How I Lost it All (and Made Everything Back 10X)
May 18, 2021
A crypto market crash wiped out $1 Trillion in market cap in a few hours. Many altcoins ended the day down 75% or more.
Just a month earlier, this had all felt impossible. Elon Musk was shilling DOGE on SNL, crypto was at an all-time high in mindshare and price, and everyone from teenagers to grandmothers wanted a piece of the action.
I remember sitting at my computer, watching the price crash in astonishment.
I had started DCAing in mid 2020.
I was stuck at home, dissatisfied with my remote job, and looking for ways to make money online.
I didn’t make very much money in my job and had put in more than I was willing to lose–months worth of savings.
After being up 5X, I ended up down 50% from where I had started. My hard-earned money was gone. I hadn’t respected it and now it was lost.
I felt like the dumbest person in the world.
After the initial shock of the crash wore off, I did some self-reflection and realized that my issue was I had no real system for research.
My research process had looked like this:
See what my favorite influencers were talking about (shilling)
Search the ticker on Twitter
See what other people were saying
If my gut said to buy, I bought
And this worked until it didn’t
I had no real thesis for what I was buying. I was buying based on what other people suggested I buy.
This resulted in:
Buying things after they had already pumped
Being exit liquidity for others
Panic selling when price dipped due to a lack of conviction
Even though I made money initially, that was due to luck and being in the right place at the right time.
To consistently make money, I needed a strategy. I needed a system.
It was around this time that I discovered a website called DefiLlama.
DefiLlama showed the deposits in DeFi protocols across every chain. You could see which chains were actually growing, which were shrinking and which were stagnant.
Then, it clicked.
One of the core innovations of crypto is real time financials. You don’t need to wait for quarterly statements.
With DefiLlama I no longer had to guess based on what influencers were saying–I could find protocols that were starting to gain traction on my own. If someone told me that an app was taking off, I could see in real time whether they were telling the truth or were full of it.
As the months went on, I spent hundreds of hours pouring over crypto fundamentals.
I read a whitepaper daily for months. I studied blockchain explorers. I learned how to track token unlocks. I diligently tracked how thousands of protocols and chains performed based on on-chain metrics.
And all this started to yield results.
For the first time it felt like I was in control of my portfolio, rather than following others.
I started creating content to share these learnings with others.
I designed Dynamo DeFi Pro to give you everything you need to learn and conduct fundamental analysis yourself.
So that you can stop guessing and focus on making money.
The Pro version of this newsletter is built around 5 pillars: Education, Insights, Data, Analysis, and Community.
Education - The Onchain Academy has over 3 hours of content to teach you how to use onchain metrics and onchain analysis. [ON DEMAND]
Insights - Monthly group Zoom presentations to go through narratives driving the crypto market for that month.
Data - Our weekly data report includes custom onchain data milestones as well as an analysis of protocols with breakout usage and key metrics related to the state of the market.
Analysis - Regular deep dive reports with research and fundamental analysis of trending tokens and narratives.
Community - A Discord community to discuss the market and opportunities.
I launched Dynamo DeFi Pro last September. Since then, many of our deep dives have come days, weeks, or months before narratives gained traction.
Our deep dive on Solana preceded 10X price growth, the rush on Solana memecoins, and Jito’s massive airdrop.
Our Base deep dive preceded 2.5X price growth on AERO, the main DEX on Base, and network activity on Base exploding.
We’ve already been helping subscribers find projects with strong fundamentals early.
Don’t just take my word for it.
Here’s what other people are saying:
Love the tight-knit and growing community at Dynamo DeFi. Everyone is humble and hungry about trying to learn about crypto. Patrick's group calls are always filled with knowledge, alpha, and a true sense of honesty that is rarely seen in the space. - archer_0x
Patrick teaches you how to do your own research instead of telling you what to buy. No bs, genuinely good guy, lots of experience from past cycles. - Jay
And now is the perfect time to learn.
In the past 24 hours, DeFi tokens are up massively as Bitcoin hit a new all-time high and investors anticipated dergulation in the US.
The second phase of the crypto bull run is here. Real businesses will be built onchain. And projects with strong fundamentals are poised to shine.
If you’re ready to stop guessing, click here and start a 7-day free trial.
Additionally, in the next few days, I’m announcing a new premium service for people that want to accelerate their learning fundamental analysis with more personalized guidance. Stay tuned for that.
Until then,
Patrick Scott
Dynamo DeFi
Dynamo Defi you are the best! Been enjoying this bull run with you months. Keep it up man! 6/5 content!