The cryptocurrency industry always seems to have an abundance of young talented traders, just like today's interviewee, Jeff Ma.

In just three years, he achieved a significant asset leap from A6 to A9. Despite experiencing a margin call due to debt at one point, he managed to peak his personal assets at 1 billion RMB. His growth trajectory is legendary, achieving exponential wealth growth through high-leverage trading strategies. Participating in several Bitget trading competitions, he achieved commendable results. Behind the glamorous numbers lie countless sleepless nights, 24-hour monitoring of the market, high-pressure situations, and the resilience to bounce back from liquidation time after time.

Through this conversation, BlockBeats attempts to reconstruct Jeff Ma's trading system. He is not only a daring trader willing to go all-in with 40x leverage but also a money manager who understands the importance of risk management. While he acknowledges the role of luck in wealth accumulation, he also emphasizes the value of discipline and systematic thinking. This is not an overnight success story but rather the journey of a young trader navigating through a high-risk market, constantly evolving. Below is the full interview:

From CS:GO Skins Trading to Crypto Trading

Q: You are a young trader born in 2004. What inspired your enthusiasm for trading?

Jeff Ma: I am entirely self-taught in all my trading systems. I genuinely love trading because true passion is the driving force that takes you the farthest and yields the greatest results. If you don't love trading, you won't excel in it; you have to love this industry.

I initially started with CS:GO skins trading. However, that market was quite limited and had poor liquidity. Moreover, it was subject to the game company's restrictions. If the game developer Valve wanted to crack down on this market to prevent profiteering, they could simply release negative policies, causing the entire market value to evaporate overnight.

So, initially, I was cautious. I didn't dare to start flipping skins right away; instead, I researched cross-border trading opportunities. I found price variations across different regions in CS:GO, with Argentina being a low-price region. Cross-border trading is not as easy as before now, but back then, whenever the game released new items, I used a USD card to purchase a cross-border account to buy official in-game items at a lower cost. After the 7+7 day trade cooldown period, I would sell them immediately, similar to arbitrage trading on crypto exchanges.

Initially, I bought these items for personal use, intending to play with them and later sell them. Once, when CS:GO had a major update (now renamed to CS2), I made nearly 30 points of profit in one go. That moment made me realize: this game can make money, and it's real, tangible profit, more practical than what school teachers teach. I started researching how to earn more, and it became the fastest way for me to improve my life.

Many of my classmates around me may be thinking about taking the postgraduate entrance exam or the civil service exam to pursue stable jobs, but at that time, I already sensed that the overall environment was not favorable. I realized that I had to do something different, not follow the path of the majority. I didn't see much value in what I was learning at school. I needed to make myself a rare talent, doing things that most people couldn't imitate or replace. And engaging in trading is a rare activity. Later, a friend introduced me to the world of coins, and that's when I started gradually trading in the coin circle.

Q: You mentioned that you initially started by copy trading the trader "Dreaming of a Million Since Childhood." For a novice trader, identifying truly skilled individuals among the thousands of traders is very difficult. How did you discover this person at that time? What indicators made you think he was worth following—was it ROI, win rate, max drawdown, or some other factor?

Jeff Ma: Yes, a friend introduced me to it, but at that time, I was just copy trading off the exchange, following the legendary trader I mentioned earlier, "Dreaming of a Million Since Childhood."

That friend got into the circle very early and witnessed "Dreaming of a Million Since Childhood" gradually building up from a small initial capital. The key point is that even at his lowest point, when his performance in copy trading was the worst, he was only down by half, and he never experienced a liquidation. This is very important.

By that time, he already had a large following in copy trading. Many followers cursed him for the drawdown, so he closed all public channels. But it was precisely after closing them that he suddenly took off.

He was doing breakout trading on the right side, with excellent ROI and drawdown data. At that time, I didn't even know what rollover was, but his swing trading was very good, using a tight stop-loss right-side breakout strategy. Except for very few situations, he basically always executed based on a small stop-loss. I now also follow this approach, except that I adjust the take profit based on different market conditions.

