To ask about crypto? I don't understand it. Can you really make money?

[flashbac]

It sounds really dodgy to me...

Yes you can make money. It is very risky.
There are a lot of scams around - including some "adverts" and "articles" featuring slebs and people like Martin Lewis apparently endorsing various scams - Martin Lewis had to threaten Facebook to get them to stop accepting fake adverts featuring him from scammers - they don't care and most online platforms seem the same.

Why gamble on something that has no intrinsic value and is subject to so many scams? There are plenty of ways to make high risk investments that at least have some underlying value.

@anniegun

Why gamble on something that has no intrinsic value and is subject to so many scams? There are plenty of ways to make high risk investments that at least have some underlying value.

I think it's pushed alot on SM.

@anniegun

Why gamble on something that has no intrinsic value and is subject to so many scams? There are plenty of ways to make high risk investments that at least have some underlying value.

I don't understand this - many high risk investments don't have any intrinsic value - you're describing most high risk financial "products" - even ordinary shares - if confidence (or the company) collapses, your investment is worthless.

Crypto is a punt. It is almost entirely a bubble. Crypto currencies as a concept has merit. However, the market for crypto currencies is highly speculative as there is no objective criteria you can use to assess their value. A crypto currency is worth what people are prepared to pay for it on that day.

The value can be heavily influenced by external factors such a regulatory statements, large holders buying or selling. There may be quick gains if you can guess the direction.
The longer term probability is that if crypto currencies become mainstream then they will be heavily regulated and small traders will be swamped by big institutional trading like the FX or commodities markets.

I think it's pushed alot on SM.

I always ask myself "why is the person pushing this?" - I may be a rotter , but if I came across a lucrative opportunity why would I waste time trying to tell zillions of others - conclusion - anyone pushing it is a scammer.

I invested some money in Crypto back in January. I got it at 35cent per coin, and added some more over months.
I basically had 1000 coins that cost me €600 in total. In September I sold 200 coins for €600 as it had gone up in price. Now I have 800 sitting there that haven't cost me a penny, so I'm happy to let it sit and hopefully increase, with no risk.

Op it's just like investing activities in any other shares, the huge difference is that crypto is not regulated and volatile so is a huge risk. People feel safe as technical you can't owe money only loose or make money. It's is very easy to get hooked and carried away, with no resolve if you loose all your money. You could invest 1k in crypto and it could double quite easily and it could loose it's entire value in a couple of hours also. The issue is if the price starts to drop and others panic and sell there is no one who wants to buy your shares.

These markets are heavily manipulated by very shady big groups, this has been seen multiple times. They create a social media frenzy every one buys and the price rises, they then sell their massive stocks for massive proffit in the frenzy. Poor suckers are usually left with shares/crypto they cannot sell and the price plummets or even the crypto currency vanishes and it's one big con, this has happened in the past. You will see people claiming they have millions of pounds of crypto but that does not mean there is any one to buy if from them if they want to cash out or if it will drop the following day and Thier initial investment bis worth pennies. It's gambling with no regulation, and you must treat it as such.

Risky? Yes
Dodgy? No
Just don’t invest more than you can afford to lose.

DH traded crypto professionally for a while when he worked at a hedge fund. He won't touch it with a barge pole with his own money!

OP have you listened to the Missing Cryptoqueen on BBC sounds? There are some heartbreaking stories on there but it does also go some way to explaining how crypto currencies work.

There's a lot of shit coins out there set up with the sole intention of scamming people so always thoroughly research any shitcoin before investing in it. Generally those being pushed on SM are scams.
Your investment entirely relies on there being someone else out there willing to pay more for your holding than you did. Even bitcoin does very little to facilitate commerce and most other cryptos are totally worthless beyond whatever some one is willing to pay to hold it.

You can make money but you're likely to get burnt if you don't do your research.

You can make money. You can also lose money. Don't invest more than you're able to lose.

As inflation is predicted to surge, the demand in countries with weaker currencies is likely to grow. Quite the leap of faith, but some sovereign nations are adopting bitcoin as legal tender. El Salvador went first.

As an investment it's hugely volatile. It's now trading at an all time high, which is generating another spike in global FOMO. It's highly likely there will soon be a huge crash. However, if you're in it for the long term, I wouldn't worry about any short term landslides. Digital assets and currency are likely to play a big part of our futures.

As someone else said though. Don't put in more than you can afford to lose. I personally float around 5-10% of total savings.

Dodgy? Bitcoin has a market cap higher than visa and MasterCard combined. Bigger than Facebook or Tesla. Everything has been digitised. Now it money's turn.

Generally speaking, if you don't understand an investment opportunity it's not a good idea to get involved.

Crypto trading is legitimate in itself (though there are always people trying to con you as with any investment). The reason people make money is that it is incredibly volatile so remember that while some people win, plenty of others will lose.

Unlike regular trading, crypto currency has no intrinsic value. With gold, it might go up or down, but it will always have a value. Crypto currencies could shoot up 1000% or disappear overnight.

Crypto currency investing should only ever be done as a small percentage of your overall portfolio. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Have a mixture of stocks, commodities and crypto currencies. If you only have a few hundred pounds to invest you will get a better return elsewhere, I'm making £70 to £90 a week matched betting at the moment which is way more than I'd likely get investing my £300.

We bought £1000 worth with money from an unexpected bonus a few years back and we have just left it. It dropped as low as £400 but this week is trading at nearly £6000. I'm tempted to take out the 5k profit and leave the original stake but OH is keen to see if it will go higher. I'm pretty risk averse so I haven't really enjoyed the experience.

it's as much gambling as investing. it's also ripe for fraud and scams (like the Squid rug-pull fraud) as people don't understand the product well. bitcoin is less of a gamble, and less affected by fraud, and that's why bitcoin is more expensive.

H has a teeny amount of crypto (£300 investment). It's doing well today, could be worth a fiver tomorrow.

If is too good to be true be careful.

But is it real money?

It's possible, but not for you if you're asking here.
The easiest way to make big money from crypto is to scam people who don't know any better.

It's incredibly bad for the environment!

I read an article where a guy couldn't get to his money (massive gain) as he'd lost the password. Im not going to do it on that basis as I normally have to reset some sort of online password at least once a week

@valnevavaxx

It's incredibly bad for the environment!

This - but let's just ask people to turn down their heating, not travel etc so that some people can make more money.

One thing most people don't realise even with Crypto currency you are still liable to pay tax and you have to fill out a self claim if you earn enough, you can get in serious trouble if you do not claim.

When a vast majority fail to understand is that every single time (every transaction) cashing out any profit from Crypto or shares, penny stocks counts towards your yearly allowance.

How many of these people at home on their phones, laptops, pcs are making a log of every transaction on Cryto hand working out if they have hit the threshold over the year. I dabble quite a bit on stocks,shares and the odd crypto but i keep a spead sheet of each transaction as it does COUNT!

A really good calculator is here.

taxscouts.com/investor-capital-gains-tax-returns/can-you-cash-out-crypto-tax-free/

But as others have said this game is made up of winners and losers, if there is little volume in what you are trading, it does not matter how much your crypto is worth if no one is willing to buy it, your stuck with it. Reinforcing others comments here please do not use any money you cannot afford to loose.