The cryptocurrency world seems to always have young genius traders, just like today's interviewee, Jeff Ma.

This college student completed an asset leap from A6 to A9 in three years. Even though he once faced debt and liquidation, he still managed to peak his personal assets at 1 billion RMB. His growth trajectory is nothing short of legendary, achieving exponential wealth growth through high-leverage rolling strategies. Having participated in multiple Bitget trading competitions, he has achieved good results, but behind the glamorous numbers are countless sleepless nights, a high-pressure state of monitoring the market 24/7, and a resilient will to rise from liquidation time and again.

Through this conversation, Rhythm BlockBeats attempts to restore Jeff Ma's trading system. He is both an aggressive trader willing to take 40x leverage risks and a capital manager who understands the importance of risk control. He acknowledges the role of luck in wealth accumulation while also emphasizing the value of discipline and systematic thinking. This is not a "get rich quick" story, but rather a process of a young trader navigating and evolving in a high-risk market. Here is the full interview:

From CS:GO Item Trading to Cryptocurrency Trading

Q: You are a young trader born in 2004. What prompted a college student to become so passionate about trading?

Jeff Ma: My entire trading system is self-taught. I truly love trading; only genuine passion can drive you to go the farthest and achieve the greatest results. If you don't love trading, you won't do well in it; you have to love this industry.

I initially started with CS:GO item trading. However, that market is quite limited and lacks depth. Moreover, it is subject to the game company; if the developer Valve wants to sanction this market and prevent scalpers from profiting, they can simply issue a negative policy that can evaporate a large market value overnight.

So at first, I was very cautious. I didn't dare to directly flip items; instead, I researched cross-region trading opportunities. I found that CS:GO had different price regions, and the Argentina region was a low-price area at that time. Cross-region trading is not as easy as it used to be, but back then, whenever the official released new items, I would buy a cross-region account with a USD card to purchase official game items at a lower cost. Once the 7+7 day trading cooldown period was over, I would sell them immediately, which was simple arbitrage, similar to arbitrage in cryptocurrency exchanges.

Initially, I bought these items for personal use, just to play myself, but they could also be resold. Once, there was a major update for CS:GO (now renamed CS2), and I made almost a 30% profit. At that moment, I realized: this game can make money, and it's real cash, more practical than what my teachers taught in school. I started researching how to earn more, and this became my fastest way to improve my life.

Many of my classmates might want to pursue graduate studies or stable jobs, but I felt that the overall environment was not good. I realized I had to do something different, not follow the majority. I felt that what I learned in school had little value. I needed to make myself a scarce talent, doing things that ordinary people cannot imitate or replace. Trading is one of those scarce activities. Later, a friend introduced me to the cryptocurrency world, and I slowly began trading there.

Q: You mentioned that you initially started following the trader "From a Young Age with a Million Dream" to learn trading. For a novice trader, identifying truly capable traders among thousands is very difficult. How did you discover this person? What indicators made you feel he was worth following—was it the return rate, win rate, maximum drawdown, or other factors?

Jeff Ma: Yes, a friend introduced me to the field, but at that time, I was just following trades, specifically the legendary trader "From a Young Age with a Million Dream."

That friend entered the market early and watched "From a Young Age with a Million Dream" grow from a small capital. The key point is that even at his lowest point, when his performance was the worst, he only ever halved his capital and never faced liquidation. This is very important.

At that time, he already had a large following, and many followers criticized him for drawdowns, so he closed all public channels. But precisely after he closed them, he took off.

He employed right-side breakout trading, with excellent return and drawdown data. At that time, I didn't understand what rolling positions were, but his swing trading was very good, using a narrow stop-loss right-side breakout strategy. Except for very few cases, he basically executed with small stop-losses. I continue this approach now, but I adjust my take profit based on different market conditions.

He retired from the internet about a year ago. Before retiring, there was a classic market trend—BTC at 72,000, 73,000, 74,000; he shorted at 72,000, and it later dropped to over 50,000. Although he exited early, that was his last trade before retiring, and I still remember it.