He retired from the internet about a year ago. Before retiring, there was a classic market movement—when BTC was around 72K, 73K, 74K, he shorted at 72K. It later dropped to just over 50K. Although he exited early, that was his final trade before retiring, and I still remember it.

After that, he completely disappeared from the internet, no longer providing public or private copy trading. I haven't seen him return, and he's basically untraceable now.

He only traded BTC and ETH, which is something I admire the most. Because this is where true skill is tested—altcoins may have insider information or whales deliberately attracting retail traders to copy trade, turning followers into liquidity traps. But the main cryptocurrencies won't have this situation. Trading BTC and ETH is the real test of skill.

Question: Copy trading and independent trading are two completely different levels. How did you transition from a mere copy trader to someone who can understand and replicate trading logic independently? This includes your journey into options trading after experiencing a liquidation event. Options trading is a challenging field even for professional traders in the financial industry. As a young individual without a financial background, how did you self-educate to master this knowledge? What specific channels did you use for learning? What books or courses did you read? From being a complete novice to being able to practically apply options strategies, how long did this process approximately take?

Jeff Ma: Simply put, it's learning from books, learning from successful individuals, and learning from the market.

I read various books and watched videos, selecting a trading system that suited my style. I also asked others for book recommendations, but in terms of pure technical analysis, the book "Japanese Candlestick Charting" was sufficient for me, which might be equivalent to what many refer to as "naked K trading." I believe this is the best technical indicator, a naked K in terms of form.

I never learn from those who haven't achieved tangible results. Many educators haven't achieved significant results themselves; they talk about other people's cases — like talking about Livermore or the story of some legendary trader. But they themselves haven't traded in reality or haven't achieved significant results. I am not willing to learn from such individuals. I prefer to trade myself, even if I lose, at least I am a practitioner.

I learned quickly because I started using small capital to trade directly while studying. When I experienced liquidation, I was very anxious. I wasn't trying to recover slowly but was looking to find a very good strategy to rebuild a stronger trading system.

I realized the returns from options are very high, especially for near-term options, but the risks are also very high. So my learning ability exploded, and I quickly understood it and put it into practice in a very short time.

I can only say that I may have had some innate talent, and there was indeed some luck at that time. I directly applied some newly learned strategies in the trading environment at that time and succeeded. Generally speaking, I didn't expect to make money so quickly; luck did play a part. Otherwise, when I started learning about options, I had a relatively small amount of capital. I basically went all-in, mostly buying near-term options with only 1 to 3 days until expiration, and they were out-of-the-money options, not in-the-money options.

But I didn't want my orders to be monitored by certain people. This includes using "iceberg orders" for large funds trading in spot or futures contracts — breaking down large orders into many small orders to be executed gradually to avoid revealing intentions easily through data. This is a form of protection for large funds.

Q: You mentioned using 40x leverage for a rollover operation on ETH, achieving A7 through a BTC rollover in February 2024, and breaking through A8 with an ETH rollover in November 2024. Although the rollover strategy is profitable, it carries extremely high risk. Could you please explain in detail your rollover logic? What specific criteria do you use to select entry points? How do you set stop-loss and take-profit levels? Under what market conditions do you decide to initiate a rollover? How do you control the position size for each trade in terms of risk management?

Jeff Ma: The core of my rollover strategy is to first have strong confidence on the left side to bottom fish with a large position, not in batches but with a concentrated position. Maybe I've already bought a batch on spot while the market is still falling. At this point, I will convert spot to coin-margined or start directly bottom fishing with a leveraged position. Generally, the actual leverage for a concentrated position is 5 to 10 times.

Then, for the rollover, it involves adding to a floating profit position. For example, if the market rebounds after hitting bottom and starts to rise, I will buy at the lowest point and continue to add based on various technical indicators, fundamentals, and macro factors.

Adding position is generally half of the base position. I used to be more aggressive, adding half or even the same position as the base position, whether it was with 40x leverage or when I rolled over Bitcoin in February 2024. I used the most aggressive rollover strategy. Now, it can probably be called profit-taking position addition instead of rollover because I have become more conservative, and the additions will be relatively smaller.

