Today we’re doing something a little different, talking with one of our readers, someone who has come out ahead through crypto investing — though not without some stomach churning reversals along the way.
Why it matters: Cryptocurrency is often referred to as a democratizing opportunity. However, regular people rarely see stories of non-professionals placing wagers in the space. Here is one.
Details: Darragh Grove White, a Canadian marketing technologist, is on the leading edge. But, he took some hard hits.
“I made many mistakes. I’ve had crypto exchanges take my money,” he tells Axios.
He was among many Canadians who lost their luck when Gerald Cotten, the founder of QuadrigaCX, died (?). in 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 confirmed 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.
He said, “I’ve had some that did really well and even less that I thought would do well.”
The largest loss was caused by a token that was right in its idea (blockchain financing), but was wrong at the wrong time. His biggest win was a lucky guess about which solution to fix Ethereum’s speed problems would click with users first.
Context: While he only got into crypto in 2018 (a bear market year), he had some advantages. Given his day job, he’s considerably more technically sophisticated than most people.
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: He has been in the business for four years and sees new people arrive in waves. The new investors are easy to spot on Twitter and in the Discord channels — they are always looking for the quick buck.
“This most recent cohort of noobs, their on-ramp was the Wall Street Bets experience,” he said. “A lot of the n00bs go for meme coins. They make it seem a joke to invest in meme coins.
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