What’s your excuse for NOT being in crypto?

So I grew up super poor - food stamps, Medicaid, free lunch, no car or laptop in high school, shared a room with my two brothers my entire life until college, pretty terrible childhood and start to life honestly. I have never made more than $15 an hour at any job and had a net worth of $0 in 2016. I have been very fortunate to have had a lot of success with investing in crypto and have now gotten up to a ~$450,000 net worth at 20 (give or take $50,000 every day) with 0.32 ETH ($1380 as of right now but probably $2000-3000 later this year) a month in passive income

I am in a good place now with full ride to non target and should have a summer analyst offer for IB closed within the next two weeks or so. I saw another thread of what people’s net worth was after several years in banking and I was very surprised honestly, not just by how much people had spent, but also by how few were in crypto. 

My question for you guys, is if you haven’t invested in crypto, what’s stopping you? It’s the best performing asset class over the past decade by far, and its fairly obvious to me that crypto will get to a $10-20 trillion market cap by 2025. You don’t even need to buy shitcoins, you can buy ETH and BTC, and you will easily see a 2-3x this year and probably a 10x by 2025. There’s no other asset class which has the potential to 10x your money in such a short time frame, and if you pour your IB salary into crypto, you can reach financial independence very quickly, and can also receive passive income each month by staking cryptocurrency. If you’d rather put your money in the S&P 500 or real estate, that’s fine, but I think it’s a huge mistake to have zero exposure to one of the best performing asset classes in human history. 

 
Most Helpful

Bitcoin is too damn big to make poor people that rich.  Chances are the best performing stock in the 2010's will NOT do as well in the 2020's same as any other decade.  It's main use is a hedge against inflation, which doesn't justify 20 trillion market cap imo.  Not to mention the whole climate change thing.  If you want to get rich you need to find some startup or coin that nobody knows about.

I'm in crypto but I'm not delusional about financial independence or what not.

 

I think Bitcoin won't make poor people rich, but ETH will, and it's much more environmentally friendly once it's proof-of-stake. If you want to get a 50-100x, you probably do need to find a small market cap coin that nobody knows about but Ethereum definitely has a 10x left in it. Obviously, you don't need to go all in, it's just one part of your portfolio, but it's worked out very well for me and I feel pretty confident I will be able to retire with a fat FIRE scenario by the time I'm 30.

 

Yeah back in 2017, people said BTC only had about 5-10x left and look at it now. It seems that crypto gets bigger and bigger every bull cycle. Wouldn't be on here trying to be Nostradamus of the future, but rather speculate. 

 

It's so fucking frustrating how hard it is to make any kind of crypto account and transfer money onto it.  My account couldn't be verified because the bank statement I had to give them as proof of address (!) had a PO box and not a physical address.  Now every shady crypto site under the sun has my social security and just one would let me buy coins

 

Insolvent Monkey

No doubt there's going to be a market crash for crypto, probably later this year or early next, but if Bitcoin is a bubble, then why has it sustained itself and grown stronger for ten years?

I don’t think there will be a widespread crypto crash, but think some cryptos may crash and burn.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

This is my reason - tether

https://cryptonews.com/news/ethereum-s-buterin-says-tether-is-bitcoin-s…;

https://crypto-anonymous-2021.medium.com/the-bit-short-inside-cryptos-d…

Unless there is substantial proof that the currency that people trade crypto with is actually worth 1 USD, I'm not putting my money into it. And no point calling it FUD because the NYAG did find that Tether was unbacked for a substantial period of time. 

The question is then on the 19th, when Tether releases their real balance sheet, how much is the backing in crypto? how much is it in cash / treasuries? 

I am however, indirectly exposed to it via Square (previously via Tesla, potentially through Palantir) which I am not happy about. I like Square but not the asset. 

Array
 

Market cap doesn't matter - what matters is the flow which is all denominated in tether. If you lose tether, you have no flow. No flow = no price discovery and we already know how thin BTC trading volume is. 

I'm not sure how this would have no impact. 

Array
 

GoldenCinderblock

fuck it i just put a grand in eth i dont even know what it is

got some btc idk wtf to do with it

Nice 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

To answer your question - I'm into cashflow - not appreciation - certainly not speculation

but gambling can be kinda fun

heister: Look at all these wannabe richies hating on an expensive salad. https://arthuxtable.com/
 

IncomingIBDreject

I'm very risk adverse.

It's risk 'averse'... 

