Crypto dillemma. Sell or hold?

[biddybird]

I bought some Bitcoin a few years back... not much, just £2k worth. I was hoping to build up a retirement fund.

I see that BC is having a bit of a surge at the moment and today my investment is worth just over £6k!! Should I sell now and re-invest when the price drops again (as it surely will)?

I will need the money in around 10 yrs time.

I really have no idea what I'm doing with investments. I have tried some shares in the past but it's always been a disaster. Help!

Hold hold hold

Cardano has so much going for it (check out Coin Bureau's video on project (on YouTube) , and is potentially the only realistic challenger to Ethereum, and although it will never catch up can play 2nd fiddle. Additionally, the Gugoan update is due in late Feb / March, launching smart contracts, & every major youtuber recommending ADA, slall of this means that price will appreciate (as long as bitcoin does plummet).

@doubleaces89 - Thanks for that. I've always seen it as just hyped vapourware, but its stuck around so long that there had to be something to it.

What do you reckon to Polkadot and Cosmos? I'd have said they were the most likely eth challengers.

@Cailleachian

Following on comment above, I like cardano and think (or hope) it'll hit not minimum $1, and possibly $2-3 this cycle, but when the next bear cycle starts it will gradually depreciate to a very low market cap, as will everything else, apart from Bitcoin (& possibly ether).

There's a lot of buzz around dot, and it does solve a problem around connecting across different blockchains. It's currently in price discovery mode, so sky's the limit in terms of how high it could go...some are suggesting $50. Additionally, over 60% of dot is streaked with 1 month look in period, so if price plummets won't you'll have time to get out. I did recommend to a friend at $5, but at this price I personally won't be investing, but certainly wouldn't exit if I was in coin.

Sorry, don't know much about Cosmos.

@ValpolicellaPrimitivo @doubleaces89

Thanks for your tips. I'm making some progress, but now it's asking me for my "Recipient's BTC Address". Any idea what this means or where I would find out what mine is?

I've gone into my Address Management, but it looks like I don't have any Withdrawal Addresses.

There was a good Moneybox podcast episode on this last week. Worth a listen.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000r4vh

I seem to have three balances on Binance: Cardano, BNB (Binance Coin) and Bitcoin. The latter two are negligible amounts (

OK I think I've figured it out. I've tried withdrawing a small amount to see if it works!

On Binance I went to:
Wallet
Overview
Trade
Convert
Then converted some ADA to BTC ($150 worth).

Then:
Wallet
Fiat & Spot
[BTC] Withdrew the equivalent of $150 in Bitcoin to my Coinbase Bitcoin Wallet (…after I figured out how to find the Wallet address on Coinbase).

Apparently it is processing. So we'll see how much (if anything) turns up in my Coinbase account before I do anything further.

Next step: figure out how to withdraw GBP from Coinbase into my bank account.

What a minefield! No pun intended.

@Biddybird

"Next step: figure out how to withdraw GBP from Coinbase into my bank account."

Avoid an HSBC account. They are apparently no longer accepting credits from crypto exchanges.

currency.com/hsbc-blocks-cryptocurrency-transfers

@biddybird

Glad you got that sorted. If you used FPS (Faster Payments Service), it's cheaper and quicker than SEPA.

@Cailleachian - that's for tips on other thread 👍

@biddybird - if you check on YouTube there are usually lots of videos that guide you through process. I'm surprised you couldn't withdraw directly on binance (I.e. Selling btc to GBP, and withdrawing to your account)

@Cailleachian Thank you! That's good to know as I do bank with HSBC.

@doubleaces89 Thank you! I did get charged quite high fees (£50 in total) so I'll make sure i'm more up to speed for next time.

I bought into Bitcoin when coins were £1k, £2k and £3k. I used some inheritance to buy quite a few coins, decided to cash out on what I’d put in and now have over £100k in my portfolio balance. I’m going to wait until it reaches £50k a coin and will likely sell then.

Was hopeful for another crash to buy more but looks unlikely to drop to the single digits now.

