I'm in college and a millionaire because of crypto. Q&A
I'm a college sophomore at a target, and currently at about $2 million altogether. I've been involved in the Bitcoin community for a couple years now. I cashed out $1 million into fiat, and I still have $1 million invested in crypto currencies. My initial investment was $25K, from selling my car, although I've put smaller amounts of money here and there into crypto. I originally found Bitcoin because I used to play online poker in high school, and some of the sites gave you bonuses for using Bitcoin.
I made the most money from getting into ETH at a good time, and then XRB. Most recently, I got into XRB at around $.60 in early last month, and now it's at around $28-30.
I lost a ridiculous amount of money day trading, and would not recommend it. I thought I knew how to read candlesticks and such, but I'm now convinced that technical analysis is usually not relevant to crypto. Right now, I'm invested in: XRB (60%), WTC (20%), XBY (10%), ENJ (5%), and MOD (5%). This portfolio probably higher risk than what a lot of people would be comfortable with, but I feel more than confident on all of these investments.
New investments on my radar? I'm looking into putting about $100K into BBT soon, which aims to create a decentralized marketplace, has an already-working product, reputable team, CEO has two degrees from Harvard, and the coin has a low market cap of around 12 million. Also putting more into MOD soon, since it's the only cryptocurrency that is immune to a cryptocurrency market crash. Also have my eyes on a couple different promising ICOs, like Birdchain.
Probably don't ask me about mining besides the basics. I'm going to start mining in February or March, since I have a guardian masternode for WTC and am getting a masternode soon for XBY, but am not that knowledgeable about mining yet.
If anyone has any questions about crypto, wants to debate about the viability of crypto, wants opinions on coins, or has anything else crypto-related to ask, feel free to post here.
How did you handle taxes?
If you withdraw a large amount, that always causes alarms with any organization. First, I converted my bank to a commercial business account, so I could have larger amounts insured. I called an accountant, then called my bank to ensure that my money would not be put on hold or anything. And I'm just working with my accountant to pay the insane short-term capital gains tax. I was considering buying property and getting a tax break, but I didn't want to deal with the hassle. Getting audited would be an absolute nightmare so I'm hoping I'm in the clear.
I'm not doing any more withdrawals until next year in December, so I only have to pay the substantially lower long-term capital gains tax.
It’s not whether you withdraw that matters for short term versus long term. If you xyz silly coin to buy abc coin you trigger taxes.
Now the space is the Wild West so might not get caught but you likely owe the full amount now.
I would cash out if I were but your up enough for a nice start in life.
as an accountant your's is fucking you for not being more creative. 1) use an offshore bank its not hard. 2) like kind exchange
I'm going to assume you're not just bullshitting/ trolling here. Given how quickly you've made this large sum and how (relatively) easy it's been, how are you going to find the motivation to work a "normal" job when the crypto gravy train ends?
What exchanges do you reccomend? Currently sitting on a cple grand of bitcoin at a modest gain that I want to put into other cryptos.
Yeah, to be honest I keep thinking about how hard it would be to get this money in the real world, even with a lucrative finance job. It blows my mind that, if I were frugal, I might be able to save 30K a year as an investment banking analyst, when I literally just checked that I'm up 57K for the day.
I think we have at least one more solid year on the crypto gravy train before I would be worried about a serious market correction. If my current investments take off like I think they will, I might go the entrepreneurship path. I have a really great idea I'm actually currently working on right now, which is related to a token that me and my friend are creating. But I'm going to remain serious and try to get banking internships for now, and just hope in the back of my mind that something a bit better works out.
so.... what did you do?
Just depends on what coins you want to invest in. Binance is one of my favorite exchanges, because it's worked so much better for me than Bittrex, and it has a great selection of coins.
What other exchanges do you use? I use Binance currently and don't care for the selection of coins
Thoughts on Coin Base ?
Thoughts on the best resources to research different cryptocurrencies and what to buy? It seems like reddit is largely just filled with people shilling whatever they are holding. Thx
This. What's your research process?
Alright, so here's my research process.
First, it's always important to look at the market cap and supply of coins, and whether or not there will be a burn-off or something similar. Also, look at what exchanges the coin is trading on. These are huge in relation to price, and should be thought about it in terms of your investing goals, and especially look at the supply existing.
Then comes the actual research. I always read the white paper. The first thing I want to know is: what does the coin do and why is it a novel adaption to the crypto space? Usually, if the white paper lacks technical information, this is a red flag. Also, a lot of coins create coins just for the sake of getting funds from an ICO, without really having a strong use-case. So I always ask myself: what is the point of this coin? Could this project be a thing without the coin implemented? Once you read enough white papers, you begin to be able to naturally identify good projects, but what you're looking for is innovation.
Then I look at the team. Who are they and what are their credentials? If you can't find the founders on LinkedIn, that is usually, although not always, a red flag. You want them to have a good mix of coders, but also a strong marketing and business development team. Marketing is huge in this space. Then I look at their sponsors or partnerships, which is a huge factor for adoption. After looking at the white paper, hopefully I have confidence that the coin can perform what it says it can, and carry out its roadmap.
