Bitcoin Forum

In the last couple of days, I made more profit from selling a few coins, than what I would have been making in 3 years with the interest on my savings in the Bank.  ;)  I get about 5% yearly interest on any deposits that I have in my saving account at my Bank and I just sold some coins for a 20% profit.  ;D  <Subtract the fees and the capital gains taxes and I still get 3 times more profit, than what I would have got for a 3 year interest from an investment in a Bank>  ;D

So, I do not know what kind of interest you are getting and how long you have to wait for that, but my Bitcoin investment has just crushed the Bank saving option.  ;)

I also love the fact that my investment in Bitcoin is growing much faster than my local inflation rate of +/- 2%  ;)

Let's discus your local investment options compared to the returns that you are getting from Bitcoin and let's see who is the winner in this fight to beat inflation.  ;)

Well done to you, Kakmakr, I think Bitcoin has outperformed almost every currency and every bank in terms of interest and inflation. In fact I would say it's beaten every bank and currency but I don't have the numbers to back it up so let me be cautious;)

I would say that my savings is still performing well though.

I did not exactly calculate but I had my first BTC (as payments) around mid 2017, and then about every few weeks to 1 month until today, so I probably end up around where price is today in terms of average?

But since 2017, my savings in government trust fund (pension) is 6/7% per year, with inflation also 1-2% per year... plus it is guaranteed by government.

I still think that's a good risk balance.

In my country banks offer time deposits as low as 1 to 2 percent interest annually. Last quarter of 2016 I have a 300 dollars worth of bitcoin and on October 2017 my 300 dollars become more than 3000 dollars. Within ten months my money has multiplied 100x. So compared to banks earning in bitcoin is great. Even in trading just last week and yesterday I have earned 40 dollars from my 160 dollars, it means that I profited 25% out of my initial capital which banks cannot give.

Well, you can't expect banks to pay you more as you practically hold no risk when putting your money into savings account. That's the bank role - to keep your money safe and maybe give you a little bit of interest, but most of the times that interest cannot even cover the inflation so it appears the following matter: is it riskier to save your money or to invest it?

There are other traditional investment instruments available of course like government bonds that give out a little bit more APR then the classic bank savings account, but still it is nothing compared to the gains you get from Bitcoin. Also take into account that your risk is greater by some serious degrees when investing in a cryptocurrency. After all, it resumes to a risk/reward ratio.

I am not saying that people have to pull investments from low risk investments to invest in Bitcoin, because I too have a very balanced risk portfolio on all of my investments. I am just happy with the returns that I am getting on my high risk Bitcoin investment and I am sharing it with you guys.  ;)

I still use about 20% of all the bitcoins I buy and I spend it at merchants that accept bitcoins as payment, because we should not just use Bitcoin as an investment, but rather support the merchants that supports our alternative currency.  ;)

Let's celebrate our small victories!

don't compare banks with exchanges, because the function is clearly different, The bank functions as a place to store money like a wallet, and has almost no risk, while bitcoin aims to make a profit with a higher risk.

Be honest with yourself. You got lucky. That's it.

Sure he got lucky, but bitcoin still has been the best performing asset in the past 10 years.

You are missing the point.  ;)  I am not comparing Exchanges with Banks.  ;D ;D ;D  

A lot of us store our coins in hard wallets or paper wallets and not on exchanges and we do not even use Exchanges to buy and sell coins.  ;) 

It has been months since we have seen a significant increase in the price and I think we should celebrate our returns on the coins we set aside as an high risk investment.  ;)

People have been nagging and complaining about the Bitcoin price for many months and now that it increased with more than 20%, people are not celebrating it.  ;)


You make your own luck my friend. If you decided not to buy any bitcoins, then you did not make your own luck. I am constantly buying more coins and hoarding it. I did the same prior to the 2017 all time high of $18 000 and I made a 800%+ return on those coins.  ;)

Comparing what Bitcoin as an investment can bring is just like comparing a green apple to Jamaican berry. You are even lucky that you are getting 5% pr annum interest from your bank because here in my county the usual interest most big banks are giving is just around 2% and there are even those offering less, but I think we can get much better rates if we deposit in a cooperative bank plus tax is exempted. By miles, Bitcoin is definitely a much better proposition however unlike the banks here the price of Bitcoin can pullback extremely but with much bigger possible rewards. Compared to the real gold and stocks, Bitcoin can still be coming out as the big winner especially in today's bullish environment. As they say, the bigger is the risks the rewards can be so great. Congratulations on your good profits.

