Why Do Some People Invest, While Others Sell at the First Opportunity?

Telegram and the Psychology of Quick Money

Let's start by taking a step back. Let's talk about Telegram's user base and its historical roots.

Imagine an investor. Not a picture from the internet, but a real person. He runs a business, has several hundred employees, a family, hobbies, and a ton of things to do. He’s already figured out how to make money.
What amount of money would actually make him happy? And what are the odds of meeting someone like that—someone who spends his evenings grinding away or completing dozens of tasks just for the sake of a future airdrop?

Now let's take a look at ourselves.

Most of us seem to have jobs, and we’re living more or less normally. But we always want to make a little more money. That’s exactly why so many of us got into crypto in the first place. I think an extra $100 would definitely lift most of our spirits.

Now let's look at Telegram's largest audience. Even excluding high school students and Hindus. Let's just focus on college students.

Think back to your college days. How much money did it take to have a great Friday? Sometimes even just a few dollars was enough to call the weekend a success. Now add to that a huge amount of free time, the ability to farm, and the desire to earn at least a little something.

Now let's compare the behavior of all three groups.

The first group just isn't interested, and even if they have Telegram, it's definitely for other purposes.

The second one starts selling as soon as she has a substantial amount. Why wait for X if she can treat herself to some extra cash right now and make herself happy right away?

But here’s the third type… For them, even a small payout is money right here and now. These users make up the majority. And they’re the ones creating intense competition to exit a position. As a result, every listing ends up looking the same. There’s a massive influx of sellers, and the price plummets under pressure from those willing to lock in practically any profit. The same thing happens with any asset—no matter what floor you set, there will immediately be those willing to drop the price even lower.

This raises another question.
What can those who enter the market not for a quick $10–50 but with an eye toward long-term growth do when the majority of participants are dictating entirely different rules of the game?
Simply put, there’s no choice but to play by the market’s rules. Whoever got hit first lost the least 🤷‍♂️

Why International Audiences Think Differently

Well, now let's take a look on the other side of the fence.

Why does virtually every project aspire to reach an international audience?

I have a theory about this: in that community, people understand the meanings of words like “crypto,” “investments,” and so on in a completely different way.

Let's start with the most basic thing—the ultimate goal. While some of us on Telegram are here to make some money for Friday night, for the vast majority of our international audience, crypto has long since ceased to be a way to earn money for the weekend.

The vast majority of them already have stable jobs, businesses, investment portfolios, and stocks (which, by the way, are much more popular than crypto), and for them, crypto is just one of the tools for allocating capital.

For them, losing $1,000 is unpleasant, but not a big deal. Making $100 is also nice, but it’s certainly not a reason to rush out and sell the asset at the first opportunity.

That’s exactly why they have a much more relaxed attitude toward time. Perhaps the burden of student loans, starting from college, plays a role. People realize that their knowledge is their main asset and that they’ll be paying off their loans for many years. Plus, from your very first day on the job, contributions are automatically deducted for your pension fund, and right from the start, you choose which plan to enroll in. This represents a completely different financial culture—they start thinking much earlier than we do, not about how to blow it all on a Friday night, but about what life will be like in 10 to 20 years. How to build a solid financial safety net during that time.
They can buy a token and forget about it for half a year or longer. To them, a token for a particular product is perceived more like a stock. They can comfortably participate in staking for years. They may support a project simply because they find the idea interesting.
Of course, there are plenty of scalpers, traders, and people looking for quick profits there, too. They’re everywhere. But their share is usually lower than in communities where, for a large number of people, even a small profit is already significant.

Another very important point.
For us, Telegram has historically become a platform for airdrops, tap-to-earn schemes, farming, and the never-ending hunt for free tokens.

At the same time, the international community is active on X, Farcaster, Discord, Reddit, and GitHub. There, discussions most often focus on the product itself, the technology, partnerships, development, tokenomics, and the project’s future prospects.

While people here ask, “When will the company go public?”
Over there, they ask much more often, “What will the team build in a year?”

That is precisely why virtually every crypto project dreams of entering the international market. Not because there are any special people living there, but because the larger the community of participants who are willing to take a long-term view of the project, the better.
Perhaps this is exactly why some projects and tokens last for years, while others crash within the first few minutes of trading.

Is it possible to change the investment culture?

I'll try to describe my perspective on the most important question of this entire series.

After reading the first part, you might have thought I was criticizing the post-Soviet community. After the second part, you might have thought I was idealizing the international audience. No. That’s not what I’m talking about at all. In my view, the problem isn’t with the people. The problem lies in the circumstances in which these people grew up.

Imagine two people. One has watched his parents count every kopeck since childhood. He has weathered several crises, an unstable economy, and job losses in his family. From an early age, he internalized a simple idea: if an opportunity to grab some money comes along, take it now—because tomorrow, that opportunity might be gone.

The second one grew up in a completely different environment. From childhood, he was taught about saving and what he needed to prepare for right after high school. At home, conversations about long-term investments were commonplace. For him, it’s normal to buy an asset and wait a few years. He considers this the norm.

Which one is right? Both, actually. Each acts solely based on their own life experience.
Everyone makes decisions that seem right at the moment. If a person needs money today, they won’t wait a year for some hypothetical future benefit. If a person has enough money to live on, they can afford to wait. These are two completely different life situations. And the market illustrates this very well.

Is it possible to change this culture? I think so. But it can’t be done with a single article, a single project, or even an entire super-successful ecosystem. An investment culture doesn’t emerge overnight. It will only emerge when people no longer need to sell their assets just to pay the bills. When they have at least some kind of financial cushion. As soon as they start investing more than their last bit of money and stop seeing crypto as their only chance for a life-changing windfall. When they realize that capital is built up over years—only then will things begin to change.

Take a look at any developed financial system. People buy company stocks and hold onto them for ten, twenty, or sometimes even thirty years. They receive dividends—not because they’re more patient or smarter than us, but because their lives don’t depend on what a single share is worth today. For us, however, crypto very often becomes not just a part of our portfolio, but the portfolio itself. And sometimes, it’s our last hope. This explains our completely different attitude toward risk.

But there’s another point that, in my opinion, is even more important than money: financial literacy. To this day, a huge number of people evaluate a project based on just one criterion: “How much X will it yield?” Although it would be more appropriate to ask entirely different questions. What problem does this product solve? Does it have real users? Where will the project get its revenue? Does the team have experience? Why should the project’s token appreciate in value at all? It is precisely these kinds of questions that distinguish an investor from someone who is simply looking for a quick buck.

One more thing without which nothing will change: trust. In recent years, the crypto market has shown that people are constantly trying to deceive others. Scams. Rug pulls. Empty promises. Smooth talk with no results. Selling at the first opportunity has become the norm, and such actions are more than justified. But that’s exactly how a vicious cycle is created. Users don’t trust projects. Newcomers see nothing but yet another dump and start doing the same thing.

So what should you do? I think you need to start not with the market, but with yourself. Stop getting involved in a project just because someone promised you X. Stop buying things you don’t understand. Learn to distinguish between speculation and investment. These are two completely different worlds. A speculator makes money off price movements. An investor makes money off product development.
That said, it’s perfectly fine to play both roles—the main thing is to understand and be aware of what you’re doing, and to approach it with a clear head and without emotional attachments.

So, brotherhood and the culture of investing aren't a matter of nationality, country, or even cryptocurrency. It's a matter of time, experience, financial literacy, and the well-being of society.