The recent price action in Bitcoin has been... turbulent. We saw a sharp pullback recently, and headlines have been busy declaring the end of the run. Meanwhile, true to the rules of the Atrahasis Portfolio, I have been quietly nibbling. No panic, just process. When the allocation drops below my target bands, I buy.

But this calm, rules-based approach wasn't always my default setting. My history with Bitcoin didn't start with disciplined accumulation. It started with a search for aliens, a miscalculation, and a brief, adrenaline-fueled stint as an amateur "trader".

The 100x Return That Should Have Been 10,000x

In 2012, I was using my PC to search for extraterrestrial life. I didn't find any aliens, but I did stumble onto something that would eventually become 5% of my net worth.

I had just bought a spanking new PC. It was a beast of a machine for the time. I could not bear the thought of it sitting idle while I was at work or sleeping. I was obsessed with squeezing every ounce of utility out of that hardware.

I cycled through all the distributed computing projects I could find. I ran Folding@home to help simulate protein dynamics for disease research. I ran SETI@home to analyze radio signals in the search for extraterrestrial life. I even joined the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS). I remember thinking that if my GPU got lucky and found a new prime number, there was a cash reward attached to it. It felt like buying a lottery ticket where the price of entry was just electricity.

Then I stumbled upon a novelty called Bitcoin, which had just been invented a few years earlier in 2009.

I downloaded a miner and let the GPU hum away for a few months. It generated heat and noise in the corner of my room. After about 3 months, I sat down and did the math. The electricity bill from Singapore Power had spiked. The value of the coins I had mined was underwhelming. In fact, I had paid more in power bills than the Bitcoin was worth back then.

Feeling foolish, I shut it down. When I eventually upgraded my PC again, I yanked the old hard drive, tossed it in a drawer, and forgot about it.

Fast forward to 2016. Bitcoin spiked.

I scrambled. I tore through my drawers to find that dusty HDD. I prayed the platters still spun. They did. I located the wallet.dat file and stared at the balance. In absolute terms, it was not life-changing money. But in percentage terms, it was a 100x return.

I felt like a genius. I sold every single satoshi immediately on FYB-SG, one of the earliest exchanges in Singapore. I told myself that this was a bubble. I told myself to take the win because it could not possibly go higher.

We all know what happened next.

The Second Roll of the Dice: BitMEX and Ethereum

You would think missing out on the 2017 mega-rally would have scared me off. Instead, it pulled me back in.

Between 2017 and 2018, I decided to press my luck again. This time, I wasn't mining; I was trading. I discovered BitMEX and the high-octane world of crypto futures. It was a wild, volatile period. I was shorting Bitcoin futures, watching the charts swing violently up and down. It was pure adrenaline, far removed from the "boring" investing I advocate for today.

Somehow, through a mix of volatility and sheer luck, I came out ahead. I walked away with a profit of 3 BTC.

That was my "enough" moment. I realized I had lucked out, and I wasn't going to push it until the house won it back. I sold some of that profit for cash to lock in the win. The rest? I converted it into Ethereum (ETH).

I still hold that ETH today. It sits in my portfolio not as a testament to my trading skills, but as a reminder of the time I got lucky and knew when to stop.

The Barbell Effect: Fire and Ice

Today, I do not trade futures. I do not mine for pennies. I simply allocate.

Most traditional portfolios are a "mushy middle" mixture of stocks and bonds that tend to move somewhat together. My strategy is different. It is built on two extremes that hate each other. I call this the Fire and Ice approach.

The Ice: The Foundation (25%)

• Assets: ERNA (IG Bonds), Govt Bonds (IB01), AUD FX.
• The Job: Survival.

This is the boring stuff. It yields 2% to 4% and barely beats inflation. But its job is not to make me rich. Its job is to stop me from being poor. When the stock market crashes 20%, my "Ice" sleeve barely moves. It sits there. It is cold and reliable. It ensures that I never have to sell a single share of stock to pay for groceries. It is the potion that lets me sleep at night.

The Fire: The Hedge (12%)

• Assets: Bitcoin, Gold, ETH.
• The Job: Insurance against the system.

This is where people get confused. They ask why a conservative investor like me holds Bitcoin.

I hold it because I am conservative.

In 2012, I mined Bitcoin as a novelty. In 2017, I gambled on it as a trader. Today, I hold it as insurance. If the "Ice" melts because of hyperinflation or endless money printing, the "Fire" tends to rage.

I do not know if Bitcoin will go to S$1 million or S$10,000. And I do not care.

If it goes to zero, I lose a capped portion of my portfolio. My "Ice" ensures I am still fine. If it does another 10x, it moves the needle significantly for my net worth.