After that, he completely disappeared from the internet, no longer leading trades in public or private channels. I haven't seen him make a comeback; he is basically untraceable now.

He only traded BTC and ETH, which I admire the most. Because that truly tests real strength—altcoins may have insider information or market makers intentionally attracting retail traders to follow, turning fans into liquidity traps. But Bitcoin doesn't have such situations; trading BTC and ETH is a real test of strength.

Q: Following trades and independent trading are completely different levels. How did you transition from a mere follower to an independent trader who understands and replicates trading logic? Including after experiencing a liquidation, you began learning options trading. Options trading is quite challenging even for finance professionals; as a young person without a financial background, how did you self-learn this knowledge? What specific channels did you use for learning? What books or courses did you study? How long did it take you to go from completely not understanding to being able to practically apply options strategies?

Jeff Ma: To put it simply, I learned from books, successful people, and the market.

I read various books and watched videos, choosing a trading system that suited my style. I also asked others for recommended books, but purely from a technical perspective, one book, "Japanese Candlestick Charting," was enough for me, which is equivalent to what many people refer to as "naked K trading." I believe this is the best technical indicator, which is the form of naked K.

I never learn from those who haven't achieved results. Many teachers haven't achieved significant results themselves; they talk about other people's cases—like Livermore or the stories of some legendary traders. But they haven't practiced themselves or achieved substantial results, and I don't want to learn from such people. I would rather trade myself, even if I lose, at least I'm a practical trader.

I learned quickly because while studying, I also started using small amounts of capital for real trading. After my liquidation, I was very anxious—not wanting to slowly recover my losses, but wanting to find a very good strategy to rebuild a better trading system.

I learned that options have very high returns, especially near-expiry options, but the risks are also high. So my learning ability exploded, and I quickly understood and applied it in practice.

I can only say that I might have some talent, and there was indeed some luck involved at that time, as I successfully applied some newly learned strategies in the trading environment. Generally speaking, I didn't expect to make money so quickly; there was indeed an element of luck. Otherwise, when I first started learning options, my capital was relatively small, and I directly used a high-risk approach, mainly buying near-expiry options with only 1 to 3 days until expiration, and they were out-of-the-money options, not in-the-money options.

But I didn't want my orders to be monitored by some people. Including large funds trading spot or contracts, they might need to use "iceberg orders"—breaking large orders into many small orders to buy in batches, so others can't easily see the movements through data. This is a form of protection for large funds.

Q: You mentioned using 40x leverage for rolling positions on ETH and reaching A7 through BTC rolling in February 2024, and breaking through A8 through ETH rolling in November 2024. While rolling strategies can yield considerable returns, they also carry extreme risks. Can you explain your rolling logic in detail? What are your specific entry point selection criteria? How do you set stop-loss and take-profit levels? Under what market conditions do you choose to initiate rolling? How do you manage your capital in terms of position size for each trade?

Jeff Ma: The core of my rolling strategy is to confidently and heavily buy the bottom on the left side, not averaging down, but heavily buying bottom contracts. I might have already bought some spot, and if the market is still falling, I will convert the spot to coin-based or USDT-based and start heavily buying the bottom directly. Generally, the actual leverage for heavy positions is 5 to 10 times.

Then for rolling positions, I add to my position based on unrealized gains. For example, if the market rebounds from the bottom, I buy at the lowest point, and as it starts to rise, I will judge based on various technical indicators, fundamentals, and macro factors, and then start adding to my position.

The additional position is generally half of the base position. I used to be more aggressive, adding half or even the same position as the base, whether it was 40x leverage or when I rolled Bitcoin in February 2024, I used the most aggressive rolling strategy. Now, I can only call it adding to unrealized gains, not rolling anymore, because I have already toned it down a lot, and the additions are smaller.

