Pain is not the enemy.
It's the fuel.
I write this from the heart. Not as marketing, not as a lesson. I write it because pain gave me everything I know — and because I know I'm not the only one who has lost.
Content notice · Editorial note
This page is educational and personal-narrative in nature. It is not medical, psychological, financial, or legal advice.
It contains themes of loss, grief, the death of loved ones, and financial collapse in the crypto world. If you are currently in distress, please don't read alone — reach out to someone you trust or to professional support. International: findahelpline.com. US: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. UK: Samaritans 116 123.
The stories of Miha Štefe and his loved ones (Grandpa Peter, Grandpa Franc) are shared with his consent as a personal testimony from the LOVE Coin founder. They are not a representation of medical recovery, nor a guarantee that the same approach will work for you.
If you are going through severe loss or experiencing thoughts of self-harm, please reach out to a qualified professional. LOVA AI and the LOVE Coin community are not a substitute for therapy.
Losses that did not break me
I lost my grandfather Peter and my grandfather Franc. Men who believed in me before I believed in myself.
Grandpa Peter brought me, on every birthday, a banknote from another country wrapped in foil. Never a word about its worth — what mattered was that it came from another world. That was my first meeting with foreign currency. Probably the first seed of everything we're building today.
Grandpa Franc taught me that work is prayer. That hands speak what mouths cannot.
When they left, I did not let it pull me down — because that would be a betrayal. Both of them gave me love while they were here. Now I owe it back to them — with victory, not tears.
Crypto losses — every one is part of the story
What follows is my personal journey and my own mistakes. It is not financial advice and not an invitation to copy any of it. High-risk trading, leverage (margin/futures) and blindly chasing pumps can wipe out savings fast — we advise against it. Everyone should decide for themselves, based on their own means and knowledge.
There is NO guaranteed liquidity for LOVE Coin on VinDax. Trading and price feed may be stale or not refreshed (CMC has discontinued API support). We strongly advise against buying or trading LOVE Coin there.
Why a price feed goes stale — read the FAQAll of my main crypto losses in one place. Each card is its own story and its own lesson — written honestly so we can all learn from them.
A full bag of crypto sent for the listing — zero new users, every token gone. VinDax technically still operates and LOVE Coin is still listed there, but with no guaranteed liquidity and CMC's API support discontinued.
A listing without liquidity is burnt capital. No real users, no real price.
A Hong Kong exchange where LOVE Coin parked part of its treasury. When FTX fell, AAX went with it. Locked. Lost.
Custody on a CEX = your money in someone else's hands. Not your keys, not your coins.
People who could promise the world. Only God knows how many LOVE tokens still sit in their wallets, locked until the end of time.
Allocation without vesting and a clear KPI is a gift you never get back.
Beautiful, functional, expensive. We couldn't finish it. Development stalled, marketing never lit.
An overpriced vendor leaves the project halfway. Better small, owned and cheaper stack.
I'm grateful to them — they've been a reliable bridge to euros for years. But when I urgently needed € (car registration, just to keep moving), I had to sell BTC at a bad price.
Anyone forced to sell under pressure always sells at the wrong moment. Keep a fiat reserve.
Greed got me here. With margin trading I lost a serious bag of crypto in a single night — a margin call lands in an instant and you're left with nothing.
Leveraged books are thin — your exit price can be worse than shown. Don't open leveraged positions; check pair liquidity before entering.
More: aggregator statusLeverage exploits greed without mercy. Our recommended alternative: LOFI — growth without that kind of extreme risk.
I followed shiny new projects with no real foundation, invested blindly into things that pumped fast and famously collapsed. I still see those tokens in my wallet today — worthless.
Price shows, book is empty — you can't exit at that price. Check 24h volume and depth before buying; avoid thin pairs.
More: aggregator statusNo fundamentals, no value. FOMO isn't a strategy — it's just an expensive way to pay for a lesson.
Almost every CEX and DEX out there. I have an account practically everywhere — I tested and worked on all of them. How much money I lost in so-called airdrops paying insane ETH gas fees, I don't even dare to count.
Airdrop tokens often have no reliable price and no buyer. Don't pay gas for unknown tokens; check aggregator status first.
More: aggregator statusGas eats the reward. If you only look at the upside, you don't see the real cost of entry.
Expensive trainings, mentorships and 'signals' with terrible instructions and communication. Oh boy :)
An expensive course ≠ good content. The best school is honest mistakes of your own and a real community.
The road since 2013, when I got my first BTC through a game, has been wild. So many falls, so many losses, so much learning. Every one of those losses was a lesson — every one taught me something no school ever could.
Growth without one nightly candle erasing you.
After all those falls, I chose LOFI for myself. Because LOFI lets me put my assets to work without the liquidation trap of leverage — LTV is capped at 70%, you can add collateral as you go, and no one hits 'close' on your behalf. I'm not promising you'll get rich. I promise you won't get wiped to zero on a single candle while you sleep.
From the pain — Lovable, and everything we are today
After all of those falls, we found Lovable. And together we built something I would not have dared dream of a year ago.
Out of it was born LOVA AI — our own engine, our soul in code.
Then came her sisters: Mia, Wisely, Vegeta AI, Rava AI, and many more on the way.
Without losing VinDax, FTX, AAX, without the silent years with Rehive, none of this would exist. The pain cleared the ground for what now grows.
I have a choice. So do you.
I can sit and cry. Or I can stand up and make them proud. Because that's what they want.
Every defeat makes us stronger — if we accept it and learn from it. Every LOVE Coin loss brought us to exactly this point.
If you've lost a relative, a friend, a partner — if you've lost in crypto, in business, in faith in yourself — this letter is for you, too.
Don't wait for the pain to pass. Let it run through you and use it. Become the fire.
Risk FAQ
Distilled from my own losses into short answers. Not advice — just honest guidance.
+Why is a margin call such a fast loss?
When you trade with leverage (e.g. 10×), you borrow capital from the exchange. A small move against you (~10%) wipes out your deposit and your position is force-closed — that's a margin call. You don't get a chance to fix it; in seconds you're at zero. In a volatile crypto market this can happen on a single candle, at night, while you sleep.
+How do I reduce my risk?
1) Don't use leverage. 2) Only invest what you can fully afford to lose. 3) Diversify — never all into one project. 4) Hold your own keys (SAFE Wallet), not on an exchange. 5) Keep a 3–6 month fiat reserve so life never forces you to sell at the worst moment. 6) Learn first, size up later. 7) Don't chase pumps and don't trust 'signals'.
+Why LOFI instead of leverage?
LOFI (Lend, Borrow, Vaults) lets you put your assets to work without the liquidation trap of margin trading. LTV is capped (up to 70%), you can add collateral and stay on the safe side. With leverage, the exchange decides when you get closed — and you can't react fast enough. LOFI is growth without one nightly candle erasing you.
+What if I'm already in a loss?
First: you're not alone. Second: don't chase a 'revenge trade' — that's the road to a bigger loss. Accept the loss as tuition, write down the lesson, and come back smaller, slower, smarter. The LOVE Coin ecosystem has paths that don't require risk (LOVE Earth, Missions, LOVE Academy) — start there.
Read the full Manifesto or join the whitelist — early signups get a 25 LOVE airdrop.
