Coinfessions: Where Crypto Twitter Bears Its Soul

Shady scams, big losses, accidental wins and behind-the-scenes drama are the domain of Coinfessions, which has quickly gained momentum on Crypto Twitter.

What are Coinfessions?

Coinfessions is a Twitter account that shares “confessions” anonymously submitted by members of the crypto community. Although it was only launched in April 2022, the account has already gained more than 100,400 Twitter followers and has become widely popular on Crypto Twitter.

Powered by the anonymous founder of the trading blog Alpha illustrated, Coinfessions collects between 25 and 100 submissions a day through Google Forms and publishes about one in ten. A coding system allows confessors to prove the authorship of their submission or follow up on an earlier one.

Sometimes funny, often tragic and sometimes upsetting, the confessions usually center around what’s going on in the room at any given time. Crypto Briefing takes a deeper look at what Coinfession’s popularity suggests about the state of the crypto community.

Big wins, bigger losses

2022 has been a difficult year for the crypto market, primarily due to the brutal market downturn. The global cryptocurrency market capitalization peaked at more than $3 trillion in November and fell to around $988 billion over the course of eight months. Coinfessions has consequently become an outlet for market players to talk about their losses. In fact, the majority of testimonials revolve around one theme: the failure to turn paper gains into real ones.

“At one point I had pension money on the table,” claimed a submitter. “I was unable to make money despite having notes on my desk and my Discord group leaders telling me so. I didn’t tell my wife. We could have had the life we ​​dreamed of, and I regret it every day.” There are countless entries like this one, each more painful to read than the last. Some connoisseurs saw their portfolio rise in value only to quickly return it to square one, a trading error often referred to in the space as “round tripping.”

A theme that unfortunately comes up again and again is the idea of ​​being worse off than before entering the crypto space. Posters have admitted loser their entire life savings to market volatility, exploits, fraud, protocol implosions or loan company withdrawals. More LUNA confessions appeared shortly after the collapse of the Terra ecosystem; The Celsius Network bankruptcy was too reflected in the submissions. Others have acquaintances to now be burdened with enormous debt.

In many matters, the disappearance of funds had a dramatic effect on the posters’ lives. Stories of breakups, divorces, job losses and estrangement from family and friends are regularly published; some of the most gut-wrenching confessions involve lose money that did not even belong to the confessor.

“After years of yelling at my dad who works 12-hour night shifts that the banks won’t let me get a mortgage for a one-bedroom apartment without [a] 12% deposit, he and mum sold their flat to reduce. They transferred the remaining money to my seed capital. Instead of using it to get a mortgage, I listened [YouTube] influencers and [put] that of 50k Bitcoin at the beginning of the year so I could pay dad back and get an apartment too. eager to answer his calls [because] he keeps asking what the wait is. I’m running out of excuses.”

Stories like the one above highlight another important factor: many crypto-natives are young. While people of all ages have invested in cryptocurrencies, the online community is mostly made up of male teenagers, students and young adults. For some of them, the only way to gain exposure to the market was by borrowing funds from their relatives, girlfriends or wives. “My mother has forgiven me, but I will never forgive myself” so a confessor after explaining how they lost their mother’s savings.

Fortunately, the market-related items are not always negative, although the balance is currently skewed in that direction. Once in a while, some confesses to have radically changed their behavior or lifestyle thanks to the money they earned. Such posts are often met with a mixture of congratulations and jealousy in the comments section.

Coinfessions, by acting as an outlet for these people, also allows the wider community to give a voice to some of its fellow traders. In fact, that’s exactly why the account was created. “I felt there was a disconnect between the good advice and common wisdom shared and the reality of what most marketers were doing,” the owner told Crypto Briefing. Thanks to Coinfessions, hHigh-profile stories like the Terra collapse take on an intimate spin because people who lost money on them describe exactly how it felt.

Sincerity through anonymity

The anonymity offered by Coinfessions has also provided an opportunity for developers, traders, and leaders to give their honest thoughts on sensitive subjects. For example, a July mail led to heated conversations on Twitter about the effectiveness of DAOs after an insider claimed that very little was being done behind the scenes.

This dynamic is exciting since The crypto space has a strong culture of pseudonymity, meaning it wouldn’t be difficult for someone to create a new profile and reveal similar secrets. An explanation can be found in the fact that Coinfessions acts as a powerful speaker (in fact, one user once used Coinfessions just to Contact with a prominent merchant).

It is clearly the platform has also been one channel for community members find out their own feelings or receive advice. “I have started an NFT fundraiser with the intention of… running away with the money,” confessed a founder before continuing: “Now I fell in love with the community and I don’t know what to do. The community is strong and looks up to me.” Teenagers have similarly talked about state of confusion the market has abandoned them in or their lack of social life outside of crypto.

“I have a few simple rules that I try to follow [when picking confessions]”, the Coinfessions operator explained. Accusations, suicide threats and requests for funds are prohibited. “It keeps the site on track and stops it from becoming doom porn or a mudslinging contest.” The focus, they indicated, is on personal stories.

Genuine confessions of unethical (or at least highly questionable) behavior have reached the platform. The sincerity of the posters is astonishing at times. “I made a charity NFT project for my neighbor with cancer. We raised over $3 million on coin day. She ended up dying, I saw [took the money]” tired a user in May. Another claimed to have reported a former crypto friend to the IRS. Although most of these posts are taken with humor, some have received strong backlash – especially when the person being scammed is a well-meaning family member.

Coinfessions as a mirror

A question that naturally arises is whether all these confessions are true. Maybe not, but the crypto space is ridiculous enough that many of them are believable. Furthermore, Coinfession’s rapid rise in popularity indicates that these stories at least feel authentic to the community. The gallows humor in some of the posts certainly fits the cryptomeme culture, as do the complaints about lost funds.

The variety of ways crypto-natives have already used Coinfessions is remarkable, whether to call the attention of prominent crypto figures, enjoy trading gains, throw shade at DAOs, confess to unethical behavior, or simply vent a little pain. It would therefore not be surprising if the account, which already acts as a kind of mirror for society, becomes a permanent fixture. Right now, crypto natives are in pain – but the account’s contents may become more light-hearted when prices rise again. Or, as the owner said, “when the bull market comes back, it will [hopefully] have no need for Coinfessions as everyone will be too busy making money.”

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.