You what's actually pretty interesting? In a lot of countries, interest rates are so low compared to inflation, it's actually stupid to keep your money in a bank, often inflation rates mean you lose or don't make money at all.

To be fair though, not a really worthwhile comparison, your comparing guaranteed returns from a centralized banking system to some random investment that could have easily gone to the shitter, and you would be hoping you had your money in your bank instead.

Does showcase the profit potential of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general though.

I agree, you need to take a risk when investing in a banks. There is no certainty when it comes to that, you just need to become more patient. You just need to know more about the purpose and the role of the banks. But investing cryptocurrency is much more difficult and the risk is higher so you need to think more critically.

I have a very balanced portfolio based on low/medium and high risk investments.  ;)  I never said it is stupid to leave some money in a low interest savings deposit, because some people cannot afford to take higher risks than that.  ;)

I think it might be good for some of those people to consider how safe it is to loan your money to a Bank and then not to beat inflation with that investment.  ::)  Take some of that money and risk it in something that might yield a lot more profit than that money in the Bank.

There are a lot of high risk investments out there, but you will find it hard to find something that has shown the same kind of profits, than what Bitcoin has given since 2009.  ;)   <Look at the bigger picture over the long-term>  ;D


Government Bonds does not guarantee profits.. <--- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193899.0

Bank interest rates won't give you much profit really. It's interest rates are too low for a year and putting your money stagnant in your account won't bring you anywhere. Investment is much better, whether be it in crypto, bitcoin, or other assets but bank is not a viable option. You need to risk in order to gain, it's just that bitcoin is much more risky than others, but returns are definitely higher.

Regarding investment issues, there's no doubt bitcoin is the best. Wanting to be compared with bank interest is clearly far, or wanting
to be compared with gold even bitcoin is still superior. Indeed bitcoin has a very big risk we can lose all our money if we invest in bitcoin,
but don't forget that high risk investment will definitely benefit greatly. So, if I have extra money from my salary I always save in bitcoin.
What I save in the bank is only money for daily needs.

tell that to everyone who bought at $19k two years ago. they're still down 50%! they might not feel so lucky. :P

the USD may be slowly eroding in value but it provides stability that bitcoin can't compete with. there's something to be said for that.

Agreed.  ;)  I have friends in the same situation and you know what, they bought more coins at a price of $3000 at the beginning of this year and they slashed the losses when they made a profit, when they sold at $12 000+ in June.  ;)

Why some people are missing the point of short-term profits are beyond me.  ;) You do not have to day-trade to get those profits, just buy some coins and hold it for a while... eventually you will get some profit.  ;)

The USD might be stable, but it lost over 95% of it's value over time.  ;)  < 97.5% according to the Bureau of Labor statistics >

investment wise and when profit is involved there is nothing that could beat bitcoin in the past decade that bitcoin has been around. the value of it has gone up from practically zero to the current near $10000. so basically whoever bought bitcoin and ignore the short term FUD and fluctuations is currently in a big profit.

but the thing is that bitcoin is not just about the monetary gains and the profit you can earn from it. bitcoin is all about liberation from centralized money and the corruption that has infected the centralized sector. and you can't put a value on that.

Name your country when stating your bank interest rate on an international discussion platform like this. I don't understand why people mostly talk here as if all others are from the same country as themselves, and they think the situation of others is similar to themselves or better than themselves. it's mistake to making these discussions without saying which country you are talking about. In Europe, banks pay 0.2% of interest per annum if you are very lucky, inflation is about 2%.

However, probably Bitcoin will give you a better return than 5%, But like all investments it's a gamble. you could make that profit in a day with Crypto or lose 40 percent in a day, but by putting it in the bank, you are guaranteed for it NOT to lose 80% of your principal value in a year. I am at a loss of $10,000, but i still HODLing, not because profits and beat bank interest rates, rather i am preparing myself for the worst fiat failure ever on earth.

Banks simply hold your money for you, there is no such thing as volatility or possibility of any loss, their interest ad on is low, but I do not really expect it to be any higher. Thats one of the reasons bitcoin was created, to create an opportunity for people to purchase an asset, one that you can choose to use as a payment option whenever you so desire, or you could hodl it, with the possibility of it rising and increasing your profit.

