Crypto Trade Guide for Beginner

If your bank account shows HK$10,000, the vault does not hold a stack of notes with your name on it. That figure is one line in the bank’s ledger.

Cha chaan teng tab: regulars eat first and the owner writes it down, then they settle at month end. The book works because people trust the owner not to rewrite the numbers. A bank is a very large, regulated version of that book.

Faster Payment System example: sending a friend HK$200 updates several ledgers. No physical notes move. People accept it because they trust intermediaries: banks, the clearing system, the HKMA, and the law.

Traditional finance means trusting an intermediary.

• Upside: convenient, regulated, and errors can be disputed.
• Limits: an intermediary can freeze an account, charge fees, and slow a cross-border payment. A government can expand the money supply (inflation).
• After the 2008 financial crisis, many people lost confidence in banks. Bitcoin appeared in that setting.

Bitcoin (BTC) is a cryptocurrency: a digital money that exists on a network and is protected by cryptography. What is unusual is that no bank, company, or government keeps the book. Thousands of computers around the world keep the same public ledger.

• 31 October 2008: the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto published the white paper Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.
• 3 January 2009: the genesis block was mined. It embeds the Times headline “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”.
• Satoshi’s identity is still unknown. The last known email is from about April 2011.

A blockchain is a public ledger that many people hold a copy of. Transactions are packed into blocks (about one page every 10 minutes) and chained page to page.

A hash is a digital fingerprint of data. Bitcoin uses SHA-256. Change one character and the fingerprint changes completely. Each block stores the previous block’s fingerprint, so quietly rewriting old history is extremely hard.

• A node is a computer running the software and storing a full copy of the ledger. It checks that transactions follow the rules.
• A miner competes, with computers, for the right to write the next page. Success is rewarded with new BTC.
• Proof of work: miners keep guessing until they find an acceptable fingerprint. That uses a lot of electricity. The electricity cost stands in for “trust the intermediary”.

Value here means enough people believe it is useful and are willing to hold it. The points below are common arguments. They are not a promise that the price will rise.

1. Fixed supply: the code caps the total at 21,000,000. By October 2026 about 95.7% had been mined. The remainder is issued more and more slowly, through about 2140.
2. Halving: about every 4 years (210,000 blocks) the reward is cut in half. After the fourth halving on 20 April 2024, the reward is 3.125 BTC per block. A historical pattern does not guarantee the future.
3. Decentralisation: no single controller can unilaterally freeze the whole network or issue extra coins beyond the rules.
4. Network effects: the longest history, wide name recognition, and many nodes and miners.
5. The “digital gold” analogy: limited supply, divisible down to a satoshi, and transferable globally around the clock. The price still swings far more than gold or the Hong Kong dollar.

1 BTC = 100,000,000 satoshis. The unit can be split for learning. At this stage, paper trading only: write down a hypothetical buy price in a notebook. Do not commit real money.

• Price swings: BTC has historically fallen 70–80% from a high. A 5–10% move in a day is not rare. Principle: only money you can afford to lose, and no real money before you understand the subject.
• Common scams: fake support, P2P fraud, romance-investment scams, and fake platforms or apps. The unlicensed JPEX case is a public lesson.
• A lost private key has no “forgot password” flow. Not your keys, not your coins.
• Exchange risk: Mt. Gox (2014) and FTX (2022) show that custody can fail. From 1 June 2023, a VATP operating in Hong Kong needs an SFC licence. Licensed examples include OSL and HashKey; the official list prevails. Binance does not hold a Hong Kong licence. This lesson uses it only to learn how to read a price.
• Security rule: never reveal a password, 2FA code, private key, or seed phrase. “Guaranteed returns” means a scam. If in doubt, call the anti-scam hotline 18222.

On a markets screen, search BTC/USDT and write down last price, 24h change, high/low, and volume. Look at the candle chart. Skip every deposit and buy button. Imagine HK$10,000 on paper and compare a week later. That exercise is only to feel volatility. It is not investment advice.

Binance is not licensed by the Hong Kong SFC. Naming it is for learning an interface and reading a price. It is not a recommendation to open an account or deposit.

Bitcoin stays on the blockchain. It is never “moved into” your phone. What a wallet actually keeps is the key that can move those coins: the private key.

• Mailbox number = wallet address. You may publish it to receive funds.
• Mailbox key = private key. Keep it secret.
• Spare-key mould = seed phrase, usually 12 or 24 English words. Keep it secret and copy it with pen and paper.

A private key can produce an address. Recovering the private key from the address is, with today’s computers, effectively impossible. Anyone who asks you to enter a seed phrase is running a scam.

