In the world of cryptocurrency, cautionary tales follow the stories of overnight millionaires with disquieting regularity. One such tale just emerged from the nascent market for memecoins.
An early investor in a new token called $LUCE once sat with $43 million in unrealized profits, but now he’s looking at a $342,000 paper loss on that same investment. As the value of $LUCE has plummeted in the past week, some have started to question whether the meme-inspired tokens are the next big bubble in crypto.
This investor’s journey began on October 28, 2024, the very day $LUCE was minted. On that day, he purchased 19.14 million tokens, investing a total of five hundred twenty-seven thousand sixty-five dollars. Over the following seventeen days, the token surged in value, skyrocketing by eighty-two times and transforming his investment into an enormous fortune worth over forty-three million dollars.
💎 From $43M Profit to -$342K Loss – When Diamond Hands Go Wrong 😬
6 months ago, one early investor bought 19.14M $LUCE on the very day it was minted — October 28, 2024 — investing $527,065.
Within 17 days, $LUCE pumped 82x, and his unrealized profit hit a massive $43 MILLION.… pic.twitter.com/THWeiGsC43
— Crypto Patel (@CryptoPatel) April 19, 2025
The investor didn’t sell even one token, despite the remarkable gains. He didn’t even take out his original investment. Encouraged instead—certainly, this wall street artist was using the diamond hands philosophy—that in hope of even greater returns, one should not sell but should hold on even tighter than before, he surely was holding firm. But the memecoin market is brutal for the holders of tokens who get too caught up in the hype without a clear strategy for when to get out.
Six months have passed since then, and $LUCE has plummeted over ninety-eight percent from its all-time high. The same assets that were once worth in the ten million dollar range are now worth something much less than the initial investment. Once the envy of the memecoin world, the wallet now holds a staggering unrealized loss of over three hundred forty-two thousand dollars.
When Holding Too Long Goes Wrong
The phrase “diamond hands” signifies a substantial level of holding an asset during market ups and downs. In the world of crypto, it’s used to commend those who don’t sell when the market gets turbulent. While the commendation fits certain assets with a long-term outlook (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.), it doesn’t really fit speculative playthings (almost all tokens not named Bitcoin or Ethereum) that don’t have any fundamental value and aren’t going to be around in two, five, or ten years.
In this instance, the investor overlooked one of the most fundamental rules of investing: secure your principal when you can. Many seasoned traders counsel retrieving your initial investment as soon as a trade turns profitable, allowing any leftover gains to ride with less emotional baggage. This method keeps the investor from mutable circumstances that make them lose money and provides more freedom to stay calm under the pressure of changing markets. Altogether, it protects the investor from total loss and keeps them on a rational path.
Rather than being guided by a rational assessment of the odds, the investor let greed and overconfidence push him around. He held on to every last ounce of a stock during an unsustainable price run-up and left himself utterly and completely naked when the price crashed. And this reversal of fortune wasn’t just a missed opportunity; it was a collapse that wiped out a huge part of his net worth.
Price action like this is common in the memecoin world. Countless tokens have taken the same path: an overly excited launch, huge early profits, and then a sharp turn south as interest and liquidity drain away. Even when they don’t take profits or rebalance their portfolios, that unrewarded hypothetical just-in-time timing can turn anyone’s biggest win into a soul-crushing loss overnight.
The investor’s ether was somehow unlocked and then moved, but it wasn’t because the investor did any of the following:
1. moved any of his $LUCE tokens.
2. showed any signs of profit-taking.
3. made any partial sells.
4. attempted to exit during any smaller retracement.
When $LUCE’s value went down more than 98 percent, this token-holder who was presumably still holding (and now in a 98 percent underwater position) showed no signs of moving or selling.
The narrative has travelled far and wide, not as a reason to throw a party, but as a reason to heed the old saw about “making hay while the sun shines.” Unsurprising, really, given that traders work under the constant pressure of short time frames and high stakes. Still, it’s a bit strange for such a collective victory to produce an atmosphere not of jubilation but of dread.
But that’s the way the Bitcoin lightning story has gone so far. The reality is this: what wasn’t a collective victory for Bitcoin in any obvious sense has become a reason for business writers to swarm. And swarm they have.
The crypto world is unpredictable, and it can make fortunes just as quickly as it can lose them. This investor’s tale highlights the crucial need for a strategy—executed with discipline—that can weather these kinds of market storms. Of course, knowing when to get out is part of that strategy.
Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.
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Source: https://nulltx.com/from-43-million-to-342000-how-one-investors-diamond-hands-led-to-disaster/