I then go onto the coin's website and look all over the site, especially at the roadmap or upcoming features that might cause some price action. Then I look at the social channels, specifically Reddit. It can be full of trolls, but it also has some good information here and there, and I read the FAQs, and assess the community. Also, I like reading peoples' shills now and again, just to make sure a good opportunity doesn't pass me by. When I research a coin on Reddit, a lot of times I want to read what people say is bad about the coin, because the white paper doesn't always mention the coin's obstacles or weaknesses. If the coin has a lot of hype, that is a big factor, because crypto trades almost exclusively on fundamentals, and the investors in this space are all trying to make money quickly.
So to make it simplified, here are the things I look at: 1. Novelty/Innovation 2. Team/Credentials 3. Use Case/Potential for Adoption 4. Marketing Ability 5. Strengths/Weaknesses/Obstacles 6. Sponsorships/Partnerships 7. Supply 8. Hype
And pigs also have recently grown wings. Saw one flying over my building the other day.
Let me put it this way - any asset which doesn't generate cash doesn't have any "fundamentals" on which to trade. Even those which do generate cash are subject to a great deal of subjectivity in their valuation (notice all P/E ratios are not the same).
Even assets that don't generate cash (computers, refrigerators, cars) have no "fundamental" value - not even the cost of production. The value of the asset is completely subjective - it's what the buyer thinks its worth, which can often be less than the cost of production.
Also, "the investors in this space are all trying to make money quickly" and "trades almost exclusively on fundamentals" are very, very rarely true of the same asset.
What are your thoughts on Rippple?
I think it's a safe investment. I had some for a bit but sold it off. To be honest, the fact that the founder owns 61% of the coins is troubling to me, and it's very centralized, but its partnerships are no joke and I'm sure we'll see it go up over time.
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Are you hesitant at all investing in coins like MOD that serve no real purpose, but rather act as a share of stock instead? I tend to avoid those, but MOD certainly has strong tech, a strong team, and an actual working product.
I used to. I was worried that it wouldn't be legal to hold the coin for those in the US, and I was a bit worried that the coin, which acts and walks like a security, would have trouble getting onto exchanges. But the team has given us all the legal rationale on why they're not a security, and MOD is compliant with all the laws of Switzerland, so I'm not worried.
It does feel weird investing in a coin that serves no real purpose aside form voting rights, and normally I wouldn't, but I figure it's no different than investing in stocks. Going to keep my MOD % relatively low until we get more answers from the team about dividend amount.
Thanks for the response. My concern isn't really about legality, but rather the fact that MOD doesn't offer you the same protections or even ownership rights that a traditional corporation would offer their shareholders.
What are your thoughts on Cardano (ADA)?
+1
What are your thoughts on KuCoin?
The KuCoin exchange is fine, nothing wrong with it. I think it does go under maintenance a lot, at least for XRB, so I probably would try to avoid it if possible but it's safe.
Just before anyone buys BBT based solely on OPs recommendation, the CEO of Bitboost (BBT) only has a Masters of Education from Harvard, not "2 degrees from Harvard" as OP claims.
Which coins are the best to invest in and keep for a long time?
ETH
What are your thoughts on RLC (iexec)? A low market cap and not much attention but their project in decentralized cloud computing and upcoming partnerships seem strong. Similar to golem somewhat, but I believe iexec is doing it better so undervalued for now.
I’m also a freshman at a target that’s been in crypto for over a year now-though with not nearly as much return as yourself mostly because I didn't put in much to begin with. Also working on some projects myself.
a few guys on WSO were recommending XRB in mid-Dec... oh well :-)
I was one of those people lol.
Incoming analyst here - anyone know whether personal trading restrictions for IB employees extend to cryptocurrencies? I know employees typically face a lot of restrictions around trading traditional securities i.e. equities, but not sure how that translates to crypto
No. When I was in IB, we all traded cryptos without restrictions. Stocks on the other hand, even if your group doesn't cover them, almost always require authorization.
What are your thoughts on TRX? What exchange are you using to buy BBT? It doesn't appear to be on binance.
I am not a fan of TRX for a number of reasons. The white paper's lack of technical info is troubling, and the fact that the owner sold 6 billion worth of TRX a few days ago is concerning. There has been a lot of fear, uncertainty, and doubt related to TRX on Reddit lately, and some of it could be misinformation, so maybe I need to do some more research, but I've been staying away up to now.
BBT is on EtherDelta. Also, everyone take what I suggest investing in with a grain of salt, and don't expect overnight gains. BBT's The Block is a working product, but it's in beta, so it's a bit of a medium or long-term hold. With that said, I'm using The Block right now, and it's seriously just beautiful. And they have something called Arbiter for disputes, that can absolutely disrupt Amazon and Ebay. If it goes 10x, it would not even be in the top 100, and I'm expecting this to take off shortly after it goes live, which should be in Q2 or at latest Q3 2018.
dont use etherdelta unless u wanna be scammed by transaction fees. Tried it out myself. total scam
Do you pay your own college tuition now?
No, my parents do not know about crypto. Might tell them sometime. I've kept it quiet to most people other than a couple friends though.
