In this episode, Merp shares his journey from hospitality work during COVID to trading crypto full-time, navigating early bull-market luck, painful drawdowns, and the realities of maturing markets. We talk about buying dips, overthinking versus ignorance, working at a crypto fund through the FTX collapse, and why human dynamics often break funds. The conversation dives into perp DEXs vs options, airdrop farming, Hyperliquid, Extended, CT culture, founder behavior, and the social side of markets. We close with reflections on freedom, what it really means to “make it,” crypto’s future, and why the most important rule is simple: don’t blow up.

00:00 Intro, Merp joins the podcast, market boredom, current trading sentiment 

03:53 Going all-in on crypto, GameStop era, blowing up early portfolios 

08:02 Biggest losses, fund experience, FTX fallout and lessons from institutional trading 

12:19 Bear market grind, working with AVO, perps vs options and why options lag on-chain 

18:55 Badge culture, points farming, Extended vs Hyperliquid and early adoption tradeoffs 

30:41 On-chain vs off-chain execution, incentives, trader behavior and ecosystem design 

38:43 What it means to “make it”, freedom, contentment, long-term outlook on crypto