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<p>I still remember the moment I decided to get into crypto. It was a Tuesday night in late 2023, and I had just watched a YouTube video of some guy my age explaining how he bought Bitcoin early and now owned a house. I downloaded Coinbase that evening, deposited $50, and bought $25 worth of Ethereum and $25 worth of Bitcoin. The app felt safe and clean, almost like a regular banking app. I felt proud, even though a small voice was saying I did not actually understand what I had just done.</p>

<p>For two weeks, I checked Coinbase every morning. Ethereum went up four dollars. Bitcoin went down two. I felt like a stock trader even though my portfolio was smaller than my gym membership. Coinbase made everything easy, but it also made me curious about what existed outside that garden. I kept seeing people on Twitter talk about Uniswap, MetaMask, DeFi, airdrops. I felt like I was standing outside a party hearing the music through the wall, and I wanted in.</p>

<p>So I searched "how to use MetaMask" and followed the first tutorial I found. Downloading the browser extension felt illicit. I wrote my seed phrase on a sticky note and hid it in a drawer, which I now know is terrible, but at the time I felt like I was building a secret bunker. I transferred about $50 worth of Ethereum from Coinbase to MetaMask, paying a network fee that made me wince. Seven dollars just to move my own money? That was my first real taste of how this world worked.</p>

<p>Once MetaMask was set up, I explored Uniswap. The interface looked like something designed by engineers for other engineers. Bright pink buttons, slippage settings, token lists I had never heard of. I swapped a little Ethereum for USDC and the transaction went through. I felt unstoppable. I genuinely thought, okay, I get this now. Looking back, that confidence was the first crack in the foundation.</p>

<p>The rug pull started with a tweet. Someone I followed posted a thread about a new token launching on Uniswap, something about AI and decentralized computing. They used words like "revolutionary" and "fair launch." The token had a sleek website, a white paper I did not fully understand, and a Telegram group with thousands of members. Everyone seemed excited. People posted screenshots of their buys. I felt that fear of missing out crawling up my spine. I told myself I was being smart by only risking what I could afford to lose.</p>

<p>I connected MetaMask to Uniswap, pasted the contract address from Telegram, and swapped $40 worth of Ethereum for this new token. The transaction confirmed. Thousands of tiny tokens with a name I could barely pronounce appeared in my wallet. I refreshed for an hour. At one point the token showed a small gain, and I felt like a genius. I thought about buying more, but I stopped myself. $40 was enough.</p>

<p>I checked again the next morning. The price had barely moved. I went to work distracted, thinking about my $40 in that mystery token. When I got home, Telegram was gone. Deleted. The Twitter account had vanished too. My stomach dropped. I opened Uniswap and the token showed zero liquidity. I tried swapping back, but the transaction failed repeatedly. On the blockchain explorer, I saw what happened. The developers had removed all the liquidity in a single transaction, draining the pool and leaving me holding worthless tokens no one would ever buy.</p>

<p>I sat there staring at my screen. Forty dollars does not sound like much, but to me it mattered. It was not about the money. It was about feeling like an idiot. I had trusted anonymous people on the internet. I had invested in something I did not understand. I had ignored every warning because I wanted to believe the story they were selling. I wanted to be early. I wanted to win. Instead, I had been the perfect mark.</p>

<p>For two weeks, I considered giving up on crypto entirely. I stopped checking Coinbase. I ignored MetaMask. I told myself the whole space was a scam. I almost uninstalled everything. But something stopped me. Maybe stubbornness. Maybe the fact that I had already sunk time into learning this, and walking away felt like admitting total defeat.</p>

<p>Instead of quitting, I started reading real articles and books. I went back to Coinbase and realized its limitations were actually protections. I learned about contract audits, tokenomics, liquidity locks, and why anonymous developers are dangerous. I signed up for Kraken as a secondary exchange to see how another regulated platform handled security. I noticed that trusted platforms like Coinbase and Kraken actively discourage the risky behavior that had gotten me rekt.</p>

<p>That $40 loss was the cheapest education I ever received. Here is what I wish someone had told me. First, if a token only exists on a decentralized exchange, that is a red flag. Second, if the only discussion is a Telegram group full of rocket emojis, those are not investors. They are bots or victims recruiting more victims. Third, if you cannot explain what the token does in one sentence, do not buy it. Fourth, always check if liquidity is locked. If developers can pull the rug, they eventually will. Fifth, start small. If I had put $400 instead of $40, I would have quit for good.</p>

<p>I still use MetaMask today, but with rules. I browse Uniswap only for tokens I have researched thoroughly. I keep most holdings on Coinbase and Kraken, where regulatory frameworks give me comfort that no anonymous token ever will. I no longer chase the feeling of being early. I chase the feeling of being safe, which sounds boring until you have been rug pulled once.</p>

<p>Crypto is not inherently a scam. But it is an industry where beginners are prey, and decentralization tools can be weaponized against people who do not understand them. My first rug pull nearly ended my journey. It made me feel stupid and embarrassed, but it forced me to grow up. Real progress does not come from finding hidden gems. It comes from surviving long enough to recognize the traps.</p>

<p>If you are new to crypto, hear this. You will make mistakes. But make them small, cheap, and early. Start with $25 or $50 on a trusted platform. Learn how transactions work before chasing yield. Know that the person promising easy money is usually the one taking it. And if you find yourself in a Telegram group where everyone cheers and no one asks hard questions, run. I learned that the hard way so you do not have to.</p>
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Why I Almost Gave Up on Crypto After My First Rug Pull