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Time and time again, people view the cryptospace as a place to make quick money, yet the way to be successful within this space is quite simple. It’s to invest and accumulate Bitcoin over time. Many people think they can outperform Bitcoin through a number of avenues, some look for that 100x, others turn to gambling or leverage trading, but eventually the majority find out that they can’t and realise they should’ve been buying Bitcoin the entire time…
For those who were around in January of 2025, it was the memecoin casino on the Solana network when Pump.fun launched. It seemed like everyone was gambling, trying to pick 100x coins, avoiding rug pulls, or launching their own memecoins. Even the US President Donald Trump released his TRUMP memecoin, which was the apex of that period. It marked the point where speculation had completely overtaken any idea of investing.
Polymarket, Kalshi and other prediction markets have also taken off over the last 12 months, allowing users to bet on nearly anything. Markets where people convince themselves they have an edge, but in reality are just trading outcomes in a zero-sum environment, and allegedly where a lot of insider trading is done…
Then you have perps on platforms like Hyperliquid, leveraged trading, where we already know the rule that 90% of people lose 90% of their balance within the first 90 days, yet people continue to believe they will be the exception.
What do all of these periods have in common? None of them are done with the intention of investing, they are all forms of gambling, just packaged differently.
And the data reflects that, with 96% of memecoin participants either losing money or making less than $500, meaning only around 4% made anything meaningful. Prediction markets see roughly 70% of traders lose money, and perps sit somewhere between 70–90% of retail traders getting wiped.
Across all of these, the outcome is the same, most people lose, and this isn’t bad luck but simply the structure of the game itself. These are short-term, high-speed, zero-sum environments where there is no real edge for the average participant, no compounding, no durability, and no room for error, you are either early, lucky or you are exit liquidity.
That’s not investing, and the mistake people make is thinking they can consistently beat these environments, when in reality they are designed so that most people can’t.
Investing is slow, often boring, and requires patience, it’s about owning something and allowing it to compound over time, not constantly chasing narratives or trying to outsmart everyone else in the market.
But most people don’t want that, they want speed, excitement and outsized returns immediately, and that’s exactly what pushes them into the areas where the probability of losing is the highest.
There is a reason people who joined the Solana memecoin casino never returned, they got burned, lost their capital, and left the space with a sour taste in their mouths, while those who simply accumulated Bitcoin, ignored the noise and stayed consistent are still here.
Every cycle this repeats, new participants enter, try to outperform, get pulled into gambling, and eventually exit, while the minority who treat this as investing rather than gambling are the ones who remain and benefit over time.
The path is simple, but not easy, and most people choose to learn it the hard way.
Stormrake Spotlight: Pax Gold (PAXG) ($4,645)
Stormrake Spotlight: Pax Gold (PAXG) ($4,645)
