One of my worst financial decisions was purchasing Bitcoin this summer near its all-time high. To compound the mistake, I sold a significant portion of my gold holdings and reallocated that capital into Bitcoin. Shortly thereafter, gold surged and still surging while Bitcoin declined sharply. The timing could not have been worse.
Bitcoin has increasingly become a playground for large market participants who manipulate the market for profit. I initially believed Bitcoin would behave more like gold, serving as a store of value, but in practice it has traded more like a high-risk equity. While I am not selling at this point, my confidence has steadily eroded.
There is no question that Bitcoin is an outstanding technology with the potential to address fundamental issues inherent in fiat monetary systems. However, the market is now dominated by powerful institutional players, and that reality is unlikely to change. As Bitcoin approaches valuations such as $100,000, retail investors are effectively sidelined, leaving institutions free to pursue profit-driven strategies—including market manipulation. Also not getting why BTC price goes down even though companies like Strategy are buying like crazy. Where is the supply / demand logic here??
If the argument is that these violent price swings are necessary to liquidate leveraged traders, one has to ask why other asset classes do not experience comparable volatility. Why is gold rising parabolically? Why are most assets incl risky ones like equities appreciating while Bitcoin has declined more than 30% since summer?
I hope Bitcoin recovers so that I can meaningfully reduce my exposure before the next major downturn—one that may again be driven by manipulative actions from market makers.
One of my worst financial decisions
byu/AlpinSean007 inBitcoin
Posted by AlpinSean007
46 Comments
No problem. U are better off than me. I bought bitcoins and store them in FTX and Celsius. Never seen my coins ever again
Did you sell your bitcoin after it dropped in fiat price? If not, then what does it matter? For me, this is and has always been a 30 year plan for me and my family. What’s your time horizon?
As soon as you “reduce your exposure”, Bitcoin will surge. It always works like this.
Looks like you don’t have the appetite for this asset class. Please choose something that fits your risk.
First time in BTC I see.
I purchased at 42k some years ago only to watch it drop to 16k in a year.
Everyone would be begging to get in at that price. Volatility is a gift. Your short term panicking shows immaturity in this market.
Ask yourself, what has changed in the asset other than price which causes you to change your mind?
One of my worst financial decisions was purchasing Bitcoin this summer near its all-time high. At that point it was at $0.001. It was a terrible decision because it lingered at that price for what seemed an eternity.
For anyone reading this, I will leave it there and you can make your own mind up from thereon.
Long as you believe in what your investing in and hodl it’ll likely be one of your best investment choices in years to come.
Don’t try and time the market.
It will be manipulated on a short term basis. Whales and large organisations can liquidate leveraged holders when they feel.
But remember if it’s a long game, then hopefully you should be ok. As it stands, anyone that has held for 5+ years has never lost any money.
I saw a video where Saifedean Ammous (Author: The Bitcoin Standard) also mentions if you are holding for 5/6 years+ then you should be fine.
Unfortunately you had bad timing where gold has done well. I think gold is great, but as it enters unprecedented times, remember that in 1980 and 2011 at highs, gold crashed hard and it took much longer to recover/reclaim its ATH taking some 10+ years etc.
The mistake you made is over-investing beyond your level of conviction. If you had more conviction you’d take this in the chin, swings and roundabouts, because in the end this dip won’t matter for shit. Just lower your time preference.
The best case for you is that by the time the next downturn comes you have increased your conviction and just wade through the shit like the rest of us.
Or you can come back here and bitch and moan again.
It’s only been ~6 months since you made your purchase. Investing in something like Bitcoin isn’t for short-term gains as it’s a volatile asset that has drastic short-medium term price action fluctuations and a more appropriate investment time horizon should have been set at a minimum 5+ years and optimally this is a 20+ yr investment time horizon.
Your plan is quite literally short-sighted and you purchased a long-term investment with unrealistic expectations. Don’t try and decipher the logic behind short term price. Instead you should sit back, relax and hold it for 5-20+ years and then take a look. It’ll be a very different story then
Bitcoin teaches patience. If you aren’t patient and hold, you’ll lose. By 2030 you’ll laugh at this.
Hold and wait for 2029.
You focus too much on price, better think of quantity. Bitcoin supply is limited so you own a piece of rarity. And check history chart since 2009, it survived all crises and kept going up. More than that, only 8% of planet own crypto, so we are at the begining and one day you will feel glad you bought bitcoin at ATH of its period.
Dude you bought the top. Your timing was off, it happens. Its ok. As someone who has been in btc since 2018, I recommend to not sell your btc. In fact, keep buying it. In 5 years time you will be making the same post about how you should have never sold it. Btc is a long term play and you are making decisions on short term emotions. Btc is the superior asset and it will outperform gold eventually. Yes, price could go lower but long term it won’t matter. I made horrible buys over the years but i kept buying and looking back now it was the best financial decision i have ever made. This asset rewards those with conviction and patience. Best of luck.
There is no bitcoin without pain
FOMO. I don’t know why new investors won’t follow the general consensus when it comes to bitcoin strategy. DCA. I swear it is spammed in every thread
You’re a reasonable investor & not a speculator like 99% of the people here. Take what you have left & grab some etfs & gold. You could wait longer but the confluences are starting to add up that bitcoin will be heading down even further. The major players have already made their money like you realized.