Regarding take-profit and stop-loss, for a significant gain of 1 to 2 points, I may set a break-even stop-loss slightly above my entry price. For example, if the price of a major cryptocurrency is around $100 currently, I would only earn a transaction fee. If this trade is misjudged, I won't lose my principal, so profit-taking position addition will be like waking up from a dream. This includes the recent market movement where I was also rolling over and failed.

The key is that my major gains all come from riding a one-way trend, not from scalping or day trading but from profiting off a substantial market movement. Rollover has brought me the most profit but has also been the riskiest strategy. It can be extremely distressing if there are consecutive stop-losses.

In addition to rollover, another strategy I frequently use is swing trading, which may not be intraday but holding for a few days with a risk-reward ratio of around 1.5 to 3. Similarly, these involve tight stop-losses—around 1 point for Bitcoin and 1.5 to 2 points for Ethereum. In terms of fund allocation, I currently have 60% in spot, 20% in futures contracts, and 20% in options.

Why I Chose Bitget

Q: You have participated in multiple trading competitions hosted by Bitget, such as 4th place in the 2025 King's Cup Global Invitational (KCGI) and 60th place in the 2024 KCGI. How has this competition experience helped improve your trading ability? Has Bitget's trading competition mechanism, leaderboard system, and real-time verification feature helped you establish trading credibility?

Jeff Ma: In my process of participating in multiple Bitget trading competitions, the biggest realization was not how strong I am, but a clearer awareness that this market is never lacking in geniuses. You will see too many people with extremely strong trading abilities on the leaderboard, but the question is whether geniuses can stay in this market long term. Many people only win for a period of time but fail to go further.

I always remind myself with the example of Liang Xi. Before he was liquidated, he was undoubtedly a highly talented trader in the market, but since then, he has not returned to his former state for a long time. For me, this precisely illustrates one point: trading is not just about making a profit once; more importantly, it is about whether you can hold onto that result. Money can never be earned endlessly, but losses can occur very quickly. If you cannot lock in profits promptly, even a beautiful profit curve may be wiped out in one loss of control.

In these competitions, I have seen too many peers and so-called genius traders who are often just a flash in the pan and find it difficult to survive in this market long term. This has made me more soberly realize that there is always someone better out there, and I do not consider myself the most skilled type of trader. But at least I have learned to be aggressive when needed and to choose a relatively conservative strategy when uncertainty is high, rather than blindly pursuing maximum returns.

As for the trading competitions themselves, they have indeed helped enhance personal visibility and trading credibility to some extent. Now, many exchanges regularly organize contract-related activities, but Bitget's competitions are relatively rich in mechanism and format. It is not just a single ranking but a system that includes leaderboards, real-time verification, making your performance visible and verifiable. At the same time, its incentive design is also more diverse, not just cash rewards, but also a points system that can be redeemed for U, phones, luxury peripheral products, and even travel rewards. Like the recent event, it combined physical prizes such as LV, this type of design makes trading not just a cold digital competition but forms a more complete participation experience, making it easier to attract excellent traders to continue staying in this ecosystem.

Q: There are many cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, OKX, Bybit, which are mainstream choices. What ultimately led you to choose Bitget as your primary trading platform? For example, from the perspective of a high-frequency trader, what unique advantages do you think Bitget has in terms of product design, trading depth, slippage control, funding rates, etc.? Additionally, you mentioned in a previous video that you now do not recommend using the Little Fox wallet but instead use the Bitget Wallet. What do you think makes the Bitget Wallet user-friendly?

Jeff Ma: I actually don't really know how to use the term "which one is better" to describe different exchanges. More accurately, it's about which one is more suitable for my trading habits and capital size at the current stage. Exchanges like Binance, OKX, and Bybit are all very established mainstream platforms, each with its own advantages. In terms of feature coverage, Bitget has now also integrated a system similar to Tradestation, launching the TradFi section where you can trade US stock indices, gold, silver, and various commodities, which is somewhat similar to Bybit.

But what really makes me stay at Bitget for the long term is not a single function, but the overall experience of stability and cost-effectiveness. On the one hand, the platform does have a high frequency of activities, whether it's trading competitions, incentive activities, or various equity feedback, they are quite continuous; on the other hand, the platform's feedback speed and response quality at the service level also make me feel smoother, which is actually very important in high-frequency trading. When your trading pace is fast, any minor inconvenience will be greatly amplified.

