3000+ games. Within a minute a randomly selected one. Dumped 10 dollars worth of tokens into it, and pressed the button. BOOM... a win! 10 dollars became 20 dollars.
Should I try another time?
Gambling can be so ridiculously addictive!
Why Not. Click!
BOOM, another win! 10 became 40 dollars. A mighty 4x!
Again?
I got myself under control, fortunately. The house always wins! That's a given. That was also the reason why I entered their token and farm in the first place. A percentage of the winnings was spent on rewards for the stakers. The house always wins!
Tried - again - to exit my tokens.
A test amount at first.
Sweating!
"Will this work? Does the system let me exit my funds?"
{waiting}
nothing
{get coffee}
5 minutes later with coffee-in-da-making on the stove: refresh page
pfffff... funds arrived in my wallet! stress levels dropped very very quickly
Entering the IDO
Bridge found. Clikerdeeclickerdeeclick ... waiting a bit ... and voilà ... Funds at Ethereum. A few more clicks and I could finally get some sleep. The clock showed me a number that made me realise the night would be short. "Just hope my colleagues will be able to handle me. You know very well Dear Diary, with just 5 hrs of sleep I can get a bit cranky."
Didn't realise but in hindsight, GAS fees were lowish. But that aside.
Monday around 10AM. Distanced myself from my colleagues. Time to enter.
"Oopsy. GAS fees weren't what it was yesterday night."
35 dollars it says.
Wait till later?
Decisions Decisions Decisions.
EU morning lowest GAS fees, usually. Later in the day, higher GAS fees, usually.
Ok, decided to take the plunge. Enter with GAS fees of around 35 dollars.
End of the day the GAS charts told me I was lucky since GAS fees went kinda nuts.
Next Phase
The token launch itself! A DEX this time. DEX only. Uniswap.
"Pffff Really?"
4k+ launchpad investors trying to sell their unlocked tokens within the first 10 seconds. This is gonna be big-time fun regarding GAS fees! No deeper thoughts regarding my wallet situation in terms of GAS funds. Have plenty of Ether, I thought without knowing I had that thought. "How Ignorant, How Stupid!", I was.
The Monday following the entry, the launch was scheduled. 3PM my time. Left the office for home an hour before. Forgot about the launch time. Then, almost home, was pulled into a Teams session, right at 15hrs. Still not consciously aware of the launch. For some reason, I felt the urge to postpone the Teams call. With a few arguments I took from nowhere, I convinced the bunch and felt like: "What did I manage just yet? For what reason?" How ignorant peeps can be. How easy they can be convinced.
...and then...
At home, it suddenly struck me: The Launch!
The clock showed 10 minutes after the magic 15hrs. Opened my laptop and browsed quickly to the chart. No chart at CMC or CG yet. And now what? Owwwk, DEX Screener and Defi address. Click, copy, pasta. Big ass spike. From 30ct to above 5 dollars. But not anymore. Just a measly 1 dollar. "Ok, still a 3x! With 1/3 unlocked, this would give me my entry back with the rest - locked - tokens being the bonus.
Note: this is the second time in my life I thought of selling at launch. Usually, I keep them. And keep them. And sit on the tokens forever. Part of my learning curve and somehow successful with this, so it seems. Sell without thinking. Take profits. Regardless.
Click click: Approve token. Click: Done.
Click Click ... Sell token. "No sufficient value in wallet!"
155 dollars GAS FEE? Are you NUTS! 600 dollars value to sell, only.
Again in search for funds. Stress. Double Stress.
100 Dollars USDT in wallet. But really? 150 dollars GAS fees. No point in swapping.
Where funds?
Searched a few CEX wallets. Not a quick process. Find usr/pwd in password manager. Get 2FA code. Darn, code in email as well. But finally found a CEX wallet with 200 dollars. Enough? I hope so! Traded to Ether. Send to wallet. This part of the process went pretty quickly.
Token sell action re-prep.
Pfffff GAS fees came down a bit PLUS the token value came up a bit. SWAP button showed itself ... and BAM, hit it hard! Seconds later: The transaction was confirmed. 800 dollars of Ether in my wallet!
"I made a Profit!"
...and then I calculated all GAS fees and my positivity became neutral. All in all, I spend about 200 dollars on GAS fees. For a 600-dollar allocation. One-third sold by now.