Regarding take-profit and stop-loss, generally, for Bitcoin, if I have a 1 to 2 point unrealized gain, I might set a breakeven stop-loss, placing the stop-loss slightly above my cost price. For Bitcoin, it should be around 100 USD now, just making a bit of transaction fee money. If I misjudge this trade, I won't lose my principal, as adding to unrealized gains feels like waking up from a dream. Including the recent market conditions, I have also been rolling, and I have failed.

The key is that my big profits come from one-sided trends, not from swing trading or scalping or day trading; they all come from a big market trend. Rolling is the strategy that earns the most but also loses the most; if there are consecutive stop-losses, it can be very painful.

In addition to rolling, another strategy I often use is swing trading, which may not be day trading but holding positions for several days, with a risk-reward ratio of about 1.5 to 3. Similarly, I use narrow stop-losses—generally 1 point for Bitcoin and 1.5 to 2 points for Ethereum. In terms of capital allocation, I currently have 60% in spot, 20% in contracts, and 20% in options.

Why I Chose Bitget

Q: You have participated in multiple trading competitions hosted by Bitget, such as placing fourth in the 2025 King’s Cup Global Invitation KCGI and 60th in the 2024 KCGI. How have these competition experiences helped improve your trading skills? Has Bitget's trading competition mechanism, leaderboard system, and real-time verification features helped you establish trading credibility?

Jeff Ma: Through my multiple participations in Bitget trading competitions, my biggest realization is not how strong I am, but rather a clearer understanding that this market has never lacked talent. You will see many highly skilled traders on the leaderboard, but the question is whether these talents can stay in the market long-term. Many people only win for a period but fail to go further.

I always remind myself with the example of Liangxi. Before his liquidation, he was undoubtedly one of the most talented traders in the market, but since that incident, he hasn't returned to his former state for a long time. For me, this illustrates one point: trading is not just about achieving a result once; more importantly, it's about whether you can maintain that result. Money can always be made, but losses can accumulate very quickly. If you can't lock in profits in time, even the most beautiful profit curve can be wiped out in a moment of loss of control.

In these competitions, I've seen too many peers and so-called genius traders who often only shine briefly and find it hard to survive in this market long-term. This has made me more aware that there are always people better than you, and I don't consider myself to be the best type of trader. But at least I've learned to be aggressive when necessary and to choose relatively conservative strategies in times of higher uncertainty, rather than blindly pursuing extreme returns.

As for the trading competitions themselves, they do help enhance personal visibility and trading credibility. Many exchanges now regularly hold contract-related activities, but Bitget's competitions are relatively rich in mechanism and form, not just a single ranking, but combined with leaderboards, real-time verification, and other systems that make your results visible and verifiable. At the same time, its incentive design is also quite diverse, not just cash rewards, but also a points system that can be exchanged for USDT, mobile phones, luxury goods, and even travel rewards. For example, recent events have included physical prizes like LV, which makes trading not just a cold competition of numbers but creates a more complete participation experience, making it easier to attract excellent traders to stay in this ecosystem.

Q: There are many cryptocurrency exchanges, including mainstream choices like Binance, OKX, and Bybit. What ultimately led you to choose Bitget as your primary trading platform? From the perspective of a high-frequency trader, what unique advantages do you think Bitget has in terms of product design, trading depth, slippage control, and funding rates? Additionally, you mentioned in a video that you no longer recommend using MetaMask but prefer Bitget Wallet. What do you find useful about Bitget Wallet?

Jeff Ma: I don't really describe exchanges in terms of who is better; rather, it's more accurate to say which one is more suitable for my trading habits and capital size at the current stage. Binance, OKX, and Bybit are all very mature mainstream platforms, each with its advantages. In terms of functional coverage, Bitget has now integrated systems similar to Tradestation and launched a TradFi section, allowing trading of US stock indices, gold, silver, and various commodities, which is quite close to what Bybit offers.

However, what keeps me at Bitget long-term is not a single feature but the overall stability of the experience and the cost of use. On one hand, the platform's activity frequency is indeed high, whether it's trading competitions, incentive activities, or various rights and benefits, they are quite consistent; on the other hand, the speed of feedback and the quality of service on the platform make me feel smoother, which is very important in high-frequency trading. When your trading pace is fast, any detail that goes wrong can be magnified infinitely.

