I respect empirical studies but I don't want to believe that. Many have become millionaires because of their investments in bitcoin and other cryptos, which is what attracted even more investors as these new currencies were being adopted by many to conduct business.
I am still a bit puzzled by the results of the study.
Market manipulation is possible, whales are driving the price crazily. I think whales agree to pump or dump the price for them to take advantage of it and become even more rich. Cryptocurrency price is driven by the market demand, and price increase and drop also affects the market activity. So, whales or big investors has a huge role on the market price.