Cryptocurrencies - Your Key to Financial Freedom AMA

I've been tracking the crypto space since Bitcoin was invented and bought my first Bitcoin in 2013 and has been using every cent of my savings to buy cryptocurrencies ever since.

I can now comfortably retire. Which other investment allows you to do that in less than 10 years.

Ask me anything about the cryptocurrency space, there's no such thing as a "silly" question. I think this goes without being said, but I'm going to say it anyway. None of what I say here is financial advice, I do not hold an AFS license, you should seek advice from a licensed professional before making any investment decisions. If you are making investment decisions from some random guy on the internet without doing your own research and due diligence, you should stop immediately!

There's all these controversy about property prices "surging" or becoming unaffordable, not for me, if you invest in the right asset, property is actually getting cheaper and cheaper. Property prices in Bitcoin terms has been decreasing and will continue to as Bitcoin increases in price at a faster pace. So to me, property is progressively getting cheaper and cheaper.

Update:

For those who would like to find out more about cryptocurrencies and why I think Bitcoin is here to stay and will be more valuable in the future, head over to hope.com and watch some of the videos. This site was set up by the CEO of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor who's company bought an aggregate of approximately 90,531 bitcoins, which were acquired at an aggregate purchase price of approximately $USD2.171 billion and an average purchase price of approximately $USD23,985 per bitcoin, inclusive of fees and expenses as of 24th Feb 2021.

To those who think that I "got lucky" and was "fortunate", that's very far from the truth. I saw this coming, I knew that with rampant money printing by central banks, fiat currency is going to zero and it has been doing so for centuries. All fiat currencies have gone to the zero, in history, there has not been any fiat currency that didn't go to zero. So Bitcoin's rise is inevitable to me, hence I bought it. I didn't go as far as that family who sold everything to buy Bitcoin, but I did use nearly all of my savings to buy cryptos.

Common criticisms of Bitcoin

  • Its just like Tulip mania
    Bitcoin is nothing like Tulips, Bitcoin is a decentalised and censorship resistant network which enables values to be transferred across the internet at very low cost. The value of Bitcoin is the strength of its network and the fact that it has never been breach or hacked, which means unless someone steals your private key, your coins are safe.
    Tulips has none of these qualities. The only thing which Bitcoin and Tulips have in common is the fact they both went up in value very quickly. Even then there are differences, Tulips went up and crashed all within 3 years. Bitcoin has gone through at least 3 cycles where it has smashed its previous all time highs and never dipped below the starting point of the cycle.
    Bitcoin has recorded a higher year on year low every single year since its existence except for 2015.

  • The Bitcoin network uses too much energy
    This is just market supply and demand. People mine Bitcoin because it is profitable to do so. The Bitcoin network do not require so many miners, in fact it started with just one miner. The network can continue with just one miner, it adjusts as more miners enter and leave, this is built into the network. The high energy used by Bitcoin is a sign that it is valuable and people are willing to make the effort in participating in the effort in securing the network and be rewarded for it.
    Due to the profit motive, the energy sources used by Bitcoin miner are increasingly from green energy sources reducing its impact on the environment.

  • It is used for criminal activity
    Fiat currencies are used on a much much larger scale by criminals. Banks launder money for criminal, there's been so many scandals, and those are just the ones which make it to the media, I'm sure a lot goes undetected.
    Bitcoin is actually very bad for criminal activity, this is why they quickly moved onto privacy coins like Monero and Zcash. The Bitcoin blockchain is public and all transactions remain there forever. If a drug deal is done with cash, unless there's a recording device there at the time of the transaction, that drug transaction is untraceable. If you do a drug transaction with Bitcoin, that transaction will always be on the blockchain, all it takes is for law enforcement to tie one address to a real person, and the entire web unravels, so its not very smart using Bitcoin for criminal activity.

My Crypto mistakes and other pitfalls

I want to go over some of the ways I lost money in crypto over the years so maybe you can learn from my mistake

  • Scam websites
    In 2014, there was a website called Bitcoin savings bank, which promises 9%pa interest if I transferred my Bitcoin there. Very similar to what Crypto.com, Blockfi etc offer today, except they are scammers. Unfortunately, I didn't do my research and I believed them. I transferred 2BTC to their "savings account". Never saw it again.
    Nowadays, these sites are very obvious, they promise hourly returns, like 10% every 2 hours. This is impossible to consistently do, they are all scams, don't fall for them.

