Risky Bet: Crypto Newbies Have Family And Friends To Thank For Losses

ndtv.com:

Crypto is no stranger to busts, having suffered four major drawdowns since late 2017.

Brian Hourigan, a New York-based real estate executive, prides himself on keeping a portfolio of assets with modest but predictable returns. Yet as cryptocurrencies rallied to records last fall, the 38-year-old made an uncharacteristically risky bet.

Hourigan invested $20,000 in Bitcoin and Ether in October, hoping to turbocharge his plan to buy an apartment. His inspiration: Adam Ghahramani, a close friend and crypto entrepreneur who was making a killing in digital tokens and had been enthusing about the sector for years. 

“I allowed Adam's prolonged and particularly bullish exuberance about the state of crypto to have an outsized influence on my judgment,” said Hourigan, whose cryptocurrency investment has lost roughly half of its value as digital assets tumbled this year.

Crypto is no stranger to busts, having suffered four major drawdowns since late 2017. But with tokens gaining more mainstream appeal during last year's bull market, the pain of the latest crash is being felt by a much greater number of individuals — many of whom caught the crypto bug from those closest to them.  That's making for some awkward conversations at dinner parties and family gatherings around the world.

“Brian loves bringing up my ill-timed investment advice at parties,” said 39-year-old Ghahramani, who manages charity NFT community Untamed Elephants. “At his recent Fourth of July event, I was the butt of jokes about my genius crypto strategies.”

Cryptocurrencies shed almost $2 trillion of market value since Bitcoin peaked in November. Billions more were lost as several crypto companies, along with a prominent hedge fund, imploded in the past two months. The