From the perspective of trading itself, whether it's depth, slippage control, or overall fee structure, my personal experience is that it feels closer to a mature centralized exchange system. In contrast, many on-chain perpetual DEXs, while having advantages in transparency—where all data, rankings, and trading behaviors are publicly accessible—essentially allow everyone to see the results but not know who you are. In actual use, I also clearly feel that, whether in terms of fee structure or overall execution efficiency, on-chain products still find it difficult to completely replace centralized exchanges, especially when dealing with larger capital sizes.

Regarding wallets, I previously mentioned in a video that I don't recommend frequently using general hot wallets like MetaMask. For me, large amounts of capital are still kept in cold wallets, like imToken; for daily operations, I only use a few relatively stable and clearly functional wallets, like Bitget Wallet.

One point that makes Bitget Wallet useful for me is its natural integration with actual consumption scenarios. Its built-in USDT card is very convenient for small spending scenarios; for example, for daily expenses under $200, it can basically be used directly without frequent withdrawals. If it were a regular international card, whether Visa or Mastercard, there would typically be about a 3% fee, while using the USDT card effectively saves that cost, making transactions simpler.

Additionally, Bitget Wallet has a coin-earning center that periodically launches some airdrops or light participation activities. I occasionally participate and recommend it to my followers to try, although sometimes there are instances of being "reaped" in return, haha, but overall, the participation threshold is not high, and the operations are relatively smooth, making it something that can be completed easily. For me, these functions may not be core, but all these features together create a more complete user experience.

Q: What conveniences has Bitget brought you? What specific support do they provide for outstanding traders?

Jeff Ma: I have actually participated in several offline events organized by Bitget, which are overall quite mature and content-rich. For example, I attended the city station series event in Shanghai. This event started in Changsha, then moved to Chengdu, and finally to Shanghai. For me, the value of such events lies not in the format but in the communication itself—sitting down with peers to talk about trading and the market creates a comfortable atmosphere and can significantly broaden one's cognitive boundaries.

In offline exchanges, you will find that participants do not all come from the cryptocurrency world. Some peers primarily focus on US stocks or institutional fund management, and crypto assets are not the largest part of their overall allocation. Communicating with such individuals allows you to learn a lot about different market logic and perspectives, such as how they view macro cycles, how they select targets, and how they make allocation trade-offs between different assets. This content may not directly provide you with answers, but it offers very valuable references for your subsequent judgments.

In terms of supporting outstanding traders and high-net-worth users, Bitget's system is also quite clear. For users with higher VIP levels, there are specially directed activities and rights support, such as free tickets for the Singapore F1 event and Token2049 during September and October; there are also plans for similar island travel activities. Even for VIP3 level users, there are regular airdrops and exclusive rights. This support is not one-time but continuous, providing a noticeable experience for users who are active and stable in trading on the platform over the long term.

How New Traders Can Establish Trading Discipline

Q: You founded Ma Shen Capital, and transitioning from a personal trader to a capital manager is a significant identity shift. What is the current management scale and team size of Ma Shen Capital? What are your future development plans? What role do you envision Ma Shen Capital playing in the cryptocurrency investment field?

Jeff Ma: I am actually very restrained in choosing partners, only collaborating with people I know in real life, especially when it involves larger amounts of capital. It's not possible to discuss capital cooperation through online or private messaging; that's a bottom line for me. The scale of capital management is not convenient to disclose, but I currently have one partner, and I am still the main trader and capital management executor.

In terms of positioning, I never compare myself horizontally with any institution or individual. My only competitor is myself. Whether in the crypto market, US stocks, or commodities, I care more about whether this year's data is better than last year's. Even if the returns are not higher, as long as the drawdown is smaller and risk control is more stable, that is progress in my view.