  • Double your coins scam
    This is quite famous, there are many variants, but essential it just entails you sending your coins and double or some very good return percentage will return. Its a scam, you will get nothing. Fortunately, I have never fallen for these.

  • Pump and dump groups
    These are almost always scams, there are more losers than winners. Yes you may win one time, take it and walk away, but most likely you will lose. I lost more than 1BTC in this. I'm still part of the groups to monitor, but I never participate anymore. Neither should you. They also have these VIP or "inner circle" groups, where they promise you early notification of the coin to pump for a fee. Don't fall for this. They might also have an inner inner circle group or VIP+, where they promise to take your Bitcoin and buy the coins for you, to maximize your returns. These are definitely scams, they will take your Bitcoin and then block you on telegram.

  • Fake wallet apps
    These apps emulate popular wallet apps and asks you for your seed phrases and private keys so they can steal your crypto. Treat your seed phrases and private keys as private. NO ONE should know, not even staff members of the hardware wallet company. Its like your online banking password, no bank employee should ask for that. If any app do, delete it IMMEDIATELY.

  • Leveraged trading
    I lost around 1 BTC (worth around $5-6k USD at the time). I tried to pick the bottom during the 2018 bear market, the Bitcoin price was quite stable and stagnant around the $5500-$6000k mark, so around Nov 2018, I thought that was the bottom and went in with a leverage long. The market went off a cliff dropping down to $3500. I got liquidated, lost the 1 BTC I deposited. I never touched leverage trading again. Its very hard to pick tops and bottoms, so now I just dollar cost average and periodically buy and hold. You don't need to worry about being liquidated if you do this, it will help you sleep better at night haha.


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Comments

            • @tunzafun001: Very unlikely. Currently to mine profitably you need to be able to buy a kwh for less than 4c, there's not enough electricity offered in the US for those kind of prices.

              • @AncientWisdom: If that is true, then Bitcoin is doomed!

                • @tunzafun001: Yes,

                  Bitcoin mining looks doomed.
                  https://mempool.space/mining

                  • @rektrading: Not sure what all this means? But good to know when the next halvening occurs.

                    I can see the difficulty increasing (except for July 21- is that when the China ban came in)?

                    How can you extrapolate this data to show that mining isn't profitable above 4c/kwh?

                    • @tunzafun001: Its BS.

                      First, there are alot of different kinds of mining. Are you referring to mining Bitcoin directly using ASICs, or GPU mining for ETH and other crypto?

                      I've been a GPU miner than 2013, and the break even level is way above 4c. I've been able to profitably mine all this time except for some months during the bear market in 2018. I had to switch off my rigs during the peak times and switch them back on when shoulder and off peak kicks in.

                  • @rektrading: That looks great but yeah what does it all mean?

                    • +2

                      @bobwokeup: The hash rate going up while the price of energy goes up means that miners have a long term view that the Bitcoin price will follow the hash.

                      They have a strong conviction that any short term losses will be worth it while they keep mining blocks.

                      @tunzafun001
                      @billybob1978

              • @AncientWisdom: Where did you get that stat? I've been a miner since 2013 and I'm mining quite profitably at current electricity prices way more than 4c.

  • Posting here for ozbargain history, when BTC is 0 in the next 5-10 years (hopefully).

    How many times have you used bitcoin to buy something?

    • MasterCard and Visa, watch out.

      https://twitter.com/stephanlivera/status/1529579038427209729
      What's possible with Bitcoin's instant lightning payments at @OsloFF Bitcoin Academy https://t.co/sha8xAXHBN

      Real-time settlement and zero fees.

      • Oh great, a centralised exchange requiring your money to be in their wallet, and the transaction isn't registered on the blockchain.

    • crypto bros admit bitcoin is pure speculation and not fit as a payment system
      https://www.ft.com/content/02cad9b8-e2eb-43d4-8c18-2e9d34b44…

      • SBF got grilled for that post and promised to activate LN.

        Next.

      • So they admit their "decentralised digital currency", is not fit for use as a currency

        And still plenty do. Rekt above you seems to. Its in the name crypto "currency". The whole philosophical roots of it are for peer to peer digital cash. It's fine for things to evolve and find its place. But for better or worse, its not fulfilling its intention. Its now mostly a get rich quick speculative space, filled with dodgy and incompetent players

        • +1

          DM me the time you go to 🇲🇽, 🇸🇻 or Starbucks in the US. I'll be 😁 to shout you a ☕ or a 🍔 and 🍟 paid for with Bitcoin.

