The most brutal lessons of the crypto market often lie in those moments you think are "impossible."

On the night of May 11, 2022, someone witnessed how $1.2 million evaporated into the cost of a breakfast in just three days. It's not a joke; it's a nightmare that really happened to LUNA holders.

On the eve of the crash, there were 10,000 LUNA lying in the account, worth 1 million U at that time. When the news came that UST had depegged by 10%, most people still held onto the hope: "Do Kwon will definitely step in to save the market, this level of volatility can be endured."

The first time I woke up, my assets had shrunk to 700,000. Although I felt anxious, I was still comforting myself: "A 30% pullback, I've seen worse in a bull market." I put down my phone and continued to sleep; when I opened my eyes again, the number had turned into 10,000—evaporating so fast that I couldn't react in time.

Even more deadly was that "bottom-fishing decision." Selling everything to scrape together 200,000 U, buying 200,000 LUNA, fantasizing that as long as it rebounds to 10 U, it can turn around. The result was staying up all night watching the price drop from 1 dollar to 0.1, then to 0.01, and finally a string of zeros after the decimal point, until the exchange directly delisted it.

Three days, 1.2 million US dollars, turned into nothing.

This is not an isolated case. The operating rules of this market have been written from the very beginning with "no mercy": 24/7 trading throughout the year, prices can surge or plummet at any time; there is no circuit breaker, and 10x and 20x leverage is everywhere; whales can accurately target on-chain liquidation prices, making the liquidation points for retail investors crystal clear.

In the previous cycle, ETH fell from 4000 dollars to 800 dollars, not because of technical issues, but due to a liquidation cascade that triggered a series of bankruptcies. The market makers clearly know at which price point they can harvest the most chips and where the best time to "collect the corpses" is.

Many people think that using 5x leverage is conservative, but they have not experienced the frequency of the market dropping 20% in a single day—such declines can happen dozens of times in a year, each time feeling like a knife scraping the bone. Altcoins can triple just by telling a story, but when they crash, they don't even give you a chance to explain.

The so-called "faith", "value", and "consensus" often crumble in the face of extreme market conditions. The players who truly survive are not those who predict rises and falls, but those who understand when to pull back and what positions can withstand a black swan event.

The market will not stop falling just because you believe it will, nor will it give up rising just because you are afraid. The only thing you can do is to leave yourself a way out before the madness arrives.