There is risk involved when trading with bitcoin, more risk though when it's day trading, but preferably it's best to buy when the prices fall due to unending FUD and rumours, that's the time to buy bitcoin, "on the news" and sell when the prices go up, because with what I've seen, prices must always go up.

I really feel sad for those users who bought bitcoin arkund last quarter of 2017 as most of them bought for over $15k and bitcoin has not reached that value since then and they might regret the hasty investment or just consider it as long term investment. As you said we cannot compare fiat especially USD or Gold with bitcoinm

I always have been inclined towards Bitcoin ever since I discovered it and thankful for how it helps me in my life. This topic brought me towards thinking about what would I do if I haven't had discovered it or not.

• Saving in a bank
• Invest in Stocks
• Invest in a business

There are different limitations in which I could personally afford. Business is not an option for me right now, I don't have that much money yet and my credit is not yet ideal for a loan with a big amount. Invest in stocks would be just a hope to have that breakthrough in a certain stock, which is not assured. Saving in a bank, however, is the easiest but gives the least results. So I personally have a saving that is worth at least 3 - 6 months of living expenses. It's for the Emergency fund that could help me with unforeseen situations. This is just my idea with different investments you could have and I'm thankful to have Bitcoin as a part of my life and be the investment that changed my life.

This is totally true in so many ways, especially if you're patient and clear minded with all the possible volatility that comes with cryptocurrencies.

Bank's interest are useless because you will just use it to pay for the fees on withdrawing your money on different ATM and of course they don't want you to earn more from them. Bitcoin is a life changer, it brings good profit that you can really use to reinvest or buy something that you want. If you will just depend on banks, you will die poor and you will never experience the real meaning of interest income. Though I still have my money with the banks for liquidity and emergency purposes, I think everyone should consider this.

To be fair, the difference is that bank savings are not there to earn profit. It is there to be kept safe. However, since the banks are using that amount to make profit also, they will have to offer a little interest to these deposits. The good thing about saving in the bank than investing in Bitcoin is that you can withdraw it anytime you need it. You cannot do that to Bitcoin without facing the possibility of selling with a loss. Furthermore, bank savings are insured up to a certain amount. Meaning, a certain level of security is there. Also, if Bitcoin's price suddenly nosedive from $20,000 to $3,000 or even lower, there is nothing you can do except to wait or forced to sell with a massive loss.

Banks are the only ones who get profitable with our investment. Their interest is very low which you can't even make enough profit over a year.
Bitcoin is a double edge sword that you can earn and have losses at the same time. It is a risk you should face to have an opportunity to have more profit than storing money on a bank.

It's not getting your losses slashed, they've made another bet and this time they've got lucky if they hadn't made the first one they would now be in profit or if they didn't do it altogether they would still have the same amount.
Some got lucky and some didn't some invested in altcoins that they can't even move because the chain is dead, but of course, nobody is talking about that, let's do the same as casino is doing, showing pictures of the winners with Lambos and blondes and not mumbling a word about those that lost their home!

This exactly what I've told you in the other thread, this zealot type propaganda is really not helping the true cause.


Nobody gives a damn anymore, don't you see it?
Everything is about gains in fiat, I've earned that much $, yeah, decentralization, that's also nice, but I'm just going to hodl till I get rich!!!
Pirce has rebounded and that's all that it matters to some, usage is flat but..who cares...

I do have stocks and VUL which is insurance with investment in equity funds, there are different reasons in having each plan. Some might not give interest but are not risky like Banks were preferred to be as emergency fund as it is not volatile and can instantly cash out.
Stocks are more into long term plan as for retirement as inflation in government increases it is better to invest now knowing those companies like for food companies will still be in need in the future,it's like taking the advantage of now. while, Insurance to protect my income if ever something happens to me
And crypto or bitcoin as a investment that can easily do transaction, gain interest but will depend on how we trade and the market performance. Actually, It all depends on how we diversify our investment since they all have their specific use.

@Kakmakr are you a financial planner because I keep getting calls from them about how they’ll help me retire peacefully with a huge corpus which will beat inflation, but each and every time I ask them to plan it with bitcoins they back down and never call me back. After seeing no one was ready to help me with a financial plan that involves Bitcoins I created my own plan, wherein I keep buying and selling bitcoins and then use it for my needs. Initially I was spending it all as I’m not good with numbers, but slowly and steadily I broke it down and removed my surplus and kept on buying bitcoins again with it. So far I have made profits and some minor losses, but I feel I can proudly say that the profits are more than 5x times the bank or financial planners would have generated for me.

