Julian Figueroa, host of The Exit Guide, has skilled first-hand the price of Bitcoin safety errors.
Over the previous eight years, he misplaced a complete of 14 BTC—now price roughly $1.6 million—and believes most Bitcoiners are susceptible to making the identical errors.
Buying and selling losses and market timing failures
Figueroa’s regrets started with makes an attempt to commerce the market:
“I misplaced 4 BTC simply because I believed I’d purchase low and promote excessive. Seems, it’s practically unimaginable—no person beats the market over time, not execs, not hedge funds, no person. Should you simply purchase and maintain, you nearly all the time outperform the merchants.”
He factors out that emotional choices and the pursuit of fast features typically result in losses, with even skilled merchants falling sufferer to volatility.
The altcoin distraction
Figueroa additionally misplaced 2 BTC by chasing altcoin hype:
“I purchased cash I believed would outperform Bitcoin. They didn’t.”
He warns that almost all alternate options underperform Bitcoin in the long term. His lesson: deal with Bitcoin fundamentals and keep away from distractions from speculative belongings.
Alternate failures and the case for self-custody
The costliest mistake got here from leaving cash on a centralized trade:
“8 BTC—practically $1 million—vanished when an trade failed.”
Figueroa stresses that counting on custodians is a typical however harmful error:
“Crypto exchanges should not banks, they’re casinos. Self-custody is the one actual safety.”
Cautionary tales and takeaways
Figueroa’s story will not be distinctive.
He cites examples like James Howells, who misplaced a tough drive with 8,000 BTC, and Stefan Thomas, who can’t entry 7,002 BTC as a result of a misplaced password.
The Mt. Gox collapse and QuadrigaCX’s founder dying with the keys to $200 million additional emphasize the dangers of poor safety practices.
His recommendation: keep away from day buying and selling, ignore altcoin hype, and most significantly, safe your Bitcoin by studying self-custody.