Cryptocurrency

Eventually there will be a single crypto that is stable and used worldwide. First the private central banks need to be audited and then removed. The fiat economy is imploding.

 

My boss is in on the crypto thing, says he's made a fortune, but I wonder too, and I asked him, "how do you turn that into cash in hand, and stuff it in your bank?"
I didnt get a direct answer, it all seems iffy.
Explain me this.... You take your 1000.00 dollars cash money, you send it off electronically to WHO?
What is done with it?
It all seems contrived
SOMEBODY is recieving these millions/billions of dollars being "invested"
This "somebody" can say " oh the market crashed, you all lost your money, sorry"

 

One similarity to gambling is that no one ever admits to losing anything. All proponents do is talk about how much they won / made.

Along the same lines, my neighbor was "killing it" as a day trader in 2019. He has now quite silently become a handyman.

 

A friend of my wife invested everything she had ($350k+) in Bitcoin. She was getting monthly statements showing how much money she was making. When she was up $100k, she told them she wanted to cash out. They told her that she would have to send them $40k to pay the taxes on the $100k before she could cash out. She told them that she didn't have $40k to send them, that they had all her money. Turns out it was a scam and she lost all her money.
You guys be careful out there. Lots of scammers around.

 

If your boss didn't give you a direct answer, he shouldn't be buying crypto. IT's easy. You use an exchange. The exact same way you'd turn stocks into money, or turn precious metals into money. Coinbase.com is one of the more reputable ones. Create an account, drop your crypto into your coinbase wallet, and then exchange for dollars that you can either leave on coinbase.com in a money market account, or transfer to your bank account (of course they make fees on it). But there's no mystery or magic to it, it's extremely simple and straight forward.

If you're talking about buying crypto, you send your money to whowever you're buying it from. Think of crypto as a commidity (like a car) not money, and it makes more sense. You can make crypto by mining it yourself (the topic of another thread), buying it from any individual, or buying it from an exchange.

Just consider it betting. cryptocurrency is worth money because people want it. for the same reason a '67 corvette is worth over six figures and a 67 buick barely hits 20k, it's what the market will bear. just DONT call it investing. It's not. IT's speculating. It's betting. It's not crazy to make crypto a part of your investment portfolio, but it should really only be in the 5-10% that's high risk. Think of it as literally putting money on the roulette wheel. Long as you look at it that way, it's fine.

 

Are there any cryptos traded on the NY Stock Exchange? If I can't buy and sell them like I can my ETFs and stocks, I don't trust the process. Not that I trust ETFs and stocks all that much but they have a few centuries of stability to back them up.

 

No, but why would they be? they're not stocks. They're commodities. You don't see corn... or automobiles on the NYSE, right?
I'm not defending them, I think they're super high risk, but you're mixing apples and oranges.

And.. there are funds that invest in crypto, just like any other commodity.

 

Is crypto considered a capital gain ?

 

nope.
any profit is taxed as ordinary income.

 

..which, by the way, is why a lot of people don't bother selling crypto. IRS has been cracking down on people avoiding taxes using the high level of anonymity crypto affords. One popular legal way to avoid taxes is (just like with stocks) to take a loan against the worth of the portfolio.

 

Not unlike anyone who wants to play the monetary/currency market for profit, one must be disciplined. Set a goal for increase of your initial investment, and once that goal is reached, convert your "profit" to hard currency or other tangible assets. Regardless of tax liabilities. Your goal parameters will be set by how much risk you wish to take.

Too many folks get greedy, and "let it ride" as their investment increases in value on paper.. most often, this is a recipe for losing all your money, in a market as volatile as crypto. it was not long ago that bitcoin was in the tank, after a steady rise.. and that can and most likely will, happen again.

Just remember, as fast as folks "wanted it" they can change their mind, and once demand falls, the selloff starts. Stay ahead of that curve.

I also think that the analogy of the DVD/Beta/Laser disc/movie rental era was spot on. It's awful early in the game here, to be naming winners and losers.

JW

 

And my point is, until there is some protection and equivalent ability to move into and out of it like stocks and ETFs, it is took risky for my blood. Sure, I might throw $100 at it but I am comfortable losing $100. Any more than that and I don't see it as anything but pure gambling and the house rules aren't always known to the players. I take calculated risks, I don't gamble with large sums.

 

I agree it's like gambling, but what would stop you from moving "into and out of it like stocks"?
going from crypto to $$ and from $$ to crypro is very easily and quickly done, just as easy as selling a stock.

 

More power to you. It's the shadiness of the exchange and the lack of regulation. There's no FDIC or SEC for crypto, no guarantees.

 

not disagreeing with you, just didn't understand what you were saying. as for the shadiness of the exchange, there is no single exchange, depends on where you get it from. There are some very large, very reputable exchanges out there. Or you can just buy from a private party.

But, I have a sense we're on the same page on this anyway. Despite how much you can make with crypto, it's a small percentage of my portfolio. Crypto isn't investment, its speculation ,

 

How, when and where did this Crypto stuff start?
Who started it?

 

Do lots of research before it is played as there are a lot of crap ones out there and not really regulated. I heard Cody Willard on the business news give some good descriptions on this stuff and he was the one that said to watch it.
I think it started around 10 years ago

 

Sounds like the line from "Smugglers Blues" "The lure of easy money"
Investing in the market is slow and painful, up, down, down down, wait, its going up slooooowly
This seems too fast, too easy to me

 

It's like the Dot Com bubble of the previous century or the tulip bubble of the 17th century before that. They just don't know it's a bubble until it bursts.

 

Some form of cyrpto currency is likely the future, but for now it truly does seem to be based on faith and wishes...almost pyramid scheme like. It occurred to me this week it resembles slot machines in a casino. Casino's only pay money when people spend money. They sell an experience and a dream. Nothing else is purchased and payouts are based on pay-ins. The number of growing crypto types (and how they are created) also reminds of on-line gaming (MMO's). A programmer creates a base design and random players can then take that design and build their own servers/platforms. I'm playing a survival game right now (SCUM) that is exactly that.

Just my thoughts... I'm sure they said the same about paper money back in the day.
-MIG