> nobody can get out without someone else getting stuck holding the bag

That's true for practically every asset class. If you sold your Netflix stock at $600, someone had to buy it at $600 as well. And now they're out of $430.

There's a losing counterparty in every winning trade.

>That's true for practically every asset class

No, this is false. With stocks, the holder can get paid in dividends. With real estate, you gain value from actually using the land. A bond is actually a form of credit. Et cetera. Which other assets are you thinking of?

Edit: You must be conflating it with the funny money private stocks and their buybacks that a lot of startups have. Those are obviously a gamble, they're not really "investments" for most participants. It's no surprise that the same type of companies tried to go deep into ICOs a few years ago which are like the crypto equivalent of a bogus penny stock.

With stock though there's a company associated with the stock that (theoretically) brings in profits. Predicted future profits drive the stock price.

it's better to be bit more pedantic.

> There's a losing counterparty in every winning trade

the counterparties are equal in every trade; any winning takes place afterward in the future

and if one party is selling a publicly traded security or commodity at a loss, that doesn't mean it wasn't a good investment, it means it was bought at a fair price and conditions changed

Wait a minute. You decided not to invest early, despite expecting it to be massively profitable because you were worried about the morality of allowing less competent people to try the same thing in future? Are you sure that's really the truth and you weren't just too hesitant and now you regret missing out so you've gone all salty?

Almost, I wasn't worried about people trying to time the market. I was worried for the suckers who actually believed the hype.

Look morality is only meaningful when it comes at a cost. I sincerely hope you are discouraged from scamming, robbing, kidnapping etc because you think it’s wrong rather than insufficient gain to be worth the effort.

they said odds were good, but maybe they're not much of a gambler. and sounds like they views cryptocurrencies as being something akin to scammy MLM or Ponzi scheme rather than an investment.

i haven't bought any myself. i just enjoy reading tech and economics stories in general so i've been reading about cryptocurrencies since 2013 or so. but i don't intend to buy any unless one fulfills some need i have better than other solutions. and i certainly don't intend to hold onto any if i can help it.

Crypto tokens are absolutely a scammy MLM or ponzi scheme. They're not investments. No profit is derived from the token itself, no one is holding bitcoins to do useful work with them. The value comes entirely from speculation and from miners pumping the price so they can recoup their investment in mining equipment and energy costs. They're also not "currencies", they function incredibly poorly for that purpose.