Dollar-cost averaging is the crypto newbie’s safe bet: buy a bit of BTC or SOL every month, skip the stress of chasing dips, and trust the market will sort itself out. It’s a comforting ritual, especially for beginners, when timing the market feels like a rigged casino. I’ve been there, glued to Binance charts and hoping my weekly buys would outsmart the chaos. But DCA isn’t a magic wand. It only works if you’re buying into something with a future, and you’ve actually thought about why you’re in.
Not every cheap token is a deal. Those hyped-up altcoins from past cycles, pumped across social media and now just sitting in wallets, gathering digital dust, might seem like steals. But often, they’re tombstones. I’ve DCA’d into projects like that, refreshing Binance like a fool and praying for a comeback that never came. That’s not strategy. That’s denial, one small buy at a time, a way to avoid facing the truth that the hype is over.
Some play DCA differently. They stack stablecoins like USDC quietly, not chasing trends or green candles. When the market crashes hard (not just dips) they’re ready. They buy into projects with life: BTC, BNB, or something new that’s still being built. I saw a friend succeed like that in 2022, picking up ETH at $1,200. Not by luck, but by staying liquid and choosing wisely.
Even the best DCA fails if you pour your patience into something no longer built, traded, or cared about. That’s not investing. That’s collecting fragments of a market that has already moved on.
In 2025, with echoes of last year’s hype still lingering, it’s tempting to keep averaging down and hope for a miracle. I’ve done that too. I stared at a dead coin, thinking one more buy might save it. It didn’t. DCA is a tool, not a savior. It works only if you’re honest about what you’re buying.
Buy what’s alive. If not, you’re just mourning the past.
