What advice do you have to give to my friend who is trying to juggle getting grounded in the basics and keeping up with these latest update on Bitcoin?
These are two distinct aspects of cryptocurrencies that he should not mix. As a beginner to the world of bitcoin, he will definitely want to know every single piece of news that comes with the trend in order to stay current, but some of them are simply distractions that he should avoid.
FOMO exists, and the case of BRC-20 is only one example. For the time being, let him concentrate on becoming more familiar with the fundamentals of bitcoin because if he misses out on it, particularly on its privacy and security, he may be disappointed in the consequences of not fully understanding it before involving himself in other aspects of cryptocurrency.
Advised my friend about bitcoin or bitcoin investment when bitcoin market was around $17k. My friend invested around $500 at that time but when the market rose to around $22k my friend sold all the bitcoins he had invested. Now I'm not going to give any advice on whether or not my friend should invest around $26k.
He simply reaped the benefits of his investments as soon as they arrived. I won't say whether he's clever for doing so. With this, I'm confident he'll speak positively about bitcoin rather than negatively. But I believe that if he had been smarter, he would not have sold everything and would have kept some for later use if at all he needed the money urgently, which pushed him to sell everything when he made a profit. You don't have to tell him to buy at $26K again; he might blame you if the market doesn't go well for him again. Allow him to learn and invest when he is ready.