Seed-phrase rule: hand-copy it, or use a metal plate. Do not photograph it or put it in the cloud, WhatsApp, or email. Check the word order. Store copies in two places. If you lose the phrase and the device, the coins cannot be recovered.

Mt. Gox, QuadrigaCX, and FTX are reminders that a famous brand is not the same as safety. At the paper-trading stage, understand the idea first. There is no need to rush out and buy a hardware wallet.

Guidance for Hong Kong licensed platforms has required at least 98% of client virtual assets to be kept in cold wallets. Check the rule in force on the day.

• KYC: an identity document, a face check, and sometimes proof of address. Never rent out or sell a verified account.
• 2FA: prefer an authenticator app over SMS, because it resists SIM-swap better. A passkey or security key is stronger. Note where the anti-phishing code and withdrawal whitelist live. At this stage you may only look.
• Phishing: fake sites, fake support, a “wallet check” that asks for the seed phrase, address poisoning, and a second scam that offers to recover losses.
• Checks: Scameter, hotline 18222, and the SFC lists of licensed and suspicious platforms.

On a security page, only observe where 2FA, the anti-phishing code, and the whitelist sit. Look up the genesis address 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa on a public block explorer. Anyone can see the balance. Without the private key, nobody can move it. Do not deposit, transfer, or change settings unless you fully understand the control.

A crypto exchange provides a market that matches buyers and sellers, plus accounts, deposits and withdrawals, and security. A centralised exchange (CEX) is run by a company. Balances are usually custodial.

One line to keep: an exchange is a matching market plus a custodial account. Learning the screen is not a reason to deposit.

Hard rule: no deposit, no trade, no leverage, no futures. Skip every prompt to enable futures, claim bonus credit, or copy a trader.

BTC/USDT: the left asset, the base (BTC), is the coin being discussed. The right asset, the quote (USDT), is the unit of price.

• Bids are often shown in green. The best bid is the highest buy order resting on the book.
• Asks are often shown in red. The best ask is the lowest sell order resting on the book.
• Spread = best ask minus best bid. A narrower spread usually means better liquidity.

• A market order tries to fill immediately at the going price. It can slip.
• A limit order names a price and waits. It rests until the market reaches it, and it might never fill.
• A maker adds an order to the book and provides liquidity. The fee is often lower or similar.
• A taker fills immediately against orders already on the book.

Public Binance spot VIP 0 material has often shown maker and taker fees around 0.10% / 0.10%, sometimes with a discount if fees are paid in BNB. The live fee schedule is the source, numbers change, and this is not a guarantee. Learn the idea. Do not place a real order just to save a fee.

Slippage is the gap between the price you expected and the average price you actually got. It shows up more on large orders, fast markets, and thin pairs. Liquidity is like a supermarket shelf: the more stock on the shelf, the closer the fill stays to the labelled price.

Common buckets: Spot, and Funding (cash movement). This lesson only finds where they are. Do not transfer between them. Treat futures, leverage, and earn products as off limits.

Around 12 October 2026, the SFC listed about 13 licensed VATPs, including OSL and HashKey. Binance does not hold a Hong Kong licence. This lesson only studies the user interface. The latest SFC page is the list that counts.

• Treating a futures screen as spot.
• Fake copy-trading screenshots.
• Pressure and fear used to push a deposit.
• A phishing app.
• Opening a thin, lookalike pair by mistake.
• Ignoring fees.

Markets, then BTC/USDT, and confirm it is the spot market. Copy the best bid, best ask, and spread. Find the fee schedule. In assets, only look at Spot and Funding. Did you press buy, sell, or deposit? The answer should be no.

An exchange account with money in it is like a wallet on the internet. Depositing before the door is locked is putting cash into an unlocked wallet. This lesson is deliberately last in Stage 1, before stablecoins or any deposit idea.

One line to keep: security first, deposit later. You can, and should, actually turn on 2FA and an anti-phishing code. Those lock the door. They are not a bet. This stage still means no deposit, no trade, no leverage, and no withdrawal API.

About Binance: it is not SFC-licensed. This lesson uses it to show a security screen. That is not a recommendation to deposit, and it is not investment advice. For real money, look first at licensed VATPs.

Purpose: check a real identity, meet AML and other rules, unlock limits, and leave a trail if something goes wrong. Documents commonly accepted in Hong Kong include an HKID and a passport. The app’s list on the day prevails. The flow is roughly: choose the region, upload the document, complete a face check, then wait for review.

