The crypto world has recently staged another surreal drama: the once deified Bitcoin whales and "diamond hand" believers have all been exposed as scam masterminds. These individuals attracted retail investors with false personas and pie-in-the-sky promises, only to have their assets frozen and liquidated in the end.

This serves as a heavy reminder to many—glittering "big shots" stories in the crypto space often hide traps. Behind accounts that create buzz and promote price surges, there may be carefully orchestrated schemes to harvest retail investors. Don't be fooled by meticulously crafted personas; protecting your principal and carefully verifying information sources are the right ways to survive in this market. The biggest enemy for retail investors is often not market volatility, but greed and gullibility.