Question

Anyone here dabble in crypto? I made an uneducated decision last year to put $150 in crypto. $100 in bitcoin, and $50 in Ripple. Of course the bitcoin still hasn’t recovered and it’s about $20 less right now, and the Ripple just barely came back and is slightly higher than my buy. I’m considering just saying screw crypto since I don’t know how to keep up with knowing when to trade and hold and sell and stuff and just sell it when it comes back at equal price. Thoughts?  

Answer 1

We put money in ripple also. While it sort of seems like crypto is dead, the stakes are pretty low with how much we have in it so we will just keep it there.  

Comments

@hovel2164 sounds optimistic!  

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@coverup of course. But I've done literally no research on it in the past year and a half or so. I know previously there were Bitcoin ATMs and a lot of mainstream companies were starting to take it as a form of payment so obviously that would impact the value. I'm not sure if any of that is still going on. Like you wouldn't buy stocks without doing some research on the company and the industry. Nobody knows where it's going but there are ways to make a more educated guess. I'm just expressing that my motivation of keeping my money in crypto rather than pulling out is not based on any current knowledge or awareness of how (or what) crypto is doing right now.  

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@tentacle47 Something to ponder is that there are 40, 000, 000 millionaires in the world and only 18 million bitcoins currently in circulation and there will only ever be 21 million.  

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@hovel2164 The future is blockchain. Whether bitcoin or any specific crypto currency will be part of that is pure speculation. It's like choosing the most volatile of individual stocks. Proper investing would be if you were actually investing in the technology itself

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@cube Proper investing is subjective. I agree with you, it's more about investing in the tech but so far Bitcoin is so far ahead then any other crypto. It doesn't mean it will prevail but having held since 2011 it's my opinion and hope that it will.  

Answer 2

Basically crypto is gambling not investing. If you want to gamble with a little bit of play money than have fun (I do it to with $200) but never mistake it for investing

Comments

@banda817 indeed. It’s a small amount and definitely gambling.  

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Any investment is gambling if you just blindly throw money into it.  

Answer 3

There's nothing wrong with speculating in crypto with a small % of your net worth. Same as any very volatile speculative investment. Your problem is that you threw money into something having done zero research for yourself to learn about it first, I'm assuming hoping it would 10x+ in price. The good news is that your $150 wasn't going to give you much of a return anywhere, so if you want to sell it or keep it, it really doesn't matter much tbh. But you should take this lesson about doing proper research in the future before putting money into something. It's not too late to read and learn a bunch now either.  

Comments

@coverup very true, it was just a whim and I didn’t expect an overnight windfall, but I expected to not lose money unless it defunded or I sold at the wrong time. It’s almost at the buy price so I know I could just liquidate. It definitely would serve me well to research more, but since I’m more hands on there’s the tax of not knowing, lol

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@carbamidine How did you not expect a chance of losing money though? And if the $150 is significant to your life definitely pull it out and avoid any high risk investments.  

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@coverup I mean since sure, it’s been worth less, but bitcoin rises and falls like stocks so I figured I wouldn’t lose as long as it went back to the buy price. Ripple of course looked more coli tile though now it’s higher than the buy and shows promise abroad.  

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$150 is significant to me, that’s why I consider just waiting for it all to be back at what I bought it at and just put it in my betterment account

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If $150 is significant to you, an investment in something as volatile and speculative as crypto is probably an unwise move in general.  

Answer 4

I just pulled my bitcoin out and made 33% ( I shouldve left it in, I think it will rise as long as the coronavirus is a concern) But I just used fun money. I personally would never go balls to the wall with it.  

Answer 5

Everytime I get annoyed and take my money out it explodes. I'm done with it. Moved the money I had in it to betterment

Answer 6

You need to think of crypto as a hedge. It’s main point is somewhere for people to hide money when they have nowhere else to go imo. Coronavirus scare lead to a massive increase in most crypto coins because people are afraid of the global economy weakening

Comments

I’ve never invested more than a thousand dollars with crypto either. I don’t think it’s well understood by most who invest in it. So I’m always skeptical

Answer 7

I’m more bullish than bearish on crypto right now. It has become a “flight to safety” asset, like bonds and precious metals. So it looks like it will go up when the market goes down, or at least when the market gets more volatile, which is already happening and will increase as we near the election in November.  

Comments

@spencer8887 is nothing like bonds or precious metals. Not a hard asset or backed by a government. Not a flight to safety asset. Just plain gambling/speculation.  

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@banda817 I’m not saying it SHOULD be treated as such, just saying it has been lately. I watch the markets all day long so simply stating what’s been observed.  

Answer 8

I bought Bitcoin a good while back hoping to use it as a medium of transaction. Now I'm stuck with it because using it like this will force me to pay taxes on it as if it were a security. FU Uncle Sam!