Sup fellow degens, 

I hope we all had a great weekend. 

Nothing deflates a degen like the pain of early exits. 

You buy a meme coin at $0.0001, it does nothing for three weeks, so you sell it to buy a sandwich.

Two days later, you check the charts and see a vertical green line. You realize that the sandwich cost you a Lamborghini.

We call this "Paper Hands." It is the cardinal sin of the degenerate lifestyle, a failure to hold the line.

But usually, when we paperhand, we lose a few thousand dollars. A few Bitcoin if we are really unlucky.

Today, I want to introduce you to the King of Paper Hands. The Emperor of Early Exits. A man who held the winning lottery ticket in 1992 and decided to fold.

Meet Paul Ridge, the man who divorced a future £61 million EuroMillions winner and didn’t want to let it slide that easily.

The year is 1992.

He meets Debbie Nuttall. She is young, 13 years his junior. They fall in love. They have a "whirlwind romance." They get married at a registry office.

At this exact moment, Paul has bought into the "Debbie IPO." He is a seed investor. He has equity. He is on the cap table.

Then, the volatility hit.

Paul claims the relationship "fizzled out." They separated within weeks.

Paul looked at his investment, saw a little bit of turbulence, and panicked. He sold.

Fast forward three decades.

Paul is now 67. He is living in Colne, Lancashire. He is working as a delivery driver.

Debbie? She didn't stay single. She found a new “investor”, a guy named Richard. Richard clearly has diamond hands; Richard held the bag for 30 years.

And then, the liquidity event happened.

Debbie and Richard were in the Canary Islands celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. 

Notice the correlation: 30 years of holding = 30th anniversary celebration.

They checked their EuroMillions ticket.

£61,708,231.

That is true generational wealth.

Debbie and Richard are now planning to retire early, buy a second home in Portugal, and drive a brand new BMW X5.

Paul is... well, Paul is delivering packages.

Now, most men in Paul's position would do the honorable thing: change their name, move to a cave, and never speak to a journalist.

Paul decided to double down on his loss by talking to the press.

He told reporters: "She can donate some of her winnings to me, if she likes. I'd be very grateful!"

This is like selling your Apple stock in 1995 and then writing a letter to Tim Cook today saying, "Hey man, since I used to own the stock, can you send me a free iPhone?"

No, Paul. That is not how markets work. You exited the position. You forfeited the dividends.

He also hit us with the classic "Copium" statement:

"I have no hard feelings. It's life, we all make mistakes... Nobody died, it was no big deal, really. Good luck to them."

"No big deal"?

Bro, listen to me. I have lost parlays that ruined my week. I have bought coins that went to zero. But I have never, ever fumbled a £61 million bag. That is a very big deal. That is a "staring at the ceiling at 3 AM for the rest of your life" deal.

If you want to survive 2026 without becoming a cautionary tale, follow these rules:

Marriage is essentially a long-term call option:

Richard paid the premium every day for 30 years. He sat through the bear markets and weathered the storms. And when the volatility spiked in the Canary Islands, he was there to exercise the option.

Paul was a day trader. He wanted quick returns. He got in, got bored, and got out. And now he is watching the chart go parabolic from the sidelines.

We pour one out for Paul today. Not because he is a bad guy. His current wife, Paula (yes, Paul and Paula, you can't make this up), says they wish the winners well.

We pour one out because he represents the fear that lives inside all of us: The fear that we had the winning ticket, and we let it go.

Hold your positions.

Trust the process.

And if your ex-wife wins £61 million, for the love of God, don't ask for a handout in the newspaper.

TL;DR: Paul Ridge married Debbie Nuttall in 1992 but "paper-handed" the relationship, divorcing her within weeks. 30 years later, Debbie (and her new husband Richard won a £61 million EuroMillions jackpot. Instead of staying quiet, Paul went to the press and publicly asked his ex-wife to "donate" some of the winnings to him.

Stay degen,

Dima