Robert Kiyosaki has offered a personal explanation for why his Bitcoin position survived multiple market declines: he says he paid just $400 for one Bitcoin in 2016, an amount he describes as money he would not miss. The Rich Dad Poor Dad author argues that a manageable entry size made it easier to avoid selling during drawdowns. “I never put money in that I’d miss,” he wrote.
Kiyosaki credits three factors for the outcome: buying before Bitcoin’s largest advances, holding through several declines, and not being forced to sell. However, his account also highlights how position sizing works. A $400 position and a $40,000 position opened at the same price produce the same percentage return, but very different portfolio-level consequences. In a hypothetical comparison, an investor with $50,000 who allocates 5% to Bitcoin would lose $2,000, or 4% of the portfolio, after an 80% Bitcoin decline. An investor allocating 40% would lose $16,000, or 32%. This matters because recovery requirements rise sharply after deep losses: a 50% loss needs a 100% gain, an 80% loss needs a 400% gain, and a 90% loss needs a 900% gain.
The post also notes that money available at purchase is not necessarily available for years. Emergency savings, debt payments, housing costs and other obligations can force liquidation during downturns. FINRA warns that crypto assets can be extremely volatile, less liquid than many traditional investments, and capable of complete loss. Kiyosaki’s example also carries survivorship bias because it focuses on Bitcoin, a surviving asset, rather than failed tokens. Long holding periods add custody and recovery risks, including compromised seed phrases, phishing, exchange failures or incorrect transfers. The SEC has advised investors to understand who controls private keys and what protections apply when assets are held through third parties.
Meanwhile, a $4.5 billion US large-cap stock fund shows another route by which crypto-linked volatility can reach generalist investors. The Fundstrat Granny Shots US Large Cap ETF, ticker GRNY, reported $4.533 billion in assets and 42 holdings as of Sept. 3. Its Sept. 4 holdings snapshot ranked Strategy first at 3.02% and Robinhood Markets second at 2.99%, a combined 6.01% of the portfolio. GRNY owns equities, not Bitcoin, but its two largest holdings connect shareholders to crypto through Strategy’s corporate Bitcoin treasury and Robinhood’s crypto trading business.
The ranking followed an Aug. 21 equal-weight reset. With 42 positions reset to equal weight, the baseline was about 2.38% per holding. Strategy’s share rose as MSTR climbed from a $119.25 close on Aug. 21 to $144.82 on Sept. 3, a gain of roughly 21.4%. The rebalance added Freeport-McMoRan, Intel, Lockheed Martin, Micron Technology, SiriusPoint and Vertiv, while removing Air Products and Chemicals, American Express, Broadcom, Meta Platforms, Northrop Grumman, PNC Financial Services and Texas Pacific Land. ETF.com reported $334.82 million of net creations for GRNY on Aug. 20, but the available data does not fully separate purchases, redemptions and price appreciation.
The fund’s governance also matters: a June SEC filing said Tom Lee and Ken Xuan are jointly and primarily responsible for day-to-day securities management, while Qiao Duan and Stephen Foy oversee trading and execution. Strategy reported holding 845,050 BTC as of Aug. 30, making Bitcoin central to its balance sheet. Robinhood’s connection is operational; the company reported $100 million of crypto transaction revenue in the second quarter, within total revenue of $1.31 billion. The combined 6.01% weight is therefore not equivalent to a 6.01% Bitcoin allocation. It is exposure to two businesses with different crypto sensitivities and company-specific risks.
Together, the two stories illustrate how Bitcoin exposure can enter portfolios either through direct holdings, as in Kiyosaki’s case, or indirectly through crypto-sensitive equities, as in GRNY. Neither example changes Bitcoin’s price mechanics, but both show why position size, liquidity, custody and the wrapper through which exposure is held can determine whether investors survive volatility.