Seriously dude....pay your fucking tuition and buy your dad a rolex. That's sad man.
My guy, tell your parents you're a millioniare and give some back to them. Won't roast you but come on...
p.s. if they're already very rich then forget giving back to them but tell them and become responsible for your own costs
How have your parents not noticed the car they bought you has been gone for years?? They really didn't say anything when some college buddy dropped you off at home on break? Or do you just never go home? lol
Wow, you're so selfish for not helping out your Mom and Pops. You must not like them a lot
He earned it?
I have a few questions as you seem to have some experience in this space:
If you aren't day trading, are you simply buying and holding instead? Or are you still using some other trading technique.
What would you recommend as the best and safest exchange for a new investor? Honestly the majority of exchanges seem sketchy and have poor customer support so I have been unable to determine which one is best.
Which exchange has been able to offer you the most liquidity?
How do you personally determine and seek out quality alt coins to invest in?
Do you see a market correction happening anytime soon with cryptocurrencies as a whole?
I mostly buy and hold. Once I feel I've made enough or when there are some months before any updates that would likely cause price action, I get out. For example, with XRB, I'm staying in until we get a new wallet, new website, major exchange listings, etc. After all this, I expect price to be at around $100-150.
It kind of seems like with crypto, to get a lot of the really small market cap coins that shoot up, you have to deal with sketchy exchanges. The best and safest exchange for a new investor is probably GDAX, but of course you're limited by the 4 coins it currently offers. The second best for this type of person would be Bittrex, as it's a US company.
GDAX, Bittrex, and Binance, or really any exchange that has a lot of volume and lets you do market instead of limit orders.
Went through the process earlier. A huge resource for me is going onto ANN on BitcoinTalk and looking at new coins' posts. For other coins, Reddit is a huge resource, and sometimes I'll just find random coins on CoinmarketCap with low market caps and read the white paper.
No not anytime soon. I think if Ripple surpasses Bitcoin, we'll see a short-term correction. I don't see any kind of lasting, large correction soon though. It's great that the SEC has made it clear that they are not going to ban crypto, and that they're just going to tax it as capital gains. When I was investing last summer, this was one of my biggest worries. The only other inciter of a crash I can think of is an economic recession, but I'm not going to speculate about that.
Thank you so much for answering my questions thougroughly. Encouraging to see that you have experience much success off the buy and hold strategy because that was the exact one I was going to try. What wallets do you use? Do you have a wallet for each individual coin or a multcoin wallet?
EDIT: What are your views on IOTA?
When you purchase at ICO, do you hold for the long term? Or just looking to make quick profits off the initial rise?
It's actually not always an initial rise, although that is the case a lot of times. With ENJ, everyone dumped when it hit the exchanges, and I had 25% my initial investment after it went to exchange. Now I have 4x my initial investment from ENJ because I held. It depends on the ICO, but usually I only invest in projects I believe in, and so I tend to hold investments from ICOs for at least the medium-term. But if there is a huge rise as soon as it hits the exchanges, I definitely might sell and buy back in, unless I think the project is a real gem.
Which ICOs are you looking at right now? What are your thoughts on GEM and DADI?
Also looking at GEM as well.
Been reading about GEM earlier today thanks to someone else suggesting it. Definitely looks like a good project with a strong team. Will probably invest at some point.
Hah congrats bro. Way to get a good start.
You can make money daytrading (I made 4.7% in the span of 30 minutes, then 2.4% scalping them. few other decent trades). If you're a good trader its possible. Half of it IMO is mitigating losses and half of it is pattern reconition/risking it where you think it might break out.
Thoughts on ACT? Seems like an interesting and differentiated project, but no one really seems to be hyping it. They have an upcoming fork on Friday, not sure what to really think of it though.
Don't know anything about it, will read up on it.
How certain are you that the money you've made is due to your cryptocurrency acumen and understanding their underlying factors versus just being lucky and fortunate enough to ride the crypto hype? Not asking to be a dick, but genuinely wondering.
Well I've clearly been good at making good picks. There was no other coin in the last month that went up like XRB did (literally more than x50) . With that said, I am sure that I got very lucky riding the crypto hype. If you look at even shitcoins over the last year, very few people who held onto top 100 coins lost money. So it's a combination of the two. But it's definitely probably more luck and general crypto bullishness than my own acumen.
Yeah, but did you go in XRB expecting it to outperform all the other coins? And respect for saying it's probably luck instead of acumen. I'm only a year above you school wise, but hearing about the crypto market to me sounds very similar to the tech bubble. Someone I know who works in a non-finance industry told me about how during the tech bubble, a lot of colleagues were always checking the market, seeing how their stocks were doing, and thinking they just knew more than most because of how much they were making off the bubble (even though most lost a lot of money). He, on the other hand, recognized that none of these companies had any underlying fundamentals that would warrant the valuations that they were trading at.
With that being said, do you think there's a similarity between the tech bubble and this crypto bullishness?
How would someone be able to invest in smaller cryptos like BBT? Are there certain sites? Also, how does one get involved with ICO's?
