Google Software Engineer Shares Cautionary Tale of ₹67 Lakh Cryptocurrency Loss

Ethan Nguonly, a 22-year-old software engineer at Google, recently shared his biggest financial mistake, which involved losing approximately ₹67 lakh in cryptocurrency investments made on margin. Here are the key details:

• Nguonly, who lives in Orange County, California, began investing in the stock market with his parents’ assistance before he was a teenager. His investment portfolio includes over ₹1 crore in retirement and brokerage accounts, as well as two houses.
• His crypto losses occurred between November 2021 and June 2022, totaling ₹67 lakh. This figure includes ₹24 lakh of his original investment and an estimated ₹41 lakh in unrealized gains.
• Initially, Nguonly had invested around ₹33 lakh in Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as a small amount in altcoins like Shiba Inu and Dogecoin. However, as Bitcoin’s price surged, he decided to invest an additional ₹12 lakh on margin.
• At one point, he was up by about ₹42 lakh as Bitcoin reached its all-time high. But by the summer of 2022, the crypto market took a downturn, resulting in a more than 70% drop in Bitcoin’s price.
• Nguonly acknowledges that he was investing money he didn’t necessarily have, which led to amplified losses when the market reversed.
• While he doesn’t regret investing in crypto overall, he has learned from his mistake. He now invests cautiously and avoids putting money into highly speculative altcoins, focusing on more established tokens like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
• Nguonly’s biggest lesson from this experience is to “only invest money you have and don’t go un-leveraged into very speculative investments.”
• In a previous interview, Nguonly mentioned his goal of achieving early retirement by accumulating $5 million (approximately ₹41 crore) by the age of 35.

This story serves as a cautionary tale about the risks associated with margin trading and the importance of investing wisely and within one’s means, especially in the volatile cryptocurrency market.