From the perspective of trading itself, whether it's depth, slippage control, or overall fee structure, my personal experience using it is closer to that of a mature centralized exchange system. In comparison, many on-chain perpetual DEXs currently have an advantage in transparency, where all data, rankings, and trading behavior are publicly available, but fundamentally, everyone can see the results but doesn't know who you are. In actual use, I also clearly feel that whether it's the fee structure or overall execution efficiency, on-chain products are currently still unable to fully replace centralized exchanges, especially when dealing with large capital.

Speaking of wallets, I mentioned in a previous video that I currently don't highly recommend frequent use of general-purpose hot wallets like MetaMask. For me, large funds are still kept in cold wallets, such as imToken; for daily operations, I only use a few relatively stable, clearly functional wallets, such as Bitget Wallet.

One feature that I find quite useful in Bitget Wallet is its natural integration with real-life spending scenarios. Its built-in U Card is very convenient for small-value spending scenarios, such as daily expenses under $200, which can basically be paid directly without frequent withdrawals. With a regular international card, whether it's Visa or Mastercard, there is usually around a 3% fee, but using the U Card is equivalent to directly saving this cost, spending and done, with simpler operations.

Furthermore, Bitget Wallet also has an Earn Coins Center, where it periodically launches some airdrops or lightly participatory activities. Occasionally, I also participate myself, and I recommend fans to try it out together. Although sometimes there may be situations of negative returns, overall, the entry threshold is not high, the operation is quite handy, and it's something that can be done easily on the side. For me, this type of feature may not be essential, but when all these features are combined, it makes the entire user experience more complete.

Q: What conveniences has Bitget brought to you? What specific support do they provide to support excellent traders?

Jeff Ma: I have actually participated in multiple offline events organized by Bitget, which were overall well-run and content-rich. For example, I participated in the Shanghai stop of the City Stop series. This event originally started in Changsha, then moved to Chengdu, and finally to Shanghai. For me, the value of these types of events lies not in the format, but in the exchange itself. Sitting down with peers to discuss trading and the market in a comfortable atmosphere significantly broadens my cognitive boundaries.

During offline exchanges, you will find that participants do not only come from the crypto circle. Some peers primarily focus on US stocks or institutional fund management, with crypto assets not constituting the largest part of their overall allocation. Engaging with these individuals, you learn about the logic and perspectives of different markets, such as how they view macro cycles, how they select targets, and how they allocate among different assets. This content may not directly provide you with answers, but it offers valuable references for your subsequent judgments.

Regarding the support for excellent traders and high-net-worth users, Bitget's system is also relatively clear. For users with high VIP levels, there are specific targeted activities and benefits support. For example, in September and October, there were free tickets to the Singapore F1 event and Token2049; there are also upcoming activities such as island trips. Even VIP level 3 users regularly receive airdrops and exclusive benefits. This support is not one-off but continuous. For users who are active and have stable trading on the platform in the long term, the experience is quite noticeable.

How Novice Traders Can Establish Trading Discipline

Q: You founded Ma God Capital, marking a significant transition from individual trader to fund manager. What is the current scale of Ma God Capital's management and team? What are the future development plans? What role do you envision Ma God Capital playing in the cryptocurrency investment field?

Jeff Ma: I am very restrained in terms of my collaboration partners, only collaborating with people I know in real life, especially when it involves larger sums of money. It is impossible to discuss fund collaboration through online platforms or private messages; this is my bottom line. The fund's scale is not easy to disclose publicly. Currently, there is one partner, but I am still the main trader and fund manager.

In terms of positioning, I never compare myself horizontally with any institution or individual. My only competitor is myself. Whether it's the crypto market, US stocks, gold, or commodities, what matters to me more is: whether this year's data is better than last year's. Even if the returns are not higher, as long as the drawdown is smaller and the risk control is more stable, I consider it progress.

