The practice of prudence is great and there is a place for that. There is also a place for taking risk. Risk is a scale that should be higher when you are younger and level down as you age. If one is going to take a calculated risk on crypto, 17 yrs old is about as good as it gets. Putting 1k into an IRA an then the other 1k in crypto would be more than ok, but that's just my opinion.