When Bitcoin hit an all-time high of nearly US$74,000 on March 14 – pushing the cryptocurrency market to a dizzying US$2.8-trillion – I was not in the cheering section. Months before, I had started cashing out my meagre crypto and related holdings for about $20 in profit.
In May, 2020, with fewer places to spend my money because of COVID-19 lockdowns and tumbling equity prices, I started a self-managed investment account. It hasn’t grown into a massive nest egg, but is now worth several thousand dollars. But I gave them too much space in my portfolio. Prices shifted more quickly than news cycles could keep up with, and I got used to seeing outsized gains. They made me hungry for more. After the crypto crash in the spring of 2022, my portfolio’s related holdings floundered. I saw my returns drop lower than I felt comfortable with.
A defining moment came while listening to an investor call for a freelance story I was working on. A Goldman Sachs Wealth Management executive was asked for her thoughts on the new Bitcoin ETFs that were recently approved for trading in the United States.or crypto ETFs as part of their investment portfolios. It was as speculative as gambling at a Las Vegas casino. That I had been considering my crypto allocations “investments” in the classic sense suddenly seemed naive.