Investing in Bitcoin
Investing in Bitcoin: How Bitcoin Investing Needn’t be a Risk
On this page we cover the basics of bitcoin investing, how to source a legitimate bitcoin investment, the most secure ways to hold bitcoin and the potential profits (and losses) an investment in bitcoin can generate.
As well as the how what and where, we look at the pros and cons of using bitcoin for investment purposes, and the risks associated with any cryptocurrency.
Investing in Bitcoin for Beginners
Investing in Bitcoin can be highly profitable, regularly seeing 500-1000% increases in price. But if you get it wrong it can create equally impressive losses, with 50% drops being not only possible but relatively common in the cryptocurrency’s history.
This is because Bitcoin – and indeed the whole cryptocurrency market – is highly volatile where steep rises and cliff-like drops can occur almost daily, and no matter which timeline you look at for pricing trends, you’ll see a very choppy sea.
However with volatility comes an immense potential for profit, particularly if you are set up to be able to move from one asset to another smoothly, riding Bitcoin to highs then swapping out to another more stable asset such as gold when the crypto shows signs of changing direction.
This is where combined accounts, such as those offered by Goldco come into play, which we’ll cover later.
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What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency, created 11 years ago by anonymous programmer “Satoshi Nakamoto“.
Wikipedia describes Bitcoin as “a decentralized digital currency without a central bank or single administrator that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries”
In short it’s a money-like asset designed to be both completely private and yet fully transparent – and is held and transmitted in a form which cannot be interfered with by big banks or government.
From the very outset the number of possible bitcoins was set at ₿21,000,000 – a purposely fixed and finite supply intended to ensure future values cannot be “printed” away to nothing as we see with fiat currencies.
If supply is fixed, any increase in demand will result in a higher market price.
Bitcoins are “mined” from this finite 21 million coin supply by computers solving increasingly difficult mathematical problems. The more problems solved by a Bitcoin miner the more coins they will extract from this virtual mine.
This is a very similar model to a gold mine. When a rich gold seam is first discovered, mining is easy but as the finite supply in the mine begins to run out, it becomes far harder to find smaller and smaller nodes of gold and so the cost of production increases.
As the bitcoin mining problems become increasingly difficult, more and more computing power is required to extract each coin – and as we approach the 21 million figure these problems become extraordinarily complex.
At time of writing we have mined a total of 18,211,425 meaning there are only 2.7 million left “in the ground” – bit to mine these will require more computing power than we’ve seen in total so far.
How Bitcoin Works
Bitcoin transactions rely on the Blockchain, Wallets, Private and Public Keys.
The purpose of the mathematical problems miners are solving is to create, maintain and track a secure “blockchain” – the peer-to-peer network where all bitcoin transactions take place and are stored in a permanent ledger.
This blockchain is the transmission and tracking system and your bitcoins are the virtual assets transmitted upon it.
All Bitcoin are held in wallets – a virtual address unique to it’s holder, and every transaction you make will be stored on the blockchain ledger, showing the Bitcoin quantity, the originating wallet address and the receiving wallet address – and these details are fully transparent to anybody who wishes to look at them.
At the same time the transaction is fully private as none of your identifiable information is stored or transmitted – just the sum sent and two wallet addresses.
Security is provided both by the highly complex and unhackable blockchain and by your wallet having two keys – a public key and a private key.
These keys are both long strings of numbers, and your public key is then shortened to provide your wallet’s public address. With this wallet address alone, anybody can add bitcoin to your wallet – however to remove bitcoins from your wallet you’ll need the second key – the Private Key.
Your private key is just that – and must remain 100% private. This is because all it requires to access and remove bitcoin from a wallet are these two keys – and one of them is already out there.
It’s therefore essential to keep your private key completely secure.
It’s also essential that you never lose it – as without your private key, your Bitcoin will remain permanently inaccessible even to you.
In Summary:
- You hold bitcoin in a wallet, each wallet has a private and public key.
- When you buy something using Bitcoin, your coins will transfer from your wallet to the seller’s wallet, transmitted over the blockchain.
- The transaction record will be held permanently in the blockchain.
- To withdraw bitcoin from a wallet you must have both public and private keys.
