I better suggest that the new traders should try on demo just because it is free to practice with free virtual money. By doing so they will spend time to learn how to earn money without wasting a single penny.
The only advice for trading crypto is to buy them at low and hold till they are filled up with juice and then sell them at right price, that seems much lucrative however i am more happy with trading forex pairs because it makes me more profits in less time.
I think that the new traders being unaware of the market conditions should keep the leverage low in start as high leverage can claim higher damages too.
Better to stick with majors especially EURUSD, for it is a popular pair and besides going to too many options (becoming jack of all trades) i prefer mastering in one single asset which is rewarding in my opinion.
The graph do shows that the way it is progressing we can assume it will be near to 6000 usd by August this year.. lets hope it does not repeat it history as it went down in 2014.
Trading on demo is always helpful, for advance traders it helps them testing a strategy before compiling their EA and new traders also use it as a primary tool to learn forex processes easily with the help of virtual money.
Those who are already trading forex are very much comfortable with the spreads and other transaction costs however maybe some brokers tries to widen up spreads but decent brokers does not manipulate the figures i believe.