Here you will learn what crypto investing is all about. You’ll also learn what Bitcoin is, why it’s popular, how to buy Bitcoin, and when to buy Bitcoin. These can help you make good decisions before choosing the Coinberry: best platform to buy Bitcoin & Crypto in Canada. After reading this guide, you’ll be able to lower your risks and make smart crypto investing choices both in the short term and long term. You will also understand what makes crypto go up and down so you can be an informed investor.
What is crypto investing?
First, cryptocurrency investing is often about buying some cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH) and then selling that later for a profit (“Buy low, sell high”). Here’s a sample scenario:
- Investors buy Bitcoin
- Wait for Bitcoin’s price to rise (e.g. at least 10%)
- Sell that Bitcoin and take the profits
Here’s another scenario:
- Investors buy Bitcoin
- Bitcoin’s price drops (e.g. at least 30%)
- Sell that Bitcoin and stop further losses
- Or, wait a bit more and wait for BTC’s price to rise again
In other words, investors often choose to buy/sell depending on the Bitcoin’s price. It’s also possible that they sell Bitcoin and use that fund to buy other cryptocurrencies such Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA), Algorand (ALGO), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Polkadot (DOT).
The goal is to make a profit and avoid losses (or least minimize your losses). It’s a simple goal, but getting there is often complex and takes some great timing and emotional control. After all, when BTC’s price suddenly drops or rises, often our emotions kick in and we either want to maximize our gains, cut our losses, or wait for a miracle to happen.
That’s the world of crypto investing. It’s unpredictable and more volatile than the stock market. In cryptocurrency investing, you’ll see gains or losses of 90% or more within days or weeks. It’s a highly dynamic market that even experts can’t predict. With this high level of uncertainty, the risks are always great.
What is Bitcoin
Despite the risks and uncertainty, many still choose to invest in Bitcoin and dive deep into the world of crypto investing. Some of the reasons are:
- Expecting some profits
- Diversifying their investment
- Trying crypto investing first and see what happens
Before they start their crypto investing journey, often they read about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Although technical understanding is not essential, still, they want to learn about Bitcoin, how it works, and why it’s still here.
First, Bitcoin is digital money. As with conventional money, we can use Bitcoin to pay for services and goods (and businesses receive Bitcoin as payment in return). We can also send or receive Bitcoin similar to what we do with our money.
What makes Bitcoin different is that it’s decentralized and peer-to-peer. This means there’s no middleman or a central financial institution that controls or regulates it. It’s permissionless, which means anyone can use Bitcoin. Because Bitcoin is not issued by the government or central bank, it’s said to be changing how finance works.
Bitcoin works through a technology called blockchain. With this technology, participants can confirm transactions and transfer funds without the need for a central clearing authority. In contrast, using conventional money requires the transaction to go through a payment processor (e.g. Visa, Mastercard) or a central financial institution.
To better understand how blockchain works, let’s see what happens whenever there’s a transaction to be processed and confirmed:
- You request a transaction
- Your transaction is broadcast to a peer-to-peer network (several computers)
- This peer-to-peer network validates the transaction
- Your transaction is being verified
- Once your transaction is verified, a new block is added to the chain (which is why it’s called blockchain)
- Your transaction is now complete
In general, that is what happens in processing transactions of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies. Notice that there’s no middleman in the process because it’s all peer-to-peer and is facilitated by several computers.
Why Bitcoin is popular
Blockchain technology introduced a new way to make payments and send and receive money. Bitcoin pioneered that and opened the way to make financial transactions without the need for a centralized clearing authority. It was a result of a “distrust to the system” that came from a financial meltdown in 2008.
Since then, a lot of other cryptocurrencies have come into the scene. It’s estimated that there are now more than 18,000 cryptocurrencies and tokens. However, only a few dozens are popular or easily available to the public. Aside from Bitcoin, some of the most popular ones or with the largest market capitalizations are:
- Ethereum
- Tether
- USD Coin
- XRP
- Cardano
- Solana
- Polkadot
- Dogecoin
- Avalanche
You might want to pay attention to those if you want to dive deeper into crypto investing.
Still, though, Bitcoin is still the most popular. Some of the reasons for Bitcoin maintaining its top spot are:
- Bitcoin is the first among the cryptocurrencies (the pioneer, the trailblazer, the one that opened the possibilities)
- Bitcoin has become entrenched in its position (as cryptocurrencies become more popular, Bitcoin also rides that trend)
- Bitcoin has huge financial backers
- Many beginner investors choose Bitcoin because it feels safe (we tend to choose what’s on top)
How to buy Bitcoin
If you’re planning to start your crypto investing journey, it’s good to learn how to easily buy Bitcoin (or other cryptocurrencies). The easiest way is by signing up to a major crypto trading platform. For instance, at Coinberry, a major cryptocurrency trading platform in Canada, you can just create an account, add funds, and buy Bitcoin. You don’t have to acquire technical knowledge to get started.
When to buy/sell Bitcoin
Now here comes the hard part: Should you buy Bitcoin now or wait for a bit? After all, timing is everything in investing. If you have the perfect timing, you can prevent losses or maximize your gains.
However, it’s impossible to get the perfect timing. As mentioned earlier, the crypto market is highly volatile and unpredictable. Even if you monitor the news and trends 24/7, arriving at that perfect moment to buy Bitcoin is nearly impossible.
What you can do instead is start small (at Coinberry you can start for as little as 50 CAD to buy some Bitcoin). As you get more comfortable, anytime you can increase the size of your investment and dive deeper into crypto investing.