Bitcoin Value
As mentioned, bitcoin is a highly volatile asset when priced in USD or any other fiat currency.
Although by design the value of Bitcoin should rise over time as mining becomes more difficult, the reality is there is much more at play.
As with any fixed-quantity asset, volatility and price changes are caused by changes in demand – the more people who want to own, buy and use Bitcoin, the greater it’s demand and the higher the price. As interest drops or large sales are made, the price drops.
This could be seen clearly in 2017 when Bitcoin investment really entered the public’s imagination. More and more new buyers entered the market after hearing or reading about the profits that had been made by others and as demand skyrocketed the price rose from $900 to $20,000 per bitcoin.
During this time, bitcoin’s use as a currency hadn’t increased all that much, so this was purely a speculative bubble – and sensing this a lot of the earlier larger investors took their profits out.
As more sold, the price began to fall and the more it fell, the more new investors panicked and sold, creating a feedback loop.
Of course the price drop really hurt those late to the party and a lot of retail investors lost far more than half of their investment – but for those who’d been in for a more long term investment, the price after this crash was still substantially higher than it had been at the start of 2017.
Today at just under $10,000 per bitcoin we’ve still seen a 1000% increase on that January 2017 price, even if we’re only at 50% of it’s 2017 high.
Bitcoin Whales
Another factor to consider when investing in Bitcoin is that there are a number of very large accounts – early investors and originators. It can be fairly easy for these Bitcoin “whales” to affect market pricing because in comparison to Forex or Gold, the bitcoin market is very small.
This means any large transaction by a whale will have an amplified affect on the whole market – and this can be seen happening regularly, where news of the sale – sometimes even a tweet – can take the price higher or lower very rapidly.
Tracking a Bitcoin whale’s behavior and social media comments can be very eye opening!
Ways to Invest in Bitcoin
There are three principal ways to invest in Bitcoin: Outright purchase, Bitcoin mining and the trading of Bitcoin derivatives.
- Buying Bitcoin: You can invest in Bitcoin itself, buying and holding the cryptocurrency in a wallet, either as part of your investment portfolio – or even in your IRA.
- Mining: You can invest in a Bitcoin mining company as you would a Gold mining company, or you can even buy a mining “rig” yourself – a specialist high-powered computer which will create new Bitcoin for you.
- Bitcoin Derivatives: As with gold, Bitcoin comes in a range of derivative assets, from Bitcoin ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds), Bitcoin Futures and Bitcoin Options / CFDs (Contracts for Difference)
Although there are many people who make good money trading EFTs, Futures and Options / CFDs this is adding another layer of volatility onto something which is already notoriously volatile.
Being able to make leveraged bets on something as volatile as Bitcoin is potentially a recipe for disaster, especially if you’re not highly experienced in both the particular derivatives market and Bitcoin. Yes you can make far more money than by simply buying bitcoin, but you can also lose more than your initial investment – bringing a very real danger of negative equity.
Mining, especially home-mining requires both expensive equipment and uses a lot of electricity, but does offer a route to acquiring what can be under-market value coins.
If Bitcoin’s price drops below your total costs, you will be losing money on every Bitcoin generated, but at times when the price is higher this is an excellent way to add to your wallet if you’re tech-minded and can operate the systems required.
Investing in Bitcoin mining companies is much the same as buying any company stocks – with big miners such as Marathon Patent Group trading on the NASDAQ (Stock: MARA) being popular examples.
Provided market prices remain higher than the cost to mine, Miner stocks can offer a more stable route to investing bitcoin than owning the raw coins – although your profits will be similarly diminished.
For us the only real way to own Bitcoin is to actually own it.
Yes it’s a speculative asset and yes it’s volatile, but the future of our world’s currencies will somehow involve the blockchain and with bitcoin being the first and the biggest, it’s considered by most as being the safest bet out of all the cryptocurrencies currently on the market.
How Do We Invest In Bitcoin Itself?
As with any new class of investment, it’s always a good idea to start small.
Never invest more than you’d be comfortable losing, especially in the beginning – whilst you learn about how wallets work, how the markets behave, exchanges work and the speed at which you can buy and sell your assets.
