Crypto is not even zero sum, it's negative sum, because whilst the value is set by people trading to each other, real USD has to come out of the system every da

Crypto is not even zero sum, it's negative sum, because whilst the value is set by people trading to each other, real USD has to come out of the system every day to pay for the electricity to support it. The reason it hasn't "generated" wealth and has merely "moved" it, is because it doesn't allow everyone to succeed. Say in your case, person A bought at $1 and sold at $100, so he is up $99. But someone else had to buy the bitcoin he sold, so that person is currently sitting at -$100. For one person to profit, another necessarily has to lose. The price of bitcoin could increase almost indefinitely, since the whole "hodl" meme is about reducing the supply and reducing the float, which allows it to continue to pump upwards and for people to get rich on paper. But it will never be possible for all of them to actually cash out, there isn't enough real USD in the crypto economy to allow that.