Reddit makes it nearly impossible for you to find coins early

I've seen a lot of posts complaining about how r/cryptocurrency only shills stagnant coins that have already pumped. And coins like SHIB, LRC, KDA, and SOL are never mentioned until after they explode.

This is entirely by design. Your exposure to posts on reddit is a function of how many upvotes those posts have received. And the more bagholders a particular coin has, the more upvotes. Which is why the front page is a billboard for ADA, ETH, ALGO, VET, and a handful of others. By definition, the coins you repeatedly see here already have large numbers of holders. You don't get rich buying something that everyone else already owns. Hence why projects start to stagnate when they become popular. Popularity on r/cryptocurrency is actually a great indicator for when growth can be expected to taper. Cardano is perhaps a prime example.

By contrast, posts about undiscovered projects will almost universally be buried. There may well have been a post shilling SOL at $1 or SHIB in 2020, but they never would have made it past the last page.