Everyone seems to be investing in cryptocurrencies these days. In fact, if you’re an investor, you’re probably receiving multiple emails a day asking you why you haven’t got involved in the trend yet. You might even have had conversations with your financial advisor about doing so. If you’re already part of the cryptocurrency revolution and you’ve made money from it, we’re pleased for you. If you haven’t got involved yet and you’re weighing up the idea of doing so in the near future, you may want to read this article first. All may not be as it seems with the bullishness of the market.
Speaking in broad and general terms, it’s been a good two or three months for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, the most famous cryptocurrency in the world, is now worth well above fifty thousand dollars per coin and doesn’t seem likely to dip down below that mark at any point in the foreseeable future. If you managed to get involved with Bitcoin investments last year when the value briefly dipped below ten thousand, you’d be very happy that you did so. Ethereum is also making huge gains. It’s the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world and has gone from being worth a couple of hundred dollars per coin at its lowest point last year to surging past four thousand dollars at the time of writing. Most analysts feel that it will go above five thousand dollars before it reaches a temporary plateau. Again, that’s good news for crypto in general and even better news for investors.
Based on the above, you might wonder why we’re sounding a note of caution. The answer to that question involves Elon Musk. He can be a little erratic, but when Musk speaks, the world tends to listen. Even someone of Musk’s standing can’t make a material difference to the value of Bitcoin or Ethereum, but his words can impact smaller cryptos. They’ve just done so with Dogecoin. After spending weeks on Twitter talking the currency up and seeing its value rise because of it, he used his recent appearance on Saturday Night Live to call the currency “a hustle.” He was almost certainly joking, but that didn’t matter. The immediate impact of his comments was that the value of Dogecoin took a hit, wiping out several weeks worth of steady growth. Prior to Musk’s appearance, it was trading at $0.68 per coin. After “Saturday Night Live” was over, it had sunk to $0.47%. It’s already back up to $0.58 as of the time of writing, but that’s not the point. The point is that one stray comment could cause such variation.
When cryptocurrency was a new idea, one of its key appeals was the idea that it wouldn’t be affected by external market forces. The sort of things that might cause a price crash for the dollar or the Euro, for example, ought not to affect cryptocurrencies because of their decentralized nature. That is, to an extent, true. What we’ve found instead, though, is that the digital currencies are affected by other external forces. The right word from the right analyst can send the value of the currency skyrocketing. The wrong word from that same analyst can do the opposite. Elon Musk, given the often-erratic nature of his comments and social media posts, ought not to have had as big an effect on the price of Dogecoin as he did, and yet it happened. That suggests underneath all the hype and positivity that surrounds the coin at the moment, there’s a lot of insecurity and a lack of trust. It’s almost as if investors expect the currency to collapse and are on edge waiting for it to do so.
All of this comes at a time when cryptocurrencies are becoming more accepted by the general public than ever before. More and more people have apps like Coinbase or Robin Hood installed on their phones. Cryptocurrencies can be bought, stored, and traded through PayPal and Venmo. An ever-increasing number of online slots websites will now allow you to both place your bets and collect your winnings in cryptocurrencies. Perhaps that’s what makes for the best metaphor here. Once you’ve placed your bets at an online slots website, what happens next is out of your control. You won’t know whether you’ve won or lost until the reels finally stop spinning, and you have no way of affecting the outcome. You have to accept the outcome, and if you want a better one, you have to spend more money. If we’re still talking about online slots, that’s all part of the fun of the game. It’s the reason why websites like Rose Slots for New Zealand players are so popular. If we were talking about cryptocurrency, though, it would be an unacceptable risk. If cryptocurrencies are to be accepted as a general alternative to conventional currencies by the public at large, their performance has to be more predictable than it is right now. Little things like a joke made by a popular name in the technology world shouldn’t create ripples. While they still do, there will always be concerns.
We appreciate that the Dogecoin incident is an isolated one and that Dogecoin appears to be (for whatever reason) a pet project for Elon Musk anyway. There’s still good money to be made with other forms of cryptocurrency, and plenty of people are making that money. Our intention in writing this article isn’t to put you off the idea of investing in crypto altogether – we merely want to suggest a little caution. Even when the going is good, and the price of every digital currency appears to be increasing, there will always be hiccups. You never know which direction these hiccups are going to come from and what the net effect of them will be. The apparent strength of these currencies is often a bubble, and anything might burst a bubble at any time. So long as you’re aware of the risks and you go into the investment process with your eyes open and an awareness that you might lose cash, that’s fine. For anyone looking for a guaranteed “get rich quick scheme,” though, you could be in for a shock. Don’t make rash moves. Speak to a qualified advisor first, and think about whether traditional investments might still be a safer bet for now.
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