YoBit. Sort of sketchy exchange that I can't endorse. You get involved with ICOs by looking on ANN on BitcoinTalk and reading peoples' write ups. If you want to invest, you just go to their website when they have a pre-sale, and they'll usually walk you through the process.
'Grats on your gains op. This isn't a crypto question but what are your plans after college? Are you looking to realize your $2mil and start a business? Seriously though gj, I am a student who also trades (not crypto), and love it when we're all making money.
I'm seriously considering not doing the whole Wall Street thing and starting a business instead if this stuff all works out. I would love to do entrepreneurship and travel. Who knows though.
Not sure if anyone has already suggested this but you should absolutely go see a private wealth manager ASAP. With 1mm+ in the bank, you can easily make 50-100k+ per year just sitting in some portfolios. If you already have another 1mm in crypto, that's fine but you should do your best to save that 1mm that you've converted to fiat.
Haven’t looked into BBT yet, but what’s it’s advantage over syscoin? They sound like pretty similar use cases based on my limited knowledge
I was wondering about this too, wondering if you can sell me on it vs Sys
Anyone care to validate some of the gains they've made with screenshots?
Not to undermine anything you have said, i'm just impressed and sometimes seeing is believing!
actually nvm might not be a good idea to show my XRB public address
Damn! I see! Congrats man. Just recovering from an overseas trip on the finance front, so I'll look to plan some investments. Looking to learn more about the trading mechanisms before getting into it though!
What platform do you use to trade?
What are your thoughts on Bitcoin? It's been taking a pretty big hit over the past few weeks. Do you think it will grow any more? Is my money better off in other cryptocurrencies?
I absolutely think your money is better off in other cryptocurrencies. To name some safe ones, Ripple and Ethereum. I have stayed away from Bitcoin for about a month now, and have no regrets. I think it's only a matter of time before it subsides. And I've personally noticed that there's less and less of a correlation with Bitcoin's price and the price of various alts, which I think is a sign that Bitcoin is losing preeminence in this space.
I think that if XRB gets everything together, it's very possible for XRB to become the favorite trading pair on exchanges, since you can move money around for free and virtually instantly.
😎
Hi OP. I'm looking to put an extremely small portion of family portfolio into crypto, and would like know if there is good fund with broad exposure or, if there isn't, a few good names to toss cash at. This is money I'm happy to lose, but expect decent % in compensation.
To add to the general conversation, I think this crypto bs is the biggest wank since the south sea bubble, but wouldn't turn down some quick gain (or loss) on a small amount of capital.
How close are we to a time when you can no longer throw a dart at a print-out of coinmarketcap and not be profitable?
Are you concerned with market cannibalization for investment returns?
In your opinion what is the "next big thing" in crytpo?
What is your remaining $1million invested in?
Delta or Blockfolio?
To be honest, if you throw a dart at a top 100 coin and hold, you will probably make money. I don't accredit my gains to my acumen insomuch as investing in a bull market, although I know that I've made some objectively great picks a couple times in the past.
I think market cannibalization is a problem at times, because there are so many investors chasing fast returns that they leave non-popular cryptos with good tech in the dust for the new flavor of the week. That's one of the reasons I consider perception so much when I evaluate new investments.
In 2017, the "big thing" was decentralization and ASIC-resistance, so coins like Vertcoin. The "next big thing" in crypto for 2018 is DAG coins, like XRB, IOTA, ByteBall, etc. Also, OMG comes out with the Plasma network coming in Q3 or Q4, and I think that will disrupt the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem if they can pull it off, and they have the funds to do so.
Nothing right now, going to meet with a wealth manager next week and get into some safe investments.
Delta. I hate Blockfolio ever since the last update.
Thanks for the insight!
“Don't confuse brains with a bull market”
Is no one else troubled by the fact that the biggest exchanges were letting people buy during hte big rally buy were having "glitches" when people were trying to sell?
What are you implying? That because of the instability of the trading platforms, one shouldn't trade at all? It certainly is concerning, but it is another risk associated with the process. Anyone day trading this stuff has to be cognizant of the extreme risks they are taking, given the daily, even hourly volatility. Anyone who is invested for the long haul will not be concerned.
Yea just a simple risk, sell limits and 10 day waiting periods to get your money out make me fell so warm and fuzzy with the markets. These exchanges do not have enough money to actually fulfill sales orders.
What exchange do you use to buy/sell XBR?
google.com
following
Hey, thanks for your post. I have made a fair amount through crypto trading as well, and also lost a decent percentage through day trading. Do you mind sharing what platform you plan on using to trade BBT? Do you have any thoughts on a long-term hold on Ripple/Ethereum?
He had mentioned that it is currently on Etherdelta. I also use this exchange and can warn you ahead of time that it sucks ass - horrible interface. I 100% recommend watching a YouTube tutorial before transferring funds to it. FYI - it's all ETH / coin, there is no ability to buy with BTC or LTC.
That being said, it offers plenty of coins before they hit the bigger exchanges, allowing you to get in early.
