Crypto Confidential

THE WILD INSIDE STORY OF CRYPTO''S GET-RICH-QUICK UNDERBELLY Nat Eliason had six months to make as much money as possible before his first chld was born. So, he turned to where so many others did in 2021.; Nat got into crypto.; Within a year, he''d made millions writing code holding hundreds of millions of dollars of other people''s money. He''d been hacked. He''d sold a picture of a monkey for two hundred grand. He''d become an influencer, speaking at conferences, and writing a weekly newsletter to tens of thousands of fans. Best of all, Nat had amassed a small fortune for his family. But how much of this money was even real? And how many times can someone double down before they eventually lose everything?; <Crypto Confidential< is Nat''s unfiltered, insider''s account of the hyperactive, hyper-spectulative, hyper-addictive, nearly unregulated, and completely insane new world being build on the blockchain. A behind-the-scenes exposé of the bull runs and breakdowns, revealing exactly how the crypto-sausage gets made. It''s a story of getting rich, going broke, scamming and getting scammed-- and how we can all be more educated participants during the inevitable next bull run.

Auteur

Nathaniel Eliason

Texte du rabat

"Nat Eliason had six months to make as much money as possible before his first child was born. So, he turned to where so many others did in 2021: Crypto. Within a year, he'd made millions writing code holding hundreds of millions of dollars of other people's money. He'd been hacked. He'd sold a picture of a monkey for two hundred grand. He'd become an influencer, speaking at conferences, and writing a weekly newsletter to tens of thousands of fans. Best of all, Nat had amassed a small fortune. But how much of this money was even real? And how many times can someone double down before they eventually lose everything? Crypto Confidential is Nat's unfiltered, insider's account of the hyperactive, hyper-speculative, hyper-addictive, nearly unregulated, completely insane world being built on the blockchain. A behind-the-scenes exposâe of the bull runs and breakdowns, revealing exactly how the crypto-sausage gets made. A story of getting rich, going broke, scamming and getting scammed- and how we can all be more educated participants during the inevitable next bull run"--

Résumé
THE WILD INSIDE STORY OF CRYPTO'S GET-RICH-QUICK UNDERBELLY

Nat Eliason had six months to make as much money as possible before his first child was born. So, he turned to where countless others did in 2021: Crypto.

Within a year, he'd made millions writing code holding hundreds of millions of dollars of other people's money. He'd been hacked. He'd sold a picture of a monkey for two hundred grand. He'd become an influencer, speaking at conferences, and writing a weekly newsletter to tens of thousands of fans. Best of all, Nat had amassed a small fortune. But how much of this money was even real? And how many times can someone double down before they eventually lose everything?

Crypto Confidential is Nat's unfiltered, insider's account of the hyperactive, hyper-speculative, hyper-addictive, nearly unregulated, completely insane world being built on the blockchain. A behind-the-scenes exposé of the bull runs and breakdowns, revealing exactly how the crypto-sausage gets made. A story of getting rich, going broke, scamming and getting scammed— and how we can all be more educated participants during the inevitable next bull run.

Échantillon de lecture
1

Is Everyone Getting Rich without Me?

April 2021:
Nine Months Earlier

Getting rich is a long, slow, steady process: get a job, do your work, get promoted, invest in your 401(k). With a few good promotions, maybe a strategic job switch or two, and years of diligent saving, hopefully, someday, you will "make it" and earn the retirement of your dreams.

But what if there were a faster way?

Five months earlier, I had quit my marketing job to find work I was more passionate about. Now, I was running out of time. I had a popular blog that earned me some money, and I would have loved to have found a way to write full time. But our daughter was due in six months, and I was unemployed. I needed to figure something out fast.

I was learning to code, and programming jobs paid well, so that was the obvious answer. But it felt like, everywhere I looked, young people were cirvumventing the system to amass huge amounts of money, enough to live off for years, even decades. Some of these self-made millionaires had built businesses or created new technologies, but a shocking number seemed to have found an easier path: they'd gambled on crypto.

I finished the last of that day's coding classes and went inside to make more coffee. After first diving down the programming rabbit hole a few months earlier, I started spending twelve hours a day indoors, hunched over a screen. It was taking a toll on my sanity, so I dragged my desk outside onto my deck, where a towering old oak tree offered enough protection from Austin's heat to survive. I might have looked silly sitting out there for half the day chugging ice water, but I loved it.

While the coffee brewed, I pulled my phone out to check the crypto-trading app Coinbase. Between coding sessions, I had started day-trading Dogecoin (DOGE), a cryptocurrency created in 2013 based on Bitcoin. Dogecoin was never meant to be a serious financial asset. Even the founders said it was a joke. But when the price of Bitcoin started climbing at the end of 2020, and people looked for the next hot cryptocurrency to bet on, Dogecoin started climbing as well.

For most of the currency's eight years in existence, one DOGE was worth a fraction of a cent. Then, in February 2021, the price reached a new high of five cents. Now, at the start of April, it was rising past six cents. I had bought some in January, when it started taking off, and had been holding it ever since. So far, it was the only thing I'd done that year that had made me any money.

Every day, when I woke up and saw that it had gone up, or at least not gone down by much, I had to answer the same question: Do I sell this, or do I keep holding on to it? I was up a few thousand dollars by then, and it was tempting to sell, but the pain of missing out on more money might be worse than the joy of cashing in on what I'd already made.

"Are you ready to go?" Cosette's voice brought me back to the present. She must have come downstairs while I was buried in my phone.

"Yeah, sorry, let's do it," I said and started leashing up the dogs. Cosette was a real estate agent and didn't need to leave to start showing houses until nine, giving us an hour to grab coffee. Our favorite spot, Velocity, was only a couple of blocks away and run by Johnny, one of our closest friends.

Once we left the house, Cosette asked, "Were you looking at your doggy coin again?"

"Maybe . . ." I smirked. "We're up again."

"So, you're gonna sell it?"

"Well, no, I didn't say that."

She laughed. "I don't know how you do that."

"Do what?"

"See it go up and not sell it. I'd be terrible at this. I'd want to sell as soon as I saw I made money." We stopped at the intersection, waiting to cross. "Are you excited for this afternoon?"

"Yeah," I said, stepping into the street. "I can't wait to see her."

"I bet she's a cute little tadpole," said Cosette.

"Our cute little tadpole," I said. "I can't believe it's already been three months."

We rounded the corner to Velocity and froze. Johnny was on his hands and knees crawling around on the ground in front of the order window, while Rose, his partner, paced back and forth on her phone, clearly agitated.

"Johnny, what happened?" I yelled as we started jogging towards the trailer.

"Keep the dogs back," Johnny called out. He had shards of glass…