Yeah but through mining you avoid all the psychological baggage that comes with the specific cost basis when trading. I had a stock just post a 110% gain after moving sideways for two months. The decision to hold, close, or just trim a portion was very stressful. After all these years it's never gets easier for me to close when my targets hit. Much easier to dump losers, I enter all my trades with a target exit price but it doesn't make the decision any easier... So if you bought BTC at $50 what are the chances you would have held all the way to $1,000? I know I'd probably have dumped out too early to "lock in the win"- nothing worse than watching a winner turn into a loser, but watching something continue higher the day following a sale sucks almost as much. What I enjoy about mining is that it's just plain interesting, but also it makes cost basis seem completely irrelevant. My position feels more long-term without the added pressure on timing the market for a specified gain or fear of not recognizing a sell-off only to be stuck holding an empty bag later. We've got our gear, we pay a little extra to the electric company, and we build a BTC position built up steadily over time; something I kinda prefer about that arrangement.