How Leading Crypto Traders Make Money (and Retain Sanity)

Charts tracking the price of bitcoin dominate six buzzing monitors in the third-floor office of a rotting, centuries-old tower block in the heart of Kiev. A pattern emerges among the shifting forms and shapes, and Brian – a 33-year-old trader who asks we use only his first name – reacts swiftly, punching his extemporaneous analysis into a chatbox on the messenger app Telegram. He has identified the distinctive downward twist of a “falling wedge formation.” To those in the know, that means: The price is going down at a diminishing rate, and should presently head moooooonwards.

A succinct bulletin summarizing this prognosis flashes on the cellphone screens of the roughly 300 traders in Brian’s VIP-only cryptocurrency trading group, “WhaleTank.” Each of these members is paying big bucks to hear Brian’s informed, round-the-clock insights and – quite literally – follow his every move. For the knockout price of 0.1 percent of a bitcoin per month (roughly $90, at…