Today we’re doing something a little different, talking with one of our readers, someone who has come out ahead through crypto investing — though not without some stomach churning reversals along the way.

Why it matters: Cryptocurrency is often referred to as a democratizing opportunity. However, regular people rarely see stories of non-professionals placing wagers in the space. Here is one.

Details: Darragh Grove White, a Canadian marketing technologist, is on the leading edge. But, he took some hard hits.

“I made many mistakes. I’ve had crypto exchanges take my money,” he tells Axios.

He was among many Canadians who lost their luck when Gerald Cotten, the founder of QuadrigaCX, died (?). in India.

State of play: Grove White is one of the lucky ones. According to his account, he has made a complete turnaround since Quadriga’s loss. He’s up around 11x on his principal, though there have been wild oscillations in that number recently.

Axios has verified the success of his portfolio.

Scoreboard: He invested in more than 180 coins. His first three purchases were bitcoin, Monero (a privacy cryptocurrency — that trade is still down), and Verge, which has shady affiliations.

“I have had a few that have done really well and even fewer that I knew would do really well,” he said.

The biggest loss was a token that was the right idea (blockchain finance), but the wrong company at the wrong time. His greatest win was his lucky guess as to which solution to Ethereum’s speed issues would be most popular with users.

Context: While he only got into crypto in 2018 (a bear market year), he had some advantages. He is a lot more technical than the average person, given his day job.

That has worked to his advantage. He explained, “I’m just super curiosity.” It’s not enough to just read charts in crypto. He contends that one must get into crypto to fully understand it.

Be smart: Having been in for four years, he sees new arrivals come in waves. You can spot the new investors on Twitter and Discord — they are always looking to make a quick buck.

“This most recent cohort of noobs, their on-ramp was the Wall Street Bets experience,” he said. “Meme coins are a popular investment option for a lot of the n00bs. They make it seem a joke to invest in meme coins.

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