          You can also drop by Bitcoin Beach in 🇸🇻 and 💬 to the locals about how they use #Bitcoin to transact for goods and services.

    • +1

      How many times do you think people have used gold to buy something? What about silver?

      If you are waiting for BTC to go to $0, you are going to be waiting a long time.

      Let's check back in 5-10 years. It has been an amazing 9 years already for me since I bought Bitcoin in 2013.

      • +1

        https://www.gold.org/history-gold/gold-as-currency
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_coin

        Gold was used in commerce (beside other precious metals) in the Ancient Near East since the Bronze Age, but coins proper originated much later, during the 6th century BC, in Anatolia

        From the bronze age maybe, or at least 550BC til early 1900s. So alot of people.

        • Gold is used by 👴 people to fill cavities.

          • +1

            @rektrading: Gold has some useful properties as a material I guess. I still wouldn't invest in it as a 'store of value'.

            Crypto is spent by (clown emoji) to buy bored (ape emoji)

      • I wanted to add before, but got sidetracked…

        Sounds like you've done well as an early adopter. Think I read you're not really diversified, and mostly all in on crypto? If you've been buying since 2013, you'd surely have dozens if not hundreds or even thousands of bitcoins. Why wouldn't you cash out enough to be comfortable / set for life? You can still ride the rest out on a rocket that either moons or crashes. But at least you're set if the worst happens.

        "I can now comfortably retire. Which other investment allows you to do that in less than 10 years."

        The bull run from the GFC til recently has been insane. You could get 17%pa returns just sticking it into a diversified index fund (much better risk return ratio). Yeah, not many if any penny stocks would have beaten crypto's run. But now you're comfortable financially, why take such extreme risk with your money?

        • I don't see BTC as extreme risk. One of the ways to quantify risk vs return is the Sharpe ratio. The Sharpe ratio is the risk adjusted returns of an investment/asset so you can compare their risk vs return. Bitcoin has one of the highest Sharpe ratio of any asset in the last 5-10 years meaning for a given unit of risk, its returns surpasses almost all assets over the last 5-10 years. So why would I want to be in any other asset? Why do I want to sell a winner (Bitcoin and other major cryptos) and buy losers (property, shares commodities etc) just for the sake of "diversification"?

          Having said that, in order protect myself from a black swan event where Bitcoin and other crypto goes to zero, I have diversified a little now, into index funds, shares, commodities and cash (to buy the dip), but crypto still makes up the vast vast majority of my wealth.

        • +1

          See that nice bounce in the crypto markets? The increase in my portfolio over the weekend is enough to buy a house outright. This is why most of my wealth is in crypto, there's no other asset class like it in terms of returns. Of course there are risks, like Bitconnect, Luna and thousands of coins who have died, but Bitcoin is still king.

          There are risks in everything, even property. Look at all these developers collapsing and that's just the tip of the iceberg, I expect more collapses to come.

          • @techlead: Lol the bounce followed the stock market, which is down but nowhere near crypto levels. Bitcoin (and others?) was down ~55% from its peak. A drop of 50%, you need a 100% bounce to get back to even. That's the price of volatility. SP500 down 18% from peak…20% drop requires 25% gain to break even.

            The risks are very different though. Bitcoin is valued just because its agreed upon by a speculative market. It can go to 0, and very quickly. Shares in a company can go to 0, but its rare, and you might at least get some payout. An index will never go to zero (until a zombie apocalypse). Houses can go to zero I guess in extreme circumstances. But at the end of the day, they provide something of value beyond the speculative price of the market - the products/service of the company, or shelter of a home.

            I'm not sure if Sharpe ratio can/should be applied to crypto. Its meant for normal distrubutions, and was developed with traditional assets in mind. Crypto is very different. Even if that claim was true, it wouldn't be since the 17-18 explosion where most people probably bought in for the first time, or even worst since covid. You're fortunate you got in early (like a pyramid scheme :D )

            Glad you've diversified. Invite me to one of your mansions in 10 years and tell me it was unnecessary.

            • @JoeSchmogan:

              Lol the bounce followed the stock market,

              What are you talking about?

              Monday was Memorial Day. The stonks market was closed for three days.

