Man, it\’s 3:17 AM and my third coffee\’s gone cold staring at these damn charts again. That $PEPE position I fomo\’d into last week just dumped 40% after some whale dumped 8 ETH worth into the liquidity pool. Saw it happen in real-time – one minute I\’m up, next minute my portfolio looks like roadkill. This degen life… it\’s like voluntarily strapping yourself to a rollercoaster designed by psychopaths. Remember when SHIB did that 10,000% pump in 2021? I sold at 2x like an idiot while my buddy held till the peak. He quit his job. I ate ramen for a month.

Woke up to Twitter screaming about some new frog-themed token yesterday. Same pattern every time: vague promises, influencers doing that fake-excited voice, Telegram group exploding with rocket emojis. Joined the VC round for a \”utility token\” project last month – team seemed legit, whitepaper thicker than my econ textbook. Two weeks later, devs vanished. Poof. Half an ETH gone with nothing but a locked Discord channel and my own dumb hope as souvenirs. Makes you wonder why we keep doing this to ourselves. Maybe it\’s the microscopic chance you\’ll wake up rich. Maybe we\’re all just broken.

Noticed something weird though – these past few months, the rug pulls feel… different. Used to be pure chaos. Now it\’s almost algorithmic. Saw this token called $TENDIE last Tuesday. Chart looked like a goddamn polygraph test. Huge green candle, then immediate 60% drop. Then another pump. Then dump. Like clockwork. Some bot account tweeted \”LFG!!\” exactly 12 seconds before each pump. Makes my skin crawl how mechanical it\’s become. Used to be degenerate gamblers against other degens. Now we\’re just liquidity for someone\’s trading bot.

That said… can\’t help but watch the ETH/BTC pair like it\’s my ex\’s Instagram. Been narrowing since January. If ETH flips? Whole market structure changes. But then I remember 2018 – when \”fundamentals\” meant jack squat and everything bled out for a year straight. Saw a guy cry in a Berlin crypto meetup bathroom when EOS crashed. Real tears. Still haunts me.

NFTs dying might be the best thing to happen to degen tokens honestly. All that bored ape money had to go somewhere. Saw a guy aping 50 SOL into a cat meme coin because his Pudgy Penguin profits were down. No research. Just vibes. And honestly? It mooned 300% that week. Makes you question everything. Technical analysis? Fundamentals? Or just catching the right dopamine wave at the right time?

Sometimes I wonder if we\’re all just lab rats in some hedge fund\’s behavioral experiment. That coordinated FUD last month? SEC rumors dropping exactly when BTC tested $70k resistance. Too clean. Made me sell my DOT stack at a loss like a chump. Bought back higher obviously. Always do. The self-loathing hits different at 4 AM when you\’re down bad and the only green candle is the exit sign above your apartment door.

Still… that one time in 2023 when I threw $300 at a dog coin as a joke? Turned into $27k. Paid off my medical debt. That\’s the poison, right? The tiny, stupid chance lightning strikes twice. Keeps you glued to Dextools watching your life savings evaporate 3% at a time. Wouldn\’t recommend this to my worst enemy. Yet here I am. Again. Refreshing.

【FAQ】

Q: Seriously though – will meme coins like PEPE or BONK ever recover their highs?

A: Recovery? Maybe. Sustainability? Doubt it. Saw DOGE pump seven times between 2020-2021 before finally dying. Each pump weaker than the last. These things move on attention spans, not tech. Remember when everyone cared about SafeMoon? Exactly. The next shiny object always steals the oxygen.

Q: How do you spot rug pulls before they happen?

A: You don\’t. Not reliably. Liquidity locks can be faked. Audits? Paid for by devs. Telegram mods banning \”FUD\”? Red flag. But the real killer is the slow rug – devs selling 2% daily until nothing\’s left. By the time you notice, you\’re holding bags. Lost $800 to that exact play last month on a \”blue chip\” degen project.

Q: Is technical analysis useless for degen tokens?

A: Useless? No. Horribly unreliable? Absolutely. TA assumes rational actors. Degens are drunk gamblers chasing narratives. Saw a token called $WSB pump 900% because someone photoshopped Elon\’s tweet about it. Chart patterns didn\’t predict that. Doesn\’t mean I don\’t still draw stupid lines on TradingView though. Old habits die hard.

Q: Should I quit my job to trade meme coins?

A: Jesus Christ no. Watched a guy try this in 2021. He\’s delivering Uber Eats now. The volatility will shred your mental health. My hands shake checking prices after big swings. And that\’s with play money. Doing this with rent money? Recipe for disaster therapy bills.

Q: What\’s the one thing you wish you knew before starting?

A: That 99% of \”alpha groups\” exist to pump the admin\’s bags. That \”wen lambo\” culture is financial suicide. Mostly? That crypto won\’t fix the emptiness. Made six figures in 2021. Still felt hollow scrolling through charts at midnight while my girlfriend slept alone. No amount of green candles fills that hole.