If you believe in the typical cycle 2026 is a bad year. But lots of people are saying there’s no more cycle anymore. That’s how you know it’s a purely speculative based asset. The core investors don’t even stick to their “script” on the asset & change it up constantly to put it in a positive light.
Buy more while it’s down?
To all the noobies, just DCA to start, clearly lump sum is too difficult for y’all to stomach.
You’re not wrong, you’re just early. Bitcoiners understand that Bitcoin is a store of value and the equivalent to digital gold. We buy it because we know it’s the strongest asset on earth. It can’t be created, confiscated and it’s easy to send/receive, etc.
However, non-Bitcoiners look at Bitcoin the same way they do a tech stock. They only have a short term view and just gamble on the price swings. Paper Bitcoin added to this when the ETFs were introduced. Even Larry Fink thinks bitcoin is currently a bellwether for the rest of the market. It’s a risk-on asset in his (and most traders) eyes.
Until Bitcoin is seen as a safe-heaven the same way gold is, it’s going to be a wild ride. There are signs that it’s already changing though. If you want to see something interesting, take a look at the out-of-the-money call options on IBIT. Very few option chains have “call skew” like IBIT. I personally believe this is due to people owing (paper)Bitcoin for the longer term while selling calls for income.
Until the general public sees bitcoin for what it really is, we’re going to see some crazy shit.
Still really fucking early, for anyone still wondering.
No mate. The worst financial decision you will make is fucking selling it.
Seems like you bought based on a self-made false premise of how the asset functions. It’s not gold. If you wanted gold, why not just hold gold? If you were purchasing BTC for a short-term flip, that’s always ill advised. If you’re in it for the long-term, why not just hold? BTC is famously volatile. I’m not sure how anyone in 2025 could buy it and be surprised by the swings.
This is exactly the sort of thinking that is causing a lot of issues for humanity. Oh well. Those who can rise above feelings and look at the big picture are rewarded and those who cannot will l regret now and if they sell regret even more late as has been the case every boom and bust cycle.
I hear you. They screw with crypto daily yet have some backroom deal to not do the same to Gold
No time for pussies.
How are retail investors sidelined? You can purchase BTC in very small denominations, so everyone has equal access.
I know how you feel. However hold on and don’t sell. Bitcoin will absolutely go back up.
Will the manipulation attacking shorts and longs decrease in time?
“I first bought bitcoin 5 months ago and now I know all about it”
FWIW I don’t think the AI bubble is going to burst and I don’t think Russia is going to invade Estonia and therefore gold is going to sink like a stone. I think interest rates will come down and BTC will go up.
Your only mistake would be if you sold it and didn’t hodl first a few years until it goes up again and you start to understand how it works.
Man! These posts from bandwagon fans get exhausting. People like this OP never bother to learn what BTC is all about and then whine about their decisions.
Hit the books and study bitcoin more before making such posts.
Ok
You buy an investment with expectations that it continues to keep trending up? I think that was your issue right there and not accepting that volatility goes in either direction: up and down.
I bought gold 6 years ago and it went nowhere for years. Likewise I bought btc 6 years ago and it went down significantly but now I’m up significantly. With a long enough time horizon your btc will outperform gold.
We all buy high and sell low. Don’t look at the chart.
Idgaf about the dollar price. I wasn’t always this way, I used to get pissed at companies or entities trying to profit off arb or derivatives and shit but the blockchain is transparent so these games can only be played for a while and never for free, I just stack two or three sats then forget.
When i doubt, zoom out
Lad just held for 6 months and is now complaining.
Mate, always remember, time in the market is better than timing the market. Study bitcoin, study economics, study money, and be in this for the long term.
Long term is not 6 months. Long term is minimum 20 years.
Look at how far down bitcoin has crashed in the past instead of looking at all time high. Tomorrow’s crash is today’s all time high.
This ‘Bitcoin is manipulated’ is so boring and just nonsense. Only people who’ve been burned are saying it, just stfu you bought at the wrong time.
Stop being a pussy.
Don’t buy Bitcoin because you know it’s gonna crassssshhh.
Yea buying a speculative asset that fluctuates as much as bitcoin at its all time high is pretty dumb. Selling your other investments to do it is even worse. A big dip when it was at around 120k was inevitable regardless of what people online try to tell you. Just hold it. It will go back up and most likely much higher. It has always performed this way. Just learn in the future not to buy at the all time high. It will always have a big dip.
The reason gold is rising parabolically as you say is because central banks around the world are buying gold and not bitcoin. Why don’t you buy some gold as well. You will feel better about the whole thing as gold is going to continue going up as long as the banks keep buying.
They use circuit breakers on the stock exchanges to control volatility. BTC does not have that.
Retail got fucked by FTX. They started buying gold.
K shaped economy. The lower leg of the K doesn’t have cash to buy BTC. At these prices, retail’s influence is less pronounced than all times previously. Hard to scoop up 1 coin at nearly 100k.
Maybe we are back to revisiting the uncorrelated asset aspect of bitcoin.
Gold has been ripping because institutions and sovereigns and countries across the world are deleveraging US dollars and transitioning into a time tested store of value asset.