I’m not your mother, your priest, or Gary Gensler.
I won’t advise against using 50x leverage to gamble on low-liquidity altcoins on a centralized crypto exchange. You’re an adult in 2025, and you can choose how to gamble your money.
However, I do have a piece of advice, and you can choose to heed it.
(I hope you do.)
Gamble with your money, not with your future.
If you enjoy speculating in crypto, do so with what you can afford to lose.
No matter whether you think it’s CZ targeting Wintermute (probably not), Binance technical issues (who knows) or some Trump associate shorting the market (your guess is as good as mine), or a multitude of psychological, structural, or malicious factors causing this massive $20 billion downturn, one thing remains constant.
Once it begins, you can do absolutely nothing to change it.
Cascading liquidations can wipe out your highly-leveraged long position before you even have a chance to respond.
Having been in this industry for almost a decade, I can say that what was true when I started remains true today.
Leverage is gambling.
This is perfectly fine, as long as it’s done with restraint and some level of awareness.
Casinos are exciting! They’re flashy! Casinos satisfy our inherent human desire for risk without the need to hunt saber-toothed tigers.
But would you walk into The Bellagio and bet your home on red?
Would you risk all your life savings in front of the dealer with a sixteen?
Just because it’s digital, detached from the shiny lights and ringing slots, and feels like you have control because of your research and thesis… doesn’t change the reality.
What truly matters, at the end of the day, is that you gamble within your means.
Enjoy yourself. Use a little money to go long on what seems attractive.
But don’t wager everything on crypto. The market is still too immature for excessive leverage.
Yesterday demonstrated that.
I’ll pose a few questions for consideration.
Should exchanges let you gamble everything on such risky bets? Should they be held accountable when their systems fail you? Should your local regulator implement sensible safeguards instead of shirking their responsibilities and ignoring the fact that we live in a new era compared to when Las Vegas originated?
Leaving those questions aside, the truth is that YOU hold the reins to your future. You are not a victim, you have agency. You can dictate the level of risk you are willing to accept.
Once you have assessed your willingness to take on that risk, consider giving yourself five minutes. Step away from your phone or computer and think critically. Is the risk worth it? What if your gamble goes awry?
Those five minutes could preserve the sats you have accumulated over the years.
At Cointelegraph, we hope you are doing well. Financially, emotionally, and of course physically.
If you made it through this downturn — well done.
But learn from it. Stay safe. Your future will be far more interesting and enjoyable with your savings secure.
