Regular investing is often considered one of the simplest ways to reduce the impact of volatility. However, DCA results since 2022 show that averaging the entry price cannot compensate for long-term underperformance of the underlying asset.
A $100 monthly DCA strategy since 2022 produced outcomes ranging from +195% for TRX to −53.3% for ADA, despite every strategy using exactly the same capital and timing. For comparison, assume we invested $5,600 in each of the tokens below at the beginning of the period. As of August 14, 2026, the approximate returns would have been:
The dispersion is significant: even among major assets, performance ranged from a more than 4x gain in TRX to an 86% loss in ADA. This shows that DCA primarily reduces entry-price risk, but it does not protect an investor from choosing an asset that structurally underperforms.
This is particularly important for altcoins, where token inflation, declining demand, weaker network activity, or loss of narrative can outweigh the benefit of averaging down. In other words, investment discipline can improve execution, but asset selection still determines most of the long-term result.
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DCA also works very differently depending on where an asset is within its broader market cycle. Regular buying can be highly effective when an asset eventually recovers and establishes new highs, as seen with TRX, BTC, SOL and XRP. However, repeated purchases into a prolonged structural decline simply increase exposure to a losing position, as was the case with ADA. The strategy therefore works best as a method of capital deployment, not as a substitute for fundamental asset selection.