Banks cannot compete with Bitcoin on interest rates, that's clear to everyone (or at least to some people). Depending on annual interest rates, banks in different parts of the world have different rates, but anyone who invested $1000 in BTC about 4 years ago at $200 makes a huge profit if he sells back in 2017 or even today. That $1000 is turns into $100k, and that show without any great math, that banks and their interest rates are completely insignificant compared to Bitcoin. It is also true that some percentage of people invest in the wrong time, so they are currently at a loss (in fiat value), but if they are patient, I think their patience will certainly pay off.

If I hold $1000 in my bank for the last 4 years, I think I would not earn anything - the inflation rate and the expenses of running an account would nullify all possible profits.

When I kept money on deposit, my bank offered me to receive 3.5% per annum. I have not used a bank for a long time, and if I take my profit from trading, I get up to 20% of the amount of my Bitcoin per month. In my opinion, the benefit is obvious

Right. Always great to buy on the dip unless you are planning to immediately use the bitcoin for something.

Yes that's how bank do their thing. We know that bitcoin is a very volatile asset and you can earn a big amount of percentage on just a couple of weeks, But it won't remove the risk of losing its value at the same time.

To clear this up banks offer a safer way of getting profit from them but its too much slow. Investing in bitcoin let you earn fast profits compared to banks but it also holds the risk of losing the value of your holdings.

You can never get high returns from banks or any other currency if compared to bitcoin as it has outraged each source of earning.Usually you get 7-8% of interest per annum on your capital from banks but in btc you can get 100x-200x profit within short span of time when bull run hits the market. I have also profited from it many times so i prefer to keep less money in banks and invest more in btc.

Forget about bank rates or inflation rate which are usually in single digits, Bitcoin was able to surpass the ROI of gold, oil, bonds as well as S&P 500. If you see this year's ROI. Bitcoin gave us about 2x returns if you see today's price. No other asset can hgive you that much return in such a period. 

Personally, I still can't say that my bitcoin's interest rate and inflation vs my bank savings beats the latter. I don't really have much bitcoin yet. I believe its safe to diversify your funds. I invested in bitcoin, in mutual funds and in bank savings which I feel secure. Security in terms of spreading the risks in case one will fail.

Are those without bank accounts included here?
I am one of them.  ;D

Just looking at the interest they will give in years, I already told myself there is no getting rich in just keeping money in banks.
That is why I came here.
DIY is a must by now. You cannot rely to those keepers of money anymore. They will be the one getting rich investing our money into different mutual funds while they just give a little piece of that cake. (Dust of the cake?)  ;D

Yes, made money in trading which I should get in 10 years of keeping my money in bank. I already saved 9 years of waiting.  ;D

Keeping your money in a bank will only give you a 3% interest for a year depends on the bank interest. You can secure that it is safe and it won't be stolen by anyone.
Having your investment turn into bitcoin will give you a much better ROI, it is risky but it is much better than storing it without having much interest.

I cashed out all my savings and started investing into bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies ever since i got to know about cryptocurrencies. I remember i once checked up on my ATM card once and realized that i owe my bank a debt for not even using my card for about 6 months lol. Anyway i have stopped using it and obviously under no circumstances would any bank's interest rates be greater than crypto investments. Hence my love for crypto!

The banks use the funds from their customers to give out loans with exorbitant interest rates which they in turn profit from highly and they then turn around and give these customers such meager money as interest rates and they then turn around and take all those money in the nam of bank charges.

The real true inflation isn't only 2%, its more like 5%. There was a guy who kept a Burrito index which shows the true inflation and how expensive some common household items like food have gotten, just google it when you have time.

Basically the inflation index since 2000 was about 50% but the true inflation according to the burrito is more like 200%. Some stuff like cars, electronics, gasoline might be less inflation but basic goods like food or electricity or gas to heat your home is crazy expensive these days.