            • @JoeSchmogan: Bitcoin provides value, that's the value agreed upon by the market to determine its price. Bitcoin is a decentralized and censorship resistant network which allow people to transfer value on the blockchain in an immutable way outside of the control of government. You don't need to trust nor have permission from a third party. All you need to do is trust the Bitcoin code which powers the network which everyone can see as its open-sourced. That's the "value" Bitcoin gives. ETH and other cryptos would have a slightly different value proposition, like a smart contract platform. I bought Bitcoin because it was potentially a new payment system, that's the "value", like shelter for a home and products/services for a company.

              Early adopters are usually the benefactors of handsome profits in most investments. Look at the people who bought Amazon in the 90s, Google in the 2000s and Apple just 10 years ago, not to mention property 10 years ago (although profits are not as big, just around 100% gains for NSW - median price). Just because early adopters benefit, doesn't make everything a pyramid scheme lmao. If that was the definition, nearly every investment is a pyramid scheme.

  • I read it could fall another 20% to somewhere near $24k, within the next 60 days

    I think at that point or somewhere around that point if it goes that low I'll be buying

    It's a gamble though, and I like gambling

    Apart from the white paper any recommendations on reading more in depth about crypto?

    • +1

      The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin
      The Fiat Standard by Saifedean Ammous
      The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous
      Bitcoin Whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto

    • Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum & Smart Contracts
      https://www.amazon.com.au/Attack-50-Foot-Blockchain-Contract…

    • I've already starting taking nibbles. I remember back when Bitcoin was at $3300 in 2018, I had no idea that was the bottom, I had buy orders all the way down to $1000. They never got hit unfortunately. I'm doing the same now. I have buy orders all the way down to $5000.

  • $8,000 bottom incoming?

    I can't imagine how many margin calls were made today.

    • Short the entire market to 0.

      Infinite profits.

      • Can't short to zero.

        Someone has to be on the other side of the trade.

      • +2

        Do you even understand how that works? Even if the markets went to 0, its not "infinite profits".

        You short by borrowing and selling an asset you don't have (leveraged) or you can sell assets you have and just hold the fiat (unleveraged). Let's say you go with the leveraged trade, if you short 1 BTC you don't have, the max you will gain is $22500 USD. While if you long, it would indeed be "infinite profits" because there's no limit to how high the market will go.

    • +3

      Let's see if BTC falls below $20k, if so, it would be a paradigm shift, as Bitcoin has never fell below the high of the last cycle before. It is possible and it could be explained by leveraged trades flash crashing the market, but let's see. I'm ready to scoop up cheap Bitcoin.

      • +1

        as Bitcoin has never fell below the high of the last cycle before.

        I fell for the no bear market without a blow-off top as in previous times. The dead cat bounce higher than the first top was a second punch in the gut.

        When it comes to the honey badger, expect the unexpected.

        • +1

          ☝🏼

        • +2

          Bitcoin has been melting faces for 10 years, it will continue to do so.

          Fundamentally, it is stronger than ever, it is just being suppressed by market conditions, Fed action as well as leverage and FUD around Celsius. Long term, it will be fine. That's why I continue to buy every dip.

          • @techlead: With BTC exchanges now freezing withdrawals all one by one, I'm not sure what makes you think the fundamentals are looking good. Lack of confidence is clearly what has pushed it to smash below $20,000.

            • @wizzlesticks: which exchange is freezing btc withdrawals?

              • @abctoz: Babel Finance and Celsius are two that come to mind. Google for others.

                • @wizzlesticks: none of the major exchanges for trading are affected as far as i know, binance had problems but that was for an hour

                • @wizzlesticks: Babel Finance had like 500 clients, all sophisticated investors and family offices.

                  Celsius on the other hand is not exactly an exchange, it is trying to be though with the new swap features it has rolled out recently.

            • +1

              @wizzlesticks: Not your 🔑, Not your #Bitcoin.

              • @rektrading: So true, but the allure of yield is just too strong, especially for coins which do not have a decentralised way to get yield like ADA and other POS coins.

                I've got a part of my portfolio in hardware wallets, so its safe, but I do have coins on exchanges and other platforms earning yield. I have 7 figures in Celsius and a similiar amount in Blockfi, Nexo, FTX, Binance and Kucoin all earning yield.

            • @wizzlesticks: Its not a lack of confidence, its whale games at the moment. Looks like certain whales want to push the price down to liquidate others.

