Crypto Is a Mirror, Not a Miracle
The rise, fall, and reflection of Chuka, the man who thought he found a shortcut to wealth but ended up finding himself.
Hey! you smell that?
The rice is smoky, the stew is spicy, and markets everywhere are bleeding.
Today’s edition is soaked in pain: money gone, pride wounded, dreams humbled, and lives lost.
Because in the last 72 hours, global markets recorded the largest liquidations in history. Crypto. Stocks. Commodities. Everything is in red. Even my favorite influencer’s Telegram group is suddenly posting motivational quotes.
One trader on X said:
“I just lost my house deposit, but at least I have WiFi to cry in HD.”
And yet… amidst the chaos, some major opportunities are seeding.
On today’s plate:
🍚 Chuka’s rise & fall—how $500 became $6,000, then vanished
🍚 Why crypto often reflects your ego more than the market
🍚 The carnage of the last 72 hours: record liquidations, bleeding markets
🍚 The tragic story of Konstantin Galish, and what it signals
🍚 Reader Q: “Should I start investing in crypto now or wait?”
Let’s eat…
“I Thought I Cracked Money.”
That’s how Chuka begins his story.
In 2020, when the world shut down, he opened his first Binance account. When everyone else was panicking, stocking tissue papers and sanitizers. The crash of 2020, for him, was the opening bell.
“I started my crypto investing with $500, money I was saving to buy an iPhone,” he says. “Within six month, I had $6,000. I thought I had discovered a cheat code.”
And that’s when he started believing he could outsmart the market, and that the mirror would always reflect glory.
The Rise & The Ruin
With each win, Chuka’s pride expanded.
A token he bought at 7 cents mooned to $1.20 after Elon Musk tweeted something vaguely related. Next thing he’s doubling down. He borrowed. He leveraged. Then came the fall. Not in one trade, but in a slow, painful erosion of confidence, arrogance, and ego.
One token rugged. Another sank 80%. Within three weeks, his portfolio bled red. $9,000 had evaporated. By the end of 2021, he was back where he started.
“By the time I blinked, my $14,000 became $160. I cried.”
His mother thought he was heartbroken over a girl. Of course, he was. Her name was Crypto.
The Mirage of Quick Money
He laughs about it now, but it wasn’t funny then.
“I didn’t just lose money. I lost confidence. I thought I was smart.”
Then came the realization that changed everything: Crypto wasn’t the problem. He was.
He’d treated it like a get-rich-quick scheme.
But crypto doesn’t reward desperation, it rewards discipline.
And that’s the trap most people fall into.
“Everyone says crypto is volatile,” he said. “But it’s us that are unstable. The charts just expose it. Crypto exposed my greed, my impatience, my quiet hunger to skip the process. It showed me I wasn’t ready for wealth.”
And he’s not wrong.
Crypto Is a Mirror
Everyone wants the miracle, the 100x overnight, the early presale.
But the truth?
Crypto is a test of character disguised as a financial opportunity.
If you’re greedy, you’ll gamble.
If you’re patient, you’ll plan.
If you’re disciplined, you’ll build.
If you’re impulsive, you’ll burn.
If you enter for hype, you’ll exit in tears.
The winners?
They master emotional risk management faster than technical analysis.
The Comeback: From Trader to Builder
Two years after the crash, Chuka didn’t quit. He evolved.
He stopped chasing pump signals and started studying fundamentals — how blockchain works, what tokenomics means, why market cycles repeat.
He no longer asks, “What coin will moon?”
He asks, “What coin is worth holding?”
“Once I stopped chasing miracles, the mirror started working for me.”
Now, he runs a small DeFi learning group teaching newbies risk management. He’s not a millionaire (yet), but he’s rich in understanding, and that’s the true 100×.
Lessons from the Mirror
The Market Rewards Temperament, Not Talent.
It’s not about IQ. It’s about EQ. Staying calm when others panic is the real alpha.Hype Is Not a Strategy.
If everyone’s screaming “to the moon,” you might already be late.Crypto Isn’t for Escaping Work. It Is Work.
Research, discipline, and patience are still the alpha.Don’t Marry Your Bags.
Even love has limits. If a coin stops making sense, move on.
If You Remember Just One Line
“Crypto won’t fix you. It’ll reflect you.”