In my opinion the inflation index really needs to be changed to be more accurate.

they have their respective advantages, we know  3 day in the good situation, so you can make big profit from buy/sell coin.
but in red day you cant make this, and you will choice put your money on bank, because still give profit while market red or not although it a little.

well, because banks only use fiat currencies whose value is very stable. so that the interest profit that you can get is from those who borrowed funds from the bank. different from bitcoin and other crypto currencies. this has very high trade fluctuations. in crypto, you can get a profit of more than 20% and can even reach 200-1000% if the fluctuation of the coin you buy is increasing greatly. but stay alert. investing in crypto isn't just about profits. but you must also understand the risks. there is no guarantee in crypto about your assets. when it's gone, you can't blame others.

That is the difference with Bitcoin and banks investment, it is given that Bitcoin offer a high returns but risky while bank offer low interest but guaranteed. I must say that all of us here are risk-taker because we choose Bitcoin investment over banks. This is also the reason why most of the bank are against Bitcoin because their customer is shifting into Bitcoin investment.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Bitcoin profit is no match for Bank interest. With bitcoin, you can easily get a 100%-300% return on investment easily while you can't with banks. Bitcoin is very volatile, it is risky but is it very profitable as well compared to bank interest which is almost nothing these days.  

No. Just because people here are extremely bullish on Bitcoin, it doesn't mean that they choose Bitcoin over banks.... most people here only have a small percentage of their wealth sitting in Bitcoin.

The rest of their wealth sits in fiat and then in some cases gold and stocks too. In other words, Bitcoin only accounts for a small percentage of people's portfolio because it simply is too risky to go all in on Bitcoin.

People buying Bitcoin wire money to a bank account of an exchange, so the money never really leaves the banking system unless people withdraw it from an ATM and trade back and forth locally.

That's kind of the bare minimum you'd expect though isn't it? If you invested money into a random stock, you could also realize a gain of 20% after a year or so, or even a few months, very easily. It's the same with putting money into Bitcoin or an altcoin.

You know what I call both of those? Gambling, unless you are planning to hold for a period on the order of a few years at minimum.

The comparison to bank interest rates is like comparing apples to oranges.

It is not hard to beat bank interest rates .
But most people think that banks are more safe and are afraid from other types of investments, i think it is because they just dont understand them.
It is easy for you to tell now us that you made this amazing return but this is one of the rare situations when  market moved up and fast, in other times it moves down. And then you would not be talking about your huge gains.

Every investment in life involves risk and for an investor to be successful in life he or she must be able to take a higher risk, as for me I don't think its proper and profitable as a crypto enthusiast to safe my money in bank having tasted the watering offer crypto especially by hodling bitcoin on long term basis my last interest was nothing to write home about thus prompted me to withdraw the remaining balance and divert it into cryptos without any regret the banks also know that bitcoin is a major threat to their existence.

In practice, crypto trading is clearly more profitable than saving at a bank to get interest. The difference is only at the risk. Trading is profitable faster because price movements and coin inflation are faster than fiat.

Basically if he sticks to bitcoin only during its red day he will not get any profits but losses, once he know how the market works, he can utilize other crypto or altcoin. Eventually he will figure out that he's trading. In this case, he can minimize our losses and turn it into profit based on how much deposit he have. So far, it is a green bull season for bitcoin and it is best to pair with a stable coin.

We've got 3000+ cryptocurrencies, and among them very few are good enough to give a big profit by this time. This way Op is lucky to have those specific altcoins in his portfolio. Whether it is long term or short term, investing on bitcoin is much more profiting than banks.

With cryptocurrencies the risk is high, you might get 100X return on the investment, and sometimes you get nothing. Your investment goes on negative side. Banks provide with a nominal interest which won't cause loss but assure with a small profit.

I legit wish my bank offered me 5% interest annually. The last time it paid me anywhere near 5% was 8 years ago, where I got around ~4% which I was quite happy with. It was more than enough to counter inflation and wealth tax for me, which means that I ended up with ~1% of actual growth a year. Good old times.

Today the interest rate offered to me is a whopping 0.14% annually, and it will probably keep falling as time goes by. I'm just keeping money on my bank account because there just isn't another viable option to go with. I already hold a significant portion of my wealth in Bitcoin, and I hold some Gold, so there isn't much left that I can do here.

The good thing is that my holdings in Bitcoin easily undo the loss in purchasing power of my wealth in fiat, so there is no rush to it for me to change anything.