              Very interesting reading up on theories about Celsius. Celsius came out of the UST/Luna crash with relatively little losses, in fact many blame Celsius for causing the UST/Luna crash by pulling its liquidity out when others like FTX did not and cannot because they had locked Luna like 3AC. The other Luna whales wanted Celsius to stay in, but they didn't, so now they are looking to get Celsius back.

              All speculation and rumours of course. I'm just enjoying the low prices. I'm buying the dip. Take it lower, I have more buy orders. Fill me up!

          • +2

            @techlead: its fine if your average price is like $1000, or like $1 for Max Keiser. for the people that DCA in at 40k not so much

            • @abctoz: . #Bitcoin hasn't changed.

              The people who bought at $40,000 should love buying it at $20,000.

              • @rektrading: true, but just be prepared to lose another 50% at $10k, 75% at 5k, 87.5% at 2.5k etc etc

                reminds me of luna all over again

                • @abctoz:

                  50% at $10k, 75% at 5k, 87.5% at 2.5k etc etc

                  🚫 it.

                  You're making me wet my 👗.

                  • @rektrading: its probably quite bullish long term just be prepared to DCA for another 10 years

                    • +2

                      @abctoz: I've been waiting for 2Y to buy at these prices.

                      . #Bitcoin is a long-term play. I've time to wait for another 10Y, 20Y or 40Y for this to play out.

                      • @rektrading: i too will await the super cycle, the longer it takes the higher it goes

                • @abctoz: Reminds of me what I did in 2018. I bought from $10k all the way down to $3300.

                  I bought more today and I will keep buying if its drops more.

  • If Bitcoin drops to $2,500, I'll literally put my build on hold and buy 100k worth

    Might be able to afford finishing it 😂

    • I'm going to front run you. If Bitcoin drops to $3k, I'm going all in and I've never done that before. I always leave some on the side to buy the dip when the dip takes a dip.

  • at least the guys on buttcoin are excited

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/comments/vf0gb7/19500_its_…

  • Any guesses how long this bear market will last? Until Fed stop raising rates? With inflation still going thot at least gold will go up….

    • if they don't pump this shit back above 40k over the next year, my prediction is 6+ year bear market

      actually even if they pump it up to 70k, we probably still enter a 6+ year bear market, but just at way higher prices

      this thing has been raging for 13 years, nothing goes up forever

      • Hmmm interesting, some traders suggest 4 years btc cycle. Very noisy atm out there, different ppl got different bottom price targets lol

        • +1

          everybody is expecting a 4 year cycle, that's not how markets work

      • 6+ year bear market?!?!?!

        lol Do you have any crypto, or bought some in the past?

        All I know is, no one knows when the bottom will be in, so I'm just going to DCA (Dollar cost average) buy and dips and hodl.

        Bitcoin was the best asset to hold for the last decade, it will be the best for the next decade.

        • DCA is fine, my point is you better have a 10 year horizon, most ppl are still thinking we keep going up including you…

          • +1

            @abctoz: Long term we will keep going up.

            The issue is, no one knows when the peak nor the bottom will be. take the last cycle for example, 2017 to 2020. I had no idea Bitcoin would peak at around $19900, I thought $10k would be the peak. I also, had no idea that the bottom would be around $3300.

            Its all well and good to say in hindsight, you should have sold at $19900 and bought back at $3300 and sold at $69k then buy again at $28k and sell again at $60k. I'm confident that not many people did that. Its a fantasy, it only exists in people's imaginations looking at the historical chart.

            The only reason why I DCA is because I think it will keep going up at some point in the future. If I don't think that, I wouldn't be DCAing that wouldn't be very smart. :D

            • @techlead: if you read my other comments you will see I am also long-term bullish, but it just looks to me like we could have a big bear market ahead of us, something that could shake a lot of people out

              • +1

                @abctoz: That's fine. That's the price of admission for crypto. If you can't take the dumps, you don't deserve the pumps. If you can't handle the roller coaster, get off the ride.

                I don't know about other people, but I find it extremely stressful trading. I'm not good at it and I don't like doing it. So I'm just going to DCA, that's the strategy that has worked for me, and yes, I might profit a little bit more if I can time the peak and bottoms, but I don't want the stress and uncertainty that comes with it. It actually makes me more anxious to be sitting on a pile of cash and have the market move up when I'm not onboard.

                This bear market may be short, may be long, all I know is, the cycle will turn and Bitcoin will rise again to all new highs, I want to be in the market when that happens. Its absolutely hilarious the mainstream media is declaring Bitcoin "dead" because it fell below $20k, just like it was declared "dead" at $2000, $200 and $20 years past, all within the last decade.

