Crypto’s favourite buy-the-dip technique did not make cash for Ethereum and Cardano buyers who caught with it for the reason that begin of 2022.
An investor who positioned $100 into Ethereum each month from January 2022 by August 2026 would have contributed $5,600 however ended up with about $4,898, a 12.5% loss, CryptoRank knowledge confirmed. The identical technique utilized to Cardano would have left simply $2,616, representing a 53.3% loss.
Elsewhere, the outcomes had been far stronger. The $5,600 invested in Tron’s TRX token would have grown to $16,521, a 195% return. Bitcoin would have produced $8,660, XRP $8,465, and Solana $8,025, leaving all three with features of greater than 40%.
The variations present how dollar-cost averaging, or DCA, can soften poor entry costs with out guaranteeing a revenue. Shopping for a hard and fast quantity usually allowed buyers to build up extra tokens throughout downturns, however the end result nonetheless relied on how strongly every asset recovered.
2024 rally created a lot of the features earlier than the reversal
The strongest returns from the technique had been constructed throughout the 2024 crypto rally, when portfolios accrued by the earlier two years surged in worth.
By the top of 2024, the hypothetical Solana portfolio had reached $17,728, whereas XRP stood at $14,345, Bitcoin at $10,193 and Cardano at $7,251.
That rally coincided with a significant growth of institutional entry to crypto. The Securities and Change Fee (SEC) accepted spot Bitcoin exchange-traded merchandise in January and spot Ethereum merchandise in Could, giving buyers regulated automobiles for gaining publicity to the 2 largest digital belongings.
The rally additional accelerated after Donald Trump received the November 2024 presidential election. Trump had campaigned on making the US a worldwide crypto hub, constructing a nationwide Bitcoin stockpile and changing SEC Chair Gary Gensler, whose enforcement-heavy method had drawn years of criticism from the trade.
Following his electoral victory, Bitcoin reached repeated file highs as merchants wager on a extra favorable regulatory atmosphere, whereas ETF inflows additionally accelerated.
Trump has since adopted by on elements of that agenda. His administration established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and US Digital Asset Stockpile, whereas he signed the GENIUS Act, making a federal regulatory framework for cost stablecoins.
The next market downturn, nevertheless, erased a lot of the wealth these recurring patrons had accrued.
Solana’s portfolio fell from $17,728 on the finish of 2024 to $8,025 by August 2026, wiping out $9,703, or almost 55%, even because the investor continued including $100 each month.
XRP dropped by $5,880 from its 2024 degree to $8,465, whereas Cardano surrendered $4,635 to complete at simply $2,616. In Cardano’s case, the reversal was extreme sufficient to show what had been a worthwhile place on the finish of 2024 right into a 53.3% loss on the total $5,600 invested by August 2026.
Bitcoin proved extra resilient. Its portfolio rose additional to about $10,800 in 2025 earlier than retreating to $8,660 this 12 months. Ethereum adopted the same path, reaching $6,501 in 2025 earlier than falling to $4,898, beneath the investor’s cumulative contributions.
The retreat has additionally lowered the worth of belongings held by US crypto ETFs. SoSoValue knowledge exhibits the market has fallen from greater than $123 billion throughout its growth to roughly $92 billion as crypto costs declined. Bitcoin ETFs alone now maintain about $78.3 billion, whereas Ethereum merchandise maintain roughly $10.6 billion.
TRX was the clear exception. Its DCA portfolio elevated at each annual snapshot, climbing from $1,000 in 2022 to $3,679 in 2023, $11,032 in 2024, $13,723 in 2025 and $16,521 by August 2026.
DCA softened crashes but additionally diluted profitable trades
Even the shedding Ethereum and Cardano portfolios present how recurring purchases lowered the injury from coming into the market close to the start of 2022.
Ethereum traded round $3,770 firstly of that 12 months and close to $1,900 in early August 2026, leaving the token roughly 50% decrease. The hypothetical DCA portfolio, nevertheless, misplaced solely 12.5% as a result of later purchases had been made at significantly decrease costs.
Cardano produced the same end result. ADA fell about 85% from roughly $1.38 to $0.20 over the interval, whereas the recurring funding misplaced 53.3%. Shopping for by the decline lowered the investor’s common price, though not sufficient to return the place to revenue.
In the meantime, Solana exhibits how highly effective that impact could be when an asset phases a powerful restoration.
SOL remained about 59% beneath its early-2022 value of $170 by August 2026, but the month-to-month funding was nonetheless up 43.3%.
It is because patrons who continued buying by its post-FTX collapse, when it traded beneath $10, accrued way more tokens earlier than the following rebound.
Nevertheless, TRX demonstrated the opposite aspect of the technique. The token climbed from roughly $0.075 firstly of 2022 to about $0.33 by August, a achieve of greater than 300%, whereas the DCA portfolio returned 195%.
As a result of every successive $100 buy purchased fewer tokens as TRX appreciated, recurring purchases captured much less upside than deploying the identical capital earlier would have.
The outcomes present that DCA was simplest when costs collapsed and later recovered strongly. It lowered losses in Ethereum and Cardano and remodeled Solana’s poor start line right into a worthwhile place, however it additionally restricted the features obtainable from an asset equivalent to TRX that rose comparatively persistently all through the interval.
