Five years ago, I jumped into the crypto world with my first monthly salary of 5000 yuan. Back then, I couldn't even tell Bitcoin from altcoins, I just followed the so-called "teachers". I bought every Token recommended in the advocate groups. And what happened? During the LUNA crash, I naively thought "the buy the dip opportunity has arrived" and stubbornly held on until my tens of thousands of yuan in principal was reduced to a small amount, so broke that I even hesitated to eat skewers.

After years of struggling in this industry, I have encountered more pitfalls than rice I’ve eaten. Today, I won't talk about those flashy technical indicators; instead, I’ll share some hard truths that can save your life. Want to survive in this market? First, throw away the mindset of "getting rich overnight" and adopt the mindset of "how not to die."

**Principal is the lifeline; these three rules must be engraved in your bones.**

Too many people throw their down payment for a house, wedding gift money, and even loaned money into this. They feel like stock gods when it rises by a couple of points, but panic when it drops, ultimately either cutting losses and running or being liquidated and thrown out. In plain terms: if you can hold on in this market without collapsing, you've already surpassed more than half of the people. And the premise of holding on is to protect your principal.

I have set three strict rules for myself:

**First, only play with money you can afford to lose** — What does it mean to afford to lose? It means that even if you lose it all, it won't affect your ability to eat, sleep, or pay the mortgage. If you earn eight thousand a month, investing five to six hundred every month is sufficient. Thinking about "going all in for a comeback"? The probability is high that it will end badly.

**Second, the stop-loss line is more important than anything else**—My own hard rule is to cut losses if it drops by 5%. If it breaks through key levels in the short term or the mid-term trend deteriorates, regardless of the "possible rebound", get out immediately. In the past, it was because of the mentality of "let's observe a bit more" that I turned profits into losses and small losses into big holes. Only later did I understand: a stop-loss is a life-saving measure, not a sign of cowardice.