    • -1

      Celsius has been exposed as a huge ponzi scheme in the past couple of days (one of thousands of ponzi schemes in the crypto space). When the dominoes fall there will be an indefinite bear market.

      • -2

        Rehypothecation isn't the same as a #Ponzi.

        A Ponzi is illegal while #rehypothecation is perfectly legal.

        • it is illegal but most people don't know it while it operating
          it only becomes apparent after the facts, plenty of scam/fraud/Ponzi schemes exist, until it collapsed or someone tipped off law enforcement with insider info.

          offer high interest of 15-20% is a sign of a Ponzi or at best a massive fraud

          the best company in the world don't even make 20% return on asset and these crypto funny business that don't generates a dim of profit can pay people 15-20% a year?

          • @Hearthstone: Is #rehypothecation illegal in Australia?

            • +1

              @rektrading: scammer, Ponzi operator can call their operation whatever they like rehypothecation, investment fund, Invesment managers, trading system, trading station, insert your buzz word here. This dude has a nice trading system it is not an illegal name but he can still scam people millions

              https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/cracking-th…

              • +1

                @Hearthstone: . #Celsius was #rehypothecating assets to generate yield. The users agreed to the UA when they signed up.

                https://www.celsius.org/celsius-network-terms-of-service-use…

                • -1

                  @rektrading: isn't that how ponzi and scammer works? they come up with a business model that too good to be true
                  through people greed and get rich quick mindset users agree to signed up and willingly give them the money,

                  they then go and tell their friends and family and the internet about it, more suckers get suck in until there is no more
                  new money coming in or until people start withdraw the fund that it is not there and the whole thing collapsed.

                  that the classic case of all fraud and ponzi, and Celsius played it by the book.

                  is there any ponzi scheme where the schemer point
                  the gun at people head and said give me your money or force them to hand over the money?

                  • @Hearthstone: .#Rehypothecation is a TradFi business model.

                    Are you saying that legacy banks, managed funds and pension funds are Ponzi and scammers?

                    • +1

                      @rektrading: No I am saying fraud/ponzi can come up with any name or business model to trick people into giving them the money
                      naming and business model is a mean to steal people money

                      they can model it as Rehypothecation or Investing genius or Market timer or using some sophisticate techniques only they know how

                  • +1

                    @Hearthstone: By your logic, CBA and all the banks in traditional finance are also ponzi schemes.

                    • @techlead: banks don't offer 15-20% rate and banks are regulated so they have to have capital reserve for withdraw this is some seriously rules governing this space and your banks deposited are guaranteed up to 250K per bank account, you can have 4 banks account with 4 banks and your 1m is still safe if they collapsed

                      also banks borrow whatever the borrower want, match them with either short or long term funding and add their margins on top.

                      • @Hearthstone: How did those "capital reserves" work out in 2008? The bank guarantee is just the government making a promise with tax payer's money to bail out the depositors if anything bad happens.

                        Also, you are not getting 15-20% APY for cryptos across the board, I've never had that rate lending out my Bitcoin, no platform that I'm aware of has ever offered that for Bitcoin or ETH. The crazy APYs are usually for alt coins to try to entice people to buy.

                        I'm not saying crypto is safer than holding cash in the bank, it is clearly not. All I'm pointing out is that crypto is not a ponzi, it has value and if you do your research and hold the right coins, you will be ok.

                        I limit my cash holdings to $250k per bank specifically due to the bank guarantee ($100k for ING because that's their limit for their interest account).

      • Have you got any evidence of this?

        From what I can see on the blockchain, they have alot of assets to cover deposits and are actively reducing their loans, some being paid out in full (Link vault) and the huge DAI loan now has a liquidation level of $13600USD Bitcoin. If Bitcoin dips more, I'm sure they will transfer more in. They repaid DAI into it as recently as 17th June.

        The APY Celsius are offering is not too much off the rest of the industry. I parked some USDT into Binance flexible earn, they are offering 10% pa, which is close to what Celsius is offering.

        I have 7 figures in Celsius. I bought a ton of CEL when their email first came out about pausing withdrawals. I have confidence in Celsius, so when CEL dipped to below $0.10USD, I scooped them up. I think my average cost is $0.11, gonna let my accountant work is out lol. I sold that position during the short squeeze a few days later from $1 up to $2.20 USD. I made a 7 figure gain and very happy that the shorts got rekt. They thought CEL would drop like Luna haha.