• Common failures: the wrong region (confirm Hong Kong; do not select mainland China by mistake), glare or blur, an expired document, a face check that does not match, or a name spelling that does not match.
• Do not send documents through an unfamiliar link or a “helper”. Do not lend an account or let someone pass KYC in your name.
• Levels differ by platform: unverified, then basic / identity, then advanced or proof of address. Do not memorise limit numbers from the web. Read the screen in the app.

Prefer an authenticator app (TOTP, a 6-digit code about every 30 seconds). It is generated on the device and lowers SIM-swap risk. SMS can be a backup. Do not leave SMS as the only 2FA.

Setup you may actually do: install an authenticator from the official store, turn it on in the security centre, hand-copy the 16-character backup key (do not only screenshot it into a cloud album), scan the code, enter the 6 digits to confirm, then sign out and try again.

Iron rule: anyone who asks you to read out or send a 2FA code, backup key, password, or seed phrase is running a scam.

• Anti-phishing code: a genuine email should show the short code you chose. No code, or the wrong code, means treat it as phishing and do not press the link.
• Withdrawal whitelist: withdrawals can go only to addresses you approved in advance. This lesson only teaches the name. Do not make a real withdrawal and do not add an address.
• Device list: remove devices you do not recognise. Use a strong unique password. Be careful on public Wi-Fi. Lock the phone itself, because the 2FA app is on it.

Fake support asking for a code, a fake app or a misspelled domain, phishing texts, romance-investment scams, a remote-desktop session that “helps you watch the market”, lending an account, and a request to “safely move” coins to the scammer’s address.

Confirm the authenticator. Set or confirm the anti-phishing code. Review the device list. Check the official domain in Scameter. Open the SFC list and find OSL and HashKey. Did you deposit, trade, open a futures position, or withdraw? The answer should be no.

A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency that aims to hold a fixed value, usually 1 coin ≈ US$1. Common uses: a unit of price on an exchange (the right side of BTC/USDT), a place to park funds, and cross-border transfers.

The IFEC points out that a stablecoin is not an investment or speculative tool and has no built-in upside. This lesson only explains the idea. It is not investment advice.

1. Someone deposits US$1, and the issuer places it in reserves (cash, short-term US Treasuries).
2. The issuer mints 1 stablecoin.
3. On redemption, 1 coin is returned for US$1 and that coin is burned.
4. When the market price drifts from US$1, arbitrageurs buy low and redeem (or the reverse), pulling the price back.

Three questions: Are the reserves enough? Are they transparent? Can you actually redeem?

Total stablecoin market value is about US$300 billion: USDT about US$183.9 billion (about 61%, issued by Tether) and USDC about US$72.6 billion (about 24%, issued by Circle). Figures change; CoinGecko on the day prevails.

Both are issued by private companies. There is no deposit protection, and the issuer can freeze an address.

BTC is capped at 21 million coins and has no single issuer. A stablecoin is minted on demand and issued by a centralised company. Stable does not mean risk-free.

• UST (May 2022): algorithmic. In a death spiral with LUNA it fell to a few cents within days.
• USDC (March 2023): about US$3.3 billion of reserves sat at the failed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). It briefly fell to about US$0.87–0.88 and recovered within days.

One line to keep: stablecoins can depeg. Ask the three questions again: reserves, transparency, redemption.

The Stablecoins Ordinance (Cap. 656) took effect on 1 August 2025, with licences issued by the HKMA. The first licences, on 10 April 2026, went to Anchorpoint Financial (a Standard Chartered / HKT / Animoca joint venture) and HSBC. Both plan to issue HKD stablecoins.

• Only fiat-referenced stablecoins from licensed issuers may be offered to the Hong Kong public.
• USDT and USDC are not issued by HKMA-licensed issuers.
• Check: the HKMA Register of Licensed Stablecoin Issuers (see Official links below).

• “High-interest, capital-guaranteed USDT”: guaranteed returns mean a scam.
• Private “cheap USDT” deals.
• “USDT arbitrage” side jobs, which can carry money-laundering liability.
• Fake licensed firms and lookalike tokens with the same name.
• If in doubt: Scameter / 18222.

On CoinGecko, write down total stablecoin market value, the USDT and USDC price and market value, and BTC’s 24h change. Note the latest report date on the Tether and Circle transparency pages. Check the HKMA register. Did you deposit, trade, or transfer? The answer should be no.

CoinGecko is used only to read data. It is not a platform recommendation. This stage still means no deposit, no trade, and no leverage.

Bitcoin is roughly digital gold. Ethereum is roughly a programmable world computer. ETH pays for gas and can be staked under proof of stake. There is no fixed 21 million cap. CoinGecko on 16 October 2026: ETH about US$2,442 (market value about US$298.4 billion) and BTC about US$82,250 (market value about US$1.65 trillion).

