By: Jake Maddox | Crypto Stories | Published: April 2025
In the suburbs of Atlanta, in a quiet house on the outskirts, Artie lived like an average person for many years. The man had a stable job, a clear schedule, and even life plans. He had no dreams of a luxurious life. He just wanted confidence, stability, and peace. But in 2022, the employer fired his team. At first, Artie thought it was a temporary inconvenience: the man had some savings and was still confident about the future. He got a part-time job, sold used equipment, washed cars, and delivered food at night. However, it was only enough to pay bills.
Month after month, Artie’s life situation worsened. The rainy day fund melted away, and credit cards became a noose around Artie’s neck. Because of severe stress, Artie’s wife started having panic attacks, and besides, their son’s asthma was getting even worse. Artie couldn’t sleep well. Morning anxiety was unbearable: “Where to get money? How many calls from collectors will there be today?”
He stopped opening letters, checking his balance, and answering calls. He started eating pasta and cheap frozen meals. He no longer visited the gym. The only luxury left was the Internet, which gave the feeling there must be a way out. Guys around were wealthy and successful, had prestigious cars, and lived in expensive houses. Where do they earn money to maintain their standard of living?
Every night, Artie watched YouTube. He searched for videos like “10 Ways to Get out of Debt,” “How to Make Money Online,” “Financial Literacy,” “Tips from Millionaires,” etc. Those mainly were scams, financial pyramids, or dubious, incomprehensible schemes. The man was losing hope.
One day, when he was watching a video titled “How to Make Money from Crypto without Start-Up Capital,” which YouTube recommended to him, he saw a strange comment with more than 200 likes:
“Crypto arbitrage is the only business where you can’t lose money and can make a fortune if you are good at reinvestment. The only risk is that you may lose time if you do not sell your crypto at a higher price. I’ve been raising my capital for 4 years with crypto arbitrage, and I win over 85% of deals thanks to these three crypto scanners – veiledsignal.com, tangledbits.com, and silentvaults.com. The remaining 15% is either zero-profit or brings me some money after a small drawdown. The main rule is not to sell cheaper than you bought, as Warren Buffett once said.”
He didn’t immediately understand the essence of earning and how to work without the risk of losing anything. He copied three website names into his notes and went to bed. Two days later, a sleepless night and another panic attack restored his notes to his memory as a way to solve his problems. He decided to Google the saved websites and see what it was.
Crypto scanners seemed easy to use: a user-friendly interface, a price table, a list of exchanges, the difference between crypto rates, and the most profitable real-time offers. One exchange offered a price of $0.68, while the other had $0.72. It seemed nonsense until he made calculations: if you bought a coin for $1000 and immediately sold it on another exchange, you could earn $40-50. He didn’t get it all at once but felt it was something he could handle since it was just about mathematics.
Artie delved deeper into the topic. At first, he wrote down the names of the coins in his notepad, compared prices across exchanges, went to exchanges, checked commissions, made calculations, and counted every penny he could lose or earn. He realized how important the speed of arbitrage was after a fork (difference in prices) appeared, and he found out that the transaction confirmation time (transfer between exchanges) can “eat up” an indefinite %. Crypto arbitrage wasn’t magic– it was simple logistics, using numbers and requiring focus.
Well, there was another problem: Artie had no money at all. The account was $3.72. The credit card was negative. Artie had to sell his old iPad, a coffee machine, and a bicycle. He got $290. He took another $200 out of a box with the inscription “for a rainy day.”
He couldn’t pass verification on large crypto exchanges since his passport had expired. It wasn’t a problem for internal travel around the country, but large exchanges didn’t accept it. Artie didn’t want to spend $160 to update his documents, so he created accounts on exchanges that didn’t require KYC. He persuaded his friend to sign in to all other exchanges with KYC, took his card, topped up his balance, and, with trembling hands, bought his first XLM coin for $0.21. He sold it for $0.23. Net profit: $45.7 after deduction of commissions.
Artie looked at the screen and didn’t believe his eyes. He quickly made another deal with the same coin, but during the next transaction, the rate changed. Artie managed to earn less – $31. Then – $12. In 6-7 minutes, he made $88.7 by investing $490 3 times. He felt confident for the first time in many months – he got real money. No lies. No risks. No manipulation.
The man kept improving his strategy every day by working for 12-14 hours. He studied all the platforms like he once studied a geometry textbook – with notes and underlining. He watched even more videos, made ratings of crypto bloggers, analyzed the behavior of coins after the release of their reviews, and analyzed the behavior of coins after their advertising in crypto blogs, on news sites, and TV news.
On the 14th day, he had $2,900. On the 21st day – $6,500. On the 30th day – $18,400. He paid off one credit card. Then, another one. Two weeks later, the man bought his wife a huge bouquet, a new iPhone, and a Dyson. He gave his son a new mountain bike and a powerful gaming computer.
On the 60th day, the balance of his crypto wallets was $460,000. Almost half a million USDT for 2 months of daily work without days off. Artie’s motivation and perseverance caused admiration.
When his wife said he had already done a lot and it was time to have at least 1 day off, he looked at the numbers and burst into tears. Silently. For the first time, from relief. Artie wiped away tears and updated the balance again to ensure the money wouldn’t disappear.
3 months later, he could finally sleep peacefully. He paid off the mortgage and had no loans or debts. He had a rainy day fund for 2 years and resolved all other issues.
He didn’t become a billionaire. But he became a free man who tamed luck and enjoyed life.
“You don’t have to trust anyone. Just try something new. Take action! Don’t sit still. Your life is only in your hands, and everyone around you doesn’t care about your problems. No one will pull you out of a dark place except you.”
“I don’t think I’m rich. But I’m not a slave anymore. I live for real. I eat healthy food, I don’t look at prices in stores, I don’t deny myself anything, I breathe, and I’m not afraid of Monday morning… because I work when I want to. I’m not a genius, and I was always bad at school. So, if I could do it, then anyone can.”
