![\"Investor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/60396732208a47ce78e666bfa9b638b6.jpeg\")
Image source: The Motley Fool. The speculative complex is bigger than most realize <\/p>\n
There’s a couple of pieces of evidence for a high appetite for risk-taking right now among investors.<\/p>\n
Americans legally wagered $167 billion on sports in 2025, an 11% jump from the prior year. Similarly, prediction markets cleared roughly $25.7 billion in a single month in March 2026, nearly 13x what they handled a year earlier. These aren’t fringe financial platforms anymore.<\/p>\n
Thanks to ongoing institutional maturation and its large pool of liquid capital, crypto remains the most accessible on-ramp for speculation. It trades around the clock with no closing bell and minimal barriers to entry; any investor can now access leverage and use it to “invest” (gamble) on highly volatile coins. If Buffett is right that the gambling mood is peaking, and he probably is, the speculative fever will run on crypto rails once again<\/a>.<\/p>\n But for the moment, crypto majors and altcoins alike have been falling hard while the rest of the speculative complex booms. Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) is down 35% from its peak in October 2025, when a flash crash roiled the crypto market.<\/p>\n Similarly, Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) is down by more than 52% from its August 2025 high, whereas Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) is 71% below its peak in January 2025. These coins aren’t dead, but they aren’t presently crucibles of risk-on activity either. Whether or not speculative capital rotates back into these assets is an open question, but their steep discounts from recent highs make them more appealing entry points than they were six months ago if it does.<\/p>\n Story Continues <\/p>\n Don’t become the casino’s favorite customer <\/p>\n One important thing that investors need to do is prepare themselves for how they’ll behave if a more speculative environment develops. There’s no reason to chase the market<\/a> or invest impulsively if prices start to rise quickly — and the temptation to do both of those will be high.<\/p>\n If there is a speculative wave, it won’t lift everything equally. Dogecoin has a price driven almost entirely by social media sentiment. It will probably rally at some point, but there still won’t be a reason to own it, and capital may eventually trickle back to more legitimate investments in the sector.<\/p>\n So if you find yourself wanting to add to your positions because everyone else is, appreciate that the gambling mood Buffett was warning about has already gotten to you, and take a step back.<\/p>\n Should you buy stock in Bitcoin right now? <\/p>\n Before you buy stock in Bitcoin, consider this:<\/p>\n The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the\u00a010 best stocks<\/a> for investors to buy now\u2026 and Bitcoin wasn\u2019t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.<\/p>\n Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,\u00a0you\u2019d have $490,864!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you\u2019d have $1,216,789!*<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s worth noting\u00a0Stock Advisor\u2019s total average return is 963% \u2014 a market-crushing outperformance compared to 201% for the S&P 500.\u00a0Don’t miss the latest top 10 list, available with\u00a0Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.<\/p>\n See the 10 stocks \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n *Stock Advisor returns as of May 5, 2026. <\/p>\n Alex Carchidi<\/a> has positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n