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"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

The only use in BTC I see is the "digital gold" thesis. To me, that isn't enough to buy. Sure, it could go to $100k+. But if everyone said f it one day, it could get to 0 a helluva lot faster. To me, that's not a gamble I like. Especially taking days like today into account.. if my gold dropped >15% in value in < 12 hours.. I would be pretty upset. ETH has a little more going for it. I like the concept of smart contracts and how it has the potential to change many industries. However, I don't have confidence that ETH will be the winner.. and further I don't understand how use cases would raise the price of ETH. I think that's something I should do more research on.. definitely not proud of not fully grasping. 

 

Putting in money in the bear market is really how you get rich. Right now is a decent entry point - 14% dip for BTC/ETH. The crypto market should crash significantly later this year or early next, but i don’t think we’re in the bubble/euphoria phase just yet.

 

That’s FUD. Yeah bitcoin uses a lot of electricity but so does Christmas lights and appliances left in outlets. Bitcoin uses massively less electricity in comparison to gold mining. Proof of stake cryptocurrencies like Ethereum 2.0 (don’t rely on mining) are much better for the environment. 

 

According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, bitcoin-mining operations worldwide now use energy at the rate of nearly a hundred and twenty terawatt-hours per year. This is about the annual domestic electricity consumption of the entire nation of Sweden. According to the Web site Digiconomist, a single bitcoin transaction uses the same amount of power that the average American household consumes in a month, and is responsible for roughly a million times more carbon emissions than a single Visa transaction. At a time when the world desperately needs to cut carbon emissions, does it make sense to be devoting a Sweden’s worth of electricity to a virtual currency? The answer would seem, pretty clearly, to be no. And, yet, here we are.

Holy fuck.  

 

I do not invest in things I do not understand. I am in the process of learning more, and right now ETH and XRP seem to be interesting. time will tell if I pull the trigger.

I will say this, I view all investments through the lens that Buffett ingrained in me - I'd like to be able to buy something, go off the grid for 10 years, and come back and it's compounded a good return. I do not like investments that require constant attention, so if crypto happens to be a trading asset rather than a long term hold, I'll pass. too early to tell

 

Definitely learn more about the crypto space and please don’t buy XRP, it’s basically an unregulated security and the SEC is cracking down on it (but price will probably continue to go up). For me, ETH is the asset I want to be holding in 2030, I am buying it and trying to forget about it and holding for at least a decade.

 

Insolvent Monkey

For me, ETH is the asset I want to be holding in 2030, I am buying it and trying to forget about it and holding for at least a decade.

Nice 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

It’s not a casino... you are almost guaranteed to win the game as long as you buy and hold BTC and ETH for long enough. If you want the casino, you can gamble shitcoins or literally participate in a decentralized casino, but the blue chips like ETH are a guaranteed win if your time preference is long enough 

 

Insolvent Monkey

It's not a casino... you are almost guaranteed to win the game as long as you buy and hold BTC and ETH for long enough. If you want the casino, you can gamble shitcoins or literally participate in a decentralized casino, but the blue chips like ETH are a guaranteed win if your time preference is long enough 

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"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

I would argue the opposite. in short-term you may make some shocking return because of the hype. but in long-term, crypto is useless. we have world currencies already. they've been functioning effectively for centuries. why would anybody need bitcoin? in long-term all this useless shit must go to 0 or slightly above zero for shits and giggles like Doge.

 

Kevin25

What's Your Excuse For NOT Being In Casino?

Unfortunately the closest casino to me is 4hrs away, so its kind of a pain going there, but I do like live poker - always a good time. 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Feels to me like an unproven asset class with too much noise and hype. Maybe some crypto will replace fiat money but cant understand a market for so many different variations. if any crypto experts want to explain im all ears

 

I find crypto interesting but would like to learn more about it before I make an investment. And I really just don't have time. My combined investments over the last 18 months have shot my portfolio up about 500%, and I have a lot of confidence in my current positions. I have never lost money on a long play, realistically my worst investments go up about 50% anyways, so I figure I'm better off just sticking to that. It's not that I'm stupid--it's more personal preference of how I allocate the tiny amount of time I can spare on investing. I don't even check my portfolio very often because I like to sit back and let em rip. Additionally, my money is tied up in positions with 1-3 year exit time horizons, and I don't want to dip into my cash because I keep ~10% in case of emergency.

The crypto hype is too real now and there will be an eventual tank that kills off a lot of shitcoins and hurts the big ones. Maybe then I'll buy in at a dip, but not sold even then. Again, I'll need to find time to learn. I do believe ETH is pretty neat though. That one has the most real-world potential from what I know. From your comments, seems like you'd agree.