        The theory is that Celsius is being attacked because alot of big Luna bag holders of Luna (FTX and friends) blame Celsius for causing the UST bank run when they pulled their bags out. Celsius did not lose much in the Luna/UST implosion, now those big Luna dust holders want revenge. All rumour and speculation though. What is confirmed is that FTX pulled its ETH investment in Celsius (circa $300 Mill USD) and then started dumping StETH to make it depeg from ETH.

        • Curious - still feeling confident in getting those 7 figures out of Celsius?

          • @Randolph Duke: I will most likely get a haircut, but its fine. I've already made more than my deposit in Celsius back by buying and selling CEL.

            I bought a ton of it on the day they announced the withdrawal pause at $0.10 USD and sold it progressively from $1.50-$2.20 USD a few days later, and I've been buying and selling CEL a couple of times after that. I've made more than my deposit in Celsius, so whatever I get back would be a nice bonus. I have written it off already.

  • +1

    Everyone is so cocky when the market is up. Best top signal ever. Thanks to OP.

    • -1

      Lol, when I posted, it wasn't the top. Bitcoin hit $60k USD in April 2021, then $69k USD in Nov 2021. If I'm a top signal, its a pretty bad one. If you shorted Bitcoin when I posted, you'd be fully rekt.

      Plus, I can STILL retire at today's prices.

      I've been through multiple cycles and I've been buying up as much cheap crypto as possible. This is how millions are made. Its very similar to previous cycle bottoms. It reminds me of 2018/2019, crypto was considered dead, yet I continued to buy.

  • You dont get yield on Crypto it defeats the whole purpose, not your keys not your coins, self custody your own bank etc.

    That being said you can earn coins through staking which is a different beast(For the coins that have proof of stake built into the protocol).

    2nd caveat you can play around with DEXs but then you run the risk of bridge hacks if you trying to use something like bitcoin as a wrapped ERC-20 token.

    LUNA, Celsious, Voyager, whats next?

    You can't even trust exchanges.

    Has techlead changed his opinions on those staking platforms that got destroyed?

    • Yes, I have changed my mind about staking platforms, CeFI. Defi is still strong.

      Your first and second line are contradictory. PoS coins are also crypto. Hence you can get yield on some cryptos, not all, eg Bitcoin do not have a yield natively onchain.

      You do get yield from PoS chains while owning your own keys, for example, ADA allows you to stake and get a yield, that's how its network is secured, you continue to hold your own keys. ETH will be switching to that in Sept 2022 (unless its delayed again, it was originally planned to be implemented in 2017 haha, but Rome wasn't built in a day of course), so you can stake ETH or delegate your ETH to get a yield.

      Luna was a ponzi, I saw that coming. Anchor and UST, there's no way 20% yield despite so much demand was sustainable. At least with Defi, you can see the yield is somewhat correlated with demand, crazy yields go down as more people pile on, but you are right about these bridge hacks, that's a big risk with Defi. Thankfully I haven't been owned by one of them yet, I spread my Defi staking around.

  • So who else is staking TAUD?

    I was staking a little on crypto.com earn and one of my stakes is ending its 90 day term in 2 says.
    Suffice to say I am nervous and while it gave me a 6% yield, I cannot deal with the uncertainty even with stable coins at this time and I will be withdrawing once the term ends.

    I might get in again later but I am nervous that this exchange may collapse soon too.

    Wanted to get thoughts from the rest of you staking TAUD.

    • I looked into TAUD when it had a market cap of around $20 mil, I wanted to stake a couple of million but decided against it because I don't want to hold more than 10% of the supply.

      I'm so glad I didn't go with that idea, the USD has gone on a tear since then, nearly all of my assets are denominated in USD. I've got $1 mil BUSD on Binance earning 10% yield. I also had 7 figures of stables and crypto on Celsius which I have written off. Any cent I get back from that would be a nice bonus for me.

      I think Binance is ok, but you never know. Even FTX can fall, nothing is certain when you give someone else your crypto private keys. That's the risk you take unfortunately.

      • How/where do you get 10% on BUSD on Binance?

        • Go into the "Earn" tab of the app. USDT is 10% as well. Its flexible, so you don't need to lock it up. I love it because I can stake and when I'm ready to buy the dip, I quickly unstake and buy cheap crypto from weak hands. Loving it.

