In July 2023, Huobi selected the first candidate — a 21-year-old Indian crypto youth Manoj Kumar — for space travel under its Mars Program. As planned by this program, one candidate will be selected each month, and thereby twelve candidates will be shortlisted in total to be evaluated based on their physical fitness, training and preparation, community contribution, etc., to determine the eventual passenger for space travel with Justin Sun, founder of TRON. We can’t wait to introduce our first Mars Program candidate, Mr. Manoj Kumar, to the crypto community.
“I would be like dancing in space with zero gravity”
Kumar initially heard about Huobi Mars Program from Huobi’s official Telegram channel. Although in the beginning, he wasn’t convinced that this was a real space program, because “no other exchange has ever brought such an event.” Kumar took his time and read the details of Huobi’s announcement and became confident that this was real. Even though, he never thought that he would turn out to be the luckiest one. When he saw his UID number appearing on the screen, he was inundated with immense joy. “I was watching Huobi Live then. After a few minutes, I saw that the winning UID came up. And I was like, oh, that looks like my UID. I then went to match it with my UID and realized that’s my full number and they match. That’s the same UID. So yeah, I was happy, very happy.”
For a passionate and curious young man like Kumar, the mysterious and infinite possibilities of space can be overwhelmingly appealing. Kumar understands well that he is going to compete with eleven other candidates for the priceless ticket to space. His parents are happy for him, although they aren’t excessively enthusiastic. “Indian character is like this: they don’t like getting excited too much, without the task being accomplished.” Deep in mind, Kumar also knows that space travel is more than a dream, and it’s a great cause full of challenges.
Kumar is considering getting started for fitness training soon to be ready for the final selection. He is fully aware that most crypto practitioners don’t have time for physical exercises. “I think most of the other eleven candidates will be also like me. Like if they are crypto people, then they are not very much fit. Maybe, there might be a few candidates who might be fit. But I don’t think most people are fit. Most people just sit in front of computers all day long, from morning to evening, even to midnight. We sleep on the chair, you know.”
Speaking of the things he would do in space, Kumar smiled radiantly and said he “would be dancing in space with zero gravity” and enjoy the distinctive freedom in space.
“I like watching movies and listening to music”
Kumar comes from Rajasthan, India’s largest state that is located in the northwest of this country and borders Pakistan. Recently graduated from college for a few months, he is full of hopes for the future. Kumar loves music as it helps him relax. He always listens to music while working and researching projects. When he is not working, Kumar likes watching movies too, enjoying the visual feast of theater screens. “I like going to some malls and watching movies there, or going with friends sometimes or going alone in my free time. You know, with these, you clear things out of your mind.”Kumar knows that he should do more to make himself more physically fit. “We crypto folks don’t go outside and play spots or any fitness activities. For me, I just sit indoors, trading or watching movies. Not too much fitness training.”
Like many other young people, Kumar prefers acquiring the necessary knowledge from online resources. “Compared to reading books, I prefer watching YouTube videos and getting knowledge from there. YouTube’s videos just summarize the books and save you time. I guess reading books takes more time, but you gain more knowledge compared to videos. But on YouTube you can get more topics in shorter time.”
“But if I had bought more, I could have had around $1 million, though.”
To Manoj Kumar, space exploration and the crypto world have so much in common. “Space exploration is somewhat similar to the crypto world. You need to be adventurous to get involved in them. I loved playing football as I grew up. It takes courage and the spirit of adventure too in space exploration.” There have been ups and downs throughout Kumar’s crypto investment journey. Starting with small amounts, he soon accumulated valuable experience and insights.
While still in college, Kumar borrowed $800 from his parents as the starting fund and went into the crypto market in April 2021 as Bitcoin was hitting the $60,000 threshold for the first time. Dogecoin was among Kumar’s first investments. Though a beginner, Kumar was lucky in his first investment attempts in the crypto markets, as he is in Huobi Mars Program. He bought in DOGE at 0.05 cents and exited 10x later, at a price of $0.5 or something. That’s 10x return. This is the case with SHIB too. “I saw SHIB in the early days and thought of buying it for $50, but the gas fees were huge on Ethereum, at $300, so I couldn’t buy it. But if I had bought more, I could have had around $1 million, though. I exited too early. I missed it.” Kumar’s investment in GMT also brought him a decent profit of 300 percent. Although Kumar was humble to think that he is still far from a skilled investor. He sensibly believes that these rare opportunities don’t always present themselves. “It’s not always like that was a million dollars going right there. You don’t get many chances like that in your life.”
