Sometimes we wish we had one of those crystal balls to predict the future—short, medium, and long term—of cryptocurrencies.

During the Great Depression, Commodore Vanderbilt, far from having a crystal ball but with a nose for opportunity sharper than a state-of-the-art GPS, bought stacks of shares in failing industries at rock bottom, locked them in his safe, and forgot about it.

When the economy stabilized, it was the appreciation of those shares that led him to amass one of the world's greatest fortunes. And he became a billionaire.