Sebastian Marquez, 28, and his wife Julia Marquez, 26, have never held jobs that paid more than six figures, but their combined net worth is just over $1 million.
This is primarily due to crypto investments in Bitcoin and Ethereum worth about $400,000 in U.S. dollars as of September 30, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. The couple is based in Strathroy, Ontario.
But “looking back, I probably wouldn’t have made that investment,” Sebastian says, citing the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies. “I was very worried about that investment in the first place.”
In 2019, Sebastian, who made money flipping houses and working retail at Walmart in his early 20s, said he invested about 10% of his net worth (about $25,000) in cryptocurrencies.
Since then, Bitcoin’s value in Canadian dollars has increased by about 2,000%, and Ethereum’s value has increased by about 2,500%. But he says it just as easily could have gone the other way.
“It was a gamble we took at the time, and luckily it definitely paid off,” he says. Sebastian said the couple, who combined their finances in 2020, now prefer to put about 15% of their monthly income into investments that offer more predictable returns, such as index funds.
Experts say to keep cryptocurrencies to 5% of your portfolio
Sebastian’s more cautious outlook reflects expert advice. Patrick Huey, a certified financial planner and owner of Victory Independent Planning in Portland, Oregon, says investors should think twice before investing large amounts of stock in cryptocurrencies.
Huey says there are many reasons for this. Virtual currencies are less reliable than stocks. That’s because there is no underlying asset involved, there are no dividends, the value fluctuates wildly, and it is rarely used for its intended purpose as a digital currency.
In a 2025 report by market research firm YouGov, which surveyed 13,000 investors who said they were likely to invest next year, 42% of Gen Z investors between the ages of 18 and 27 in the U.S. said they owned some amount of cryptocurrencies. Only 11% of Gen Z investors say they own exchange-traded funds, and just 26% say they own stocks.
Jamie Bosse, a certified financial planner and senior advisor at CGN Advisors in Manhattan, Kansas, says it’s OK to “dabble” in investments such as cryptocurrencies and meme stocks, but they should only account for less than 5% of your investment portfolio because of their uncertainty.
As for Sebastian and Julia, the couple has no plans to buy any more cryptocurrencies, but Sebastian said they will continue to hold on to what they already own for the “near future.”
“One thing I wish I had done sooner was definitely invest in an index fund,” Sebastian says. “But that being said, I’m very happy with how things ended.”
All amounts are in U.S. dollars and converted to Canadian Dollars at the OANDA exchange rate of September 30, 2025: 1 Canadian Dollar to 0.71824 USD.
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