There’s something haunting about opening those Excel sheets.
They were supposed to be blueprints for my future, tidy rows, carefully balanced positions, the illusion of control.

Now they look more like gravestones.
Rows of tokens that promised forever and lasted barely a season.

Here’s an example of one of my “portfolios” that was supposed to generate amazing cashflow: INTX, VRTX, GNS, and AARK.
I thought I was building a smart “cash-flow portfolio” with them.

In reality? Only Gains (GNS) actually survived. The rest either burned through money, pivoted into nonsense, or just faded away.

IntentX went all-in on splashy trading events with ridiculous prize pools.
I made a good chunk of money there, so I can’t complain.

But under the surface, the product never stuck.
Users didn’t return, momentum disappeared, and the team eventually rebranded into something I don’t even remember.

Still, I’ll say this much: their tokenomics were probably the sharpest I’ve ever seen in DeFi. Shame it didn’t matter.

Vertex had real potential. Then they decided the future was on half-dead L2s.
Spoiler: it wasn’t.

After burning through time and money, they sold themselves to Ink Chain, leaving their token holders with nothing.

New rule for me: ex-Vertex founders? Hard pass.

During Arbitrum incentives, Aark DIgital felt like a free money glitch.
The ARB rewards were so insane it was almost rude to not farm them.

Then came the mysterious hack. No answers, no accountability.
Next thing you know, the project turned into a 500x leverage playground for degenerates.

If you ask me, that “hack” smelled like it came from inside the house.

I wanted to believe I was building a long-term cashflow machine.
But in truth, I was just chasing adrenaline wrapped in spreadsheets.

The strange part? I escaped.

Thankfully, some weird gut feeling told me to bail.
So instead of licking wounds, I cashed out with gains.

It’s easy to get blinded by rewards, airdrops, and slick UIs.
But the projects that really last? They tend to be quieter, steadier, and far less flashy.

The real question is simple:
Are you investing or are you just chasing another slot machine dressed up as a protocol?