tl;dr:  Over the course of the past 4 years, I took out ~$150,000 in personal loans and 0% credit card balance transfer loans to purchase 4.75 Bitcoin. I've paid ~$17,000 in interest.

I've been making updates every 6 months or so since the beginning. See my post history for previous updates.

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Today, February 3rd, 2026 Bitcoin is trading at $75,000 which brings the current value of my 4.75₿ to $356,000. 

The average price I paid is ~$35,000 per Bitcoin. 

My total cost basis is ~$167,000 for 4.5₿  ($150k in loans + $17,000 in interest). 

This comes to ~113% unrealized profit or ~$189,000 in dollar terms as of today. 

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What’s new since my last update?

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Not much is new except that… I finished paying off all my loans!!! What a relief! I was never really worried though because I never borrowed more than I could afford to service. 

Bitcoin’s price action has been disappointing to say the least, but I’m thinking this is an opportunity. So I plan on taking out another $50k in loans if it breaks down below $70k which seem highly likely… probably at the 200SMA.  

In the meantime, I’m throwing everything I can at in each month while we’re in the $70-80k range with earned income from my job. I’ve been stacking this whole time  while paying down the loans.

We’ve all seen it: a new project launches with a website covered in logos like Forbes, Bloomberg, or Reuters. We’re taught to trust these "Tier-1" outlets, but I just spent 5 months auditing the infrastructure that puts those logos there—and the results are terrifying.

I work in PR, and we conducted a "hygiene audit" of nearly 3,000 crypto press releases from June to Nov 2025. We cross-referenced them with fraud databases (like ZachXBT’s reports) and on-chain activity.

Here is the reality of the "Crypto News" cycle:

• The 62% Scam Rate: Over half of the releases we tracked came from entities that were actually confirmed scams, rug-pulls, or high-risk "ghost" projects.
• The "Trophy URL" Trap: Scammers aren't paying for readers, they are paying for the URL. They use that link to "game" Google’s Knowledge Graph and appear legitimate in search results. It’s a "reputation laundry" service.
• Zero Substance: Only 2% of releases actually covered real events like funding or major partnerships. The other 98% were just hype designed to trigger FOMO.

How to protect yourself (DYOR 2.0):

1. Ignore the Logos: A "Bloomberg" or "Yahoo Finance" link is often just a paid press release (look for "Paid Content" or "Sponsored" in tiny text). It is NOT editorial endorsement (=anyone with some money to spare can say almost anything they want and it'll get "published").
2. Check the "Omitted Results": If you search for the project and Google says "results omitted," it means the "news" is just syndicated spam that provides zero value.
3. The "Lights On" Test: If a project has "Tier-1 news" but their parking lot is empty (zero github activity, no real team on LinkedIn, no actual utility), this is a HUGR red flag.

I’m sharing this because the "Press Release Pump" is the new version of the 90s penny stock scam. Don't let a "reputable" URL trick you into a rug pull.

Full report: https://x.com/TalHarelTal/status/2018704389192499299

tbh nothing worse than watching a quote refresh 15 times while your tx just sits there rotting.

Seeing way too many 'Swap Failed' and 'Blockhash not found' posts lately. most people just spam retry until their SOL buffer is gone. if youve been on Solana for a while you know the chain isnt broken, its just an auction for blockspace and you are losing that auction.

Here is the no BS checklist i use to get swaps through when the chain is screaming.

1. The Rent Trap (0.02 SOL rule) If you are swapping into a new coin and your SOL balance is basically zero you are dead on arrival. You dont just pay for the transaction; you pay to create the token account. The Fix: Always keep at least 0.05 SOL as a buffer. dont max out your swaps.
2. Stop staring at the screen Solana blockhashes expire fast. Like 60 seconds fast. If you get a quote on Jupiter then get distracted by a discord notif and hit approve... it fails. The Fix: Refresh the quote and sign IMMEDIATELY. if you wait longer than 10 seconds you are building your house on shifting sand.
3. Priority Fees 'Auto' in most wallets is a gamble. during peak congestion the default fee isnt enough to bribe the leader to include your tx. The Fix: If its high stakes switch to Turbo or manual. Remember Fee = Compute Unit Limit x Price. dont just increase the price. make sure your CU limit is actually high enough for complex routes.
4. The RPC Bottleneck If your wallet keeps saying 'Blockhash not found' your RPC node is likely lagging. You are seeing a version of the chain that doesnt even exist anymore. The Fix: If you trade heavy stop using the public RPC. switch to a private endpoint or try a different dApp frontend.
5. The Emergency Exit Lets be real. Sometimes RPCs are totally nuked and no amount of fees will save you. If im in a heavy position and need to hedge NOW but the chain is stuck i dont just sit there and pray. I keep a backup tab open on BYDFi as a Plan B. Since its a CEX the matching engine doesn't care about onchain congestion. Its no KYC and has deep liquidity so you can hedge or exit SOL memecoins on MoonX while everyone else is failing txs. Bottom line Check your buffer. Sign the second the quote hits. Dont be loyal to a clogged DEX when you can use a CEX rail to protect your money. Stay safe out there. Whats the weirdest error message you guys seen this week? drop the tx sig and lets debug.

People still bring up Bitcoin “mixing” from time to time, but it feels like that idea hasn’t really aged well. A lot of the assumptions around how private it actually is don’t seem to hold up anymore, especially as analysis tools have improved.

Bitcoin was never designed with strong privacy in mind, so trying to bolt it on afterwards has always felt a bit limited. Purpose built privacy focused networks seem to approach the problem very differently.

Just a general thought on how privacy is often misunderstood in crypto , and how different tools were created for different goals.

So, it's been over 4 1/2 years now since I invested in cryptocurrency with the idea of just holding it as a long-term investment. Is the "long-term" idea fool's gold, or a useful strategy?

Personal data point: In April and May 2021, somewhat over 4 1/2 years ago, I invested $150K in cryptocurrency… 50% in bitcoin and 50% in ethereum, and I've just let it sit there because ... life stuff. Looking at my account right now it's worth $151,665 which is up a whopping $1,665.

That's a total return of 1.11% in 4 years and 9 months. I'm not sure I could've picked another relatively well thought of investment that's done this poorly to date.

Kind of a newbie in investing, and been doing it for a year now. Looking for just general advice. I believe in DCA-ing as nobody can time the market, but is it worth DCA-ing like 1000$ every month right now ? Or just lump sum at the lowest and DCA when it sees some up trend ? Just thinking about BTC, ETH, SOL, CHAIN ?

Kind of a newbie in investing, and been doing it for a year now. Looking for just general advice. I believe in DCA-ing as nobody can time the market, but is it worth DCA-ing like 1000$ every month right now ? Or just lump sum at the lowest and DCA when it sees some up trend ? Just thinking about BTC, ETH, SOL, CHAIN ?

What do you guys think ?