Looking for ways to quickly boost your savings? Let’s face it, working online is pretty much a feast or famine kind of business, and while the money can exceed your wildest dreams when things go well, it’s all to easy to have it disappear in a puff of smoke.
You probably already know that you should have an emergency fund of at least six months in advance to handle slow periods (and keep panic at bay), but what about your investments? In this article, you’re going to see why investing in Bitcoin could be your best high-growth investment in 2018, but with some caution.
Bitcoin hit a staggering $20,000 at the beginning of the year, only to lose over 70% of its value. Now, in May, it’s hanging around the $10,000 mark seemingly moving sideways as bulls and bears duke it out. So, it’s fair to say that you might be thinking, “this sounds like terrible investment advice” – but also illustrates something all investors need to remember: investments can go down as well as up.
And boy, does Bitcoin blow up when it grows. Rememberin, in January 2017 alone, Bitcoin was a modest $900. Now that institutional players on Wall Street are waking up to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, it’s worth joining in the game.
Tom Lee, a Wall Street strategist, believes the price can hit $55,000 within 5 years. While Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan might also have accused the coin of being a fraud in a bubble in 2017, it wasn’t long before evidence emerged of JPMC being involved in the cryptoscene.
In other words, adoption is going to explode – and not just with institutional actors piling in either: In Japan, over 250,000 retail stores accept cryptocurrency as payment, and an increasing number of online stores worldwide are also accepting “internet funny money” as tender. With more adoption, comes more growth – which is great for those who are invested.
2018 is also a year where regulatory oversight is coming onto the scene. This opens up doors for huge institutions to come in, but also gives regular people the trust to invest themselves. Net result? More trading action, more demand, and higher prices.
This doesn’t include ETF action which is already starting to heat up, and adds in a whole new group of speculators who might not feel comfortable investing in such a volatile asset, but certainly taking a safer route.
With all this dramatic, world-changing stuff going on behind the scenes, it’s worth considering how cryptocurrency is disrupting the status quo. You see it everywhere: banking doubts, governmental doubts. Of course, the decentralized, inherently uncontrollable nature of the blockchain threatens the traditional pillars of power for these institutions, and even threatens to one day bring them down. Introduced in the devastating aftermath of the 2008 crash which emerged from shady subprime banking practices where the west was saved with government bailouts, Bitcoin isn’t just a vehicle of investment – it’s also a vehicle of revolution and change.
This is also very much true of many internet companies – Uber, Airbnb, and Alibaba are all examples of technology transforming how we do things: and cryptocurrency may, down the line, be just as common. Your risky throw of the dice today could put you in a very good financial position tomorrow. It’s not just Bitcoin that’s disrupting this space: other currencies are making international banking transfers lightning fast, and there are cryptos to cover just about everything you can imagine, from blockchain-secured supply lines to gift cards.
Imagine – this is just the beginning of exploring a technology which is largely unexplored but is already transforming the future. Sure, it’s volatile, but even a little put aside each month could lead to new wealth further down the line.
And don’t forget, that as an emergent technology, it will get easier to use. The space is being flooded with some of the world’s brightest, most intelligent minds – and driving the tech to be better and more accessible. Compared to 2011, when figuring out Bitcoin was next to impossible, it’s reasonably easy to acquire today – and, thanks to cryptocurrencies working on this problem, in the future it will be as easy as going to the ATM (in some places, it already is with BTC ATMs!)
After all, since 2008 trust in institutions has gone down. The banks screwed up – and we paid. Then the government bailout saved them – and effectively meant the US taxpayer paid again. If only we could get, like JP Morgan, a $13 billion bailout for our greed and mistakes… in turn, ,people are looking for alternatives, and Bitcoin is something that has grown, grown, and then grown some more.
But should you invest in Bitcoin and crypocurrencies? That is a question that only you can answer. Despite all these hugely positive movements, Bitcoin is still a very volatile currency where swings of 70% - both ways – aren’t unheard of. If you can’t stomach the thought of your investments going so far down as well as up, then you may want to hold off on this.
But if you want to bet on the future, then Bitcoin is one of the most (volatile) interesting picks you can make
