Cryptocurrencies are undoubtedly a trendy topic and are becoming more and more known due to their reputation of providing great returns and that it is a bull market, but... are they really profitable?
The answer to this question depends on the financial education we have. I already commented that, in general, society has low financial education, and it does not matter who the person works, whether it is a student working as a college paper writeror a top manager of a pharmaceutical company. For any investment, we must know the basic concepts and the risks associated with it. The "crypto" world is quite complex for someone who knows nothing about the subject. Some words have been used to describe various situations that occur in this market, making it very complicated to understand how this world works. Therefore, I will explain some basic aspects of this peculiar market in case you hesitate to invest. Currently, there are numerous "exchanges" to trade cryptocurrencies. They are websites where you can buy in euros and convert them to "Stable Coin," which are currencies linked to the dollar and therefore stable (the most common are USTD and BUSD).
With these coins, you can choose from many "Altcoins" (alternative currencies to Bitcoin) and speculate with them or keep them long-term. You can even have them in a kind of remunerated account that gives you interest in the form of cryptocurrency. This is called "staking." Once we have mastered these websites and have invested a small amount to start with, we see that it is a tremendously volatile market. Prices constantly vary with very strong ups and downs (Dips and bumps).
So, what strategy should we follow to get a return? Well, on the one hand, we have Bitcoin. This currency is the best known and, in October 2021, reached its ATH of $67,000 (the highest point or historical maximum). We can choose to invest in Bitcoin, hoping that it will continue to rise and assuming that there will be times when it will also fall quite a lot, or we can opt for "Altcoins," which are alternative currencies, choose a project that we think will have a future and keep them for a few years in staking.
Regarding these alternative currencies, we have to take into account that there is a great variety, and we should not fall into the "meme coins," which are cryptocurrencies without any project behind them that rise or fall in value depending on the "FOMO" (euphoria) that is generated around them.
With this currency, we can invest a small amount and "float" (hold) it to see what happens over time. It is true that sometimes these currencies explode and generate a lot of profitability but with a lot of associated risk. "Shiba Inu" or "Doge" are examples of these meme coins.
Therefore it is a complicated market, and I recommend you not to start investing without knowing how it works because this market is not regulated. There are many cases of scams with cryptocurrencies in which the complaints do not help much, and you can not recover your cryptocurrencies.
Of course, there are cases of people who have invested in this world and in 3 days have doubled their investment, but this is crazy. These people have simply taken a very high level of risk and got lucky. This is comparable to playing roulette; you may win a lot or lose everything. As well as these cases of big winnings we also have many cases of people who have lost everything not to mention the scams.
This market can be very profitable, but first, we need to learn how it works. As with the investment funds that I discussed in another post, we must use the strategy of "Buy and hold" (buy and hold). This is the key to any investment and more in this market that follows an upward trend because more and more people want to enter, making prices rise. In 2010 a Bitcoin had a value of 0.03 dollars, and now it is around 60,000. That is, the profitability in these 11 years has increased by 200,000,000%.
We will invest the money we do not need and can afford to lose. We should avoid "trading" (buying and selling in the short term) because, besides causing anxiety, it can be very dangerous if we do not understand much about the subject.
As for the chosen currencies, we can opt for Bitcoin since its trend is upward and its value is expected to continue to rise, or we can opt for alternative currencies previously knowing the project they support. There are currently several projects with a great future ahead, and can be a good investment option.
Choose a safe exchange and always have small amounts in stable currencies (USDT, BUSD) to buy. Remember that there is no regulation, and there have been cases of loss of currencies on these websites, although it is unlikely and not common.
A good investment portfolio can be a combination of index funds with cryptocurrencies always giving more priority to the funds and having some money in cryptos to "see what happens". Buy and hold! "Stay the course"!