Both are high-risk crypto assets. This lesson only teaches the idea. It is not a recommendation to buy. Education only, not investment advice.

A smart contract is a program plus data at an address. When the conditions are met it runs automatically, like a vending machine, and it is usually irreversible. Know the name Solidity only. A smart contract is not a legal contract.

The fee is about gas used times (base plus tip), often quoted in gwei. A simple transfer is about 21,000 gas. Know the Layer 2 names Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base only. This lesson does not teach deposits or bridges.

On 15 September 2022 The Merge moved Ethereum from proof of work to proof of stake. “Ethereum 2.0” is an outdated name.

USDT and USDC on Ethereum are commonly ERC-20 tokens. A token with the same name can live on another chain, and the wrong network can wipe a transfer. Practical steps wait until Stage 3. Today there is no transfer.

• Fake contracts, phishing dApps, irreversible transactions, and careless token approvals.
• This lesson teaches the idea. It does not urge anyone to buy ETH.
• A real trade, if ever, comes later, and only after checking the SFC VATP list. Binance is not licensed by the Hong Kong SFC.
• If in doubt: Scameter / 18222.

Paper-only rule: no deposit, no trade, no leverage, no contract deployment, and no transfer.

• On CoinGecko, write down the ETH and BTC price, market value, and 24-hour change.
• Read ethereum.org. Optional: note the gas price in gwei. Do not send a transaction.

Did you deposit, trade, transfer, or connect a wallet? The answer should be no. Do not deploy a contract.

Both are native coins of Layer 1 chains: BNB (BNB Chain) and SOL (Solana). CoinGecko on 18 October 2026: BNB about US$720.42 (rank #4, market value about US$95.9 billion), SOL about US$103.96 (#7, about US$61.3 billion), and BTC about US$81,746 (about US$1.64 trillion).

BNB is about 47% below its October 2025 high, and SOL is about 65% below its January 2025 high. A high rank does not mean safe. Education only, not investment advice.

BNB launched in a 2017 ICO (200 million supply) and was first used for Binance fee discounts. In September 2020 the EVM-compatible BSC launched, and in 2022 it was renamed BNB Chain. Uses: paying gas, exchange discounts, and staking (PoSA). The token standard is BEP-20. Know the Layer 2 name opBNB only.

There is a quarterly automatic burn: supply is about 133 million with a 100 million target. A burn does not guarantee a higher price.

• Tied to the Binance company: in November 2023 Binance settled with the US Department of Justice for about US$4.3 billion and CZ stepped down.
• In October 2022 the BSC bridge was hacked (about 2 million BNB were minted and the chain was paused).
• Fewer validators, and many scam tokens.
• Binance is not licensed by the Hong Kong SFC.

Solana launched in 2020. Proof of History (cryptographic timestamps) works with proof of stake. The base fee is about 5,000 lamports, or 0.000005 SOL (about US$0.0005). It is not EVM, its token standard is SPL, and it has no fixed supply cap.

• Outages of about 17 hours in September 2021 and about 5 hours in February 2024.
• The FTX shock in November 2022.
• Meme-coin speculation, and high hardware requirements for validators.

Picking the wrong network may lose the transfer for good. Ethereum and BSC addresses both start with 0x, which makes the mistake easier. Practical steps wait until Stage 3. Today there is no transfer.

• Rug pulls (developers take the money and run) and honeypots (you can buy but not sell).
• Pump-and-dump schemes, fake celebrity endorsements, and fake airdrops.
• If in doubt: Scameter / 18222.

Learn the idea; nobody is urging you to buy. Hong Kong has an SFC-authorised spot Solana ETF (listed in October 2025). That only shows a regulated product form exists. It does not mean SOL is safe, and it is not a recommendation. Before any future trade, check the SFC VATP list.

• On CoinGecko, write down the BNB and SOL price, market value, rank, 24-hour change, and percentage below the all-time high.
• Work out each one’s market value as a percentage of BTC’s.
• Read bnbchain.org and solana.com.

Did you deposit, trade, transfer, or connect a wallet? The answer should be no. Do not buy new coins or meme coins.

Altcoin is short for alternative coin: any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin. The label does not mean the coin is fake; strictly, ETH, SOL, and even USDT are altcoins. CoinGecko tracks about 22,340 active coins (19 October 2026), and BTC alone holds about 60% of the market value. Thousands of coins share the other 40%, and most are small and thinly traded.