"OK, at least I have my investment back!"
and THEN
Following hours and days I noticed a kinda zigsaw chart. Slowly climbing up followed by a big drop. Driving the token price down while doing so. Lower to my sell price. "Good. This lesson I told myself over and over for the last 2 years in da works with positive results!" Feeling happy!
the Weekend, this Last Weekend
BTC not wanting to drop. Quite the opposite.
Alts jumping up!
My token also.
One dollar became one and a half dollars. One and a half dollars became two. Two became - almost - three. Almost 3x above my sell price. 3x!
Investment/Divesting Methods: My Takeaways & Learnings
They say, one needs at least the experience of one bull run to understand how to deal with crypto. To come out with a positive balance. Some say, one needs two bull runs to learn how to come out with great gains.
They also say: No emotions. Don't HODL straight into the Dips, not the shallow ones, not the deep ones.
Knowing I would enter my - kinda - third bull run, I took the time to reflect and brainwash myself. The third bull run must become a home run. Launchpad play: Sell unlocked tokens instantly, or at least within the same day. Eyes on charts. Ready to decide to sell; Click and Done; When time is ripe.
TL;DR previous bull runs
First bull run I didn't know at all what a bull run was. 2017 it was. With a handful of funds invested in whatever tokens and never sold. By now they are worth less than a cup of coffee, a dollar. In some cases even cents.
Second bull run. 2021 it was. Entered with good chunks of fiat. Bought for good prices, I thought. Into good tokens, I thought. And then the bears came around the corner and messed everything up. HODLed big ass time. Drama in my portfolio value.
At least, by now I know the tokens I invested into a few years ago, survived and gaining traction again. Pfffff, I selected the right tokens. At least I invested in ok-ish tokens.
Revisiting my Recent Learnings
What was it again I brainwashed myself with during the last bear market? With regards to launchpads?
- Take unlocked tokens and sell them quickly; Try to get at least investment back
With today's price between two and three dollars, I seriously have to get back to Brainwashing again!
New learnings:
- It is not simply "sell as quickly as you can!"
- Certainly not when BTC is breaking out and seeking new All Time Highs every single day
- Perhaps the sell instantly is more for the Bear market, or when the Bulls are becoming a bit tired
Darn: all this is SOOOO complex!
Anyways, in the meantime, yet another IDO launched. Plenty of 10SET peeps shouting left and right since the launch wasn't too smooth. Token claiming had some hiccups. Not all CEX opened their order books in the same second. DEX didn't have liquidity. An announcement rolled in: "We will create a new address." More shouting. Some becoming really angry!
..and I?
well: I was calm. I was like edje the years before my last bear; Though an edje trying to use more brain cells then I did before.
"Why sell?", was the big ass question I had.
This time 25% of the tokens unlocked. Claiming was no issue. Moving them to a CEX, no problems were encountered. But missed the opening spike.
"BUT why sell?"
Brain cells activated ...
- a payment service: in-store (digital and physical brick & mortar)
- a deal with Binance with integration to Binance Pay
- a service with users
- a service with revenue
- revenue increasing with double digits month-on-month
- token value peak at the opening of trading: 8x - now 4x - slowly climbing
- Bitcoin broke ATH and seeking new ones
- Alts going NUTS over the last weeks and weekend
- Likely, Alts will go NUTS again, soon, very soon
- FDV MC of - just - 80M dollars - "That is nothing!" for a payment service
- a few per cent of tokens in circulation, 3% or something
Sooo...
I took the gamble! Didn't sell my tokens. Will wait and continue monitoring Bitcoin, Alts and specifically this token. Their Telegram. Their X account. The sentiment in 10SET Telegram as well.
Those 10-setters can be nasty! They want to sell in the first second. Most of them. And 10-setters get a large cut in presales. And front-row seats. Private sales have a cliff, between 1 and a few months. 10-setters don't have such a cliff. Having the privilege to play 10SET IDOs gives advantages over the rest, always. Not too much to the liking of the launching communities and other players. But who cares? They seek the power of the 10SET platform; Their abilities and execution power. Their number of investors. Their reach into the market.
That is how 10SET rolls.
I try to be different though. I do hope with good results. Time will tell.
My Newest Revamped Learnings
- Don't sell no matter what
- Use brain cells, always
- Increase gamble mode a bit - especially when the mother of all tokens is mooning
- Play Save - Earn a Little
- Play Aggressive - Earn Massive
Oopsy, that rhymes ... Soon I'll be a Poet 😆
