When Eric Sullivan first bought cryptocurrency, he went all in. Sullivan is from Denver, Colo. and was attending the University of Denver in the spring of 2020 when he invested all his earnings from an accounting internship, $20,000, in digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP coins. “I had saved up a good amount of money, and I just dumped it all in,” he explained. “I bought in fully, and it was like alright, this is cool. I just liked the idea of it.”
Sullivan, along with the rest of Gen Z crypto investors, excitedly watched his investment climb higher and higher by the day—until it didn’t. The crypto market implosion began in May when the coin TerraUSD crashed, starting a chain reaction of various cryptocurrencies crashing and companies laying off staff, or shutting down altogether. What was a three trillion dollar industry in November 2021 is now a one billion dollar industry.
Sullivan, who is now 25 and is working at a distillery in Crested Butte, Colorado, didn’t take out any profits, and estimates he lost hundreds of thousands in valuation when the crypto market crashed. “I was like, well, f–k it, you know, I kind of blew that, but whatever,” he said. “Overall, it’s like water under the bridge.” Despite the initial disappointment, he is still a true believer in crypto.
Reflecting on the crash, he explained that he doesn’t feel like he lost “real” money, since he still owns the assets that plummeted in value. He added…
