Crypto is brutal. You buy a bag, the charts look like a jagged mountain range, and suddenly your portfolio is bleeding red while some teenager on X (formerly Twitter) claims they just made 100x on a coin named after a dog’s breakfast. It’s exhausting. Most people jump in because they want a quick win, but they end up washed out because they can't trust the process crypto demands of its survivors.
They sell at the bottom. They buy the top. They do everything backward because they’re reacting to price, not the cycle.
Bitcoin was under $20,000 just a couple of years ago. People called it dead. They said the experiment was over. Those who understood the four-year halving cycle—the actual "process"—just sat on their hands. They didn't do anything. Sometimes, in this market, doing absolutely nothing is the hardest and most profitable skill you can develop.
The Math Behind the Madness
The phrase "trust the process" actually migrated from sports—specifically the Philadelphia 76ers—into the world of high-risk investing. In crypto, the process isn't just a vibe; it’s rooted in the programmed scarcity of Bitcoin.
Every four years, the block reward for miners gets cut in half. This is the halving. It’s a supply shock. Historically, this triggers a massive bull run, but there is always a "boring" phase or a "pain" phase before the explosion. If you look at the 2012, 2016, and 2020 cycles, the pattern is eerily similar. There's a peak, a 70-80% drawdown, a long period of sideways movement that makes you want to delete your apps, and then a vertical moonshot.
People get shaken out during the sideways movement.
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It’s psychological warfare. The market is designed to take money from the impatient and give it to the patient. If you’re constantly checking your phone every five minutes, you aren’t trusting anything; you’re just gambling on 1-minute candles.
Real Stories of Diamond Hands vs. Paper Hands
Let's talk about 2018. If you bought Bitcoin at the $19,000 peak and held it all the way down to $3,100, you felt like an idiot. Your friends laughed at you. Your family told you to get a "real" job. But if you held—if you actually trusted the process—that $19,000 investment turned into $69,000 by 2021.
That’s a 260% gain. Compare that to the S&P 500.
But wait.
The people who really made it were the ones buying when it was $3,100. When the sentiment was "crypto is a scam." That’s where the "process" gets messy. It’s easy to say "trust the process" when everything is green. It’s a lot harder when your account is down 60% and the news is screaming about a total collapse.
Take MicroStrategy. Michael Saylor is the poster child for this. He buys Bitcoin regardless of the price. He’s been mocked, called a "bagholder," and analyzed to death by traditional finance skeptics. Yet, by sticking to a singular thesis—that Bitcoin is superior digital property—his firm has outperformed almost every single stock in the S&P 500 since adopting the strategy.
He didn't trade the volatility. He used the volatility to accumulate.
Why You Keep Failing
Honestly? Most people fail because they don’t have a process to trust in the first place.
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If your "process" is following an influencer’s "Top 5 Altcoins" video, you’re going to lose. Influencers are often paid to promote projects, or they’re looking for "exit liquidity"—meaning they need you to buy so they can sell.
A real process looks like this:
- Self-Custody: You don't trust exchanges. You use a hardware wallet like Ledger or Trezor. If you don't own your keys, you don't own your crypto.
- Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA): You buy a set amount every week or month. You don't care if the price is up or down. This smooths out your entry price over time.
- Researching Tokenomics: You look at the supply. Is it inflationary? Are the developers dumping their tokens on retail investors?
- Exit Strategy: You know exactly when you’re going to sell before you even buy.
Without these four pillars, you're just a leaf in the wind.
The Altcoin Trap
The trust the process crypto mantra works best for Bitcoin and maybe Ethereum. It gets dangerous when you apply it to "shitcoins."
99% of altcoins go to zero.
Remember LUNA? People were "trusting the process" all the way down to $0.00. That wasn't a process; that was a systemic collapse of an algorithmic stablecoin. You have to be able to distinguish between market volatility (normal) and a project's fundamental failure (deadly).
If a project’s community is only talking about "to the moon" and has no actual developers building anything, the process is a lie. Real value comes from utility, decentralization, and network effects.
Look at Solana. In 2022, after the FTX collapse, SOL dropped to around $8. People thought it was over because Sam Bankman-Fried was its biggest backer. But the developers kept building. The community stayed. Those who recognized that the tech hadn't changed—only the price had—trusted the process and saw a massive recovery in 2023 and 2024.
How to Stay Sane During the Dip
It’s mostly about your environment.
If you spend all day in Telegram groups where everyone is screaming about "lambo" or "rug pulls," your brain will melt. You’ll make emotional decisions.
Emotions are the enemy of profit.
The most successful investors I know barely look at the price. They have alerts set for major moves, but otherwise, they’re living their lives. They’ve automated their buys. They’ve accepted that crypto is a 5-to-10-year play, not a 5-to-10-week play.
You also need to understand "time in the market" versus "timing the market." Trying to catch the exact bottom is a fool’s errand. You’ll miss it. Every time. Instead, focus on accumulating during the "Red Zones"—periods where the Relative Strength Index (RSI) is low and everyone on social media is crying.
Practical Steps for Long-Term Survival
Stop gambling. Start investing.
First, get your "boring" finances in order. You should never, ever invest money in crypto that you need for rent or groceries. If you do, you’ll be forced to sell during a dip because you need the cash. That’s how the market "breaks" you. Having a six-month emergency fund in boring old cash is the best way to ensure you can actually hold your crypto through the dark times.
Second, simplify your portfolio. You don't need 20 different coins. Most professional crypto investors have 70-80% of their holdings in Bitcoin and ETH, with a few small "bets" on high-upside altcoins.
Third, learn to read a basic chart. You don't need to be a day trader. Just learn what a 200-day moving average is. Historically, when Bitcoin is below its 200-day moving average, it’s a "buy" zone. When it’s way above it, it’s a "be careful" zone. It’s not rocket science, but it keeps you from buying the hype.
Finally, document your "Why." Write down on a piece of paper why you bought a specific coin. Is it because of the technology? The team? The supply cap? When the market crashes—and it will—read that paper. If the reasons are still true, keep holding. If the only reason you bought was "number go up," then you’re in trouble.
Crypto isn't just about money; it’s a bet on a decentralized future. If you believe the world is moving toward digital, borderless, permissionless finance, then the day-to-day price of Bitcoin doesn't actually matter.
The "process" is the adoption of a new global financial system.
It’s going to be messy. It’s going to be volatile. There will be government crackdowns, exchange failures, and massive bubbles. But if the fundamental thesis holds—that math is more reliable than central banks—then the long-term trend is up.
Stop looking at the 15-minute charts. Zoom out to the yearly view. The path becomes much clearer when you aren't standing two inches away from the screen.
Immediate Actions for Your Strategy:
- Audit your holdings: Move anything you plan to hold for more than a year into a cold storage wallet to remove the temptation of panic-selling.
- Automate your DCA: Use an exchange or app that allows for recurring purchases so you don't have to manually "decide" to buy when the news is scary.
- Define your "Moon": Write down the specific price target or life goal (e.g., paying off a mortgage) where you will sell. Having a predetermined exit point prevents greed from ruining your gains.
- Filter your feed: Unfollow accounts that post "price predictions" without data and follow developers or researchers who explain the underlying technology of the networks you're invested in.