A few months ago my friend ‘Boris’ bought some bitcoins. And since then he’s been really eager to bring up his bitcoins in conversation. He’s said it’s the future, tried to get everyone in the group to buy bitcoins, and even insinuated that we are missing out on massive profits if we don’t buy bitcoins. Basically everyone he’s said this to has said "mate you are going to lose your money" and he has remained persistent. He tried to gift us bitcoin for Christmas as part of a secret santa thing we were doing.
He’s all around a nice guy but something about this bitcoin thing has made him go bonkers and the other day the price of bitcoin crashed and so we asked him how his bitcoins are going. He looked at the chart and was horrified and I did laugh at him and say this is why you don’t buy monopoly money. Some jokes were made mocking typical crypto bro replies such as "buy the dip, its going to the moon" etc. He didn’t find it funny at all and then admitted he had been taking equity out of his house to buy bitcoins and I thought it was also a joke but he was serious and now I really don’t know what to do. He’s left the group chat and I don’t want him to be in financial ruin.
YTA. Yeah, unfortunately I wish you knew by his reaction he was clearly staking a lot into this. I’m also of the opinion bitcoin is dumb but you all treated him like he was crazy then kicked him when he was down in the “im gonna lose everything” mental state. Regardless of knowing the amt, you guys shouldn’t have done that to him. He played stupid games and won stupid prizes, but he’s also your friend. He’s real, here, and present, with feelings. Goodluck trying to make up that mockery to him. You’ll be lucky if all he wants is just “some space” atp. Sorry to you and your friend.
nta. he got in on a failing venture, tried to get the rest of you to buy in also, and he got in way over his head in secret.
none of this is your fault. you did not impact his finances in any way, and you didn’t know he had messed up so bad when you made fun of him.
is it nice to make fun? no. is it to be expected when someone spends a lot of time obsessing and pushing an obvious bad investment onto their friends, that those friends will make a bit of fun? yes.
as for what to do? check in on him. be there. that’s about it. his finances are not yours to fix.
eta: crypto bros have showed up, so i am going ahead and muting this. best of luck, op. hope your friend’s okay.
It will dip to a new massive low and rally next year. Tell him not to sell it tbh
NTA, This sounds like a guy Boris I knew who owned a vape shop and was obseesive about his Mercedes. If that’s him, cool dude be nice he likes what he likes.
YTA
Looks like mom and dad (and all the other adults that helped raise you and your friends) failed to teach you about this thing called “Don’t kick man when he’s down”. Seriously…. There’s friendly ribbing and then there’s malicious bullying. The guy just lost a shit ton of money and your (and your friends) first action is making fun of him…. Pretty sure that’s NOT what he needed.
He didn’t know he was down so bad when making fun of him
If you sell an investment (or what you call an investment) after a few months if it drops in value you kind of deserve a few snarky comments.
NTA.
You did not know how much he had invested, you were just gently ribbing him, that’s what friends do.
Your friend is going to learn the hard way that investing and speculating are not the same thing, and that leveraged buying is risky.
You seem to sincerely care, so I would suggest just speaking frankly to him, help him through these hard times.
I have been in finance for 27 years. Shutting down the non arguments and platitudes of my crypto-owning friends with hard facts has become a bit of a tradition for us when we meet for dinner. We are still friends.
YTA. Boris trying to get you into BTC wasn’t out of malice or selfishness. They genuinely thought they were helping you, regardless if it was actually helping or not.
You judge your friends by the bad times, not the good. Many people will stand by you when things are going well but only good friends will help you through the bad. Regardless if you knew about his equity or not, you knew Boris was going through a bad time due to the price of BTC. Rather than try help them in one way or another, you chose to tease them.
Crypto only survives by convincing people to invest. He may not have been malice or selfish. But he was giving out unsolicited and financial advice
He was only trying to get you to join Scientology out of the goodness of his heart.
Crypto is a scam, and if you do make money it’s only because someone else is a bigger sucker than you.
NTA, you and your friends warned him about it. He got into the decentralized ponzi and tried to get you all involved in it. Now that it is crashing he is finally seeing reality. The fact he is putting his house on the line is genuinely stupid.
There is room for ridicule, this is one of those instances in which it is justified. If he ruins his life, that’s on him for ignoring wise advice.
I have a buddy who got scammed into buying bitcoin. He took some “class” online about investing in crypto and used all his savings and got a loan from his bank all totaling $36,000 and got it all scammed. I tried warning him a few times to be careful but he didn’t listen. We’re still friends but i damn sure aint lending him any money. I did buy him a 6 pack of beer shortly after it happened. A get-rich scheme that sounded too good to be true and turned out to be exactly that.