I would rather say "Newbies are safer with Bitcoin and a lot of research". It is not about an altcoin's rank as much as it is about the rush most Newbies have when it comes to bounties and purchasing every crapcoin possible and hoping for their little investment to turn into a fortune.

Ethereum is the second ranked cryptocurrency. Today, it still is seven times lower than its All-Time High. Compare that loss to Bitcoin's, which is still only half from $20,000. Perhaps it is better to put your eggs in multiple baskets, but with very volatile cryptocurrencies it could be an even worse idea.