$10K Experiment Reveals Wildly Varying Asset Returns Over Five Years

A $10K experiment by MarketWise compared returns across various assets from January 2021 to April 2026. The results showed a wide range of outcomes, with some assets returning life-changing gains while others suffered significant losses.

The top performer was Solana, which turned $10,000 into $357,628 (+3,476%) over the five-year period. Sealed Pokémon boxes also outperformed many major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, returning +1,750%.

Interestingly, the strategy of buying a sealed Pokémon box required no grading expertise or card selection, yet still outperformed widely followed assets like Dogecoin and XRP. In contrast, some meme stocks, such as GameStop and AMC, saw varying outcomes, with GameStop surging +469% while AMC lost -91%.

The experiment also highlighted the importance of timing in investing. A $10K investment in Solana made at its January 2021 price of $2.49 would have been worth $357,628 by April 2026, but an investment made at the peak price in May 2021 would have resulted in a loss.