Thread by @CryptoGirlNova

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐚

The journey from zero to hero.

All to see it turn back into dust by authorities in an unbelievable turn of events.

The happiness, the crying and the rebound.

Including the detailed growth of my capital to riches.

Read on 👇

1/46

I first came into contact with crypto in late 2016 as a college student studying to become a teacher in physics and computing.

It wasn't untill early 2017 that I started with my first 2 investments.

A total of 1000$ split between 300$ worth of $DGB and 700$ worth of $ETH.

2/46

I bought $DGB 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 a big announcement (rookie mistake) which resulted in a decline to 60$.

I sold and swapped it for $MCO which is known as #cryptocom today.

In less than a month that 60$ turned into 1000$+ due to rumours on working with Visa.

3/46

Ethereum was slowly moving at first so I swapped both to #Antshares back then which later that year rebranded to $NEO.

It was dubbed as the #Ethereum of China and went pretty viral which resulted in bringing my portfolio to more than 10 000 dollars.

4/46

Since a part of me always thought things could not keep going I looked around for the next performer and found #Waltonchain.

A first mover similar to #Vechain back then.

Brought my capital all the way up to 39k dollars.

The beginning was what I remember the most.

5/46

After that it was a combination of altcoin purchases with $BAT, $ICON and $SUB being the most notable ones.

I also discovered the world of presales which was a lot easier to enter back then than it is today due to the absence of launchpads and less participants than today.

6/46

I remember investing 10k in a presale (I researched 𝐚𝐥𝐥 my investments btw. I never randomly aped into anything) and it launched on the market at a 10x immediately at launch.

It had a Binance listing on day 1 so my 10k turned into 100k.

Forgot the name though.

7/46

Since I had more capital to play with I had more to diversify.

50k dollars into $ICON which was dubbed as the #Ethereum of Korea back then.

Remember all the narratives we have today?

Smart contract platforms was incredibly 𝐡𝐨𝐭 back then.

8/46

Every solid competitor to ethereum was pretty much a goldmine.

50k dollars to 150k on one single investment alone in a few weeks.

Counting my other investments at the peak of the bull market and the blessing of entering 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 I brought this to 500k at peak height.

9/46

These are unrealized profits btw.

Just the paper value of my portfolio if I cashed out at peak height.

I didn't have the experience yet that I have today and I got caught up in the 𝐮𝐩 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 days so I wasn't planning on taking profits yet.

10/46

I also believed 1 million dollars is enough to keep me financially free for years and I already did a 500x, how card could another 2x be?

I was also in the process of moving to my own place back then and this is what ended up saving me to a certain degree.

11/46

I found a nice 2 floor apartement that I set my eyes on and I needed money.

I withdrew 120k so I only needed a really small loan to pay of the entire amount monthly.

The remaining money I used to buy a semi-decent car.

If I didn't do that I probably didn't withdraw.

12/46

The other 380k in crypto saw a slow bleed after in the bear market of 2018-2019 back then.

Even though the bear market was brutal I did pretty well considering I only started with 1k and realized 120k worth of profit.

13/46

Likely due to the blessing of getting in before the beginning of an entire bull market.

Even if you didn't time your profit taking like a professional you are still going to be up.

Even the slow bleed of an entire bear market would never bring me below 1k again.

14/46

In 2018-2019 I confirmed that I had a very strong financial advantage due to crypto in my early life (25 years old at the time).

But I wasn't totally free yet.

Would still have to go to work my entire life although with less stress yes.

15/46

I continued and doubled down on betting on the future of crypto.

At the bottom of the bear market I still maintained around 50k worth of assets to make it.

I started with 1k last time.

Imagine what 50k will bring me this time.

16/46

Ready with my basket of assets I was prepared.

The next bull run kinda started around may 2020.

I prepared years for this.

Not a scenario "If I only had bought when"

𝐍𝐨! I did buy. I was ready!

Then disaster struck that destroyed my entire advantage.

17/46

Authorities 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐞 my entire net worth at the bottom.

How can they steal your crypto?

Lemme explain.

I come from a friendly humble family with no criminal activity and a good home.

But even so there's always bad blood somewhere.

18/46

I am the second oldest in a home of 4 kids.

While I am a kind soul scared to do anything even closely to be classified as a criminal my older brother wasn't.

What started small as a drug business grew into a larger one.

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In my neighborhood he ended up being one of the largest "to-go" places to get your local drugs including steroids for the gym.

He had been in prison 2 times before so I was used to it.

I cared for him but I couldn't change him.

I knew it would happen again and again.

20/46

Although he had my sympathies I knew he had to suffer the consequences every time.

It never affected my life untill now.

At some point this time he grew so large that they did a 𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞 investigation on all of us.

21/46

And guess what?

What are the odds another family member close to his age would have an entire net worth of more than 6 figures while she just graduated.

I get the suspicions and coincidence but it really was earned honestly through trading.

Nothing illegal.

22/46

Innocent untill proven otherwise right?

Yes/no

Here in belgium they are allowed to 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 from you under suspicions.

The reset my bank account to 0 and took me in to their office.

