Bitcoin is one of the greatest technological breakthroughs since the Internet. It also has been called “a black hole” into which a consumer’s money could just disappear. In 2009, 1 Bitcoin was 0.08 $ and now it is 9025 $. The growth was massive in 2017 as Bitcoin prices hiked to $20,000 per coin and many investors did cash out their stakes, resulting to high profits. But, as the year came to an end Bitcoin prices started to plunge, The price of Bitcoin has plunged by almost half since the beginning of January in a ‘bloodbath’ which has seen the total value of the market plummet by about £31 billion. Now it’s been claimed that the huge price rises of last year may have been artificially ‘propped up’ by a cryptocurrency firm.
In December 2017, Bitcoin reached a historic high of almost $20,000 before slumping to its current value of roughly $9,025.
So, the question is whether Bitcoin is worth investing in anymore?
Let us go through a few facts in this article.
2017, started with a bang as Bitcoin shot through the $1000; with no signs of slowing down Bitcoin is not a company or a stock, it’s a currency. So when you want to invest in Bitcoin you are basically buying the currency. However, there are also some other forms of investing in Bitcoin.
What does investing in Bitcoin mean?
Investing in Bitcoin simply means to buy the currency in hopes that it will appreciate in value. Moreover, there are more than one ways of investing, you can invest in Bitcoin related companies or trade with Bitcoins.
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Buying and holding Bitcoins- The most common form of “investing” in Bitcoin is buying the currency in hopes it will appreciate in value (also known as “holding”), if this is the case then you need to decide for yourself if you think this is a good time to buy. Meaning, do you think the price will continue to rise. Don’t take anyone’s advice about what will happen with the currency, do your homework, learn about Bitcoin and; come to a conclusion.
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Never invest more than you are willing to lose – Bitcoin is a very risky investment and you should keep in that in mind at all times.
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After buying Bitcoins make sure to move them into your own personal wallet and never leave them at the exchange.
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Use a Bitcoin wallet that uses a physical piece of hardware in order to operate and keep it more secure. Examples of hardware wallets are TREZOR and Ledger Wallet. A hardware wallet is usually more secure since it's considered to be a form of cold storage to store your Bitcoins. If you can’t afford a hardware wallet, try -secure-Bitcoin-paper-wallet, a type of physical Bitcoin wallet. Instead of keeping the private keys on a piece of hardware, it is written down on a piece of paper.
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Make sure to buy Bitcoins only from best-Bitcoin-exchanges, exchanges that have proven their reputation Buy Bitcoins through Dollar cost averaging – This means that you don’t buy all of your Bitcoins in one trade but instead buy a fixed amount every month, week or even day throughout the year. This way you average the price over the course of a whole year.
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Trading in Bitcoins- Bitcoin trading is different than buying and holding. When you are trading Bitcoins it means that you are actively trying to buy Bitcoins at a low price and sell them back at a higher price in relatively short time interval. Trading successfully requires trading-Bitcoins knowledge and practice. The trading market is occupied by very large players who are just waiting for newbies to come in and throw their money away by trading aimlessly.
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Investing in Bitcoin Mining- Some people would like to invest their money into mining Bitcoin. Mining Bitcoin is only profitable if done at large scales. This means you will need to get best-Bitcoin-miners and hopefully have access to free electricity. Some of you may have heard of all sorts of sites that allow you to mine Bitcoins through them. This is known as cloud mining. Some websites may be scams and may run away with your invested money, so do good research on them.
HYIPs (High Yield Investment Programs)
Some sites or companies that claim to double your Bitcoins, give you insane daily interest on your Bitcoins or help you invest them in some sort of complex and obscure scheme. These sites can be categorized mostly as scams or HYIPs (high yield investment programs).What these sites usually do is they take money from people around the web and promise to give them good returns. They will then start off by paying these returns through money they get from new sign ups and create a big buzz around the site. Usually they will also have some sort of referral program so that users can bring in their friends. This will go on for around 3-4 months until one day the website will just go offline and the money will be gone. No more payments will be made and a lot of people will get mad that they got scammed.