Reader Question of the Week
@Ife from Ibadan asks:
“Should I start investing in crypto now or wait?”
Here’s the truth:
There’s no perfect entry point, only prepared investors.
Start small
Start with education
Start with coins you understand.
Only trade with capital you can afford to lose
Always remember: what you see when it’s green isn’t what you’ll see in the red
Market Moves This Week
President Trump announced new 100% tariffs on Chinese imports starting November 1, reviving fears of a full-blown trade war. The move wiped out weeks of equity gains, sent bond yields tumbling, and reignited fears of a global supply chain squeeze reminiscent of 2018. The S&P 500 lost 2.7%, the Nasdaq tumbled 3.5%, and bond yields fell as investors fled to safety. Gold and Treasuries surged, while crypto took a $560 billion hit.
Around the same time the markets were collapsing, a grim headline broke. Konstantin Galish, crypto influencer, trader, and investor was found dead inside his Lamborghini in Kyiv, with a gunshot wound. Preliminary reports point to suicide. A day before, he had reportedly sent a farewell note to family, citing financial distress. Galish had been handling funds amounting to tens of millions of dollars. Some sources say he lost $65M+ of investor money amid the crash.
The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) unveiled a Digital Retail Payments Platform intended to enable cross-border trade settled in local currencies, reducing dependency on the U.S. dollar and cutting transaction costs. The pilot is rolling out between Malawi and Zambia, targeting SME inclusion and aiming to keep costs under 3%.
After a year-long rally, cocoa prices nosedived to $6,150/tonne, the lowest in 20 months. Ghana and Ivory Coast, the world’s top producers, now face tighter export revenues and weaker rural incomes. Favorable weather and state-backed price schemes increased supply, just as global demand cooled.
Ethiopia finally began trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on October 9, marking a milestone for the continent’s largest free-trade pact. The first shipments rolled out with fanfare, signaling that policy is now turning into practice. For Ethiopia, it’s a route to diversify exports beyond coffee and textiles, and for Africa, one more step toward a single, borderless market.
The Nigerian 364-day treasury bill stop rate settled at 15.77%, yet bids hit ₦1.06 trillion as pension funds and asset managers piled in. Shorter tenors cleared at 15.00% and 15.25%. The strong demand signals confidence that inflation may have peaked, or that investors simply prefer safe, high-yield parking over volatile equities.
France is battling political chaos and investor panic. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s resignation deepened fears of instability, pushing up French bond yields and widening euro-area risk spreads. Markets are now watching whether the new government can avoid a repeat of 2022’s fiscal credibility crisis.
What To Watch
Monday, October 13 → IMF/WBG Annual Meetings open → global growth outlook and debt relief chatter could ripple across EM credit and currency markets.
Tuesday, October 14 → China trade data & U.S. regional prints → export trends and weak U.S. reads may amplify pressure on emerging market’s FX and risk assets.
Wednesday, October 15 → IMF plenary sessions & country programme discussions → announcements may trigger sovereign bond and FX shocks in emerging markets.
Thursday, October 16 → U.S. PPI release & regional data → inflation trends in wholesale pipeline will influence bond yields and inflation expectations.
Friday, October 17 → IMF/WBG wrap & central bank speeches → takeaways may drive risk sentiment, yields, and commodity price adjustments.
Final Scoop
Crypto is not a miracle. It’s a mirror. And what it reflects is entirely up to you.
It was meant to show us our greed, our hope, our illusions of control.
Chuka didn’t quit. He recalibrated.
Now, he dollar-cost averages. Reads white papers and listens to the news religiously. Touches grass, and sleeps better.
“Crypto humbled me,” he said, “but it also made me honest.”
Maybe that’s what wealth really is, not a number, but the peace that remains when the charts bleed red.
That’s your Sunday Rice.
Stay active.
By all means.
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Until next week,
Lucky Mark
@ActiveMeans
🚨Disclaimer: Informational only, not financial advice. Don’t invest in anything you can’t explain to your grandmother.
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You might also like: “I Invest in Me: The Only 100× That’s Actually in My Control”
If your portfolio could talk this week, what would it say?
“Hold on”? “Help me”? Or just “Hmmm…”
Reply and let’s gist.