On December 16th, the crypto market experienced a major plunge, with $BTC dropping over 30% from its all-time high. The entire network was forcibly liquidated for $603 million within 24 hours, nearly 184,600 people lost their entire investment. Many of them were newcomers who just entered the market.

What left the deepest impression on me was a newcomer who, watching the market, opened a 10x leverage on a futures contract without setting a stop-loss. The result? His account was wiped out in half an hour. This is the first lesson that crypto newcomers will experience: don’t even think about profits—focus on surviving first.

So, how to survive? My advice is to start practicing with perpetual contracts, which is more stable. Leave spot trading aside for now, as perpetual contracts don’t have an expiration date pressure, and the funding rate is only about 0.01%-0.03% every 8 hours. It’s perfect for beginners to understand the market’s temperament.

Leverage is a double-edged sword; don’t be greedy. The data shows that using less than 5x leverage can reduce liquidation risk by 65%. But if you use 10x leverage, once the market pulls back, your account can be halved in minutes.

Stop-loss is your lifeline. Single trade losses should be kept within 5%-10% of your principal. If floating losses exceed 10%, it’s time to cut losses and exit decisively—don’t hold onto false hopes. Avoid trying to buy the dip against the trend or blindly chasing high prices. The safest approach is to follow the trend. Build your positions gradually; once you have profits, take some off the table. This way, even if the market pulls back later, you won’t have wasted your efforts.

Be especially cautious of three pitfalls: first, the bait of sudden upward manipulation during sideways consolidation; second, the trap of extremely high leverage over 10x; third, the gambler’s mindset of going all-in at once. I’ve seen too many newcomers crash and burn trying to turn things around quickly. In fact, the crypto world is never short of opportunities; what’s lacking is the capital to stay in the game. Remember this: as long as your principal is intact, opportunities will always be there.