? The Discovery Path of Crypto and Bitcoin Mania ?

Dear Traders,

There is a lot of attention for Bitcoin and the hype around it in the past months.

Financial institutions are warning people to be careful due to the fear of a new bubble whereas other experts are talking about the start of a new era.

Which is true? Or is it perhaps both?

How Bitcoin Book Changed my Perspective

I started following Bitcoin seriously at the beginning of 2016 after reading Bitcoin’s already extensive history in the book “Digital Gold: The Untold Story of Bitcoin” by Nathaniel Popper.

Till then, Bitcoin seemed like a bubble to me… Perhaps similar to the Dutch Tulips mania and bubble in 1637. Of course, there are many other examples in the world’s history of overpriced assets bursting quickly.

The book, however, made me open up to the idea of cryptocurrencies, although I remained a reluctant observer. Slowly but surely, I started to think about perhaps taking a small risk and buying Bitcoin. Price was hovering around the $500-600 and I thought that it could be worth it.

Days passed by but I (unfortunately) didn’t take any action. Suddenly at the end of 2016 price spiked towards $1000 and I told myself that it would be better to wait for another retracement. The pullback to the 500-600 zone, however, never occurred.

Price did retrace to the $750 zone on January 11-12 2017 but it never looked back since then and it kept setting new highs regularly during the entire year.

My own vision of Bitcoin started to slowly change too. In 2016 I opened up to the idea that Bitcoin or a cryptocurrency in general could be viable in the long run but I was still rather skeptical.

The balance between skepticism on the one hand and trust on the other hand slowly but surely shifted. It started to seem less likely to me that the concept of cryptocurrencies would suddenly, magically disappear. One crypto could rise and another could fall but could the entire concept fully crash?

In the past I was quite convinced that it would, now I wasn’t sure. Although I was close to buying in the summer of 2017, I finally bought my first cryptocurrencies in the fall of 2017 but only with the smallest of risks when compared to my assets. So far, it’s really more like a longer-term hedge, just in case cryptos boom another year or more.

If you are interested in knowing more, it could be good to read the pros and cons of trading Bitoin.

Bitcoin and Crypto Frenzy

My personal interest in cryptos started to increase even more so when I realized that friends around me, who thus far never showed much interest in trading, started to talk about trading, cryptos and Bitcoin.

Forex trading never sparked much attention with them but cryptos certainly changed their perspectives. I was a bit baffled why cryptos dominated their attention so much. What was the difference, both have currencies in their name?

I found it interesting to see how this phenomenon was impacting other non-Forex and non-financial friends. In all honesty, I was wondering whether that much enthusiasm was warrented but it did open my eyes for this phenomenon.

The question still remains: is it a bubble? Or the start of a new era and “fuel” for a new “post-capitalism” sharing economy….? Many people already have already made up their mind. I would cautiously say that this could be the start of a new phase in the long run but perhaps less in the short-term. Will there be a phase where decentralized cryptocurrencies are globally integrated and accepted as new currencies and payment methods? Only time will tell I guess.

Of course, Bitcoin is more famous due to all the attention in the media, but besides Bitcoin there are many more coins which have possibilities to grow. These are called the Altcoins.

The last quarter of 2017 the number of persons investing and trading in cryptocurrencies exploded. According to Forbes this resulted in a market cap of $500 billion mid-December 2017, and an impressive increase in the number of accounts on crypto exchanges and markets where to buy and trade the crypto coins. Forecast predictions for 2018 head up to 1 trillion dollars as a market cap.

A Crypto Portfolio Example

In the meantime one of my friends was becoming a large follower of cryptocurrencies so I asked him to share his view with our audience, here it is:

“Personally, I got triggered as well by the Cryptomania. Not especially by the hype around Bitcoin but more in the possibilities of other less known currencies. I experience the entry level for Bitcoin at this moment OK but price is moving sideways. There are lots of currencies with potential and a low entry level to invest in.

First I started with creating an account. As not all exchanges offer the same coins you probably need to choose 2 or 3 different ones. On internet there are many exchanges you can choose from but suggest to use the most common and bigger ones and always setup a 2-factor authentication to optimize security on your account. For the latter one I am using an app called Authy (for mobile devices and desktops).

After the first deposit, suggest to read a lot about potential currencies and start to setup a long term and short-term strategy. For my long-term strategy, I selected Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), Stellar Lumens (XLM) and EOS. With another exchange, I used to add this long-term strategy with NEO and IOTA and will use this exchange for short term trades as well. The main challenge is how to choose your coins out of the numerous availability. Suggest to read and study on internet on the coins where you want to invest in and if you believe in the product behind it.

I choose long-term coins as I truly believe in the potential of these accounts. If it will be a bubble…who knows…If not the entry level is respectively low and losing the investment is a ‘risk’ which I am happy to take. All people should take into account the rule to not invest more than you can miss…”

What will happen with Cryptos in 2018? Nobody knows for sure but it promises to be a wild ride.

In any case you can count us for timely updates (3x a week) of cryptocurrency analysis in our free analysis. Check out the newest one here.

Good trading,

Chris