[j-g-faustus]

Can't agree with that. Betting say $1 on a highly improbable event can't really be considered "insane" by any metric I can think of - if you lose, so what, you're only out one dollar.

The risk of the event itself doesn't matter; what matters for your personal risk is how much of your personal fortune you put into it.

If losing a bet makes you homeless, it's hardly a good bet no matter how good the odds are.

Conversely, there's barely an "insane" bet in the world as long as the probability for a payoff is greater than zero (excluding e.g. Nigerian scam emails), and as long as the amounts involved are small relative to your disposable capital and the payoff expectation.

Think of it as "how many times do I need to place this bet before I win", vs "if I win, what's the payoff", vs "if I'm wrong, what's the most I could lose".

If you get those numbers right, I can't see that bitcoin margin bets are intrinsically insane.