There’s always a bigger fish
By Carlitos
Paper gains are a fugazi. It’s fairy dust. It doesn’t exist until it hits stablecoins. Flaunting a $600k portfolio screenshot while holding 2.5% of an illiquid supply isn’t wealth, it’s an optical illusion waiting for a 50% slippage reality check.
Most people in crypto are playing with peanuts while convinced they’re sitting at the high stakes table.
This week, I want to deep dive into Cbb’s article, it’s long, it’s eighteen months old, yet I read it twice with my morning coffee and I think there is a ton of value to share and repurpose.
If you spend all day staring at charts, chasing ‘good’ traders, vibe code snipping tools, or holding a paper bag hoping for a $5m liquidity miracle, this edition is your reality check. A breakdown of the mechanics of scale, the psychological rules of the trenches, the Robinhood meta, and the optical illusion of unrealized PnL.
The average degen thinks scale means sizing up a trade from 0.1 ETH to 1 ETH. Real operators view scale as institutional mechanics, capital preservation, and structural asymmetry. If you haven’t yet, read Cbb’s breakdown on market scale and professional execution. It is one of the most mind blowing reads I came across on X.
Looking at how Cbb operates comes down to three core pillars:
1. Highly guarded alpha: True edge isn’t broadcasted on public timelines for retweets. It’s held tightly within microscopic circles, completely isolated from outsiders until execution is finished and the edge is closed.
2. Hyper tight trust circles: No bloated cabal chats or 50 person alpha groups. Just him and his brother. Zero leak surface area. Complete trust. Total commitment.
3. Talk after, never during: You lock in, execute silently in the shadows, and only discuss the play after the position is closed or fully derisked.
When you compare standard retail trenching to this level of discipline, the difference is night and day. Retail (=YOU) trades for immediate dopamine and social validation; pros build quiet, systemic positions where they have an edge, while everyone else is distracted and apes in afterwards.