Thank you for this
100% this. Etherdelta is terrible. I know that I'm costing myself some returns by waiting for coins to hit bigger exchanges, but my experience with Etherdelta has just been so bad that I avoid it altogether.
Yes I just heard that I should add Ripple, please give any thoughts you may have!
Can you post all of the exchanges you currently use and your general thoughts on each (how safe they are)? I saw you mentioned Binance and Etherdelta for small caps
GDAX, Bittrex, and Binance are all easy to use and are as safe as it gets. EtherDelta is garbage, but sometimes when a coin is offered on so few exchanges, you have to make do and put up with shitty exchanges. If I can, I just use those three above, mostly Binance, but I have had to open accounts on random different ones to buy very specific, small cap coins.
I thought bittrex closed to US investors?
Also what wallets do you recommend?
I agree that EtherDelta is trash. Everyone should stay away if possible. 2 questions for you my friend:
Just cut the shit and tell us what coin to buy so we get rich really quick.
Just kidding.
But not really at all.
Basically everyone's sentiments. I've gotten on binance and sold all my BTC for some ETH and other more obscure coins today. The fees are outrageous though.
With Binance coin, aren't fees pretty low?
when lambo??
It's all about dogecoin guys. BUY BUY BUY
ur a genius
😅😅😅
Is this some sort of attempt at viral promotion for BBT
Thoughts on ZRX and FUN?
It wasn't relevant to 18th Century Chinese commerce until it was.
Roughly when did you first get involved in the cryptocurrency ecosystem?
What do you think about pascal coin competing with iota and raiblocks?
Deletable blockchain seems like an interesting idea, but I don't have the tech knowledge to give it proper consideration. Anyone else got thoughts on Pascal Coin?
Looks like Binance and Bittrex are not accepting any new users. These exchanges seem to be the main / trusted ones that enable users to trade some of the alt coins as you mentioned. Are there other safe ways to buy right now while both exchanges are down for new users? Separately what do you think this will do to volume once they are opened back up again? Seems to be a money making opportunity if you ask me... Did some digging and there are tons of threads of people being waitlisted to buy some of these alt coins because of this.
Was actually thinking of putting some into XRB; might do more research and actually do it after reading this thread.
Also what are your thoughts on XMR?
You have a twitter we can follow on your buy / sell activity?
No, might create one and update though. Also thinking about making an anonymous Youtube channel to talk about coins, since I'm pretty decent at editing and such. Will update post if this happens.
Crypto noob here, but is coin-base not thought highly of? Or is just that the fees are higher?
Fees are crazy and totally unneccessary. You can literally transfer your fiat from coinbase to GDAX after it is deposited (it's their exchange) and then you just trade directly on the exchange for negligible fees.
Oh ok, that makes sense, thanks.
Congrats on the success!
What are your thoughts on Chainlink? One of the ones that seems like there's actually a compelling differentiated use case for.
I'm a huge fan of Chainlink. I was invested in it a couple months ago, but it was just too early in its development and I couldn't see any price action anytime soon so I got out of it. I think it has a really strong use case, and good partnerships: SWIFT, Cornell's IC3, etc. I also really like how unique the tech is.. there isn't really anyone else attempting this sort of project. It looks like we'll get a testnet in Q2, and then hopefully a date for the main net release. Definitely going to try to put money into it within the next month. Buying LINK for at around or under a dollar is a steal in my opinion.
Yeah I think this is an interesting long term hodl with aggressive/speculative growth money, don't know if it will moon to lamboland but yolo, right?
nice one
bruh how did you know WTC was gonna pop? r u a wizard?
Knew it was only a matter of time. Expecting the real gains to be had in February or March, once the main net release happens. A huge amount of the supply is locked up because of guardian masternodes, so incremental increases are exaggerated in either direction, so good news can easily send this coin soaring in my opinion.
What's the most liquid and most secure way to purchase WTC? Currently hold ETH and LTC on Coinbase. I tried transferring my LTC from Coinbase to Binance, but it's not working. Hopefully there's a better way?
What are your thoughts on Bitcoin Cash?
Not a fan, don't particularly hate it either. From what I know, it's just a cash cow for Roger Ver. I think it could be made obsolete too if the Lightning Network ends up working as it's supposed to, and coins like LTC, XRB, and XRP already really make it useless from a tech perspective in my opinion.
Nice day today on WTC eh?
So if someone wants to get into the coin space now should she/he read anything firstd to get a basic knowledge on cryptocurrency and how they work or directly try and develop a research process?
Thank you for the post. I had some friends try to get me on Ethereum awhile back and these days it's all they do when we hang out. I have always been a fan of blockchain since 2015 but never invested. From what I gathered reddit might also be a place to start but do you (or anyone here) have any recommendations on how to begin learning and investing?
For one's first big career jump, there are a lot of things going on psychologically. Make sure that you have proper systems of coping mechanisms (stress relief) intact (gym, sports, arts, hobbies etc). These hours of the day spent on stress relieving activities are essential for this period for you. Ghandi said for his difficult days, he spent not one hour in mediation, but two. I would recommend the same for you. I'm not saying you have to do meditation, but whatever coping mechanism works for you and that you enjoy. Develop an emphasis of how much 'therapy' you will need over the day to master your activities. Spend some extra money to pamper your body or mind if needed. Nutrition and sleep are paramount as well during this time. I'm not saying to ax double cheeseburgers forever, but this particular phase of your life needs a bit of caution and preparedness so that you may reach the next stage, whatever that may be.