Bitcoin is considered the safest of all the cryptocurrencies and it’s definitely the most widely supported and understood so it’s a natural starting point for any new investor. Having been in operation now for 11 years and seen millions of transactions across what is a constantly improving infrastructure, Bitcoin just makes a lot of sense as a first buy.
The fact that a Bitcoin IRA is now possible, that Bitcoin can be held in your retirement account – speaks volumes about levels of trust in the medium.
Bitcoin IRAs
Investing in Bitcoin as part of your IRA is one of the easiest and safest ways to buy.
Professional Crypto IRA companies will carry out all elements of the investment on your behalf, from providing an ultra-secure wallet and full insurance of the coins to physically vaulting your encrypted private key in an IRS approved depository – all under the watch of a IRS accredited custodian. We have a whole section devoted to Bitcoin IRAs here.
Inside of an IRA or out, you’ll need a wallet – and if you’re holding Bitcoin as a long-term investment you’ll need a secure cold storage wallet.
Cold Storage?
A cold storage wallet is the opposite of a “hot” wallet – hot being a live wallet held online at an exchange, where you can buy, sell and store your bitcoin.
Hot wallets are great if you wish to carry out regular Bitcoin transactions, but due to their security it’s not a good idea to hold a lot of value in these accounts over time – after all we are regularly seeing hot wallets being hacked.
On the other hand a cold storage wallet is not connected to the internet, is not held online, but instead in a physical device.
A physical “device” can be as simple as a paper wallet, where you have the wallet address, public and private keys written down.
Paper Wallets
Because all that’s required to use a bitcoin wallet is an address, public and private keys, there are many who see the advantages and simplicity involved in using a paper wallet.
You simply write down your public address, and keep note of the private key somewhere else, preferably across multiple safe or hidden locations.
An example of a full private key is:
This isn’t exactly memorable and can be trouble to type, but thankfully longer keys can simplified and shortened by software and other applications into a Mini Key.
The above long key becomes this:
A mini key like this is always going to be easier to use.
For added security, this key can be split into sections, such as being written across several pages in a book.
Of course there’s a danger in losing the key or having it discovered by a third party – both outcomes would see you lose control of the wallet.
Hardware Wallets
A popular method used for cold storage of Bitcoin is a portable hardware wallet, such as those from market leaders Trezor and Ledger.
These devices are effectively highly encrypted memory sticks / mini computers containing a secure means to automatically enter the secret key via a connected device when wishing to extract coins.
Each device is coupled to a secret “seed phrase” a set of words which can be used to recreate the wallet and it’s contents in the event of losing or breaking the device. Even if the device manufacturers go out of business your seed phrase will still be able to provide access your wallet at any point in the future as your wallet actually exists on the blockchain.
An example seed phrase is:
Seed phrases can consist of 12 or 24 words from a specific list and must be kept completely secure – as anybody with your seed phrase will potentially have complete access to your wallet and it’s contents.
Maximum Bitcoin Security
The most secure form of cold-storage is where your wallet information, password or recovery seed phrase is stored in a fully insured specialist vault in much the same way as gold bullion is vaulted.
This is the method used by many providers of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency IRAs – and depending on the system used can give you near instantaneous access to your account, offering many of the advantages of a hot wallet, but with the high security of vaulted gold.
With an investment that can go from being worth $30,000 to $660,000 in the space of 11 months, you can never be too secure in how you hold it.
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How Profitable is Investing in Bitcoin?
Investing in Bitcoin can be highly profitable. $30,000 invested in Bitcoin in January 2017, would have been worth $660,000 by December that year. Moving to 2019, $30,000 invested in January would have been worth $95,311 by Christmas.
Both of these are incredible profits – but these fade into insignificance when looking at Bitcoin performance over the longer term.
Had you bought $30,000 of bitcoin in January 2016, you’d now own $1,634,298 worth.
January 2015? Your bitcoin wallet would be valued at $2,766,124. And lets not even talk about January 2013… Had you managed to buy $30,000 of bitcoin back in 2013 you’d currently be holding assets worth over $14.5 Million.
Unfortunately we don’t have the advantage of a time machine and so for many of us these are hypothetical numbers, but even going back to last year when many detractors had decided Bitcoin was finished – your $30,000 would have seen 233% growth in a single year.
