I can not speak to crypto. I am a novice so far. I will say stocks have done right by me. I’ve turned a $2K purchase of Apple options into $18 a few months before the release of their iPhone 5. I’ve bought shares in companies that split or increased and then sold at a tidy profit.
Now I’ve also made mistakes. Like selling shares of American Airlines I had bought when they went into bankruptcy and missing turning $1.6K into nearly a quarter of a million dollars. Now that I’m retired I can dabble in crypto and see if I can do well.
We learn from our experiences and indeed there are some chances which we've missed along the way. What is important is to persevere and invest smarter.