Published by Fact After Fact Magazine.
Story by: Leonel “Leo” Ortiz.
Told to: Journalist Amara Blake.

---

THE MYTH OF THE MAN WITH THE MIND.

If you had seen me in 2021, you might’ve thought I was a genius. Hell, I thought I was too.

Crypto was my kingdom, and I was its unchallenged ruler. At least, that’s how it felt. My Telegram was on fire with messages from followers asking for “Leo’s next pick.” My Discord server had nearly 40,000 members. Twitter influencers tagged me as “The Latin Wolf of Wall Street.”

I was 29, pulling in six figures monthly, taking calls from Bali, sipping flat whites in Lisbon, and hopping Airbnbs like they were stepping stones. Everyone wanted to know the secret. There was no secret: I got lucky. But luck feels a lot like genius when you’re in the middle of the run.

I didn’t come from wealth. I was raised by my abuela in East L.A. while my mom worked two jobs in another state. We didn’t talk about investing. We talked about rent, bills, and whether the car would make it another month. I taught myself finance through YouTube, Medium articles, and late-night Reddit threads.

When I made my first big play on Ethereum back in 2017, I was hooked. It tripled in value, and I cashed out just in time to put a down payment on a tiny apartment. That feeling of control, of hacking the matrix—I’d spend the next five years chasing it.

By 2020, I was deep into DeFi, NFTs, ICOs. I studied whitepapers like scripture, hosted podcasts, gave workshops on risk tolerance. I wore tailored suits with no socks, drove a Tesla I leased just to flex on the Gram, and started dating a woman who thought I owned multiple companies. I didn’t correct her.

Every win fed the persona. Leo the visionary. Leo the pioneer. Leo the unstoppable.

But let me tell you something I learned the hard way:

When your confidence is built on numbers in a digital wallet, you’re one power outage away from humility.

---

WHERE IT ALL WENT WRONG: THE LUXURY OF DELUSION.

It started with a protocol called NovaYield. Don’t Google it—it’s gone now. Wiped from existence like it never mattered. But in late 2021, it was the darling of crypto Twitter. High APYs. Backed by “verified” smart contracts. They promised yield farming returns you could retire on.

And I believed them. Worse, I convinced others to believe too.

I moved $380,000 worth of assets into NovaYield. Staked. Locked. Promoted it to my community. Got invited to host AMAs. Made TikToks. The token pumped hard.

Then came the exploit. Hackers drained the liquidity pool in minutes. Panic spread. I watched my MetaMask balance disintegrate in real time.

I was numb. Not angry. Not scared. Just numb.

I told myself I could recover. Shift some remaining stablecoins to another promising project, maybe this new Layer 2 chain that was getting traction. Double or nothing.

I lost again.

The dominoes fell fast. Leveraged plays. Liquidations. Taxes I hadn’t accounted for came knocking. Sponsors pulled out. My Discord turned on me.

Within two months, I had to sell my laptop.

I broke the lease on my apartment and moved in with my cousin in Arizona. That lasted a month. Then it was a friend in Denver. Then my ex-girlfriend’s brother, who let me sleep on his couch if I walked his dog.

I went from renting penthouses to Googling “free meal events near me.”

I ghosted everyone. I deleted Twitter. My phone screen cracked and I never bothered fixing it. What was I gonna do? Tweet my apologies?

The hardest part wasn’t losing the money.

It was losing the person I thought I was. The Leo who got things right. Who read the charts like prophecy. Who walked into every room like he owned it.

Now, I couldn’t even afford to buy a round of beers for my friends.

I spent nights staring at the ceiling, going through every move I made, every warning sign I ignored. My gut had told me NovaYield was too good to be true. But I’d built a brand on certainty. I couldn’t afford doubt.

Turns out, I couldn’t afford certainty either.

---

THE COMEBACK: HUMILITY AS CURRENCY.

You know what you learn when you’re couch surfing at 31 with nothing but a duffel bag and a broken phone? You learn who you are without the noise.

My healing started the day I applied for a warehouse job. I stood in line for an hour, surrounded by people who had real problems, not the “my Lambo got repossessed” kind. These people were fighting to put food on the table. And they weren’t complaining.

That warehouse saved my life. It gave me structure, a reason to wake up. It let me feel useful again. I started journaling. Reading again. Real books this time—not just crypto whitepapers and pump guides.

I read about behavioral economics, cognitive biases, and financial trauma. I learned how financial risk is often tied to unresolved emotional wounds.

Most of all, I learned I wasn’t alone.

There are thousands like me. People who got swept up in the hype. Who weren’t stupid, just human. Vulnerable to the illusion of easy wealth.

I began rebuilding. Not a portfolio, but a foundation.

Today, I work for a fintech startup that helps underserved communities navigate the financial system. I talk to people about budgeting, savings, and responsible investing. I speak at schools. I tell the truth.

And when people ask me for book recommendations that helped me stop chasing the ghost of fast money and start building something real, I give them these:

1. Navigating the New Money Landscape: A Practical Guide to Protecting Your Finances in Uncertain Times.
2. The Smart Consumer’s Handbook: Avoiding Scams, Saving Money, and Making Savvy Choices in the Digital Age.
3. Building Financial Resilience: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Security and Peace of Mind.
4. Decoding the Economy: Understanding the Forces That Impact Your Wallet and How to Respond.
5. Digital Security and Your Money: Protecting Your Assets and Identity in an Online World.

I used to think my value was in how much I could multiply a dollar. Now I know my value is in how many people I can help avoid the mistakes I made.

The road back is long. But it’s real. And I walk it with my head up.

---

Story by: Leonel “Leo” Ortiz.
Told to: Journalist Amara Blake.
Published by: Fact After Fact Magazine.