Hello all. I thanks MN for existing! I am a long time reader. I am so thankful for everyone whose postings I have learnt so much from. This thread is so useful. I am hoping that those who are sharing their personal journey in investing in Blockchain will continue sharing. I recently need to up my income and have always want Blockchain, and now free to do. I am researching a lot via all free sources, but not buying anything yet as not sure if I had secured all old security data in old devices. But just want know if anyone knows why UK is not big supporter of this type of investing?

@HiTeddy

I think crypto isnt as big here as it is in some other places because we havent yet realised that we need it.

If you look at the places that it is really taking off - Venezuela, Lebanon, Nigeria, the [Kenya/Uganda/Tanzania] area, its areas where the there is very low trust in the government, high inflation, massive inequalities and limited banking services.

In the UK we assume that our government is trustworthy, that inflation will be moderate, inequality is lessening and banking services are available on every high street.

The fragility of these assumptions hasnt yet hit people.

@Gerup

Is down 29% in 11 days also considered "stable"?

Why have a lot of the posts been deleted?

@biddybird

MumsnetHQ tend to be a bit trigger happy on the delete button on every crypto related thread. The other crypto thread that was started at the same time was deleted in its entirety.

Ugh,

The Madness of Crowds etc.

I am still totally convinced that Bitcoin is the 21st century Tulip Bulb but that does not mean many won’t make money trading it.

I like Warren Buffett’s advice to only buy what you understand and I have done fine sticking to it.

OP has sensibly taken profits off the table and is having fun with her original stake. I would only advise new investors to touch this with ‘fun money’ if at all.

@Cailleachian, You are right. UK financial regulation are tight. And I think we are more cautious in general as a nation, and our consumer protection culture have contributed to the anxiousness of entering something that is "difficult to proof ". But if we give chance to our curious side, and exploring information regarding topic that we believe is bad without knowing too much about it, such as Blockchain Technolgies, we may actually able to change our mind.

I always think Crypto is bad. Then I find out that a lot of things that we are using or have impact us indirectly are actually have started using Blockchain technology. So I read about it and realised that Crypto and Blockchain are difficult to entangle. The more I explore the two, the more realised that not all Crypto are dodgy.

But I am aware that this is not for me at the moment as I am so at basic level in investing currently, and learning.

The MN posters create amazing resources of free opinions in many directions. Which is great.

Thanks you Cailleachian.

@HiTetty

Crypto is amazing, but can be quite inaccessible.

That inaccessibility creates a gap where scams can leak in, because people dont understand it enough not to fall for the obvious scams, and scams are getting so sophisticated now that even experienced folk sometimes fall for them. Beside the actual scams, a lot of crypto is untested and really high risk, even tho its perfectly legit.

Sometimes you see newbies immediately jump into things daytrading on margin at 100x leverage, or farming defi governance tokens and you know they dont have the first clue about what they are doing, but they are making money, sometimes lots of it and the basics seem boring in comparison.

Newbies should always start with bitcoin, its the lowest risk asset in the space. Its also at the high risk end of most ordinary people's risk tolerance. Once you are comfortable with bitcoin and that level of risk, its time to start exploring.

@TheReluctantPhoenix's suggestion to take out the original stake is very good advice. That way you can explore with "house money" , even if you lose it all, you've not really lost anything.

Some of @gerup's posts give me the heebie-jeebies, because I would be a nervous wreck if I did that kind of high volume frequent trading, but she clearly knows what she is doing and has the emotional temperament to handle it. The problem is when people jump into that kind of thing with their lifesavings without realising how dangerous it is, or understanding what they are doing.

Well, this is all looking rather promising for me. Of my intial investment of £1000 in Bitcoin and £1000 in Cardano, both in 2018, my portfolio is now worth £9.5k.

I currently have £4.5k in FIAT (converted after my inital post in Jan) and left my initial investment amount in both of the crypto currencies. Since then the Bitcoin has increased again to £1.8k and the Cardano to almost £3k.

So, I'm back to my initial dilamma. Sell or hold? Particularly the Cardano, in light of @doubleaces89 comments.

Any thoughts would be welcomed!

I have also discovered that cash withdrawals can be made from Coinbase to Paypal without fees, and then transferred to my bank account without fees, so that gets around the problem of some UK banks not allowing transfers to/from the exchanges.