[Shosty123]

I wouldn't say it's a Ponzi scheme, but I tend to agree that they aren't much different because the price of the stock or crypto only goes up by the demand for said security. The only thing that matters in the end for an investor is that there's someone down the line that will pay me more for my shares than I did. I don't really care if the valuation is based on pure perception (in the case of most crypto or GME) or solid fundamentals. I've been more successful trading on human psychology and pulling profits early than any other approach I've tried.

[bradwood]

But this is an argument that can be applied to any continuous trading, on any moving number. You can (spread) bet on cricket scores, weather, oil pipeline capacity, bandwidth, commodity prices, crypto, carbon credits, whatever, and make money if you can "read" the market and the human psychology of others trading in that market.

BUt, if you are a long term investor, rather than a swing or day trader, the fundamentals of the asset are much more important. The supply-side economics of the asset, its liquidity, volatility, correlation with other asset prices, etc, all come into play, and these are very different between crypto, stocks, commodities, bond, et al.