I guess I should refrain from mentioning the platform in question because I'm fairly sure I don't have anything to prove what I'm about to say so what's the point.

I guess, perhaps, maybe, if I really tried hardER (because I already tried hard) I may, just may be able to find some vague proof that what happened is true.

But it doesn't matter. I'm gonna tell it how it is, and you're free to believe me or not. Just know that this actually happened.

Around 10 years ago, I signed up to one of the major trading platforms, you're probably signed up too and if you aren't you have at least watched an ad or heard about it.

The platform in question combines stock, crypto and a social media style element.

I bet you already know who I'm talking about.

But moving on. In 2013, I had about $600 worth of funds in the platform.

This is what I had: Tesla, Netflix and Bitcoin, and I was trading different stocks and assets. Regularly. The thing that got me in trouble was Swiss Francs. More on that later.

I don't remember the exact allocation (except for BTC, I remember having around 0.40 BTC) but friendly reminder, Netflix stock and especially Tesla stock are worth a lot more than they were 10 years ago. And there's no need to remind you what Bitcoin was worth back then compared to now.

I also used the platform for trading, and I regularly set stop loss.

One day, the Swiss Franc price collapsed.

Its price was artificially kept 'depegged' (not the correct term, but you get it) from the euro and when the artificial peg collapsed, the price did as well (you may have noticed 1 CHF is almost exactly €1 today, this is why, it used to be €1 = 1.2 before), I lost everything. Literally, all of it.

What happened was, the stop loss wasn't triggered for 'technical issues', this is what they said. So my Swiss Francs stack got wiped clean to zero, and because it kept going down, it went into the red, and that means that my entire account, all of it including Bitcoin and Tesla stock, got wiped out. Wiped clean. Zero.

I got in touch with customer support, shared my experience in forums (this may be my only chance of finding more about it because I'm pretty sure those messages are still there).

No one helped me, and not long thereafter, my account was deleted.

Remember, this is a MAJOR platform that millions of people use everyday.

I 'only' lost $600 at the time but that $600 would be worth a lot more today. The Bitcoin stack alone I had would be worth five figures today because I remember it was roughly around 0.40 BTC.

You can't trust centralised platforms. Be it a bank, a trading platform like the one that screwed me over or a crypto exchange.

So if you use a crypto exchange or a centralised platform, please tread with caution.