Stock used to have real value, but most stock these days does not pay dividends. The relationship of the price of the stock is completely devorced from the company itself. See GME and AMC where just large amounts of people investing creates huge upswings that are more about market manipulation then the company.
Crypto and stock are nearly identical in how people make and lose money. You can only make buy it someone is selling and you can only sell if someone is buying. If you buy low and sell high you win!
When you buy you are gambling that factors outside of your control will be favorable to you later.
No. Company is also making the money and thus increasing the size of pie. So, ultimately, it is positive sum.
Yes, you are right. Most of the people are speculating and thus inflating the value of the company. But, still, most of the public company makes profit unlike crypto.
>In crypto, if you are winning, someone has to lose.
The loser doesn't have to be someone in the crypto market. If I buy 10 dollars of bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies don't collectively lose 10 dollars of value. Arguably, the loser in that case would be the businesses that I would have used that money to invest in.
You are missing the point. If you invest $10 and get $1 of profit, the $1 is coming from someone who has lost the $1.
I'd also point out that as long as more people are buying crypto, the value can continue to rise (as there's more people purchasing crypto every day). That does mean that at some point people will lose, but in the short to medium term, buying today could see increases for a while.
All crypto isn't equal either. There are plenty of coins with more usability than others, both as a currency and as the base for other technical projects. Ethereum in particular is super interesting because of the smart contracts feature. A coin doesn't have to become a worldwide stablecoin to increase in usability and value.