For my part, I've only been investing in digital assets since November, 1017.
Though I've been investing in traditional stocks since 2005 and small angel investing for 4 years.
When BTC rebounded after epic China FUD in September along with the CBOE/CME futures coming to fruition, I knew that a new asset class was here to stay.
Obviously the vast majority of people are not exposed to this asset class and getting ahead of the heard is lucrative. This observation was not unique and it helped fuel the explosive run-up near the turn of year.
Classic blow-off top.
Now we sit at a decision point. up or down... then up
However, a lot of pain can come with the ...
Fundamental issues as I see them:
Trading and particularly frequent trading lead to a rabbit hole of digital connectedness that, for me, has become a web like the one Frodo got stuck in on his harrowing path to Mordor.
The institutional money is going to have a very difficult time getting in on this in a way that makes much sense aside from playing legacy players in the space (IBM, MSFT, GOOG, NVDA, etc.)
Funds that do get involved will likely be high frequency traders (until a protracted bear market squeezes them out).
The economics of mining are dicey and the largest miners have incentives to short (assuming a market for shorting) so they can protect their increasingly massive mining investment.. though inflation in mining prices should promote HODLing.
Proof of stake coins with reasonably small floats can see long term success, though the volatility and thus the daily trade volume of these assets will also drop.. further turning off the hot money.
I've been bleeding brain juice for months and I just read Peter Teal's book "Zero to One" on the behest of the Youtuber I jacked the "brain juice" quote from.. Very important read for folks getting in this space.
I see crypto transitioning for fast to slow.. exciting to boring. Fast money is going to get shredded rushing in after each other to catch the next fork or airdrop. Perhaps those that can truly devote vastly more than average time and resources and/or developing a successful quant strategy can do well or even VERY well in some cases.. but this likely won't be the case for most.
The major lure of this space was the deflationary nature of the asset, though as we can see with the ever ballooning number of coins and increasing circulating numbers of these coins, inflation is exponential across the ecosystem.
As adoption begins to slowly and hopefully steadily increase, price levels may gradually rise.. though more and more new investors will be needed for each one that is gutted through a phishing scheme or shitty trading.
All I am saying is be patient. Invest in TEAMS/PEOPLE.. I can barely get motivated to sustain my windows office suite's recurring fees. If you're going to merely invest in software, are you really going to hold through the inevitable FUD that will come?
Build a diversified portfolio of multiple asset classes so when your VEN dumps after their rebrand you can hold knowing that your GS stock is holding strong on expectations of rising interest rates.