By that measure, the people who had their life savings in FTX (and Celsius and Luna before that) have certainly succeeded.
Investing in total-market index funds is the single best strategy for the average investor. (In fact it's so good there's a proof! [1]) If you invested $10000 in the total US market in 1992 (30 years ago) and never touched it again, your inflation-adjusted balance today would be $72452 [2]. That's an insane 7x of real growth that requires absolutely no effort on your part. Even if you did a more conservative mix of 60% stock and 40% bond (VBMFX) you would have 4.5x real growth.
[1] https://web.stanford.edu/~wfsharpe/art/active/active.htm
With crypto you're not investing in anything that will produce a positive cash flow. Bonds and the stock market actually produce cash flow.
Ah, spoken like a true middle class Boglehead.
VTI/VOO will not change your life, even after 30 years. Broad market ETFs are not worth the risk.
You’re better off doing bonds (little to no risk) or crypto (high risk, more likely for life-changing generational wealth compared, even compared to FAANG SWE TC).