Nice job so far and good luck.
What do you think about ChangeCoin?
What would be really interesting for me is where you are looking for news on the coins you are invested in and also on the market perception. Assuming that also a lot of investments are coming from Asia, do you feel reasonably well informed about the current developments in the market? Any good pages you'd definitely recommend to check regularly?
I definitely consider both the coins themselves and the market perception. In general, I'm looking for strong market perception and confidence. There are exceptions, where you can find undervalued assets with great tech at a good price because of fear and uncertainty. For example, when I found Walton, everyone was calling it a scam for no reason, other than the fact that it came out of Asia, and had a few translation errors in its white paper, so I was able to get in at a bargain. In general, with investments coming out of Asia, you want to apply extra scrutiny. I feel reasonably well-informed about current developments in the market, and I'm always trying my best to stay ahead of the curve, but right now I would say that I'm more just waiting for my current investments to materialize than searching for new opportunities.
I check all the main news sites regularly, like Coin Telegraph and Reddit.
First off congratulations.
But lets not forget that this is a stranger and hasn't shown any proof
so do not get too involved with this
https://imgur.com/2T7RdtA (have more on exchange that i'm moving over, but this is worth around $800K USD
https://imgur.com/hPoHIZC (from a couple days ago)
OP thanks for uploading proof but it says pic has been deleted.
Edit: OP delivered and is the real MVP.
What wallet is the second photo? Looking for a secure one that stores a lot of alts and continues to update my portfolio value like you have there.
No need to show proof - I recommend you remove it, it only opens you up for problems.
SmartThinker
He's full of shit. He wrote about how he is investing 15k of his families money into Bitcoin and turned it into 50k two months ago. Story doesn't add up
Actually it could still add up believe it or not. 2 months ago XRB was around the price he mentioned $0.60, if he invested the full amount into XRB he would have purchased 83,333 units. XRB hit an ATH of $33, even if we assume he missed selling there but sold before the crash at $25, he still made $2MM.
This goes to show you that people willing to take risks can be rewarded, or alternatively, destroyed.
Do you understand both proofs and software engineering? If not, how do you evaluate if the premise any individual idea/coin is based on is both sound (the math, for example, that Ripple uses to solve the Byzantine Generals Problem) and if it will scale (the engineering)?
How do you evaluate the longer term geopolitical and regulatory risks inherent with any tech that interacts with the financial system?
Most are coins are tokens with use cases limited to their particular blockchain - i.e. Ripple - how do you gauge their value?
These coins don't generate cash flows, so how do you even value them? If you're saying they're currency, how do you price them?
traderlife BobTheBaker joey joe joe shabadoo Aerfally1 Masterz57
Thanks for sharing you insights mate and congrats on the profits.
When you say you like the technology do you think that by investing in the coin you are also investing in the technology? e.g ethereum and ripple have great technologies behind it which some big FS organizations are already using but does that mean the respective coins are going to be adopted?
If investing in the coin doesn't necessarily mean you are backing up the technology then are you aware of any ways to invest in the company developing the tech rather than the coin itself?
Thank you!
This is awesome and I honestly recommend you cash out a little more, especially since almost all of your gains are probably short term right now. XRB has dropped 30%+ from ATH so you probably lost a little bit there. You probably know this but investing 100K into BBT will significantly move the needle, while that is fine, be prepared to buy your first and last unit at nearly 2x difference. This can be avoided if you break up your buys into smaller transactions. Be careful on EtherDelta a lot of people make mistakes I assume you are pretty experienced and will be fine. Before you read below, you should know I am really involved in the crypto space, am making a website for it, and am heavily, although not to your level, invested in it. But taking a objective view of things, read below.
I will say this, I don't think 2018 will be the same gravy train as 2017. I have made these comments many times before but here is why.
1. Increasing regulation across the globe is continuing to hurt the growth of crypto. This won't stop crypto, the stock market has been regulated forever and it grows, but it will definitely slow the insane gains.
2. Dilution of coins do to the surging rate of ICOs, funds that do flow into the crypto space usually flow in through BTC, ETH, & LTC. Now they might start to flow into others like BCH & NEO. Either way, people are going to have far too many projects. Most of the recent price explosions are because all the funds flowed towards a few of the most shilled coins. Now there is more to shill
3. The exchanges literally cannot handle the pressure and have on and off turned off registration. This literally limits the growth ability of the coins. While this will be alleviated, it is a sign that there are issues now, and these issues put a negative light on the crypto industry as a whole
4. If you remove the last 5ish months of 2017, the gains in crypto aren't that great. LTC sat around $15 for literally 4/5 years. BTC for nearly 5 years floated between $200 and $400. 90% of the other coins either didn't exist or weren't traded. Because of this the flood of new money is and was expecting this intense growth. Some people saw it, others didn't. Without this incredible growth continuing to occur, people won't keep flowing into it. It's almost like a self fulfilling prophecy where the growth drives additional investment.