233% gains are very hard to beat in even the best of blue-chip stocks and wholly impossible in any form of bond or bank account.
January 2019’s price was considerably lower than Bitcoin’s 2017’s peak – this is because most of Bitcoin’s big climbs are followed up by a market correction.
Provided you exit Bitcoin when it’s looking to be headed into bubble territory, then profits like 200-500% are not only possible, but looking over all of Bitcoin’s history they are simply part and parcel of the asset’s volatility.
If you’re comfortable making a 500% return on your investment then you simply exit at that point and move over to another asset class while you wait for Bitcoin to drop again.
And if it doesn’t drop, then you’ve still made a 500% profit which could be considered good in anyone’s book.
Looking Ahead
Where are crypto market experts seeing Bitcoin’s price looking into 2020 and beyond?
- Anthony Pompliano at Morgan Creek Capital expects BTC to reach $100,000 by 2021’s end.
- BitMex CEO Arthur Hayes sees Bitcoin hitting $20,000 before the close of 2020.
- Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream believes anything from $20,000 to $100,000 as being possible within 2020
- Marc P. Bernegger at CryptoFinance puts a range on Bitcoin in 2020 – a minimum of $22,000 and a maximim of $55,000.
- Finally over at PwC, Daniel Diemers the company’s head of blockchain says he can see Bitcoin reaching $100,000 in 2020.
Taking an average price on these predictions of $50,000-75,000, these experts and analysts are highly bullish on the asset, suggesting a $30,000 investment made now* could be worth between $150,000 and $225,000 by early 2021
Looking even further ahead market analysts are seeing Bitcoin as ranging between $175,000 – $395,000 by 2025.
These predictions are based on detailed technical analysis and several of these analysts have nailed past highs and predicted lows with unnerving accuracy – but do remember nothing is ever guaranteed in any investment!
Benefits of Investing in Bitcoin
The number one benefit of investing in Bitcoin is potential for profit – there are few investments with the exception of other cryptocurrencies that have come even close to the gains produced by Bitcoin.
Even allowing for bearish episodes in Bitcoin’s price, it’s overall trend has been upwards. More businesses are accepting Bitcoin as payment and more infrastructure is being created to let it truly florish – just as we’re seeing the total finite amount of mined bitcoins reach their 21 million limit.
With a finite resource under a high and growing demand – price pressure is always going to be trended upwards.
This is why so many analysts are predicting prices in excess of $150,000 for a single bitcoin. For many of us not used to the price movements within the crypto market this would seem ludicrous – but when bitcoin was at $900 only a few years ago nobody would have believed it could reach $10,000.
And for an asset that was only worth $20 a few years earlier even seeing $900 would have been a stretch.
So potential for profit is a given. What about other benefits?
Liquidity and Demand
Bitcoin is considered one of the most liquid assets in the global financial markets thanks to a profusion of bitcoin exchanges, trading platforms and specialist brokers all able to carry out fast transactions at very low fees.
Outside of these regulated markets, there are countless peer-to-peer exchanges where individuals can buy sell and trade cryptocurrencies anonymously, either online using secure open-source platforms complete with insurance and escrow-like services – and even through platforms for arranging face to face transfers.
Whether you’re following strict AML protocols offered by the big exchanges and brokers or you’re going for a more anonymous route, transforming your Bitcoin into dollars, gold or other assets and back is never difficult thanks to high buyer demand, allowing investors to move into and out of bitcoin fast to take maximum advantage of market moves.
Even for investors in a Self Directed IRA, Bitcoin IRA specialists such as Coin IRA [link] can offer easy to use platforms to allow account holders to buy and sell their cryptocurrencies near instantaneously and all within a tax-advantaged account!
Anonymity
It’s possible to buy, hold and sell bitcoin completely anonymously – and easily – however always remember that making profits from an asset without informing the IRS is illegal. It is tax evasion after all.
In fact the IRS has made it mandatory to report bitcoin transactions of all kinds, no matter how small in value – so no matter what transactions you make you DO need to inform the IRS to stay ahead of the law.
But there’s nobody else you need inform.
