Bitcoin Forum

I notice when bitcoin is rising, altcoin deep but mostly retaining its fiat value. Does it make sense to look at it from its fiat value rather than the bitcoin value..

Depends what you're trying to get.  Personally I would have no real reason for altcoin trading other than getting more BTC and HODLing BTC, so I would certainly measure against the BTC price.

There's also the fact that alts are usually traded against BTC rather than against fiat, so altcoins' fiat value often rises and falls along with BTC as well, at least to some extent.

If you're looking to get fiat, then looking at the fiat price is fine, but usually you should be considering the returns you get from the altcoin compared to the returns you would have got by just keeping your BTC.

Try to looks at the price in the fiat value to determine the easy way or to take the result about the coin. But the bitcoin gives a convenience way to trade while at the same time try to use the fiat value to make your trade will be more easier to determine the bottom and maximum price.

If you are trying to use the altcoin to buy more bitcoin, then look at its bitcoin value. If you are just using the coin itself on trading and getting more fiat, then look at its fiat value.

2 answer for your question,
Btc and Fiat.
Fiat-it's the best way to maximize your trade.
it's very easy to value your altcoin in Fiat,so when Bitcoin price is surging right now,
and altcoin underwater in Bitcoin value,you can check it how much is it when the price is surging.
then you can make a decision about it,will you buy it or sell it.
and using fiat as your way to value your portofolio,you can reduce your risk.

Bitcoin-It's the best way to maximize your profit in trade.
you can double your profit when you use Bitcoin as a value for every of your portofolio.
but bear it in your mind,that using Bitcoin also doubling your risk in losing.
when you buy an altcoin for 1400 satoshi and the price surging to 1500 satoshi.
while Bitcoin price is surging,you get more profit from increasing the value in Bitcoin+Price surging.

It's very easy to value the price of altcoin in terms of fiat, but the price pumping is mostly in terms of bitcoin and ethereum. Btc to altcoin trading is possibly the best way to profit, but here good knowledge is required to predict the market along with the luck, without which the hard effort goes useless.

people usually trade altcoins with bitcoin, which means the altcoin fiat values is meaningless to these people. in other words you will be losing bitcoin if you invest in an altcoin that keeps its USD value but goes down against BTC.

but if you are investing fiat and the bitcoin was just a medium you used because there was no other way for you to buy that particular altcoin with fiat and also if you want to keep the fiat in the end, then i guess it would be OK to look at its fiat value only.

but as i said it is best to keep the bitcoin and go back in that altcoin when it stopped dropping against BTC and started rising.

I agree it absolutely depends on what you want your profit to be in, with the rise in bitcoin prices and fall in altcoins prices you would make profit in terms of fiat but the amount of btc has still gone down and since it's a btc to altcoins trading you haven't made any profit so it entirely depends on what you are looking for fiat gains or gains in btc

I prefer bitcoin because it is volatile on its price and then you can try trading altcoins which can help you to earn more bitcoin and gather more possibility to earn more in its value; fiat. If you will trade altcoins then your bitcoin will grow and if the price of bitcoin will go up then you will be gaining much more money unlike in fiat that it is fixed on its fiat value.

It's been a habit for me to look at the bitcoin value of my altcoin holdings rather than it's fiat value. Since most trades are done in BTC / altcoin, looking at it's fiat value sometimes confuses me. I also monitor prices of altcoins in satoshi, before buying at dips.

Alt trading with fiat as final currency. Then, when BTC price decreases exchange the fiat into BTC and hold.

I think it's not so good to exchange the AltCoins profit into BTC when it's expensive (like now), but if the BTC is cheap then there is no problem to skip fiat converting the final profit of AltCoins to Bitcoin.

It depends how you bought it. If you bought your altcoins in fiat, then profit or loss should be calculated through fiat quantity. But if you bought your Altcoins through Bitcoin which is most likely the case, then Bitcoin should be used for calculating your net profit. Because if that money was kept invested in bitcoin, it would have grown. So, indirectly its a loss or wrong investment.

Personally use Tether USD. You want to compare to something less volatile otherwise you can lose with fluctuation.

I actually don't like Tether at all.
at first sight it seems the most convenient but when you pay more attention to its details you can clearly see that using USDT is adding an additional risk to your investment. it is not decentralized like cryptocurrencies so you can't really use it freely, also it is not promised to stay at $1 and a simple swing can mean a huge loss on your part which nobody covers or cares. for example we saw the big dip that it had when bitfinex was hacked last year.

Until btc cam be used like fiat, bottomline for trading would always be the fiat equivalent of altcoins. Even with btc rise now, we're basing our profit mostly on how much it is when converted to fiat.

It is not about altcoins and bitcoin people are coming from different regions and investing if asian region then they are investing less number of amount and while european because they are rich and there currencies are less than asian according to bitcoin then they invest into bitcoin easily. So they have option of altcoin too in blockchain so they go for that option too.

This. Tether has been very shady eversince. The thing is, tether is not actually backed by anything. It's completely stated on Tether's TOS:

"There is no contractual right or other right or legal claim against us to redeem or exchange your Tethers for money. We do not guarantee any right of redemption or exchange of Tethers by us for money."

Also, like last week, $25,000,000 worth of tethers are generated. They're simply just creating tether out of thin air. Sketchy af. I personally only use tether(USDT) when making quick trades. I'm definitely not keeping them for more than a few days.

Here's an interesting read on Tether(USDT): https://hackernoon.com/the-curious-tale-of-tethers-6b0031eead87

By the end of the day most of us want to withdraw bitcoin in fiat to use for daily life and also we keep tracking our investment in terms of fiat rather than in bitcoin. It is true that when bitcoin is pumping hard most altcoin will try to retain its value in terms of fiat so it will be good to just exchange your altcoin to bitcoin when bitcoin is pumping and move bitcoin back to alt when alt will start to pump in terms of bitcoin, this will help you to grow your portfolio both in bitcoin and fiat.

That is some strategy but I have never ever given importance to altcoins.
I think, Bitcoin is better than fiat if someone wants to maximize his asset because bitcoins is capable of multiplying its value in a very short span of time. However, if someone can deal with altcoins and all these conversions you explained, It is better to go with your one.