July 2025 marks my 10th year in crypto.
It was back in the summer of 2015 that I made the decision to dip my toes into decentralized money, not realizing what a crazy ride it would be.
After doing many days of research, I finally decided to search for Bitcoin ATMs in my local area.
Back then it was as simple as inserting cash into a machine and scanning a QR code (your public key) to get some Bitcoin. Nowadays, the process has become far more complex due to government regulations.
Thinking back, it certainly felt strange trading dollar bills for a fraction of this magical Internet money, but I considered it to be an experiment.
Before crypto, I had been stacking silver to hedge against the impending inflation many experts were warning about.
Back in 2011, I remember searching on YouTube for "economy" and filtering by "recent" because I wanted to know more about what was happening in the markets, and understand better the 2008 financial crisis.
It was there that I discovered podcasters like Peter Schiff, Chris Martenson, and Stefan Molyneux who opened my eyes to how unsustainable the financial system was, and the possibility of hyperinflation from non-stop QE and artificially low interest rates.
I remember hearing about Bitcoin a few times while doing my research. Like most people though, I didn't take it seriously at first. I remained steadfast in hedging against inflation with silver.
Then, in 2015, I finally did a deep dive into Bitcoin and my eyes lit up when I finally connected the dots. With a background in computer networking, and as a frequent listener of the Security Now! podcast (which focused a lot on cryptography in its early years), I was able to make sense of it.
I remember looking at the long-term price chart of Bitcoin and seeing the run-up and crash of 2011 and 2014 and thinking to myself "why wouldn't this pattern repeat itself again"?
Even having considered the possibility of another run-up, I was totally astonished when the bull-run of 2017 arrived.
That bull-run made me realize that Bitcoin and crypto were going to grow much faster than I had originally anticipated. It was then that I decided to focus on the industry full-time, and tried to make sense of what a tokenized future might look like.
Needless to say, the past decade has been nothing short of a rollercoaster ride. I made some good plays, but also lots of fumbles along the way. I must admit that I was far too optimistic on the timeline of "hyperbitcoinization" and the emergence of a tokenized world.
I still believe that it's inevitable though, and that we get closer to it with each day that passes.
That's part of the reason why I re-located to El Salvador in 2021, a country who's leadership also seemed to understand that the current financial system is unsustainable, and that the future of money is Bitcoin.
Or at least, it will start with Bitcoin.
I am mystified as to how the traditional financial system has held out for so long, despite the ongoing quantitative easing, zero/negative percent interest rates, and bailouts. The result has turned out to be more of a slow motion train wreck than a collapse.
I thought that for sure locking down the global economy in 2020 and doubling the money supply would be the push required to collapse such a "fragile" system, but it turned out to be far more resilient.
With each year that passes it becomes more clear to me that this crazy monetary experiment is not just incompetence, but rather being done on purpose to roll-out a new system.
I believe that decentralized, community-run cryptocurrencies are the best way to opt-out of a draconian future running on CBDCs.
The cycles of 2011 and 2014 were indeed foretelling, because the pattern did repeat itself again in 2017 and 2021. What would stop this pattern from repeating yet again?
That said, this most recent "bull-run" of 2024/2025 has been rather weak, giving believers false hope multiple times before crashing, and then crashing again. I think a lot of us are very tired at this point, but still remain convinced that cryptocurrencies are the future.
I remain optimistic that we will be experiencing another bull-run soon. Not only because of predictable past cycles, but because TradFi is in even worse shape today, and the crypto community remains steadfast and resilient despite these challenging times.
The second half of 2025 should be very interesting, and I remain optimistic that quality projects will make a comeback soon, and will continue building the foundation of a crypto-based economy.
If you found this article interesting, be sure to check out my other posts on crypto and finance here on the Hive blockchain. You can also follow me on InLeo for more frequent updates.
