The past few days, I had a rather "heartbreaking" conversation during a family dinner for Tết. Probably because Trump recently issued a cryptocurrency, the whole family kept asking me about crypto, so I was constantly surrounded by questions. The most annoying part was a relative kept following me around asking, "What is a cháy tài khoản?" Hearing that, I almost nosebleed, because I’m also stuck in the market and didn’t want to bring up those "bad memories."

But he was too persistent, chasing me everywhere, even standing outside the bathroom door to keep asking. He said he had thought about it for a long time but still didn’t understand why buying crypto mostly results in losses, and what is this thing called a cháy tài khoản that can bring your account to zero? Clearly, he was confusing crypto with the regular stock market.

Seeing that I couldn’t avoid it, I smiled and decided to explain it to him. "Alright, I’ll tell you, it’s actually very simple," I said. "Suppose you have 10,000 yuan, can you buy Bitcoin worth 10,000 yuan?" He nodded. "When Bitcoin goes up 10%, you make 1,000 yuan. When it drops 10%, you lose 1,000 yuan. That’s giao dịch giao ngay, like buying stocks normally, and it won’t thanh lý your account to zero."

"But the reason for a cháy tài khoản is due to đòn bẩy 9 lần trong giao dịch hợp đồng. What is that? Simply put, you can borrow money to amplify your capital. For example, if you mở hợp đồng with đòn bẩy 9 lần, sàn giao dịch lends you 90,000 yuan, so your total vốn becomes 100,000 yuan. You can buy Bitcoin worth 100,000 yuan. If Bitcoin increases by 10%, your lợi nhuận is 10,000 yuan, which is 10 times the normal profit!"

He asked: "Why does sàn giao dịch lend money? Aren’t they afraid of thua lỗ?" I replied: "Because they make phí giao dịch. When your vốn increases 10 times, your khối lượng giao dịch also increases 10 times, so the phí you đóng góp also tăng 10 lần. Moreover, sàn giao dịch isn’t worried because when you bị lỗ hết vốn thực tế, họ sẽ tự động thanh lý để cắt lỗ."

"Here’s the cái quan trọng: if the market tăng, lợi nhuận tăng gấp 10 lần, but if it giảm, thua lỗ của bạn cũng tăng gấp 10 lần! Khi thua lỗ đạt tới vốn thực tế 10 ngàn tệ của bạn, sàn giao dịch sẽ bắt buộc thanh lý, thu hồi 90 ngàn tệ họ cho vay. Đó chính là cháy tài khoản — vốn thực tế của bạn hoàn toàn về 0!"

He was stunned after nghe xong, mắt sáng lên với sự kỳ diệu, sợ hãi và bối rối pha lẫn. I knew that at this moment, một cánh cửa mới trong cuộc đời anh ta đã mở ra, và không thể quay lại như lúc đầu nữa.