Beyond Bitcoin: how crypto is shifting from speculation to wealth building

The ‘get rich quick’ days of crypto may be over, but as investors flock to the digital asset, experts say the market is maturing into a genuine avenue for long-term wealth creation.

Coinstash founders Mena Theodorou and Ting Wang say cryptocurrencies are attracting mainstream investors. Picture: Tyler Alberti.

Can you still get rich quick with crypto?

Coinstash co-founder Ting Wang says the answer is complicated but the heady days of “crypto degens” - short for degenerates, a self-depreciating term some in the crypto community call themselves - turning a couple of thousand of dollars into six figure sums appear to be over as the digital currency becomes more mainstream.

Mr Wang founded Coinstash in 2017 with Mena Theodorou. The pair – which sponsored Sydney Roosters this year – have just completed a $4.7m capital raise, bringing their total funding to more than $8m.

Mr Wang said interest in crypto is surging again, particularly after the election of Donald Trump, who declared he wanted to become the first “crypto president”. It caps off a roller coaster ride for the digital currencies in the past several years, which culminated in the collapse of FTX.

But Mr Wang said the dust has settled. Circle – the issuer of the stablecoin USDC – has surged more than 700 per cent since its IPO this month. Coinbase is up almost 40 per cent this month, while Kraken is eyeing its public market debut.

At the same time Noah Dummett – a 26-year-old high school dropout from Melbourne – has become Australia’s next cryptocurrency magnate, with his global online casino business Shuffle averaging $US2bn ($3.06bn) in wagering each month.

Mr Wang said the optimism was also attracting more “traditional investors”.

“When I first started, you’d see a lot of crypto degens basically trying to store a few thousand dollars and then try to turn that into six figures or sometimes even seven figures. But now, based on what I’ve observed in the past 12-24 months – especially since Trump got re-elected – there is more of what I call traditional investors (coming in),” Mr Wang said.

“People are seeing it more of an investable asset class now rather than something that’s a niche for the young and Gen Z.”

So is there still big money to be made? “To some degree, yes,” Mr Wang said.

“There are still people out there who are trying to get in early with some of the Solana (coins) for example. But I’m not seeing the same level of success that we saw in 2017 and the 2020-21 boom bull cycle where people can turn a few thousand dollars into six figures or more.

“There’s only, I guess, very selective people who know what they’re doing that are making those wins. These days, people are kind of accepting of the fact that ‘look, if I invest in Bitcoin, if it’s giving me an average of 30 per cent year-on-year return, that’s not a bad investment’.

“So I would say the market sentiment is definitely shifting towards the need to have some wealth and accumulate your wealth in crypto, rather than just get rich overnight.”

Coinstash’s raising was led by a Brisbane family office. Mr Wang said it would fund Coinstash’s continued platform development, team expansion and doubling its users to 100,000.

“Locally, we’re seeing … momentum as Australian investors increasingly seek secure, long-term access to digital assets as part of diversified portfolios. This funding allows us to scale the platform to meet that growing demand, while maintaining our core focus on security, compliance and innovation.

“We’re building not just for the retail investor of today, but for the future of digital finance in Australia. Crypto is maturing as an asset class, and the future will demand local players have the same scale, governance and transparency expected of companies operating in public markets.”

Coinstash says more mainstream investors are turning to cryptocurrency.

Dan Roberts – a former Macquarie banker who founded Nasdaq-listed bitcoin miner Iren with his brother Will – also has said that cryptocurrency has secured its place as a store of value akin to gold. Although bitcoin has attracted criticism, Mr Roberts said central bankers had caused more harm to the economy.

“The reality is, since we went off the gold standard in 1971, there are 100 times more Australian dollars in circulation today than there was 50 years ago. Where does that money go?” Mr Roberts told this masthead last year.

“It’s like the analogue I would use if you’re sitting down with some mates or your kids play Monopoly. And all of a sudden, one of the kids goes to another Monopoly board in the other room, grabs the cash and decides to distribute that to the people on the board. What do you reckon happens to property prices?

“Bitcoin is the ultimate fair play, it’s the ultimate asset which everyone can participate in equally. When you look at Central Bank’s controlling the monetary supply and the latest paradigm, they have almost single-handedly hollowed out the middle class in Western markets. Labour inflation in terms of wage inflation has not kept pace anywhere close to monetary supply. And all of a sudden people are priced out of the property market.”

Originally published as Beyond Bitcoin: how crypto is shifting from speculation to wealth building