Do you know when my most unforgettable heartbreak happened? In the peak of the 2021 bull market, on the day Filecoin (FIL) soared to $237, I watched my wallet balance break seven figures in USD. I went crazy in the live stream, shouting, "I've finally achieved financial freedom! Decentralized storage is going to rule the world!" Fans flooded the chat with 999 messages. At that moment, I felt like a god, having invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in an ICO that multiplied over a hundred times. I was so excited I didn't sleep all night. But what happened next? When the bear market hit, this thing plummeted like a roller coaster into the valley, dropping to a few dollars. My account evaporated 90%. Several times in the middle of the night, I woke up staring at the K-line, tears uncontrollably falling, feeling like a complete idiot, regretting not selling earlier, and blaming my greed for blinding me. Now, it's February 2026, FIL is still stuck around $1, with a market cap of over 700 million, dropping out of the top 50. My old holdings haven't moved at all; I just hold on stubbornly, watching it wear me down day by day.

Honestly, I still can't sort out my feelings for FIL. I love it because it’s genuinely doing something to change the world. I’m sick of those centralized clouds like AWS—price hikes at will, data deletions on command, privacy fully exposed. Filecoin is different. Miners actually use hard drives to store data, clients rent space with FIL, data is scattered globally, and it can’t be lost or changed. I’ve stored a few terabytes myself, and the cost was way lower. That feeling of “data finally in my hands” is so reassuring. Now, in the AI era, with massive data training models, Filecoin’s storage proofs and Onchain Cloud upgrades are right at the cusp. In 2025, DePIN will heat up, active storage volume is increasing, real transactions are growing, and I get excited—this isn’t just empty talk; it’s real infrastructure, and it will eventually ferment.
But I also have many reasons to curse it. Over these bear years, FIL’s price has been like a dead fish, with unlocking pressures high, miners shouting about losses, and the community complaining daily about “the project is dying” and “the team is slacking.” During my live streams, fans asked if I still hold FIL, and I was choked up, speechless. Several times I almost sold everything to chase AI coins, watching others double their money while I did nothing, feeling heartbroken like a knife was stabbing me. But I didn’t sell. Why? Because I believe in this direction wholeheartedly. Data is the new oil, and centralized monopolies have lasted too long. Protocol Labs has kept iterating over the years, and the technology is becoming more stable. If AI data demand really explodes, it will come sooner or later. It’s not about getting rich overnight but about holding on through hell and having more faith in this coin as time goes on.
My current view is simple: FIL is severely underestimated. Don’t dream of a big pump in the short term, but long-term, once DePIN + AI storage kicks in, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it hit $10. I’ll keep holding my old bags stubbornly. New fans shouldn’t go all-in, but you can try storing some data yourself and see how it feels. You ask if it’s worth it? It is! This coin has taught me that the cruelest thing in crypto isn’t losing money; it’s losing faith. Brothers and sisters holding FIL, share your thoughts in the comments—I’m waiting to hear your honest feelings. Let’s endure together. $FIL