3 years ago, I wrote a thread about how people got rich in crypto based on 100s of convos with founders + investors on @theBlockcrunch. This thread is a follow up providing principles for speculators + builders, based on my new learnings as an investor. https://x.com/mrjasonchoi/stat...

There are two ways to compound wealth: hold assets that appreciate over time, or swap them for ones that appreciate faster. Statistically, <1% of people who try the latter succeed over time.

The one thing that differs crypto from other frontier tech fields is time to liquidity. This is the biggest arbitrage.

Your "why" should be driven by ideology, not money. Your "how" should be driven by incentives, not ideology.

Two rules of consistently making money from crypto markets: Rule 1: navigate time frames well Rule 2: never forget rule 1 Remember that people have lost their shirts going long in a bull market and going short in a bear market.

Most people cannot excel at thinking across more than one time frame. People wired for low time frames often make good traders and marketers, but poor founders and investors. Recognize what your wiring is and work with people who guardrail against it.

Balls and brains are how you make your money. Level-headedness and paranoia are how you keep it.

As a long term investor, run away from hype. As a short term trader, embrace it.

Unlike tradfi or Web 2, prestigious companies are few and far between in crypto, let alone established tracks therein. Whatever career timeline you had in mind before crypto, cut them in half.

Precision in language drives accuracy in thought. Accuracy in thought drives quality in action. As a speculator, avoid vague terms such as “bullish” or “bearish”, “good” or “bad” in discussions. Talk in terms of trade offs, magnitudes, and specified time frames.

Do not equate success in status games to success in wealth games. A big following is no indication of ability to make money. Building a following is a popularity contest. Making money investing is a contrarian sport. The two are often diametrically opposed.

Be a voracious reader - in an industry where cyclicality is the only constant, not studying history is a massive handicap. Fools only learn from their experience, the wise learn from others'.

Do not over index on crypto-native history. What worked in a historic, QE-fueled bull market may not be reliable blueprints for lasting protocols, businesses, or investment strategies.

When investing in/ joining a team, your bar for evaluating founders must be 10x higher if they enter the space during a raging bull market. Likewise for fund managers, figure out whether they have alpha or are simply levered beta chasers before dedicating your career to them.

Before chasing trends, understand whether they are sustainable. “Hockey-stick” growth charts are often a signal of product-market fit in Web 2, but are usually deceptive in Web 3.

As a short-term speculator, don’t let the truth get in the way of a good narrative. As a long-term investor, don’t mistake unearned attention for accrued value.

Catalogue every investment, trade or business decision and conduct regular postmortems. Your goal isn't to win once, but to create a system that allows you to do so consistently.

Never, ever assume "build it and users will come". Never, ever assume "if users come then my token price would go up"

Bad times attract missionaries, good time attract mercenaries. If you want to play with both, play long term games with missionaries, and musical chairs with mercenaries. The two require almost opposite skill sets and temperaments. Most people should not try both.

Unlike Web 2 apps, Web 3 apps attract users and early speculators alike. When collecting user feedback, make sure you are actually talking to users.

Ignore yappers. It’s easy to complain about VCs having “inaccessible deal flow”, whales “controlling prices” and devs being “at the right place at the right time” It is hard to raise a fund and win deals, hone your trading system, or get hired at a high-growth team.

Social media encourages outrage, celebrates one-upmanship, and courts sensationalism. All of these make you a worse investor, trader and builder. Tune out noise and focus on your craft.

Most founders and investors have a “brand” after and because their ventures are successful, not the other way round. Be suspicious of those who have a following before any achievements. Spend more time playing wealth games than status games.

As a nascent industry, the best opportunities arise mostly from warm introductions and endorsements. Protecting your reputation at all costs will pay the most dividends and create the most serendipity for you.

You are always one shortcut away from ending your career, even if the shortcuts are completely legal. True stories include "invest in my fund and I'll back your project", "let me cash out before we launch the product", and "let me trade with the money we raised for our project".

If you take on massive risk in one area of your life, make sure other areas are stable and predictable. Risk manage your emotional capital the same way you would your financial capital because it too is finite.

Do things that would work out in the most number of parallel universes. (In other words, do not mistake leverage for genius!)

Don’t forget you are not building to impress VCs; you are building to change the world. Don’t let commitments from investors get to your head, and don't receive rejections personally.

If you begin to believe you are invincible, know that the market will remind you otherwise.

Crypto has adversarial aspects which bring out the worst in people. If someone is your enemy by circumstance, follow Lincoln’s advice. If they insist on being your enemy, follow Machiavelli.