Solana Soars Past $357K as MarketWise Experiment Reveals Wild Asset Returns
A recent $10K investment experiment by MarketWise analyzed 21 different assets, including cryptocurrencies, stocks, ETFs, and collectibles. The study tracked their performance from January 2021 through April 2026, revealing a market shaped by timing, hype, and fundamentals.
The top performer was Solana, which turned $10,000 into $357,628 (+3,476%) in five years, starting at just $2.49 in January 2021.
A sealed Pokémon card box outperformed every crypto except Solana, including Dogecoin (+919%), Bitcoin (+141%), and Ethereum (+133%). Silver beat gold (+145%), Bitcoin (+141%), and the S&P 500 (+107%) from the same January 2021 starting point.
However, some of the most-followed AI and innovation ETFs (ARKK, BOTZ, AIQ) returned just +28% in five years, underperforming the S&P 500 (+107%) by 79 percentage points. The meme stock outcomes varied wildly: GameStop surged massively while others suffered steep losses or complete wipeouts.
Interestingly, a pair of Travis Scott x Fragment Air Jordan 1 sneakers outperformed Bitcoin, Ethereum, and gold, with some buyers experiencing significant returns. Meanwhile, the ungraded Moonbreon card beat its graded counterpart by a wide margin, with no expertise required.