Back in 2013, my friend Tom was a tech enthusiast who couldn't stop talking about this new thing called Bitcoin. He convinced a bunch of us to chip in $50 each to buy some. We pooled together around $500 and got a decent amount of Bitcoin, which was then worth about $100 each. Fast forward to 2017, and Bitcoin's value skyrocketed. Our small investment was suddenly worth a small fortune.

One evening, we all met up at a local pub to celebrate. Tom, the crypto guru, was the star of the night. He regaled us with stories of people who had bought pizzas with thousands of Bitcoins back in the day, now worth millions. We all laughed and toasted to our unexpected windfall.

But Tom had a word of caution. "Remember," he said, "cryptocurrencies are volatile. Today we're up, tomorrow we might be down." True to his word, the market did fluctuate wildly after that. Some of us cashed out, while others held on, enjoying the rollercoaster ride of the crypto world.