Once the capital size increases, the trading methods will definitely change. In the past, when I traded myself, I could go all in, take heavy positions, and be very aggressive, but in managing funds, that is unacceptable. The importance of risk control is magnified infinitely. As long as you don't lose money, you have already outperformed most people in any market; if you can achieve a stable annualized return of 20% over the long term, that is already an excellent fund performance. Of course, I still care about the return rate, but now a more important point is to control the maximum drawdown to within 20% through hedging and structural adjustments.

Q: As a young trader who achieved A9 at the age of 21, what advice do you have for newcomers just entering the market? How can they avoid the pitfalls you once encountered? What core qualities do you think an excellent cryptocurrency trader needs to possess? How much of your current trading ability do you think comes from books/courses, and how much comes from the "tuition" of the market? Which stage was the most difficult to break through in the process from A6 to A9?

Jeff Ma: The first thing is to always avoid liquidation. The most direct method is to set a stop-loss when opening a position and strictly enforce it. Many failed trades are not due to incorrect judgments but rather a breakdown of discipline, such as canceling stop-loss orders during a market downturn or continuously moving stop-loss positions down. Even if the price eventually comes back, in my view, that is still a failed trade because your trading system has been compromised.

The second point is not to be misled by the concept of high leverage. Many people see nominal leverage of 100x, 150x, or 200x and think it equates to going all in. But in reality, most professional traders use a full position model. For example, under 100x leverage, if you only open a 1% position, the actual leverage is only 1x. The significance of high leverage is to increase capital utilization and facilitate simultaneous layouts across multiple targets, rather than amplifying risk.

In terms of learning paths, I have always believed that the technical aspect does not need to be learned too broadly. The book "Japanese Candlestick Charting" is actually enough to lay a foundation. More importantly, it's about filling in macro understanding, such as basic macroeconomics, microeconomics, and sensitivity to important events like interest rate hikes, cuts, monetary policy meetings, and international conflicts, as these directly affect asset trends, such as the impact of war on gold prices.

From A6 to A7, to be honest, I had a lot of luck. At that time, I had just learned rolling positions, and I happened to encounter the main upward wave of Bitcoin starting from 40,000, where I added to my position based on unrealized gains, and I captured that segment very well. But from A8 to A9, that was definitely the most difficult stage, and it was the hardest phase of my entire trading career. This stage is very prone to errors; many people get anxious during this process and end up liquidating or going to zero, and if you fail at this stage, the drop can be very significant and quite painful.

This stage tests both mindset and execution ability. The pressure is immense; even if the overall position is in a profit state before sleep, the first thing I do every morning is to check whether my position has been stopped out at breakeven. At that time, my partner and I were almost monitoring the market 24/7, even sleeping with headphones on, ready to call at any market signal to execute. Without a strong heart, it is very hard to get through.

Q: Looking ahead to early 2026, how do you view this year's cryptocurrency market? What kind of performance do you expect from mainstream coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum? Are there any trading opportunities or sectors you are particularly optimistic about? What adjustments will you make to your trading strategy this year?

Jeff Ma: I don't think there will be a comprehensive breakthrough or extreme surge this year, but I also don't agree with the notion that we are left with only a one-sided bear market. Even in a bear market, it won't always decline; there will definitely be phase-based rebound opportunities. For me, it's not just about shorting; it's about gradually buying the bottom at the right positions to capture a sufficiently large rebound.

For mainstream targets, I mainly focus on Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, and SOL. Gradually buying the bottom in the range of 60,000 to 84,000 for Bitcoin is completely fine; if we really enter a deep bear market, I wouldn't be surprised if SOL drops below three digits, and it could drop quite sharply.

In the Memecoin market, I will be very conservative; if I were to invest, I might only consider Pepe and Doge, or similar coins that have been repeatedly validated by the market. I generally avoid newly launched coins or projects whose logic I don't understand.

In terms of overall asset allocation, a very important adjustment direction this year is to increase the allocation to gold and US stocks while reducing the proportion of Web3. US stocks have been continuously hitting new highs recently, such as the S&P 500 index, and I have also refreshed my phase returns through ETF allocations. This cross-market allocation is crucial for reducing overall volatility and drawdown.

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