According to Compounding Quality on Twitter, an investor who bought the S&P 500 at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 5.3x in 1917 and sold at a P/E of 34x in 1999 would have achieved an 11.6% annual return, with only 2.3% per year attributable to P/E expansion. The majority of returns stemmed from earnings growth and reinvestment by the underlying companies (Source: Terry Smith via @QCompounding, May 28, 2025). This highlights the crucial role of fundamental growth over valuation multiples, a lesson relevant for crypto traders assessing the importance of utility and network growth versus speculative multiple expansion in digital asset markets.