'It could destroy your life': Crypto trading goes to rehab
BNN Bloomberg
Is it really possible to be addicted to cryptocurrency? The idea is contentious, but it isn’t far-fetched — particularly to the lucrative addiction-treatment industry.
The old cravings sometimes creep up on Stevie Rojas and work on his nerves and start to hijack his brain. But he says that he’s kicked the habit — that he’s quit cryptocurrencies cold turkey. A lot of people get into crypto. Rojas did, and more: He says he got hooked on it. Rojas is an entrepreneur in his early 30s, and he began experimenting with cryptocurrencies for all the usual reasons: boredom, curiosity, fear of missing out. He started with Bitcoin and discovered he liked the rush. He progressed to Ethereum and then to more exotic tokens — ones with bigger risks and bigger thrills.
He says he spent hours a day hunting for digital treasure on his smartphone. The ups made his pulse quicken. The downs left him strung-out. He says he gave up morning prayers and time with his baby daughter. He scrolled Reddit and chased the action instead. If he wasn’t trading crypto, he was thinking about trading crypto.
Rojas became — his word — an “addict.”
And so one day last year Rojas knelt in the darkened confessional of a Roman Catholic church in Manila, where he lives. He broke down and prayed for help.
Stevie Rojas in Manila, the Philippines, on April 18. Photographer: Geric Cruz/Bloomberg
Are you gambling? the priest asked.
