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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.
Comments (244)
How did you handle taxes?
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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.
Yeah I know coin-to-coin transactions are taxed now. I'm going through my buy and sell history and working with my accountant to come to a final figure that I need to pay. Definitely not cashing out anytime soon. Expecting to be much, much richer by this time next year.
This is a trading market and not an investing market. Even if I presume crypto is a real thing which to be honest now they are just white papers and no real businesses serving a purpose. The crypto that is a game changer might not even be invented yet. I still remember amazon trades like 150 in 2000 and $3 in 2004. The time to make investments will not be today
I'm not holding for the end of time, but right now is the time to make medium-horizon investments in my opinion. I agree there'll be a very serious correction at some point, but that time won't be anytime soon.
Doesn't feel like investing now. They haven't built out a purpose yet. It's jnvestjng in white papers.
If real some day can do investment now it's just guessing.
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
No shit 1031 my friend.
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As an accountant you should know that like kind exchange doesn't apply to cryptos.
Hiding the transactions offshore runs legal risks
Like kind doesn't apply to crypto. In similar case law, the court has already ruled that an exchange of gold for silver coins does not qualify for like-kind. If that doesn't apply, then I can't see how crypto will.
I haven't seen anything saying cryptos have been ruled on and it's not like gold or silver. It's either more like stocks (that's how ICO's are marketing coins) or it's something entirely new and different and thus hasn't been ruled on. While I do know that there are limits on 1031 for investments you can exchange the coins for stock in a company you set up, thus getting a higher cost basis on the stock and a reduced tax rate.
Given that securities are blatantly carved out from 1031, arguing that coins are like stocks is not an argument that they may be 1031 eligible.
Unless something earthshattering comes down the pipes, I think the consensus is pretty well formed here.
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.
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 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.
Yeah I meant to say trades almost exclusively based on news and perception. Not sure why I wrote fundamentals.
You're really silly as well if you think equities trade off of P/E ratios, and valuations.
To quote myself "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)."
And in the long run, they do trade on valuation. Line up logarithmic 30 year charts of earnings growth and share price. You'll notice they match very closely for almost all companies - with deviations along the way (sometimes for several years).
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.
This is basically a great scam way to get a hold of large chunks of assets with other peoples money with out the oversight that is attached to things like mutual funds. It almost screams scam.
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Yup. My thinking exactly. The thing is, some of these coins actually do have legitimate teams and solid tech, hence the willingness of people to still invest.
Teams and tech don't cover for bad legal clawbacks and a sketchy idea. The smartest man in the world can get suckered into building the best tech for a scam idea.
Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays
Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
When OP says "legality" he's talking about securities laws, which is exactly what you're talking about when you say "the same protections or even ownership rights." This is the problem with all of the exchanges right now, and why Bitcoin drops every time a country changes their regs. Nobody knows what to do with these or ICOs yet.
What are your thoughts on Cardano (ADA)?
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.
Im currently in XRP, XLM, and REQ.
I saw your comment on Ripple above- any thoughts on XLM or REQ? Im looking to hold for a few months and hopefully not lose my shirt. Just trying to buy and forget about it but days like the past few where a lot of coins are red make me second guess sometimes.. I rode the Litecoin wave for a bit and cashed out and diversified into the above while taking some profits as well.
When is it time to sell, if a coin is dropping? What % loss would you sell and accept your loss if at all?
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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?
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 :-)
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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.
but buy your mom something nicer
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:
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?
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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?
I knew as soon as I saw that it was fee-less and not on any major exchanges that it was bound to at least go x10. That's the thing about investing in a lot of these smaller coins: most investors aren't willing to use sketchy exchanges, so if you're willing to put up with them, you can get in at a better price.
I definitely think a lot of people think they're experts, even though almost everyone has been making money. I think there are similarities to draw, but the market cap of the dot com bubble when it burst was much, much higher (roughly 6 trillion) than the current market cap of crypto (600-700 billion). Although normally I wouldn't compare stocks and currencies, crypto currencies, by their nature, are bound to have a larger market cap than securities, and so I think we'll see crypto well exceed 6 trillion in total market cap before ever seeing what I would describe as a serious crash.
Gotcha. Hope you keep crushin it man
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.
I'm almost a bit worried that there'll be a recession sometime soon. But yeah I'll definitely go see a private wealth manager soon. If I could make even 30K from having it sitting in some portfolios, that would cover all my expenses.
If you're worried about a recession, you can tell your wealth manager to make a smaller allocation to stocks. Anyway you're so young even if there's a 20% drawdown in the neat future it's not really going to matter that much.
Alright. Also, how do you feel about buying real estate right now? I was thinking that if I make some more money from crypto investments, I might try to buy a small studio apartment in either LA or NYC as an investment, but I don't know.
Congrats on your success! I read somewhere a common mistake is parlaying a fortune made in one project, into a completely different venture. I'm not saying it can't work out, but more people blow the initial windfall trying. Elon Musk is now a success, but during the recession he was so overextended that he almost lost all his money. I would recommend a safe allocation of municipal bonds and defensive dividend paying stocks. You should return around 3% with little risk. Your real estate idea sounds good too.
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.
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?
Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays
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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.
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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.
Can you please expand on this?
Yes I just heard that I should add Ripple, please give any thoughts you may have!
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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?
No it's not. You are mistaking that for another crypto exchange called Bitfinex.
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?
talking about the fees I paid for coinbase and for the transfer from coinbase to binance
when lambo??
It's all about dogecoin guys. BUY BUY BUY