Ajebutter22’s curiosity propelled him to give crypto a chance about five years ago. Now a musician by day and a crypto bro at night, he talks about some of the events that have happened since that time and why the bulk of his investments are now in crypto.
Tell me about the moment you knew you wanted to give crypto a chance?
In 2014, I followed a Twitter account that shared Bitcoin price updates daily. At the time, I worked at a gaming startup and I was already in the tech ecosystem. Also, I had started making music and had released an album. So I was curious about a lot of things.
Anyway, I was drawn to that Twitter account, and by extension, Bitcoin. It helped that I already believed that digital currencies would play a huge role in the future.
Oh?
Yeah. It’s in the evolution of money as a belief system. I always thought that as computers and networks became more popular, the way we thought about and used money would evolve as well. Now, I didn’t know much about how decentralization or the blockchain worked then. I just knew that Bitcoin was blowing up.
I didn’t make any purchases until 2017 though.
Why?
The major crypto exchanges available at the time weren’t optimised for Nigerians. Eventually, I had to ask a friend in the United States for help — he opened a Coinbase account, bought some Bitcoin for me and stored it in his wallet.
The second transaction happened in 2018. Another friend who had travelled to the United States needed $3k to pay for something, and I let him use my card. He paid me back in a stablecoin. It was easier to have a wallet on a centralized exchange now, so I used the money to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum. It’s safe to say that I was bullish on crypto already, but a visit to the United States in the same year solidified my resolve to take crypto more seriously.
What happened in the United States?
I saw how the people there were big on cryptocurrencies and were making decent money from them. When I returned to Nigeria a few weeks later, I doubled down on learning about how to invest and trade cryptocurrencies.
Did you have a set of goals when you started this?
It was definitely to make money. But a part of it was also to see what would happen in the space. Although there were no guarantees and I had everything to lose, I didn’t think I was taking a huge risk. The way I saw it, I was making an educated decision.
That being said, I was investing a lot of time into reading random articles about crypto and I was also leveraging my relationship with friends who knew more about the crypto space. The more I was in the ecosystem, the better I got used to what was going on.
Right.
I made about $10k in profits within a few months from just holding. And only 10% of my investment portfolio was in crypto.
I see.
I added more coins to my portfolio in the months that followed. But it wasn’t until March 2020 that I made another major purchase. Bitcoin was trading at $8k, and I bought 2 BTC. I also put some money in Binance Coin, although I don’t remember how much it was anymore. There was not much to do than to hold on to these coins, and that’s what I did. They’ve done more than 15x since that time.
Massive W.
I saw a tweet once that I held close to my heart, and it goes something like this: “If you can’t hold, you won’t be rich.” It always stays true.
However, this doesn’t mean I haven’t had my fair share of losses too.
Do you want to talk about them?
I took the first loss sometime in 2018. The crypto markets had been on a rise, and I bought some Bitcoin at $11k, then a crash followed. Luckily, that was early on, so I didn’t have a lot of money in it. My portfolio took a hit, but it wasn’t a disaster.
Fast-forward to 2021, I got caught up in a meme coin hype and decided to take a quick gamble.
What coin?
Dogecoin. I opened a short trade and put $80k in it. I lost $20k in three hours.
Whoa.
Well, the loss was partly my fault. I wanted to make quick money, and things like that don’t always work out in crypto. Besides, I believe that there will always be an opportunity to recover from whatever hit I take as long as I focus on the things I’m sure about.
What does this look like in practice for you?
I’m more likely to go for tokens that have proven utilities and use cases — this means that people use them every day. Off the top of my head, top coins like this are Ethereum, Bitcoin, Solana, and BNB. In my opinion, they have real-life uses, which protects them from constant and indiscriminate crashes.
Speaking of BNB, I made some interesting choices with that as well.
Let’s hear it, please.
I got in early on BNB and bought it for the first time when it was $8 or $9. Sometime in 2020, the price went up to $13 and I bought more. A couple of months later, it hit an all-time high of $200, so I sold it. It didn’t stop there, though — the price went up and up. Subsequently, I bought a couple more times and sold them. In retrospect, I should have gone all-in. Imagine how much I would have made on BNB if I hadn’t sold at all.
A lot, I guess.
Exactly. One of the problems was that I was very diversified in the early days. I was holding too many tokens at the same time, which made it hard to focus on the ones that mattered. Now, I’ve learned to live with the fact that I can’t keep up with everything happening in crypto. I would rather hold the coins I’m confident about.
At the moment, I’m holding mostly Stablecoins, and this is why: when I see signs of a bear market, I go into Stablecoins to make sure I don’t have my money tied up for a long time. When the market begins to recover, then I return to investing in other coins.
Sounds like you have it figured out.
Well, I’ve gone from looking at Bitcoin charts a couple of years ago to becoming fully immersed in this experience. For context, about 80% of my entire investment portfolio is now in crypto. Naturally, there have been some lessons and losses. The thing about losses is that they build character and you come out of them stronger.
All of this sounds exciting, doesn’t it?
I mean, the potential of earning more and growing my wealth from holding and trading is great, but I don’t believe it’s the most exciting thing for me.
What is?
The opportunity to build. I’ve worked in business development and have built relationships with tech and crypto companies across the continent. This allows me to invest in these companies and help build them from the ground up.
For example, when Binance opened offices in West Africa two years ago, I worked closely with the team to plant their presence here. There have been other arrangements like this, and the consistent thing is how rewarding they are. I’m taking it one step further now and starting my own crypto company.
Not going to lie; that does sound exciting.
It’s still in stealth mode, so there’s nothing public about it yet. But yeah, it’s exciting.
A lot is happening in the crypto space, and if you understand the technology and what needs to be done, you can do anything. On the basic level, there are so many new jobs that are being created.
Preach.
Also, everyone stands a better chance of accessing economic opportunities that weren’t always available. A decade ago, only a privileged few could operate in the stock market and unlock the opportunities there. But these opportunities are more evenly distributed with crypto.
Do you wonder what the crypto space will look like in the next couple of years?
I expect more individuals and institutions to get into crypto. I’m also curious to see how crypto will be more about utility and application. Also, I imagine it will get more regulated.
That’s interesting.
By design, crypto is anti-regulation, so there’s only so much that can be done there. That said, I believe that some regulation will be good because things can be like the wild wild west here sometimes.
Haha. What drove you at the start of your crypto journey and what drives you now?
I was driven by curiosity and speculation when I got into crypto. A lot has happened since that time, and I’ve seen the access and freedom it gives. That’s what drives me now.
I get that. How do you imagine your crypto knowledge overlaps with other aspects of your life?
I’m playing in two different industries — entertainment and tech — and enjoying the benefits of both. People in the music industry reach out to talk about crypto and tech and to get my insights on things. On the other hand, folks in the tech ecosystem also want my opinion on the entertainment and marketing sides of things. It’s deeply rewarding, and I won’t have it any other way.
Shall we put your knowledge of this story to the test?
Before you go, why don’t you take a quiz to test how much you got from this story? Click here to start.
Check back every Monday at 10 a.m. for a new episode.
If you’re interested in talking about your crypto journey, click this link.