This is asymmetric upside. Unlike my 2016 self, I am not trying to time the sale. I am simply holding a fixed allocation.

The Rules of Engagement

The problem with "Fire" is that it burns. Crypto is volatile. To keep it in my "calm" portfolio, I wrap it in strict rules.

1. The Cap: My "Alternatives" sleeve is capped at roughly 12%. It is enough to matter but not enough to ruin me.
2. The Rebalance: When Bitcoin crashes, I do not panic. I use fresh funds from my income to buy more. This brings the allocation back up. When it moons? I sit on my hands. I learned in 2016 that selling a winner is often a mistake. I prefer to rebalance by adding to my boring assets, not by cutting my high-performers.
3. No Predictions: I do not read charts. I do not listen to crypto influencers. I just look at my spreadsheet. Is the percentage low? Buy. Is it high? Wait.

Why We Build the Ark

In the story of Atrahasis, the protagonist did not stop the flood. He built a boat to ride it out.

My 2016 sale was a mistake because I thought I could predict the weather. I thought the storm was over. My current portfolio assumes the storm never ends. It just changes form. Sometimes it rains deflation and the Ice wins. Sometimes it rains inflation and the Fire wins.

I have about S$3 million in this Ark now. A 2% swing is now a year’s worth of median Singaporean salary. I cannot afford to gamble like I did with that dusty hard drive or that BitMEX account. But I also cannot afford to ignore the assets that defined the last decade.

So I hold both. I hold the Fire, and I hold the Ice. And somewhere in the middle, I sleep soundly.

• 1‑month return (excluding contributions): +2.29%

• Year‑to‑date (YTD) return: +10.66%

• Starting balance (1 Oct): S$2,707,643.64

• Purchases : S$78,073.16

• Market move: +S$62,088.7

• Dividends Received: +S$1,699.81

• Ending balance (31 Oct): S$2,847,805.47

IWDA (Core): 270 shares, approx S$44,658
IB01 (Defensive): 100 shares, approx S$15,345
ERNA (Defensive): 1000 shares, approx S$8,086
Keppel DC REIT (Country Tilt): 1448 shares, approx S$3,242
BTC (Alternatives):0.014464 BTC, approx S$2,000
HMN (SGX: HMN, Country Tilts): 5,100 shares, S$4,768.50

Total deployed in October: S$78,073

October was calm for the Atrahasis Portfolio. More like a gentle climb than a sprint. The portfolio rose modestly without fuss. Under the surface, small moves kept everything balanced. Global stocks edged higher. Singapore REITs held steady. Bonds and cash quietly did their job. Each piece moved at its own pace, helping the whole portfolio inch ahead.

Yes, it lagged slightly behind the S&P 500 this month. And that's okay. The Atrahasis Portfolio isn't built to match pure stock indexes every month. Instead, I aim for balance across stocks, bonds, and REITs. That means accepting slightly slower gains when stocks jump, in exchange for a smoother journey overall. Slow, steady, and balanced is how I like it.

Global stocks: helpful drift, small gains

My core global stock fund, IWDA, moved gently higher during October. I made several small buys throughout the month instead of one big trade. These buys gently nudged IWDA closer to my target of 40%.

Currency shifts between the US dollar and Singapore dollar provided a small boost in October. Some years currency drift helps returns, some years it trims them slightly. I deliberately chose not to hedge currency exposure. Hedging would add complexity and cost. By not hedging, I keep things simple. Over time, currency movements tend to balance out. At least that is the idea 🙂

Singapore REITs: steady footing

My Singapore REITs stayed steady. Income kept flowing. I also made one deliberate choice. I normally miss rights issues when life gets busy. This was the first time I acted. Keppel DC REIT had a rights issue in October and I subscribed to my full allotment plus some excess at S$2.24. It protected my stake from dilution and nudged up my income slice at a price I was happy with. I also added 5,100 units of CapitaLand Ascott Trust at S$0.935.

Bonds and cash: the cushion

Late in the month, I added to my short‑dated bond holdings. I bought more of my 0 to 1 year US Treasury ETF (IB01) and an ultrashort bond fund (ERNA). ERNA holds very short‑term, high quality corporate and government bonds. These adds nudged bonds closer to my 22% target mix. Bonds help keep the portfolio steady during bumpy moves and earn a small return while I wait.

I also hold an Australian cash ETF (AAA). It places money in high‑interest Australian dollar bank deposits with major banks. It pays distributions out as cash instead of reinvesting automatically. My Australian funds are distributing, not accumulating. I plan to reinvest these pay outs quarterly. Fewer small trades. Cleaner records.

If you want to see how all these pieces fit together, take a look at my full Atrahasis Portfolio.