“There is a time when you have to take risks and there is a time when you do not take risks. Like now, it’s a bad market anyway, so you can’t take much risk,” explained Kumar, “Most people lose money in bad markets. But in good markets, you can actually take risks. Because, if you lose in one coin, another coin will just pay for you.” Kumar also strongly advises Huobi investors to check the contract first when considering investing in a project, as there might be shortcomings with the contract code, or even backdoor programming. The project whitepaper should also be carefully reviewed. Especially when the team is anonymous, extra caution should be taken.Kumar has learned some lessons from his investment experience too. He admitted that, “I missed huge profits by just holding. Like in some meme projects, the value of my $10 investment went up to $500, but I didn’t take profits. You should always do this.
At least take half of your investment out if you are in 2x profit. Half of the project is already too much. But I didn’t do that when I started, as I was new to crypto too. I just kept on holding and the value just came back to very poor. It happens to many projects, actually, not just one. So, I learned it the hard way,” sighed Kumar, “People new to crypto won’t understand this. But once they lose the money, they will understand that we should book the profits.”
“India levies 30 percent flat tax on profits from crypto investment”
Kumar also introduced the situation of the Indian crypto market. Although India allows regulated crypto trading activities, heavy tax is payable. “In India … you have to pay 30 percent flat tax on every profit you make … However, if you suffered a loss, the loss cannot be settled against the Bitcoin trade.” This high level of tax is so formidable that hardly anyone around Kumar is willing to take part in the crypto business.
“I lost a good amount of money on futures trading”
Thorough learning is necessitated before trading futures, according to Kumar. “I don’t like futures trading. I lost a good amount of money on futures trading. Without proper learning, you shouldn’t do futures trading. If you have properly learned risk management and stop-loss, and you are good at seeing the charts, then you can actually go do futures trading.” Compared to the risky futures investment, Kumar is more fond of the investment side. “In spot trading, you can hold that asset if it even goes 90 percent down. But in futures trading, you can’t do that. In spot trading, there is the chance that it would go up again. In futures trading, you just lose the money, and you don’t have any more money. So, that’s the thing.”
“Huobi is the best exchange I have ever used till today”
Speaking of Huobi, Kumar couldn’t help but express his praise and satisfaction over this esteemed platform. “Huobi is the best exchange I have ever used till today,” said Kumar, I’d really like people to trade on Huobi. It has the best interface and everything, from the homepage to trading and all. It’s just smooth. I’ve used other exchanges too, but Huobi is the smoothest and has faster trade execution. Trading is made easier on Huobi.”
Conclusion
At the end of the interview, we asked Kumar to define himself with a few keywords or labels. He chose “opportunist”. “You can say I’m an opportunistic person. I search for opportunities and grab them. You should always keep searching. Keep up the hard work and look for opportunities. There are many opportunities in crypto always. Many, many, many opportunities.”
Kumar’s story epitomizes myriads of young investors’ exploration of and growth in the crypto world. From his shortlisting as a candidate for the Huobi Mars Program, and his aspiration for space and insights into investment, we see a courageous, intelligent, and enterprising youth. With hardworking and persistent learning, Kumar gradually builds up rich experience in the field of investment and forms his unique investment philosophy.
Kumar’s high comments on Huobi are also representative of the good qualities of an outstanding trading platform. These qualities in essence are investors’ demands for security, simplicity, and diversity. In the crypto world, Huobi Exchange is committed to providing ever-better trading experience and services for users and being their reliable and trustworthy company towards wealth growth.
Kumar reiterated his willingness to explore the wider world together with Huobi and his dedication to realizing his dreams. Our best wishes go to Kumar and his dreams. We look forward to the day when he travels to space with courage and the spirit of adventure.