          I got sub $19k USD BTC and sub $900USD ETH, plus a whole handful of alts. Matic has been on a tear, I pretty much robbed poor guys (literal and figurative) who were panic selling lmao. I bought a ton of Matic in the $0.32-0.35 USD range. Its literally daylight robbery hahaha.

  • +1

    Just keep calm and Dollar Cost Average (DCA), that's what I have been doing since 2013.

    I'm actually happier on a red day, it means I can do some buying. I never buy when its green or bumping against resistance, I always buy when its red testing support.

    Do your own research, this is what I'm doing, not financial advice, you shouldn't follow what I do.

    • That is a good strategy. I’m assuming you are mainly buying BTC but which other coins?

      I like BNB, BCH and CRO

      • +1

        Majority in BTC and ETH, however I do buy other major alts, such as BNB, Matic, Avax, Egld, ADA. I'm staying away from the smaller cap coins and the gaming coins for now.

        This is the best time to be buying, when its boring and everyone is "gloating" about crypto is dead, which is baseless, this "crash" is nothing. Some equities have also crashed, not to mention property now falling even in Sydney and Melbourne with people whinging about how the RBA "misled" them haha. Look at the collapse of the construction industry, the entire sector is crashing like Luna.

        I'm much much happier now than when BTC was at $50+k. I'm very proud of the fact that my historical cost of BTC is much much lower than Michael Saylor's haha, I don't have over 100k BTC though. T_T

        • Ah cheers I shy away from ETH due to the large fees however 2.0 should fix that soon hopefully, I don’t follow it.

          Yeah I like those alts too. I’m hearing about EGLD more often but haven’t bought any yet.

          Agreed I like buying now too as it is the perfect time. You’re right though everything is going down not just crypto.

          • @bobwokeup: ETH has improved alot, its actually alot more secure than the other chains like BNB and Sol. Have a look at the fees, its not thousands or hundreds anymore. It is, of course more than BNB, SOL or Avax, but that has its advantages, it weeds out the spam. Have you seen the amount of scam coins you get airdropped on BNB? I apparently have multi millions of these scam poocoins, of course if you try to interact with them, they will steal your legit coins. So don't be tempted, its all fake. This doesn't happen on ETH because it costs too much to airdrop these spam/scam coins.

            BNB is just an exact copy of ETH from a few years ago, CZ just straight up control C and control V ETH. SOL is not decentralised at all, it keeps going down, not reliable at all.

            ETH has the largest amount of dapp developers, so more scrutiny for projects.

            Gold is supposed to thrive in this market, yet it has barely moved, its still sub $1800. I sold all my gold to buy Bitcoin in 2013, one of the best decisions of my life. Second to maybe not going into property investment in 2013.

            • @techlead: That’s good to hear I haven’t looked at the fees for a while. Didn’t think about that in regards to weeding out the scammers although there are heaps of them in general in crypto. I just ignore them all no matter what they say, especially on Telegram.

              Oh wow didn’t realise they have the most dapp developers on ETH!!!

              Yeah gold is a slow mover I still have some which I should sell.

              • @bobwokeup: This is a very good site to track the gas prices on ETH. https://www.ethgasstation.info/

                ETH has pumped alot. I almost feel sorry for buy some people's ETH at under $900 USD…almost haha.

                • @techlead: Damn that is much better.

                  I never feel bad when buying the dip as that’s what any investor should do.

                  • @bobwokeup: Feels like I'm robbing them hahaha.

                    Especially alot of the alts, they've bounced back hard and I took all their profits. :D

                    • @techlead: Yeah does kind of feel like that haha

                      That’s the way to go!!!

  • -1

    Deep green in the crypto markets across the board. I think in the coming years, crypto will start to decouple from traditional markets like equities, commodities and property.

    Those people who mock Bitcoin at $100, at $1000, at $10000 are never going to buy anyways, they will just be left in the sidelines as Bitcoin goes to $30k, $50k, $200k and eventually $1 million and beyond. They will come out of the wood works during the "bear" markets, like from $69k to $17k, or $100k to $30k or $1 mil to $250k to say, "I'm right", but if you dig a little deeper into it, are they really right?

    Bitcoin is at nearly $24k USD after a "catastrophic crash", let that sink in, $2 4 k U S D. I came across an old order confirmation for $1800USD Bitcoin. Feels weird for an asset that's supposedly "dead".

    Go to https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-obituaries/, read the previous articles about Bitcoin's demise, more than 461 times!

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