>No, you are not cynical, you are spot on. Crypto gains are worth nothing until you change it into currency. The same is true for stock gains.

Actually, stocks are slightly different. Because stocks are based on an underlying real company producing real services and goods, it's worth something even if you don't sell it. This is because stocks can pay dividends or do buy backs.

Crypto does not pay dividends or do buy backs. If they do, they should be classified as a security.

> Because stocks are based on an underlying real company producing real services and goods

No, they are not. Stocks prices are solely based on their supply and demand in the market. Products and services may play a role in the demand fro the stock, but they are not the sole determinate of price. Take AMC for example...

Stocks do have a natural lower bound which is the actual value of the company.

Are you saying Bitcoin can go negative?

it's possible if the carrying cost of BTC is positive.

The total stock of a company, yes. Your particular share - not necessarily. You could get diluted to pretty much nothing if the company chooses to issue more shares.

Shareholders can usually push back via voting, but depending on the way the company is setup they could still successfully dilute smaller shareholders.

Stock prices are based on supply and demand.

But a stock is the ownership of a company, which produces goods and services.