Collecting of funds and investing it is already happening with the stock market and it is being handle by the professionals so you can have more confidence with your funds. It may look higher since the capital is big, but with the trust issues, I think I will not go for this.
Many people are saying about trust issues but I think I read somewhere in OP where they said that a written agreement should be done and legalised. If such agreement exists, there won't be ground for misunderstanding.
Crowd funding and group investment is a key, I will like to try this with my friends but I don't know how they will feel about it. There is power in joint efforts. I have seen people do that in Real Estate and it worked perfectly well.
If you can invest on your own much better, but if you really trust your close friend and you believe on his knowledge about trading and investing, then why not maybe you can just invest small portion of your extra profit so you will not miss the fun with your friends. Personally, I prefer to invest on my own privately.
I really understand that cryptocurrency is about trustlessness, but if things are done legitimately and signed by the law, it will make people behave well. Most times why people have issues in such partnership is when they do so based on trust and have no legal backup.
No matter how close you are with your friends and family, it is nice to have good arrangement legaly. It doesn't really mean you don't trust them in the daily endeavours, but business and investment is different.
Investing alone is a good option, but the investment power will not be as when more people agrees to co-invest.