Advantages and drawbacks to investing in cryptocurrency
Investing in cryptocurrency has a few advantages🕵️♀️
Diversification: The value of cryptocurrency doesn't appear to be correlated with the price of stocks, bonds, or other asset classes. That said, cryptocurrency has only existed for about a decade, so the data is limited in this regard. Theoretically, though, it makes sense that the price of crypto is unrelated to the price of traditional assets.
Return potential: Cryptocurrency has produced extremely strong returns as adoption increases. Most people agree the expected return for a sound cryptocurrency investment is greater than that for stocks.🔥🔥
Additional utility: Unlike stocks, some cryptocurrencies provide utility. Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC), for example, can be used to pay for goods and services. Other tokens may provide access to projects or discounts on a project's services.🚀🚀
But there are some big disadvantages for investors as well:
Limited regulation: There's limited regulation in the cryptocurrency industry, which means you don't have the same protections as you do when investing in the heavily regulated stock market. If your account gets hacked, for example, you could find your investment completely gone without any recourse. If the coin you invest in turns out to be a scam, there's nothing you can do. Furthermore, increased regulation may decrease the demand for some cryptocurrencies, adding a risk to the investment.🪅
High volatility: The prices for cryptocurrency can swing wildly on a day-to-day basis. Such massive price swings can be hard for some investors to stomach🌊🌊
Top cryptocurrencies to consider as a beginner investor🪅🪅
As a beginning cryptocurrency investor, you shouldn't try to find a diamond in the rough. You should get your feet wet with more established cryptocurrencies that have built-out networks to support them. That will allow you to get more familiar with the mechanics of cryptocurrency investing, as well as how it fits into your portfolio.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) is an easy place to start. Every cryptocurrency exchange will support trading in Bitcoin. It's well-established, and you know what you're getting with Bitcoin. It's nothing fancy, just digital cash, but it has a first-mover advantage that had made it widely adopted. That gives Bitcoin a competitive advantage when it comes to being actually usable as a medium of exchange.
Ether (CRYPTO:ETH) is also a good choice for beginner investors. Ethereum's technology is behind most DeFi projects, which use the Ethereum blockchain to execute smart contracts and provide financial services without a central authority. Anytime a user wants to write a smart contract to the blockchain, they'll have to pay Ether to do so. Increased adoption of DeFi applications will lead to greater demand for Ether.
A third option for beginner investors is Cardano (CRYPTO:ADA). Cardano offers an alternative to Ethereum that's designed to be more energy efficient by using a proof-of-stake system to verify blocks on the blockchain. As such, it currently has much lower transaction fees than Ethereum. Additionally, Cardano has a hard cap on the total supply of the token similar to Bitcoin. That means the supply could become constrained in the future, which will drive the price higher.🚀🚀
Making money by investing in cryptocurrencies🔊🔊
Investing in crypto requires you to do your research and be confident enough in your investment to hang on during what's sure to be a wild ride. If you can do that, the payoff could be worth it as the expected returns are higher than most other asset classes.🪙🪙