Axios Crypto: Meet Darragh Grove-White

Today, we are talking to a reader who has made a fortune through crypto investing. However, there have been some stomach-churning reversals.

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. Although there have been some wild fluctuations in that number, he’s now up about 11x over his principal.

Axios has verified the success of his portfolio.

The scoreboard: He has invested in over 180 coins, his first three purchases being bitcoin, Monero (a privacy coin — that trade is still down) and Verge, a coin with salacious 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. Given his day job, he’s considerably more technically sophisticated than most people.

It has worked in his favor. “I’m just super curious,” he explained. In crypto, it’s not enough just to read and watch charts. A person needs to get in to understand it, he contends.

Be smart: He has been in the business for four years and sees new people arrive in waves. The new investors are easy to spot on Twitter and in the Discord channels — they are always looking for the 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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