They Made Millions on Luna, Solana and Polygon: Crypto’s Boom Beyond Bitcoin

The ranks of cryptocurrency speculators have swelled, with even obscure tokens minting the newly wealthy: at least on the blockchain.

Etienne vantKruys, a globe-trotting cryptocurrency investor from Amsterdam, was hunting for a new investment two summers ago when he met some early backers of Luna, a digital coin that offers a framework for decentralized finance. Impressed by their commitment to the project, he bought $25,000 of Luna for 20 to 35 cents a coin.

These days, despite a recent fall in cryptocurrency prices, the value of a Luna coin is up to around $50. Mr. vantKruys’ original investment? It’s now worth about $5 million on paper.

“Dude, man,” he said on a recent call, “we’re in some happy country.”

You have probably heard of Bitcoin, Ether and even Dogecoin millionaires. But over the past two years, their ranks have rapidly expanded, as speculators recorded huge profits from more obscure cryptocurrency projects, some with names that sound cribbed from a children’s cartoon. Now there are Solana millionaires, Luna millionaires, Polygon millionaires.

Even after the drop in cryptocurrency prices dampened some of the hype, the gains remain staggering. The value of Solana, a cryptocurrency platform that provides an alternative to Ethereum, has grown by more than 6,000 percent since January 2021. The price of Cardano, another crypto platform with its own currency, is up 500 percent.