DeFi Adventure - Escaping from SmartBCH

This was a roller-coaster of fun, rug-pulls, bad decisions and emotions! I joined the SmartBCH gold-rush in September 2021, and nearly two years later I managed to escape!

SmartBCH was launched when the Ethereum fees were making mainnet DeFi imposible, offering the lowest fees in the Cryptoverse. The launch of the EVM sidechain created hype for Bitcoin Cash ($BCH), a top p2p crypto with only 21 million tokens supply. A big percentage moved on SmartBCH to power up the new DeFi chain, where early users enjoyed small fees and fast transactions.

I was quite early on SmartBCH and I was fortunate to receive nice airdrops when projects launched. Cash Cats ($CATS) is was the first meme token on SmartBCH and this bag was my most valuable. Never spent a penny $CATS and the bag was worth it over $800 at peak value.

However, smartBCH failed to deliver! It was launched at the right time, it had a vibrant community ... until the rug-pulls and scam projects infested the ecosystem. Issues with the bridge followed, sBCH lost the peg with BCH, drama with Roger Ver and some debts ... and the chain slowly become a ghost town.

It's not the end .... it's the end of the beginning! There are still hard working individuals delivering quality products on smartBCH, like Konra or BlockNG. Some NFT communities are still going strong, stuff is being built, and life goes on.

I don't give up easily, and I still love Bitcoin Cash to bits, but I had to activate the exit plan. I still have the scars from 2022, and every penny counts as the cost of living crisis gets deeper. Some will talk, some may criticize ... but I stayed on the boat longer than 99% of the people.

Those that left early maybe were lucky, as some even cashed out for profits. However, the majority of smartBCH users are on minus, with zero chances for return of investments. Sold whatever had liquidity, and tried to ad some pennies in the bag. The $CATS that were as mighty as the Lion King were sold for under 10 dollars! What an epic decline!

The Konra Tokens stayed strong even during the perpetual bear market, and I kept farming RASTJN at amazing APR rates. I had over 18k of tokens in rewards. Claimed the rewards, unstaked and continued with the exit plan. Feeling sad to leave this top farming pairs but a man must supply for his family.

Broke the pairs down, got single tokens and was ready to hit the market. Let's not forget that I was a RASTJN whale, and at one point I had 99% of the pool share. The voices in my head are telling me to HODL and wait for the pump, but the rationale and past experience helped me to click the "remove" button!

I had to swap RASTJN in small batches, to reduce the price impact. Left 5% of the amount to the exchange, but it's a small price to be paid in exchange of freedom! But ... how to escape SmartBCH when sBCH is not pegged to BCH and the main bridge was closed? This was the dilemma!

Tolizz was one of the tokens I decided to hold. The annuity token from the Konra Kingdom will stay staked and bring rewards until the end of the 180 days period. Started with 200 Tolizza and grew the assets in the portfolio to 768 tokens!

How to escape from smartBCH? Many recommendations but some with absolutely no volume. Others closed the smartBCH to BCH bridge, while others were too complicated due to pairs and other stuff. I decided to go for the BlockNG chain, a trustworthy option made by a trustworthy project.

Destination BNB chain was the easiest route, and swapped all the BCH into bcBNB, the Binance Coin version on smartBCH. Had to pay 1% slippage and a price impact of 2% but was worth it! Was my way out!

Some said the bridge is complicated, only because you have to claim the funds from "the other side"! I sent small batches of BNB and claimed them from the Binance Chain. Job done and finally (nearly) smartBCH free!