Dayman?
 

The biggest winner of the last 18 months was Microvision, which is currently getting pumped on reddit but I got in at the end of 2019. Turned 20k into about 200, and went back in recently for a short ride and made another 40. Also had positions in Nvidea and Zoom that I exited up about 125% and 175% on respectively. Another position I've liked a lot has been Penn National--even though its nowhere near its all time high, I bought in at around $25 ages ago and need it to get at least back to its 12-mo high or ideally further up before exiting, so I'm in for the long run. Main reason there is because I didn't buy enough, so being up like 25k on a 12k investment isn't really a big W for me. I also like a weed stock, a healthy food/bev stock, and an oil exploration stock that I'm currently in. I tend to take decently sized positions off rip, between 10k and 25k, and sit on them. Most of the earnings from the W's earlier this year are now sitting in growth focused funds I like, which have been doing good so far. 

Dayman?
 

Maybe I can add some color as I've been using / buying BTC since 2014. I think OP is catching some flack in the comments for the way he/she comes off (like a douche), almost as if to say "you are an idiot for not investing". This attitude is very common in the crypto community, to see others who don't understand or have little knowledge as "lesser than". Go figure, these guys are a bunch of nerds.

However, to address the comments that this stuff will go to 0 because we already have "currencies" or whatever that half-assed argument was, is just under-informed. Each project does not serve the same purpose of being a digital P2P payment system. If that was the case then sure, almost all of these would crash and burn. Many of these projects will probably do that anyway if they fail to adopt a user base to their projects, just as any start-up who fails to onboard users or beat competitors will fail. Right now, the gamble is on who is going to have real-world use cases to adopt your project's infrastructure (ahem Ethereum). 

I'm by no means an expert, but have best friends who are fairly well known Devs in the space that have made millions through believing in certain projects and investing early as well as releasing their own projects that solve other specific use cases. 

 

I'll be honest, I have been becoming more and more bearish on cryptos as the time goes. 

It's not an investment so no reason to treat it as such. 

BTC was a libertarian fantasy of a stable currency based on scarcity and quite frankly, it has proved that monetarism and the whole concept of scarcity simply have no grounds in reality. As a currency, it's actually one of the least stable in the world, hence not a reserve of value at any time. Its swings are massive. Early on, I saw venture capitalists going into it, but now that it has become mainstream, it's a mixture of a cult of idiots who mix it with TSLA for no real reason, scream ''ZOOM OUT'' on social media whenever it falls and then the crowd who buys it simply because.. everyone else is doing so. That's the definition of bubble and again, quite frankly, they all deserve to lose their money. The real value of BTC is... zero. It's not even an object, it's an online tag that a lot of people like to have, even though it has no real use. 

Yes, we might even see btc at 100k or 200k in our lifetime, because the crowd can remain crazy for long. It still makes no sense. 

Never discuss with idiots, first they drag you at their level, then they beat you with experience.
 

In a way, that's true. You have legitimate idiots who are never going to sell and that's bullish. 

Never discuss with idiots, first they drag you at their level, then they beat you with experience.
 

I have a tiny amount in crypto but I only invest where I can also receive the added benefit of learning. Most of my money is in our own deals which will deliver better returns + great learning opportunities and the next largest allocation is about to be emerging managers because it's essentially getting paid to learn an asset class from a top performer. IMO people discount the potential for learning too much when they invest, it should be a huge part of your investment decision making as it allows you juice ROI on your own time significantly.

Investing in BTC or some other crypto will not really teach you anything at all that you can take back and use to grow your skill set. I think getting involved as an angel in a specific DeFi co etc would be interesting and provide that level of learning though.

 

C’mon crypto let’s go back to the moon!

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

For the following reasons:

- You can make 2-3x if not 10x returns or way more if you avoid the crashes (these returns are conservative for Crypto...). Just avoid buying high and selling low. Or keep for a few years and don’t trade. 
- I missed out on 30x by pulling too early and only making 30% return 2 years ago. I know this is a terrible reason for investing but in fine risking 50% loss for 10x returns if it’s 50/50

- It does have practical applications with (some) potential to become very widespread

- Real life use is becoming more widespread 

- A shit ton of people are betting on it so even if value short term is driven by bubbles, you can manage if you’re half monitoring 

- If Elon and Draper believe in it, it’s worth taking a look

 

Cryptos looking good today booooiiiiiiii

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

ooo yeah Solana coming back again

1 day chart 

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"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
Brio

Isaiah I'm on Solana cus of you. I better retire soon. 

haha nice 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

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