Hi all,
I've been in to cryptocurrency trading for a couple of weeks now, and I have learned a lot since getting in to the market. I am by no means a veteran trader, analyst, or even have a lucrative turnover thus far, but I have composed a list of the things that I have discovered after following the crypto-space for some time. I have tried by best to make this list original and avoid things like "save your private key" that you will find in most intro-to-crypto posts.
Most people in the US enter the market through Coinbase. There are fees involved, but most are aware of this before buying in. One thing I did not recognize until after I bought in, however, is that THE EXCHANGE RATES OFFERED BY COINBASE ARE OFTEN HIGHER THAN THE TRUE MARKET VALUE of a coin. The disparity is especially high in times of high volume. Check the going price of a coin on coinmarketcap or another exchange before buying it in Coinbase.
Note: One way to get around this disparity is to move your USD from your Coinbase to your Gdax wallet (which is automatically generated when you open a Coinbase account). Trade your USD in the Gdax exchange, then move your crypto to a secure wallet or another exchange if you want to buy other coins.If you intend to trade your newly purchased crypto for other altcoins or crypto, make your first purchase in Litecoin or Ethereum. DO NOT BUY BITCOIN unless you intend to hold it. I once paid a $20+ network fee to move $100 worth of Bitcoin because I was a)unaware that the network fee fluctuates and b)unaware that I could send altcoins to the exchange. I have since found LTC and ETH to be both cheaper and faster than BTC.
We all know that this market is volatile. You may have just decided to get in to the crypto market, but that does not necessarily mean that now is the time to get in to the crypto market. Study it for a while. Watch it tick. Get a sense for how the currencies are both being valued and why they are changing in value. When you are ready, execute the actual exchange from fiat to crypto.
Take everything you read online (especially Reddit) with a grain of salt. Many users are paid to shill coins (i.e. promote them) online, and they can be very convincing. Know that a coin that may seem like a "hot buy" only because its developers are paying lots of people to write about it. There are also bots that upvote and comment on posts regarding the coins they promote. Also, some users are honest and simply want to discuss a coin that they are interested in.
EXCHANGE FEES ARE CHEAP, WITHDRAWAL FEES ARE NOT. Binance currently charges around $12 to simply take your Ethereum and ERC20 tokens out of their exchange. Depending on the size of your investment, this could be a sizeable percentage of your stake. Know what an exchanges withdrawal fees are before sending any money in to the exchange because once it's there, you either keep it there (universally not recommended) or pay the fee to take it out.
That's all the advice I can currently think of. I welcome more tips and wisdom from the community in the comments.
Best of luck and enjoy the ride!
Hey man, as a fellow noob to the crypto market. You have hit all the main points that I believe that most people who get into cryptocurrency without doing any research (me included) don't realize how bad transfer fees and withdrawal fees are. This was a well thought out post and thank you for sharing it.
Thanks. I don't want to do it because I'm sure the number would make me cringe, but I'm sure the sum of what I lost not knowing these tips would be in the hundreds.
oof man