A Kyiv resident sold his apartment and car to invest in crypto. Interview with crypto blogger Roman about booms, busts, and the market in 2025

We caught up with Roman during the Incrypted 2025 conference. He told dev.ua that he started with mining, fell into a pyramid scheme, made money on airdrops and Trump tokens, lost money on Starknet — and has no regrets.

— How did you get into the crypt?

It all started with YouTube. I was accidentally shown a video where some guys from Spain were mining Bitcoin on the roof of a house. It amazed me. And already at the end of 2016 I ordered my first mining equipment — it arrived somewhere in January or February 2017. I started mining ether.

— Why mining?

At the time, it seemed like an obvious way to «get into crypto.» But even earlier, in 2015, I came across a cloud mining project. I didn’t realize then that it was a pyramid scheme. They promised to mine Bitcoin and Dogecoin in the Netherlands. I threw them a few hundred dollars, and while I was figuring it out, everything went to hell.

— So your first crypto is Dogecoin?

Yes, I mined Dogecoin myself on my laptop. But I never withdrew it — I saved up 2 euros, and the minimum withdrawal was 10. Then I bought and sold ether in 2017 — that was a real experience.

— What moment finally convinced you to stay on this topic?

My girlfriend’s father was a taxi driver at the time, driving a client whose children were mining Bitcoin and earning $20,000 a month. It was around 2016. I thought, «Okay, I want to get into mining too.»

— What happened next?

I actively mined ether for a few years. Then, when the network switched to Proof of Stake, I started trading, futures, airdrops — anything that allowed me to make money instantly.

— How do you assess the crypto market in 2025?

Bitcoin — ok, ether — sad. Alta — behaves unpredictably. Most of us no longer have bitcoin, except for a memory. The market as it is — volatile, unstable, but with chances.

— How do you react to the news? Do you use it in your strategy?

I’m not a day trader, I don’t sit behind six monitors, I don’t scalp 1,5%. But there are exceptions — for example, a case with a Trump coin. I bought it for $8, sold it for $66. It turned out well. With Melania’s coin — I failed.

— You have posts about unsuccessful cases in your Telegram channel. What was the biggest downside you experienced with USDT?

But there were a lot of them. For example, Starknet. I got a drop, sold some, kept the rest. Now the price is 14 cents — there are no Xs, although the cost price was almost zero. That is, formally — minus.