5. There is significantly less FIAT in crypto than many people think. The $700BN figure on CMC is not the amount of FIAT (I am sure you already know this) The volume indicator is also incorrect because it essentially quadruple counts. It counts the buy and sell volume, on both coins. When you trade BTC for Coin A. BTCs volume increases on the buy & the sell, so does Coin A's volume. The crypto market is very fragile and it's why we see such flash crashes
6. No major institutional players want to get into the market quite yet. There may be a shop here or there that gets in, but the liquidity, exchange issues, and unclear regulation and laws make it difficult. Additional it goes against most investment agreements. Also if they do get in, it will be a top 3 liquidity coin they invest in. You may know this but GS isn't going to put $10K into some unknown coin and hope it 100x's.
7. Companies that are looking at blockchain technology realistically are not utilizing the coin. A ton of banks came out and said they will not us the XRP token, but may use the technology. As people realize this more and more the idea behind being a token owner goes away. What good is the token when it has no voting rights, no revenue share (dividends), no growth because the technology is open source, provides directions on how to use it via the white paper and free.
8. Most of the cryptos have failed to deliver and this will continue to sink in to peoples thoughts. On ICO/in the white paper they are great technologies and ideas but they fail to deliver. Additionally, the concepts are getting outrageous now too, more like the dotcom bubble. Did you see the crypto hotel? The first ever blockchain hotel. Hotel's don't need blockchain.
9. A majority of the projects are actually 100% useless, FIAT is great to be utilized in place of most of the technologies, and for other ones preexisting technologies work. There are some cryptos with solid purpose and these are the real ones worth investing in.
I want to point out that I love cryptos and am a decent size investor (no where near you, bit big for me). I just wanted to provide my reasonings for why I think the market will be slower in 2018 than 2017 by a significant amount. During 2017 the market cap increased by 5000%. If this happens again the crypto market would be a $35 trillion dollar market. I do not think that can or will happen. I think we will see triple the market cap at best. That does not mean it limits gains to 2/3x because coins move independently of market cap obviously, but it will definitely be more difficult to find them and invest in them.
Sorry for typos/grammatical errors. It is 3 AM and I am tired. Side note, anyone who wants to get involved in the website with me let me know and I will provide more details about it and how you might be able to get involved!
Which crypto are you invested in?
I have recently consolidated due to the changing market tides. I am currently in NEO, USDT, and DBC. NEO has made me a lot of money and also pays out dividends, DBC is highly speculative gamble, USDT is my money on the side waiting to jump in when I see an opportunity I like.
My recent trades/results (Last 3/4 weeks)
•400% Gain REQ (Got in at .25 sold over $1) •100% Gain TNB (Got in at .08 sold at .20) •120% Gain NULS (Got in at $3 sold at $6.5) •60% Gain BNTY (Got in at .30 sold at .48) •600% Gain XRB (Got in at $4.50 sold at at blended $27 [sold half at $32 half at $24] •30% Loss PRL (Got in at $2.8 sold at $2)
Currently: •30% Loss DBC •Flat (Obviously) USDT •10% Gain NEO
Now while the gains all look really nice, pretty much everything purchased in mid/late December went flying up early in the new year. I am not necessarily the best picker there is, but I do have a strategy I follow to pick what coins to throw money at which usually tends to work.
I agree with some of your overall observations of flaws in the crypto space, like the fact that so many projects don't deliver, and derive value not from use but from what they promise their tech will do. A lot of companies are promising to use coins or tokens in apparently strong partnerships, but this is in the relatively near or far future, and understandably brings some questions as to the coins' current value. I'd imagine that these partnerships are already priced into the current price, and failure of these partnerships to deliver in the way that's anticipated could lead to a sell-off. There are so many partnerships with crypto currencies right now though that really don't come into fruition until 2018, so I remain confident about the future, because at the very least this means greater institutional money entering the space.
The fact that institutional investors are not currently involved, but are considering getting involved (e.g. Goldman Sachs, Mark Zuckerberg) is a huge sign to me that this might be the year of even greater institutional and mainstream adoption. Regulation will slow gains, but not overly so, because regulation also grants a greater degree of legitimacy to the crypto space, and will likely attract a greater number of larger investors.
The exchanges not being able to handle the pressure is a good sign to me, as it's just indicative of growing pains. The exchanges make way too much money not to resolve these issues in a timely manner, and I don't think these issues have casted a negative light on the crypto space as a whole, especially when mainstream media doesn't bother talking about many more exchanges other than Coinbase.
I don't think that the concepts are getting outrageous, and I wouldn't bother writing off the idea that "hotels don't need blockchain." I read about a coin the other day that cuts out the middleman in the hospitality industry, greatly cutting costs. If there's value objectively being created, or saved, because of the application of blockchain, then there's a future in those projects.
Just my $0.02. I'm not going to make any concrete predictions about growth in 2018, but I think we're poised for a lot of growth in the future.