My bank has no advantages so I'll choose bitcoin any day. Ok it has 1 advantage that fiat money gets accepted everywhere.
I'm not even using a savings account because to keep money there you have to move it from your main account that you access with cards and this is what I do, I pay in stores.

My bank offers 2-2,5% a year. This is a joke. I can get more profit on a one greed bitcoin day. I can get more money from airdrops.

I personally don't see short term profits as a viable way of measuring the store of value aspects of a certain asset or currency.

You'd still have to analyse things from the long term, and from the fundamentals. It doesn't matter whether or not fluctuations in the short term affect bitcoin price positively or negatively.

At the end of the day, the reason why BTC has intrinsic value and will hold its value better than fiat is because of the fact that it has a capped supply and a controlled emission curve, something that fiats do not have by definition.

               ----<<< Read this, before you simply repeat the same things that has been said in previous posts >>>----

Looking at most of the responses, I can see that there are still a lot of people who absolutely trust their Banks.  ::)  We have seen several instances all over the world, where Banks dipped into people's savings and where Banks went bankrupt and only a small percentage of people's deposits were paid back to them. <I know of one Banks where the people got 5 cents for every $1 deposited at the Bank>

The insurance does not pay these Banks for all their losses when they fail, so let's just get real for one moment. When there are a Bank rush, the Banks simply close their doors and block withdrawals from their ATM's.  ::)

So, for those who wants to feel "safe" with Banks, good luck to you.  ;)

The fact of the matter is, Bitcoin presents us with multiple opportunities to make some very good profits and it depends on you, on how much risk you want to take to grab that opportunity. <Do not risk it all, because that would just be stupid>

Also, use a small percentage of all the coins you buy, because we have to support the merchant network that supports Bitcoin.  ;)

              ----<<< Read this, before you simply repeat the same things that has been said in previous posts >>>----

this is very tricky info, cause you know very well, that your bank could be the winner, if we the coins you sold, were purchased in 2017..
and basically all 2019 almost all coins were in red zone..
so you are really lucky person and I'm glad for you that you made solid profit from your sale..
as for me, I do not have any deposits, but some good trades also brought me some cash..

You are 100% wrong! A lot of my friends bought in January 2019 at $3000+ and they sold at a good profit in June 2019 and also recently when the price went to $8000+

The common mistake people make, is for people to buy at a all-time-high and then not to keep on buying when the price drop. Yes, you lose money when you sell those coins that you bought at the all-time-high, if the price do not recover or exceed the buy in price, but you win, when you buy again when the price is very low and you sell at a profit.

We always say, "Buy the Dip" but a lot of people are greedy and they dive in when the price is at a all-time-high.  >:(  <Then they blame Bitcoin for their losses when they sell too quickly.>  ::)

Doing a deposit at a bank will indeed get interest that will benefit us, but that is only a little, yes, about 5% per year as you said. But this is very safe and the bank already has legality. If you compare it with Bitcoin, the difference is very noticeable. Bitcoin can make you get a profit of 20% even up to 100% (I once got it). But with a higher risk because prices are very volatile. You can immediately get rich by investing in bitcoin and you can also be poor because of bitcoin. At present the best and safer crypto investment is in bitcoin.

Many banks here in my country offer 1% to 2% interest depending on the plan you choose, which is really low compared to high return in Bitcoin and it is not depends on monthly because you can earn here within an hour of 10% 20% or even 100%,

Of course Bitcoin is a winner if this is the case, but when it comes to security bitcoin should be our concern since we are the ones who are taking care of it and we have no refund available in case it goes away.

from those people that i have seen, their problem has nothing to do with greed but it is all about their lack of experience so they don't know what to do and end up with tremendous amount of fear specially when they listen to FUD.

for instance take your example here. these people wanted to buy bitcoin and saw the price drop and it being a great opportunity (being at $3k while it was $20k not so long ago) but they didn't buy because they feared it might never go back up. why? because some random person on the internet spread this FUD! so they didn't buy.

Yes, and you should also not forget that the person already feel like he/she burnt their fingers with their Bitcoin investment, so they will be hesitant to drop more money into something and potentially lose more money, if it goes to zero.

So it is easy to stand on the outside and to criticize them, because most of us would have reacted in the same way. It takes a lot of courage to get back onto a horse, once you have fallen off. The people who had the courage to do this at $3000 was very well rewarded for taking that risk.  ;)