To Have And To HODL: A Beginner’s Guide To Buying Your First Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology have become mainstream. Celebrities are scrambling to catch up with the trend and are buying NFT avatars for online use, while investors everywhere are buying the recent “discount” bitcoin and altcoins. But not everyone has been “successful” when it comes to cryptocurrencies.

For those who don’t have faith in the next generation of coins yet but want to learn about long-term holdings, we’ve put together this beginner’s guide to buying your first cryptocurrency.

Understand the risks

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are positioned as the future of finance. The general consensus is that it is still relatively early to invest in these technologies, which represents a high reward setup but does not come with much risk.

Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile which is why many investors are advised to only HODL (hold [for] dear life). Other common sense and caution include never investing more than you are comfortable with losing.

The final risk that is often associated with cryptocurrencies is related to where you actually store the assets. The private keys that protect digital assets only work online, making them easy for hackers to access and easy to lose access to. Users must either store these private keys in an online hot wallet or cold storage wallet or trust a third-party cryptocurrency exchange to store those keys. Such exchanges may be vulnerable to attacks; however, new solutions are emerging as Bitcoin matures, such as a Bitcoin ETF that offers investors the ability to gain exposure to the bitcoin price without owning the underlying asset.

Choose a coin

Not all cryptocurrencies are created equal. Each cryptocurrency has unique attributes, communities or use cases. For example, Bitcoin is primarily a store of value or payment currency, with a supply of just 21 million. Ethereum, on the other hand, has a supply of over 119 million and can run smart contracts. Other altcoins offer a variety of comparable or unique attributes.

No cryptocurrency is immune to risk; however, the risk can increase further for your chosen list of cryptocurrencies ranked by market cap. When approaching cryptocurrencies, investors should consider starting from scratch with Bitcoin and Ethereum. The two main crypto assets have the highest market capitalization and offer the most liquidity and regulatory acceptance.

For those reasons, Bitcoin has mainly started to gain greater traction with institutional investors, hedge funds, corporations, etc. Individual investors should do more research on each cryptocurrency. individually before making a final decision on which cryptocurrency to approach.

Where to buy Bitcoins?

Ultimately where you buy bitcoin is up to you. But make sure you do your best to research and explore your options as you consider which coin to choose. The platform you buy from is often where many investors choose to store their assets – so security and reputation are everything.

The best advice would be to look for a company or platform with a history or track record of serving clients or any platform that makes it convenient to manage other types of financial accounts in At the same place.

Avoid Bitcoin ATMs that charge large fees and then let you protect your money. Also, never exchange bitcoins with someone you don’t know and avoid peer-to-peer platforms like LocalBitcoins.

With all of this in place, you’re ready to buy your first cryptocurrency.