You can own bitcoin and nobody except the IRS need know. For privacy-minded individuals and those worried about the litigious society we’re living in your BTC assets will be always be safe if nobody knows about them.
Disadvantages of Bitcoin Investing
High volatility which can bring big profits can also produce losses – and this applies to Bitcoin as much as it does to any volatile investment. But there are other risks to Bitcoin investing, some of which are far more serious.
Unless you are working with a trusted specialist[link] carrying best-in-market insurance and offering ultra-secure cold storage vaulting, there are some significant risks – of complete loss.
Theft and Fraud
Whether you are storing your bitcoin at a big exchange or in a hot wallet, there’s always a chance of complete loss – that is all your bitcoin being stolen by a hacker or as a result of some internal fraud.
With several big name multi-million dollar hacks and frauds [link to box] having rocked the crypto community over the years and countless thousands of unreported hacks and robberies for smaller sums, theft and fraud is a big risk.
The same can go for your offline wallet if stored at home – be it a paper wallet or a physical device. If someone gets access to your wallet and secret password or seed phrase then they gain full control of your bitcoin wallet and all of it’s contents.
The only way to be truly safe from fraud is using a trusted third party such as CoinIRA.
Fire and other Disasters
Although Bitcoin is virtual, offline cold storage wallets are definitely not. If you keep your cold storage wallet, password and seed phrase at home, no matter how many places you’ve written down these key pieces of information, you could easily lose it all in a fire, tornado, flood or hurricane.
If you lose your secret key and your seed phrase you lose all your bitcoin – it’s that simple.
To avoid this risk, it pays to keep your key information at several locations along with some form of encrypted online backup – this way if the worst happens, you can always recover your wallet and access to it. For some imaginative ways to hide your secret key see our section here [link]
And don’t ever rely on memory. If you consign your secret key to memory, what happens if you become incapacitated, such as after a stroke – or what if you simply forget one small part of the code. Would you be willing to risk losing your entire investment on maintaining your memory?
Professional cold storage vaulting services such as Coin IRA offer fully insured deep-frozen cold storage, guaranteed theft proof and fully insured to market value in the event of data loss or any other disaster.
Unless you’re willing to risk losing your entire investment it’s the only way to be certain.
Bitcoin Investment Vs Gold
Bitcoin is being hailed as The New Gold – after all it’s “mined” like gold and much like gold it’s a finite asset – once all 21 million bitcoin are mined there is no way to produce any more.
Just like gold, we can now add bitcoin inside our IRAs and even buy physical “bitcoins” with their digital value held in a wallet accessed via a secret key hidden within the physical coin. When Bitcoin is portrayed as a physical object it’s invariably in the style of a gold coin.
As for price, no gold investor can forget the day Bitcoin’s value passed that of gold: something that had seemed so unlikely even a few months before it happened, but has been the case now for well over 3 years.
Bitcoins Value vs Gold
Gold’s true price is it’s value in relation to other assets – it’s buying power.
An ounce of gold has always bought more or less the same amount of commodities or services across it’s 4000+ year history as it does today and this is why the metal has such a good reputation as a stable and secure store of wealth.
When priced in fiat currency like USD gold does seem to have risen in value over time – but the truth is, it’s the dollar that’s dropped it’s spending power in relation to gold.
Bitcoin’s inherent value too, like gold, is based on it’s potential use as a stable means of exchange – something that has not come even close to fully taking off yet – and so the price we see for Bitcoin at the moment (as opposed to it’s value), is really down to little more than speculative trading.
And pricing a purely speculative investment with little realized inherent value using an equally “valueless” fiat currency like the US Dollar is going to amplify huge price movements. Yes Bitcoin’s volatile price movements can make investors rich, but they are masking a lack of any solid underlying value – so far.
But the future is digital. It has to be – because the way we currently bank and move money around the world is both expensive and time consuming.
Banking has remained effectively unchanged since the 1970s and the reason for this is banks make money at every stage of a financial transaction – in fees – and in interest the money earns while they delay it’s transmission from their central account. If banks were to switch over to having all banking transactions be instantaneous, they’d need to find lots of new ways to make money – and banks are always slow to change what works for them.
