How to Protect Your Crypto Profits During a Bull Market

“Your greed will determine whether you will emerge richer or poorer by the end of the next bull market.” — Jonas (CryptoBigStories).

Hello, investors.

You’ve probably read plenty of articles about how to build wealth during a crypto bull market by investing in different assets. But how many of those articles explain how to protect the profits you make?

You see, making money in crypto is one thing. Keeping it is another.

I’ve seen new investors turn a few hundred dollars into thousands by getting into low-cap coins early, only to watch most of those paper gains disappear because they didn’t have a plan for taking profits.

Sure, crypto can reward you quickly, but it can also take those gains back just as quickly.

So, if you want to maximize your returns, you have to control your greed and follow a clear exit strategy. Otherwise, you risk giving back your gains to the market and watching a profitable position turn into a painful lesson.

In this article, I’ll share practical strategies you can use to protect your gains during the next bull market while we continue building our positions. I’ll also show you some of the common mistakes that can turn large paper profits into losses.

Now, let’s look at how you can maximize your returns during the next bull run, decide when to take profits, and avoid the greed that can wipe out months or even years of unrealized gains.

Let’s get into it.

I understand why you’re eager to find the next crypto gem that could help you retire early and live the life you want.

But here’s the truth: you don’t earn a 100x return because you deserve it. You earn it because you found the right asset at the right time and held it through an extraordinary run.

Think about those who bought DOGE, SHIBA INU, LUNA, SOL, and other tokens when their market caps were tiny.

They didn’t make life-changing money because they had a better understanding of the market. They were mostly lucky, and the market rewarded them.

Even so, not everyone who rode those waves to the top locked in their profits. Greed kept many from realizing their gains. I have been a victim, too. Much more about that later.

Here’s the thing: In a bull market, your ability to control greed determines how much of your unrealized profit you can keep.

And if you’ve experienced a full-blown crypto bull market, you know how easy it can feel to make money when prices keep rising. You don’t do much. You buy, hold, and watch the numbers on your screen climb.

Before you know it, you might start giving financial advice to everyone around you.

You’d show your friends and relatives your unrealized gains. You’d tell them about the coins you bought. You might even convince someone to sell other assets and invest the proceeds in crypto.

We’ve seen this behavior in previous bull markets. And it’s more likely to repeat soon.

Now, here’s the good part…

If you have the discipline to accumulate Bitcoin and a few carefully selected altcoins during the next major capitulation, you could build a portfolio that grows significantly in the next bull market, hopefully 2027-2029.

But the problem starts when your portfolio becomes profitable.

When prices rise rapidly, we often lose the financial discipline we had during the bear market. We start spending more, taking bigger risks, and buying things we never needed in the first place.

Some may even end up throwing money at NFTs and other speculative assets, believing prices can only go higher.

Here’s one thing I have learned. Bear markets usually teach you to be careful with your money. Bull markets test whether you can stay that way.

Yes, you can make money quickly during a bull market, but greed can make it difficult to take your profits.

Your mind will keep telling you to hold on a little longer because the next leg up could make you even richer. Then another target appears. Then another. Before you know it, the market turns bearish, and your impressive paper gains start to melt away. Many of us experienced it firsthand during the most recent bull market. Don’t fall into that trap.

Let me ask you this: did you take profits when Bitcoin traded above $125,000, or did you buy more?

The market has been quiet for months. People aren’t as excited about crypto as they once were. And we don’t see as many influencers predicting Bitcoin will hit $500,000 by 2027.

But it’s not always so. During a bull run, taking profits can make you an easy target. Some people will call you a paper-handed investor for selling while prices are still rising. Don’t blindly follow that advice.

You see, nothing in crypto guarantees that today’s winner will remain tomorrow’s winner. This is why I build my portfolio around Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a few carefully selected altcoins.

My 2023–2025 bull market portfolio didn’t deliver the explosive returns I experienced during the 2020–2021 bull run. But it was balanced enough to help me stay disciplined when the market eventually turned bearish.

