What I Wish I Knew About Leverage Before Losing My First Trade | by Jay Jackson | The Capital | Aug, 2025

I still remember the trade like it happened yesterday.

I had just signed up on a popular crypto exchange that offered leverage. I had $100 in my account. There was a coin pumping hard — one of those random altcoins that suddenly explodes because of a tweet or some random hype. I didn’t want to miss out.

So I clicked “Long,” dialed up 10x leverage (because why not?), set no stop-loss (because it was “definitely going up”), and hit “Confirm.”

Within 20 minutes, I had lost everything.

All $100. Gone.

It wasn’t even the amount that stung the most. It was the realization that I had no idea what I was doing with leverage.

Since then, I’ve learned my lesson — many of them, in fact. And if you’re new to crypto trading or tempted by the shiny buttons labeled “5x,” “10x,” or even “100x,” this post is for you.

Here’s what I wish I knew about leverage before I blew up that first trade.