One summer morning in 2014, I had an eye-opening breakfast with the prominent startup investor Jeremy Liew.

The even-keeled—and ever-fashionable—partner at venture capital firm Lightspeed had by then developed a reputation for spotting trends early. Liew was the first institutional investor to put money into Snapchat, betting on the app when it still had fewer than 100,000 users. (It now has nearly 300 million globally.)

As we sat down that day at the Battery, a trendy members-only club in San Francisco, I asked Liew about his latest fascination: Bitcoin, then trading below $500.

“What do you make of it? Is it just hype?” I asked.

Liew paused, then gave a measured response. Cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology that powered them, he explained, were here to stay. Would Bitcoin continue to be the dominant digital currency? That remained to be seen.

He made a suggestion: If I had enough disposable income, Liew said, I should pour 1% of my savings into Bitcoin. If it went to zero, I wouldn’t be crushed. If it went to the moon, I’d be thrilled.

Fortunately, I followed Liew’s advice—and unfortunately, I sold most of my small Bitcoin stash a few years later when the price doubled. (Liew and Lightspeed went on to lead the first funding round into Blockchain.com and to invest in many other crypto names.)

Since then, Bitcoin has skyrocketed, then plummeted, then skyrocketed some more. And more recently, tumbled again. And per Liew’s prediction, there is no shortage of rival currencies that have launched in its wake.