As the size of the funds grows, the trading style will definitely change. Previously, when I traded on my own, I could go all-in, hold a large position, be very aggressive, but under fund management, this is unacceptable. The significance of risk management will be greatly amplified. As long as you're not losing money, you've actually outperformed most people in any market; if you can consistently achieve a 20% annualized return, that is already a very exceptional fund performance. Of course, I still care about the rate of return, but now the most important thing is to use hedging and structural adjustments to keep the maximum drawdown within 20%.

Q: As a young trader who achieved A9 at the age of 21, what advice do you have for newcomers who have just entered the market? How should they avoid the mistakes you once made? What core qualities do you think an outstanding cryptocurrency trader needs to have? In your current trading abilities, what proportion comes from book/course learning, and how much comes from the market's "tuition"? In the process from A6 to A9, which stage was the most challenging to break through?

Jeff Ma: The first thing is always to avoid liquidation. The most direct method is to set a stop-loss when entering a position and strictly enforce it. Many failed trades are not due to incorrect judgment but to a breakdown in discipline, such as temporarily canceling a stop-loss during a market downturn or constantly moving the stop-loss down. Even if the price eventually rebounds, in my opinion, this is still a failed trade because your trading system has been compromised.

The second point is not to be misled by the concept of high leverage. Many people see nominal leverages of 100x, 150x, 200x and think it's equivalent to going all-in. However, in reality, most professional traders use full-position mode. For example, at 100x leverage, only open a 1% position, so the actual leverage is only 1x. The significance of high leverage is to increase capital efficiency, allowing for simultaneous allocation of multiple assets rather than amplifying risk.

In terms of learning path, I have always believed that technical analysis does not need to be too complicated. The book "Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques" is actually sufficient to lay the foundation. More importantly, it is to complement with macro knowledge, such as basic macroeconomics, microeconomics, and sensitivity to important events such as interest rate hikes, cuts, rate meetings, international conflicts, which directly affect asset prices, such as the stimulus of war on the price of gold.

From A6 to A7, to be honest, luck played a significant role for me. At that time, I had just learned to roll over positions, and coincidentally caught the major uptrend of Bitcoin from forty thousand, making additional positions with floating profits along the trend, which I handled very well. However, from A8 to A9, that was definitely the most difficult stage, also the toughest stage in my entire trading career. This stage is very prone to mistakes; many people rush and get liquidated, wiped out during this process, and if you fail at this stage, the gap will be very very large, and it will be very painful.

This stage really tests your mentality and execution. The pressure is immense. Even if the overall position is in a floating profit state before sleep, the first thing I do every morning is to confirm whether the position has been liquidated to break-even. At that time, my partner and I were almost monitoring the market 24 hours a day, taking turns. We wore headphones even while sleeping. As soon as there was a market signal, we immediately called each other, ready to execute the signal at any time. Without a strong heart, it is very difficult to get through this.

Q: Looking back to the beginning of 2026, how do you view this year's cryptocurrency market? How will mainstream coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum perform? What are some trading opportunities or trends that you are particularly optimistic about? Will your personal trading strategy for this year have any adjustments?

Jeff Ma: I don't think we will see a comprehensive breakthrough or extreme surge this year, but I also don't agree with the notion of a prolonged bear market. Even in a bear market, it will not always be a downtrend; there will definitely be opportunities for periodic rebounds. For me, it's not about just shorting; it's about averaging down at the right levels and capturing a sufficiently large rebound.

Regarding mainstream assets, I mainly focus on Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, and SOL. It's absolutely fine to average down on Bitcoin in the range of 60,000 to 84,000; if we really enter a deep bear market, it would not surprise me if SOL drops to a three-digit value, and the drop could be very severe.

Then, in the Memecoin market, I will be very conservative. If I were to allocate, I might only go for Pepe and Doge, or similar varieties that have been repeatedly validated by the market. I generally stay away from new coins that have just launched and projects with illogical reasoning.

In terms of overall asset allocation, a very important adjustment direction this year is to increase the allocation of gold and US stocks while reducing the share of Web3. US stocks have been hitting new highs recently, such as the S&P 500 Index. Through ETF allocations, I have also refreshed my periodic returns. This cross-market allocation is crucial for reducing overall volatility and drawdowns.

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