So, you are a new investor and you want to jump into the exciting cryptocurrency market. There is a lot of money to be made, but there is also a lot of risk. Maybe, a little knowledge can reduce that risk.
Choose an Exchange or Platform
One of the first decisions you have to make when trading crypto is choosing the right cryptocurrency exchange or cryptocurrency trading platform.
While Robinhood is not exactly a cryptocurrency exchange, it is an FDIC-insured brokerage account and has commission-free trading. In addition to many equities, Robinhood users have access to the following cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Ethereum Classic (ETC), and Bitcoin SV (BSV), a fork of Bitcoin Cash. To get a full picture of the pros and cons, you can check Robinhood crypto review.
In addition to Robinhood financial and Robinhood crypto, Coinbase, COinbase Pro, GDAX, and Gemini are good options for New York-based traders. PayPal can also operate in New York, but it is limited to the following major cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC). New York State requires that cryptocurrency trading platforms and cryptocurrency exchanges operating within the state have a Bitlicense.
For U.S.-based exchanges outside of New York, there are many options: Kraken, Gate.Io, Kucoin, CoinMama, etc. For international cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance is considered one of the best.
Large Cap or Small Cap
Technically, new investors do not need to make this decision, but it can help a lot with general strategy. Basically, large cap means high trading volume, and a large cap strategy involves the top five, or top 10, or top 20 coins in terms of trading volume, such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Ripple (XRP), and Binance Coin (BNB).
During the little-over-a-decade history of the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin has continued to hold BItcoin dominance. In 2021, there has been some talk of Ethereum flipping Bitcoin, but that was all derailed by the Great Crypto Crash of 2021.
Small cap, commonly referred to as altcoins, involves coins that trade in low volumes, such as Shiba Enu (SHIB), Polygon (MATIC), and Aventus (AVT). In theory, there is more upside potential because less volume is needed to make the coin double, triple, quadruple, etc. because the coin is smaller. The problem is that not all small cap explode. The truth is that there are thousands of altcoins out there and a great many of them implode, rather than explode. To know the good ones from the bad ones, one might have to study thousands of small caps. With a large cap strategy, you can focus on the top five, top 10, or top 20, and, therefore, have a deeper knowledge of each coin.
The altcoin crowd, however, would argue that the bigger they are, the harder they fall. In March, many argued that Bitcoin was overpriced at over $60,000 per coin. They felt that with such high market caps, there was a high risk, but very limited upside potential. During the Great Crypto Crash of 2021, which happened to be in May, the altcoin crowd happened to be right when the market suffered a 50% correction and Bitcoin dropped to $30,000 per coin.
The problem, however, is that the “entire” crypto market suffered a big correction, including most altcoins. If you had somehow managed to buy an altcoin “before” the crash, and have managed to see that coin double and triple and even 10x after the crash from your purchase price, then congratulations. You are a genius!
From Beginners to Active Traders
The asset trading game is often referred to as a zero-sum game with winners and losers, and beginners often start out as losers. However, with a lot of hard work and risk tolerance, plus a little bit of luck, you can be winners strutting around in your pin-striped suits or your pencils skirts.
