Today, we are talking to a reader who has made a fortune through crypto investing. However, there have been some stomach-churning reversals.
Why it matters: Crypto is often spoken of as a democratizing opportunity, yet regular people seldom see the stories of non-professionals placing bets in the space. Here’s one.
Details: Darragh Grove White, a Canadian marketing technologist, is on the leading edge. But, he took some hard hits.
“I made a lot of mistakes, for sure. He tells Axios that he’s had cryptocurrency exchanges take his money.
He was one of many Canadians out of luck when the founder of the exchange QuadrigaCX, Gerald Cotten, died (?) India.
State of play: Grove White is one of the lucky ones. According to his account, he has made a complete turnaround since Quadriga’s loss. Although there have been some wild fluctuations in that number, he’s now up about 11x over his principal.
Axios has verified the success of his portfolio.
The scoreboard: He has invested in over 180 coins, his first three purchases being bitcoin, Monero (a privacy coin — that trade is still down) and Verge, a coin with salacious affiliations.
“I have had a few that have done really well and even fewer that I knew would do really well,” he said.
The biggest loss was a token that was the right idea (blockchain finance), but the wrong company at the wrong time. His greatest win was his lucky guess as to which solution to Ethereum’s speed issues would be most popular with users.
Context: Although he only became interested in crypto during the bear market year of 2018, he did have some advantages. He is a lot more technical than the average person, given his day job.
It has worked in his favor. “I’m just super curious,” he explained. In crypto, it’s not enough just to read and watch charts. He contends that one must get into crypto to fully understand it.
Be smart: Having been in for four years, he sees new arrivals come in waves. You can spot the new investors on Twitter and Discord — they are always looking to make a quick buck.
He said, “This latest cohort of noobs was their on-ramp the Wall Street Bets experience.” “Meme coins are a popular investment option for a lot of the n00bs. They make it seem a joke to invest in meme coins.
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