This piece of advice can save you lots of money on the crypto market

Khaleej Times

3 days ago

In the late 1990s, I was in my late 20s and cell phones were still a rare flex. I had one. One night I stepped outside a restaurant to take a call, and two men walking past shouted at me, laughing themselves silly: 'Buy low! Sell high!' I laughed too. And I never forgot it. Even though I've done the reverse so many times I'm cringing just writing about it.
This week, I thought of those words again after I was invited to the opening of Tiger Bar Stock Exchange, a new sports lounge and restaurant at Barcelo Al Jaddaf in Dubai. It's a clever gimmick: beverage prices rise and fall based on demand — just like the stock market. The catch? The most popular drinks get more expensive as the night wears on. And yet, people will keep buying. Why? FOMO, or the fear of missing out. There is no stronger drug.
FOMO is dangerous anywhere, but nowhere more than in crypto. The space is heating up again. More people are opening wallets, asking questions, buying in. Many altcoins are still deeply undervalued, but as the frenzy builds, there's a very real risk: while big institutions have been stacking at low prices, people in retail will wake up and get excited, and start buying at the top.
The people you want to listen to? They're often the quietest ones. They're not pumping meme coins or trending tokens, they're investing in real-world assets, decentralised science, artificial intelligence (AI) projects"
At that point, you're not investing — you're exiting liquidity. You're the one holding the bag for people making the money. And it's going to put you off crypto, possibly forever. (I know it put me off for many years when I did it.)
I've been on this journey for eight years now — two of them deep and obsessive. The hardest part has been buying low and trusting that it will go high. The only way to do that is by choosing projects with real utility: solid fundamentals, whitepapers, a strong web presence, a clear use case, and (yes) intuition. It's slower, less alluring. It doesn't go viral on TikTok, but it works.
And that's what most people won't do. So, you'll see a flood of influencer videos titled: 'Buy these five coins this bull run' or 'These three altcoins will make you rich in 2025'.
Big mistake
I've found a few smart, transparent people worth following, but it took time and discernment. And they are few and far between. Just last week, I saw two influencers post the exact same video recommending the exact same coins, using the same script. That's not organic. That's paid promotion dressed up as independent advice.
The people you want to listen to? They're often the quietest ones. They're not pumping meme coins or trending tokens, they're investing in real-world assets, decentralised science, artificial intelligence (AI) projects, and other corners of the ecosystem with actual connections to established companies in the real world, with names you'd recognise.
Still, even I sometimes fall into the fun. I made some modest gains on the Trump coin at the start of the year, although I would've made a lot more if the Solana network hadn't been so clogged. I couldn't sell in time. I went to bed a winner and woke up... well, not one. That can happen too.
Meme coins are gambling, plain and simple. A little fun? Sure. But in my crypto group, I see people borrowing money to chase them — and losing, every time.
The best thing you can do right now? Don't be like that.
As Benjamin Graham wrote in the smart book The Intelligent Investor in 1946, we don't follow a herd of strangers. As The Richest Man in Babylon, an equally smart 1926 book by George Samuel Clason, puts it, we never invest more than we can afford to lose. And yes — if you're in crypto, you will lose money. But you also might make it. The key is not to abandon common sense just because it's a new frontier.
Profit-taking can look like setting a price target or just vowing to take 10 or 20 per cent after a 2x, and so on, if you are lucky enough to hit a winner.
I've made many mistakes in crypto, but I did it with small amounts of money while I learned. I've round-tripped two market spikes already. I've bought coins at their peak and sold them when they've been low.
And here's what I now know for sure: the best financial advice, no matter the arena, applies to crypto too. Tune out the FOMO and stick to the fundamentals.