I then also made a few mistakes because I was incredibly scared.

23/46

Having never been to the police in my life before they threatened me with empty threads to get me to speak (in case I was really guilty).

They also emptied my 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 and took my pc, laptop, mobile And hardware wallets (had multiply ledgers).

24/46

Do you have a lawyer?

No I don't since I have never came here before.

Allright we will assign one to you (my first mistake).

A stupid amateur lawyer likely in favour of the police that stood by me.

The advice I got is baffling says my new real lawyer today.

25/46

Nova, we found your ledgers and we know you are hiding money.

If you don't tell us you are going to jail and can't return home.

Me asking my lawyer in private what should I do (keep in mind I was incredibly scared).

If you are truly innocent give them your passwords.

26/46

Naive as I was I did.

If I was truly innocent they will give it back right?

I was crying and just wanted to go home.

I did and what they did next was even worse.

Authorities didn't have a custody safe yet for cryptocurrencies back then.

They could only collect euros.

27/46

They sold all my assets.

50k dollars at the bottom.

I came home and didn't have a single dollar anymore.

From that moment the entire bull run happened.

I had prepared for years and I couldn't even participate.

I was depressed to even look at the market.

28/46

This was suppose to set me up for life and the happiest time I could have been but no I didn't have any money.

Not the money from before and not a single dollar to invest and play again.

I also have to add that I lost my mom to cancer 6 months before all of that.

29/46

My only rock in this world because our father never truly cared.

The only person I could tell something to when life gets in the way.

We all have that person right? Where you confide in your troubles when life gets tough?

Or the person you want to be proud on you.

30/46

Since then I have never been able to truly tell anyone my issues because that one person is gone.

All on my own now.

Anyways it wasn't untill 2021 that I finally gathered 1000$ again to invest.

I already missed an entire halve of the bull run but I had to try again.

31/46

In 2021 alone I was able to grew my portfolio to about 100k which I was able to realize about 40k from.

The rest I still mostly have in stables and buying dips in today's bear market.

I lost my capital but still retained my experience and skill.

32/46

Imagine if I still had my 50k at the start of the bull run right 😅

Another fun fact that makes the journey today even harder even though it's a healthy kind of jealousy.

I started this entire journey 7 years ago with my best friend.

Our performance has been similar.

33/46

Since we have been in almost constant contact with each other many of our purchases have been the same.

We both topped out at 500k in 2017 and we both were preparing years for the next bull run after that.

My opportunity was taking away from me while she

Listen to this:

34/46

Grew her account to almost 10 million in the bull run after.

REALIZED PROFIT.

Remember when I said imagine me having 50k at the beginning of the bull run?

All while I still managed to turn 1k to 100k and realize 40k starting in the middle of one?

That was her.

35/46

Didn't have the brother I have fortunately.

Today she moved to another country and bought a property in the middle of nature and not having to work for her entire life ever again.

And while many people tell me:

Yeah but I didn't make it either.

36/46

I get it.

But for me it wasn't a matter of

"If only I purchased when btc was 3k"

"If only I invested when"

𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝.

I did all of it.

It's like you bought a lottery ticket and really won.

Not if.

But that ticket was robbed from you.

37/46

I wish my best friend all the riches in the world but it stings.

It stings hard.

We were both going to make it.

So what now?

Give up and let it be?

Back to a normal life?

38/46

We continue like before.

Doing nothing will still put me in this mediocre life untill retirement at 67 years old.

IF I live to that age of course which is not a given.

My mom died at the age of 50 so you might work your entire life and not retire at all.

39/46

Today I'm slowly working my way up again.

Remember when I said I still work a full time job?

Got to make up for all of it again.

I have close to 100k worth of assets in crypto (this also includes stables) and making sure I never have to withdraw a single dollar of it.

40/46

I still have my apartment and currently building my second property (finished this year).

So yes I don't have it bad but I also work 80 hours a week.

This is not an exaggeration.

40 hours on the job and 40 hours on crypto.

41/46

The 40 hours in crypto includes everything btw.

Research, investing, writing on my twitter account, copywriting as a side hustle for crypto blogs etc.

So yeah I went from zero to hero.

Only to be stripped of my title and being zero again.

42/46

Now I'm slowly building my way up to a hero again.

(the hero is just a metaphor for being succesfull and financially free of course)

And my 50k they took in custody?

It's been 3 years and I still don't have it back.

43/46

I won the lawsuit and the government made an appeal to me.

𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞.

My brother was proven guilty so he got his punishment.

I was proven innocent so they only made an appeal back to me.

So another lawsuit yet again.

44/46

Oh and if I ever win it again?

I'll only be able to ever get 50k back and not today's worth of crypto assets because they sold it.

Why?

My lawyer said even if proven innocent if they can prove they had suspicions at THAT TIME they were allowed to do that.

45/46

It's not fair yeah but that's what it is.

Even if they punish you innocently the investigation was enough if they can prove the coincidence was high.

I'm still waiting for the next lawsuit but the riches from 2021 I will never have.

Just gotta keep going and try again.

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