• DOGE (Dogecoin): launched as a joke in December 2013 with a Shiba Inu logo. It has no supply cap (about 5 billion new coins a year). Celebrity hype pushed it to an all-time high of about US$0.73 in 2021.
• SHIB: launched in 2020 as a “DOGE killer”. About 589 trillion coins circulate, which is why one coin looks “cheap”.
• PEPE: launched in 2023 around the Pepe the Frog meme, with about 420.69 trillion coins in total.
• TRUMP: a political-celebrity meme coin launched on 17 January 2025. It hit an all-time high of about US$73 within two days; reports say about 80% of supply is held by related entities and unlocks in stages.

CoinGecko’s meme category is worth about US$28.9 billion, only about 1.8% of BTC. Over the same view BTC is about 35% below its high and ETH about 51%. The numbers change daily. A ranking is not a sign of safety, and these are the survivors.

A 2025 Solidus Labs report found that most tokens (about 98.6%) on the Solana launch platform pump.fun showed rug-pull or pump-and-dump traits (see the original report). Buying a random new coin is far more likely to lose than to win.

Market value = price × circulating supply.

• SHIB has about 589 trillion coins in circulation. At US$1 that is about US$589 trillion, about 357 times BTC (about US$1.65 trillion), and far above a year of world GDP (around US$100 trillion).
• Practice: PEPE has about 420.69 trillion coins. At US$0.01 that is about US$4.2 trillion, larger than today’s whole crypto market (about US$2.74 trillion).
• FDV (fully diluted valuation) = price × final total supply. Many new coins start with a low float and unlock more later, which weighs on the price. Ask how much is still locked and when it unlocks.

A low unit price only means a lot of coins were issued. It does not mean the coin is a bargain or has room to rise.

• Squid Game token (November 2021): it rode the TV hype to above about US$2,800 in a week, but the contract stopped ordinary holders selling. After the team sold, it fell close to zero in minutes; reported losses were about US$3.3 million.
• Argentina’s LIBRA (February 2025): it surged after the president shared it, then fell more than 80% from the high within hours, and investigations followed. A celebrity share is not an endorsement and not a sign of safety.
• TRUMP (January 2025 to now): it reached about US$73 two days after launch and was about US$1.73 on 19 October 2026 (-97.6%). Supply is highly concentrated and unlocks in stages.

• Do not buy any new coin or meme coin (a hard rule for Stages 1–2; stay very cautious later too).
• For any future live trade, consider only SFC-licensed VATPs. Tokens offered to retail on licensed platforms must meet rules, so many new meme coins are never listed. That is protection, not a loss.
• Use the SFC suspicious virtual asset trading platform list and the police Scameter to check platforms, websites, and phone numbers.
• If you suspect a scam, call the Anti-Scam Helpline 18222 (as officially published) and report to the police quickly.
• No investment is both guaranteed and high-return. A friend’s tip or a celebrity’s backing does not make it safe.

Links to earlier lessons: Day 4 security (2FA, never share a seed phrase); Day 6 smart contracts (a careless “Approve” gives someone power over your coins); Day 7 same name, different chain (a fake token also has the right name and the wrong address).

1. Open CoinGecko’s meme category and write down the total value and the top three coins.
2. Open the DOGE and PEPE pages, write down the price, market value, rank, all-time high and its date, and work out the percentage below the high.
3. Use the market-value formula: how large would SHIB be at US$1, and how many times BTC is that?
4. Find a meme coin ranked below 500 and see how small its 24-hour volume is (look only; do not buy).
5. Read the IFEC page on virtual asset trading platform scams and write down two tricks scammers use.

Did you deposit, trade, transfer, or connect a wallet? The answer should be no. Do not click any airdrop or claim link.

Stage 3 preview: the exchange spot screen, order types, fees, P2P, deposit and withdrawal networks, and scam prevention. Everything uses a paper account, a testnet, or just the screen. Still no deposit, no live trade, and no leverage.

Skip any promotion, referral, deposit, or “100x coin” pitch in these videos; their views are not this page’s. Watch at least two: video 1 (Cantonese, official anti-scam) plus video 2 or 4.

• 1. Common virtual asset scam tactics · IFEC (Cantonese)
• 2. Pando Podcast: what is behind Dogecoin and meme coins (Cantonese) · Pando Finance
• 3. Virtual asset scams and risks: how much do you know? · IFEC (Cantonese)
• 4. How Scammers RUG PULL in Crypto · CoinGecko (English)
• 5. What Are Altcoins? · Binance Academy (English, concepts only)
• 6. Monkey explains Rug Pull · Primate Economics (English)