Cryptocurrency is fascinating. In 2022, cryptocurrency supposedly died. In fact, I remember listening to a podcast that proclaimed that the crypto hype was done, and it was difficult not to agree. Most crypto infrastructure had collapsed, culminating with the implosion of FTX, and Bitcoin, the most followed cryptocurrency, had plummeted. Frankly, I was taking a victory lap. I felt like Scipio. I hate to admit it, but Bitcoin has proved me wrong again. Somehow, Hannibal returned. Allow me to explain how I am still right and why I would get out of cryptocurrency.

One of the most basic tenets of becoming a good investor is recognizing what type of investor you want to be. If you are investing correctly, you are building for the future, identifying companies led by the right people, and attacking the market with an unrelenting curiosity and correct perspective. If you are investing incorrectly, you are gambling in the short term, looking for swings in standard deviation, and maintaining zero focus on the rest of the market and rapid developments in the world around you. You want to invest correctly. You do not want to invest incorrectly. When you invest incorrectly, you lose all semblance of control over your money. Controlling your money in the market is already difficult. When you gamble by only looking for every increasing price, you pay for the privilege by giving up your last shred of control. Investing in sustainable, trusted companies has always been the move to make. Cryptocurrency has never, and will never, be anything good.

I may sound extremely stuck in my ways when it comes to cryptocurrency, but I reject crypto’s entire thesis. There is nothing backing cryptocurrency. There are no leaders. There is barely any regulation. There are millions of people I believe to be stupid who are telling me to invest in cryptocurrency. And it feels wrong. Bitcoin, in particular, feels like the mother of all muddy waters, and not to be dramatic, but it feels like there is a crocodile waiting for me. There are not enough smart people investing in Bitcoin. There are too many people looking for quick gains buying into Bitcoin. They are not buying into Bitcoin because they believe in blockchain or because they think Bitcoin will eventually become the world’s currency; they (the common man) are investing in Bitcoin because he/she believes they can make a quick buck with it, and those are not the people you want to be in bed with. If there is an emergency like the one in 2021, these people will melt beneath your feet, and you will be alone in the clouds.

Allow me to reiterate: nothing is backing up cryptocurrency. A report from the Wall Street Journal came out about criminal gangs in Southeast Asia using Bitcoin to transport millions of dollars internationally. What if major economies around the world shut down Bitcoin’s maneuverability via intense regulation? Another report from the Wall Street Journal came out about how this entire runup has been almost entirely spurred by offshore buying via Binance, a company whose CEO just pled guilty to money laundering in America and is facing “financing of terrorism” charges from Nigeria. What if Binance is shut down, or it comes out that CZ (the CEO) has been committing an insane amount of fraud, which would not be out of place for a major crypto exchange?

And you may say, “Well, risk comes with everything, be bold.” Cryptocurrency is an obscenely unnecessary risk to take on: just buy Apple. Obviously, I’m being facetious, but seriously, there are innumerable options for returns greater than Bitcoin over the long term. You have to be smart.