1. Bad budgeting or lack of diversification. "95% of my money was in Enron"
2. Confirmation Bias. "I build a successful company once, I can do it again, but this time with my own money"
3. Hedonic Treadmill. "Flying commercial is so annoying, I'm going to fly private, and figure out how to pay for it later"
The good stories are around the middle.
Now if they actually had this financing in place, this would all be fine - but nobody can find a proper accounting of who they're doing business with at the scale they claim to be doing business, beyond the observation that none of the big US players seem to have any business with them - so what assets are actually backing tether?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasgans/2021/05/13/tether-...
Note that the vast majority is "commercial paper": basically short term loans to companies with relatively risky backing. The problem is that's all we seem to know: no one knows from who they've been buying these. It might be large US companies with 50 year histories, or it might be Chinese property developers at risk of bankruptcy (at which point international debtors will be the first to lose their money).
Additionally, say you hold 50% tether and the rest in a mix of coins. Your portfolio would be cut in half. How does that result in other coins being purchased if people are uncertain of tethers true value and unwilling to trade for it.
Then there’s the whole using tether as margin for leverage or if your margin is based on tether, and that disappears, your position will be liquidated. Now add the layers of derivatives that are quoted and settled in tether. Additionally what exchanges can you trust that will let you cash out in an event like this? People will run to the doors and liquidity will disappear creating a larger sell off as people seek shelter in liquid assets.
There's also drugs and gambling! /s
For example, during the 2001 tech boom/bust a lot of tech companies went bankrupt in a very short period of time. As a result a lot of tech employees saw the value of their stock/options drop to zero (effectively). The speed in which the bust happened caught a lot of people off guard.
It is generally a good idea to move at least some of that money into a diversified portfolio as soon as possible. But folks often put this off because they don't want to pay the cap gains taxes and/or they think the stock will keep climbing.
There is no right way of doing it, you’ll never sell at the top. At least the right moment is when you can use the money for a project.
This is likely closer to reality, if one is cryptocurrency savvy.
I agree with all your advice, but I think that^'s impossible to tell. The vast majority of people successfully and sensibly handling such things are (partly as a result or even 'input' of it) not talking about it.
So don't chill out too much. Divest out of Coinbase, continue life as before and get used to the money. Take your time before changing everything and increasing your spending levels. In a year or so, hopefully you'll have diversified and your head will have cooled from the new money, and you'll be more leveled and realistic about what this money enables you to do, and how to handle your life going forward.
As far as I can tell, it seems like a large (20-50) percentage of people who have a large windfall... end up losing it all because they don't take the time to learn how to handle it.
Good luck and happy birthday!