# My first crypto cycle

By [benji.](https://paragraph.com/@benjix21) · 2022-07-10

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I heard about crypto in 2018 but didn't take the time to learn about it. I had never invested in the stock market before. The entire concept of investing was foreign to me. I was finishing up grad school when the covid crash happened. I started to read about bitcoin. It took me a while, but it finally clicked. When I was ready to "invest" money, I started to create account on exchanges left and right - Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, Voyager etc. When I found transacting BTC cost miner fees I looked for option where I could park my BTC and get free transfers. And interest on top of that? Celsius seemed great for what I was looking for. Their UI/UX was amazing. I was sold. I kept all bitcoin I had on Celsius for the yields. I saw it as a great way to stack additional sats.

I started to search on YouTube for crypto contents and predominantly everything I came across was off putting. I kept hearing about DeFi, yields, tokens and whatnots. I wanted to get involved. I wanted to try these DeFi apps. But was quickly turned away when I found a simple transaction would cost me $20-50. I was casually observing things from the sidelines. Instead of DeFi I turned into CeFi. They were giving me yields on my crypto assets. If yields are the point of DeFi why take on additional complexities when you get the same results using intuitive interface on Celsius, Voyager or Nexo?

My crypto, web3 and DeFi perspective start to shift when I discovered "The Defiant” last year. I was hooked on their content. I was soaking in as much as I could. I was also starting to dabble a little on alternative layer-1s cause of cheap fees (Cosmos, Solana, Luna etc.) I then found Bankless. But it was too late for me to realize I should not have put my money in custodial services. Celsius and Voyager freezing withdrawal hurts. While this will set me back a little. I’m determined to stay here and continue to educate myself. I've found my home in Ethereum layer 2s where I bridge between Optimism and Arbitrum and sometime fly to Polygon. No more sitting on the sidelines. #L222, let's go!

Cover image is an NFT I own from The Defiant.

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*Originally published on [benji.](https://paragraph.com/@benjix21/my-first-crypto-cycle)*