However banks will eventually change and some are already doing so. And when they do move over to using some version of the blockchain, will they use Bitcoin or will they use some as yet unknown cryptocurrency.
If banks DO go with Bitcoin, then it’s future will be guaranteed and with a finite 21 million units ever in existence, each bitcoin will have a massive inherent value.
If banks go elsewhere (and given most bank’s keenness to be able to keep printing their own money with no upper limit it’s unlikely they will opt for Bitcoin) then Bitcoin will become sidelined and with that, it’ll become valueless.
Gold on the other hand will still be gold.
For those looking for an exciting and highly volatile addition to a gold portfolio, then it makes sense to add what’s known as the safest of the cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin.
Where to Start Investing in Bitcoin
For a newcomer there can seem like an almost infinite amount of possibilities when deciding where to start investing in Bitcoin.
Part of your choice will depend on the amount you want to buy.
If you’re only looking to buy a small fraction of a Bitcoin, say $1,000 worth, as a test purchase then any of the main Bitcoin exchanges will suit you perfectly.
Well known Bitcoin exchanges are:
- Binance
- Coinbase
- CEX
- Bittrex
- Poloniex
- Kraken
- Bitstamp
- Gemini
You’ll need a digital wallet in which to put your bitcoin – some exchanges allow you to open a wallet within their account pages, others require you to already have a wallet.
Opening a wallet is very simple and free. Although there are lots of places where you can create a paper wallet, doing so securely is another matter altogether.
One of the most trusted sites to open a paper wallet is Bitaddress.org where you can open a wallet and receive your public and private keys immediately. On arriving at the page you either move your mouse around to create a random string or type random gibberish into a text box.
As soon as you reach a randomness level of 100%, the page refreshes and your key is generated.
It will look like this:
Note that we’ve blurred the secret key!
You can print the page by clicking the print button or write down the pubic and private keys somewhere secure, and you’ve got yourself an offline “paper” wallet!
Online exchanges are relatively fast, easy to work with and can be inexpensive but by storing your Bitcoin online within a hot wallet on an exchange you are at a far greater risk of loss, from hacking, fraud and appropriation than you would be with an offline wallet – so only ever store a small amount online.
Some exchanges actually own the Bitcoin in “your” account and can close or remove your access privileges to an account at any time – we’ve heard some true horror stories!
If you’re lucky enough to live near a Bitcoin ATM then all you do is place your dollars in it’s slot and the machine will set up a wallet for you and add the Bitcoin automatically.
You can find Bitcoin ATMs near you on CoinATMRadar.
For the brave, you can carry out P2P (peer to peer) exchanges where you meet someone in the real world, give them hard currency or carry out a bank exchange and they will transfer bitcoin into your wallet.
Sites like LocalBitcoins are highly trusted and carry detailed reviews of individual buyers and sellers – but in any situation where you’re meeting someone and might be carrying a lot of cash take precautions – meet in a busy location and bring a friend. If anything seems suspect, walk away.
Our preferred option when buying Bitcoin is by using the deferred tax benefits offered by an IRA.
This is particularly true when investing in 5 figures or greater. If there’s ever a tax-advantaged way to buy an asset we say take it!
Another huge plus when working with a Bitcoin IRA provider such as CoinIRA is they will do all of the work for you, setting up the wallet, adding your choice of cryptocurrencies and then storing your Bitcoin in the most secure way possible – a physically vaulted depository, fully insured against loss.
No other method of bitcoin storage comes close on security and peace of mind.
CoinIRA also lets you store precious metals in your IRA through Goldco giving you the stability and wealth insurance of gold alongside the profit potential of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Investment Companies
The big players in Bitcoin Investments tend to be the companies who offer Bitcoin IRAs. Their additional services and the advice they offer makes them a valuable partner for any investor looking to make serious purchases of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
CoinIRA is the top-rated choice at consumer protection website ScamReport.com and work alongside leading Gold IRA provider Goldco.
Be wary of any Bitcoin IRA companies suggesting you hold your Bitcoin in an LLC inside your IRA – as this is a very gray area and much like home-storage IRAs can be considered as self-dealing by the IRS.
Want more? Get your Free Bitcoin Investor Guide – a unique physical investor kit delivered direct to your door.
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*page written February 2020