The market can give you life-changing gains. Your job is to make sure you actually keep some of them.

We’ve seen people invest $1,000 in a crypto project, watch it grow to more than $30,000, and then see its value collapse to less than $500 because they never took profits.

That may sound hard to believe, but anyone who invested in Terra Luna early enough can tell you how quickly a small investment turned into a fortune. During the 2020-2021 bull run, some of us turned as little as $1,000 into more than $100,000 in LUNA at its peak.

But when Terra Luna collapsed, many investors lost their life savings. Some even went into debt because they kept holding and continued taking risks as the market turned against them.

»»» To learn more about our cycle-bottom accumulation phase, check out the Golden Buy Zone Blueprint.

I’m not sharing this story because I regret investing in LUNA. I’m sharing it because I want you to learn from the mistake I made during the 2021 bull market. That experience changed how I invest. Today, I focus mainly on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a few carefully selected altcoins.

During the 2021 bull market, I bought some Terra Luna (LUNA) and watched my small investment turn into a fortune.

I felt like a genius.

Then I started making unrealistic price predictions.

I followed advice from crypto influencers who told us to hold our LUNA even after the price climbed from around $0.96 to over $100. I became greedy and refused to take profits while the market was giving me the opportunity.

I had a $500 price target in mind. I imagined all the things I could do with that money, from vacations in Dubai to a Jungle Safari.

Looking back, I probably wouldn’t have taken profits even if LUNA had reached my target. Greed had already taken control.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t alone.

Even near the market’s peak, some investors continued staking their LUNA on various platforms to earn more rewards instead of taking some profits off the table.

Then everything changed.

LUNA reached nearly $120, setting a new all-time high. Shortly after, concerns about the Terra ecosystem triggered panic among investors.

Selling accelerated.

Investors rushed to exit their positions, and the price began to collapse.

Eventually, I sold half of my LUNA at around $50.

You might say I didn’t lose money because I bought LUNA for less than a dollar. But wait until you hear what happened next.

After selling half of my LUNA holdings at about $50, I was tempted to reinvest the proceeds when LUNA crashed to $10. I thought I was getting a bargain, but I wasn’t.

The token continued to collapse, eventually falling to around $0.00001675. The profits I had made disappeared, and what remained of my position became almost worthless. See the chart below.

Terra later rebranded the token to LUNA Classic (LUNC), a reminder of how quickly unrealized profit can evaporate when you don’t take some of it off the table.

This happens in almost every bull cycle.

Many low-cap tokens eventually lose momentum, collapse, or disappear from major exchanges. I experienced this firsthand when some of the low-cap tokens I gambled on became nearly worthless.

So, if your portfolio is down and you regret not selling when the market gave you the opportunity, don’t beat yourself up. From my experience, you need time in this market to understand how difficult it can be to protect your gains.

You don’t have to learn that lesson the hard way. Learn from my experience and prepare to take profits when the next bull market presents the opportunity.

You might think you’re not greedy right now because you haven’t made a 10x or 20x return on your crypto investments. Trust me, the psychology changes when you see your portfolio multiply in value within a few months.

You need to experience the euphoria of a bull market to understand how easily greed can take over. Today, I invest differently.

I’m more disciplined and patient. During bear markets, I focus on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a few carefully selected altcoins because established assets often recover before the broader market does.

I’m preparing for the next cycle instead of chasing every token that starts moving.

And if you want to understand my bear-market accumulation strategy and why I’m not bothered by the current market phase, check out the Golden Buy Zone Blueprint.

Final Thoughts

Making profits in cryptocurrency requires careful planning, strategy, discipline, and smart decision-making skills. I hope this article inspires you to prepare for the bull market and learn how to maximize gains.

To learn more about our cycle-bottom accumulation phase, check out the Golden Buy Zone Blueprint.

Remember to invest wisely.