How To Buy Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies For Beginners!
These days Bitcoin is in the news pretty much all the time and not necessarily because of its technology but because it is creating new millionaires and even billionaires around the world! Even though I already tripled my investment in less than 6 months by investing in Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies (Cryptos), I am not one of those millionaires as I only invested a little.
However, I have been learning and plan to invest more pretty soon. On January 2017 you could buy Bitcoin for less than 1000 dollars, right now is around 15,000 dollars! Just imagine how much money you could have made! It is not too late and there are many cryptos that you can buy for less than one cent so here are 3 simple steps to get started:
Research
Before investing your money on anything you should do your proper research. The cryptocurrency world is something we have never seen: new technologies, high volatility, huge increases in prices, hacks, regulations, and putting more power and control in people’s hands instead of the government. There are 700+ cryptos around the world but most people just know about Bitcoin.
As soon as people see the Bitcoin price (around 15,000 USD) today, they get scared and think it is too much, that it is in a bubble and they prefer to leave their money in their bank. Well, I also thought the Bitcoin price was too much when it was at 4,000 dollars and guess what it just kept increasing! I was going to wait for it to go down to 3,000 and it never happened. I ended up investing a little when it was around 5,000 and now it tripled.
The great thing about investing in cryptos is that you can just buy a percentage! I did not have 5,000 dollars at the moment (I wish I had) so I just put 500 dollars. Even if you only have 100 dollars that is fine! Of course you are not going to earn much but is a good start.
After analyzing the charts at CoinMarketCap and the prices of BTC, ETH, and LTC on the Coinbase app you can easily see how volatile they are, especially Bitcoin (BTC). I knew I did not want to put most of my money in something that crazy. I kept researching on Quora, Coindesk and signed up for the Cointelegraph email to learn more. I got very interested in Ethereum (ETH) since it is meant to be the operating system of the cryptocurrency world. There are many things that can be done with ETH and many of the new coins are using this technology to operate.
Another great thing is that ETH is supported by HUGE GLOBAL COMPANIES like Microsoft, Deloitte, Samsung, Toyota and many more. This along with the Ethereum core team is essential in the development and success of the token. After analyzing all these things and the great future that ETH can have once they tackle their technology, I decided to invest on it.
Recently I started to research other coins and also by talking with friends that are in the tech space, and noted that IOTA which you can buy for only 4 dollars now has great potential! In fact, this coin was under 1 dollar a few weeks ago but after doing a partnership with Microsoft they grew exponentially. They are using a different technology than most other cryptos and focusing in a space that is going to be huge as is the Internet of Things.
Additionally, it is also very important to research the ecosystem and news that can affect the prices. Recently the the largest derivatives exchange in the world, CME, announced that it would offer Bitcoin Futures starting December 18. Then CBOE also announced that it is launching BTC futures starting December 10. These news have made the BTC increase up to 19,000 dollars!
Exchange
Once you have done your research and understand the risks and possibilities in the cryptocurrency world, and if you are not afraid is time to open an account on a digital currency exchange. The biggest and most used in the world is Coinbase. It is pretty easy to set up and if you sign up with this link you get 10 dollars of Bitcoin for free! Coinbase is definitely the best place to start since it has a user friendly website and mobile app. The only thing is that you can only buy 3 coins on this exchange as of right now: BTC, ETH and LTC.
Even if you want to buy other coins in other exchanges you need to buy Bitcoin first and then convert it to the other coin value. So my suggestion is to first buy some BTC, ETH or LTC in Coinbase so you can start getting familiar and once you are comfortable and want to buy other coins do it carefully.
It is important that you research which Exchange you are going to use as some have been hacked and people lost their coins! For this reason I suggest to start with Coinbase since it is most trustable and if anything happens usually they refund the money to you. Once you are ready to start buying other coins such as IOTA you can try Binance as it is one of the few exchanges that offer IOTA and also has good reviews. I have been using it without any issues.
Patience
You are going to see this acronym all the time in the cryptoworld “HODL”. It means Hold On Dear Life, and most people use it when prices keep dropping embarrassingly low. People believe that if you HODL and not sell your coins when prices are dropping then you will get great returns once it goes up again!
If you have done your research well, and invested in a good coin in a trustable exchange then be patient and have fun with the ride. Investing in cryptos is like a rollercoaster! The price can increase by 50% or more in one day and decrease a lot in just a few hours. So do not panic and do not take decisions in those crazy moments without analyzing what is going on.
Cryptos are pretty new but they are here to stay. Their technology is very powerful but they have to pass many obstacles and proof that they really work so we can start seeing more of them in our daily lives. For me this is a long term investment, and I know that even though the bubble may burst anytime, they are going to recover and keep increasing their value in the coming years.
So start researching, understanding some coins, their teams, supporters, vision and then open Coinbase. Once you are familiar with Coinbase you can transition to GDAX which is part of Coinbase (but with no mobile app) and start trading for much lower fees.
Investing in digital currencies is risky but can also be very rewarding. This is not financial advise so as I said do your own research and only invest what you can afford. Have fun!