Cheers
I believe you, but I haven't actually heard of any real agreements to use tokens currently in existence. Can you point me towards some, because I would love to look into them. Most of what I hear/see is hear say/some random guy who works at a company posting a tweet, but not a formal partnership.
While I do agree here, Mark Zuckerberg is looking to create his own crypto, so this wouldn't do anything to pre-existing crypto's. Goldman Sachs may be looking at it, but would most likely use some sort of derivative or synthetic investment directly with a counter-party rather than actually buying the underlying.
I agree it adds legitimacy, but some of that regulation will cut down on scam/illegitimate coins such as TRON which bring the highest returns. So in my opinion, it will significantly cut down on the upside possibilities. A lot of the insane returns seen on CMC website are literally pump and dumps from telegram groups. I have spent my fair share in telegram groups analyzing these pump and dumps, they can literally make a coin go 2-3x in an hour. Most of the time the group owners pre-buy and sell when they advertise it in their group.I agree it hasn't casted a negative light, but the space has lost $300BN market cap from it's all time high recently. In addition it's having tons of trouble moving forward right now. To me this is basic market mechanics. Over the last week I have made a pretty decent profit regardless of all this though.
This is a perfect example of the fact that crypto currencies themselves are useless, and the technology is where the benefit's are. Additionally a lot of companies can just use their own closed POS system. That being said, my issue with the "Blockchain Hotel" is this, if your largest selling point at a hotel is that you use blockchain, then get the fuck out. I want a comfy bed, and I don't want to sleep on top of a bunch of computers. It's like the companies adding blockchain to their name and exploding on the stock market, or Kodak's attempt and trying to live. People are using the term blockchain as a lifeline or attempt to gain attention. Cutting out the middleman is great, and blockchain/lattice/tangle has it's area. But for people to think (and I am sure you have seen this places) that it belongs and is the only solution to every problem is just ignorant. I would say a solid 7/10 examples people have given me for how a blockchain is used, I have been able to counter with a current pre-existing technology. The key here is 7/10 and not 10/10, there are definitely awesome use cases where this technology should exist.
Right now we have like 10+ different privacy coins, 10+ different currencies, 10+ different platforms/technologies (blockchain is actually old at this stage of the game).
Also, the entire concept of decentralization has a lot of costs and it's never appropriately discussed. A lot of crypto is lost due to people losing seeds/keys, the anonymity provides an easy way for theft, with POW chains the miners have a lot more control than people give them credit for, in POS chains whales can manipulate the voting and ledger if they deem to, XRP is centralized and a top 3 currency right now, NEO is centralized and a top 10. Centralization also has costs but when you spend time in the crypto space, you hear one sided arguments, all the pros of decentralization and all the cons of centralization.
Enjoy chatting with someone knowledgeable on the subject, let me know via PM if you have Discord or something to chat more (also reply here of course!)
Do you think the crypto market will grow even bigger or the bubble will "burst" eventually? I have invested some of my savings into crypto but I'm not sure I'll ever make even $10k from it...
Why do assume there is a bubble? The magnitude of the market is still much smaller than the dotcom bubble. Some of the projects actually are legitimate. If you ask me, things are just getting started.
How long do you recommend holding XRB for? do you have a rough idea of what the ceiling may be?
The reason for the recent price decline has been related to exchange issues, as all the exchanges have temporarily frozen withdrawals, bringing about panic. There is going to be a listing on Binance soon, which has about 20x more volume than where it's currently listed, and there's a fix for these exchange issues coming early this week. There is a mobile wallet, better user interface, new website, and light wallet coming soon, so I'm very bullish about the future of XRB. Long-term, I think it's very possible that we'll see XRB become a default trading pair on exchanges, assuming all of the exchange-related issues are resolved. I'm probably going to take some profits at $100, and would recommend holding at least until then, but it's definitely possible for the price to go much higher.
Ironically I sold out of my last half of XRB 3 days ago to buy NEO, best decision I could have made. It was definitely an obvious stroke of luck, but if I go back into XRB now it will be at double what I left from it. I intend to wait until XRB is on Binance to go back in because I can see it falling a little bit more in the mean time. (Currently at ~$19.75)
OP - Familiar with the ERC20 token BLUE ( https://www.etherblue.org/ )? They are doing some interest things in the security / wallet spaces. Curious to hear your thoughts.
Not familiar with it until now, but I think this is a great project. Better security and verification for smart contracts is definitely something we need in the crypto space, and I like the idea of enhanced wallet security, and assurance that your funds can't be stolen even if the private key is found out, and I think it could allow for more adoption by institutional investors. I need to read the white paper more thoroughly since I just skimmed it, but this seems like a great project, so thanks for sharing it.
If you have 2 mil. in assets and have not created an offshore company yet, then there are two options: 1) the whole story is bulls**t, 2) you accountant is doing it wrong.
In the process of creating offshore account. There's a ton of paperwork involved and I've been busy with finals.
I have no idea why everyone wants you to create an offshore account. $2M is not what it used to be and realistically $600K-$800K is probably going to the taxman.. You should focus on your finals, you have done well for yourself and in my opinion have made a ton of smart moves. Keep at it.
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