Bitcoin Forum

Hello there,

My friend is going all in with crypto world but he hasn't any clue about crypto world but with all the hype going right now it's not impossible to convince him that if you don't have enough experience and don't do enough research you cannot go into crypto world because the risk is just too high.

I am relatively new to the crypto world and I don't have the right expertise to suggest him where to start, I told him that people are focusing their investments on specific projects but didn't suggest him a specific one.

I made a thread here weeks ago and I was surprised with all the help I got so I figured out that this forum will be the ideal place for this question.

If you would have $20k to invest in crypto, what would you do?

I appreciate your time.

Thanks

Let him understand first what is a cryptocurrency and his willingness to take a risk despite the volatile nature of these digital currencies.  And next, suggest only BITCOIN nothing else and stick to this because that's AFAIK safer than other projects in the crypto space.

For now, the market was drastically deep down (https://coinmarketcap.com/), which means Bitcoin had a correction the price and any time soon it will pump up again and that's the time we will take profit and it might be good if he will take the opportunity to invest his all money but at least the capital that you want to invest in the amount that you can afford.

Explained very well also regarding properly storing of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is the genesis of anyone who want to start investing in crypto. It is a much safe option because it's the oldest, and it's not going anywhere.

IMO, it's way too risky to buy Bitcoin right now. Maybe your friend should wait a little when there is a major correction and then buy the dip. Newbies usually make a mistake of a buying crypto due to FOMO only for the price to drop for months or years, and then they end up selling at a loss

Sometimes, newbies are too excited that they are disregarding a lot of risks. I understand because I used to be in their shoes. It may be good that somebody is eager to get into Bitcoin, but there are actually basics to get familiar with before actually committing all in into it or they might end up learning the lessons the hard way.

Just remind your friend that Bitcoin is no get-rich scheme; the price could fall hard anytime and although it will surely recover, the recovery may take years. Secondly, and this is a must, your friend should buy it from a trusted seller and then keep it in a trusted open-source non-custodial wallet. Also, please remind him/her to keep all information pertaining to his/her wallet such as seed phrase, password, PIN, private keys, and so on private. He/she alone should have access to it. Finally, of course, tell him/her to buy only Bitcoin. He/she could experiment on altcoins later on when he's got enough knowledge.

I would wait for a dip.

If he is too evolved with the hype, it will be quite difficult for him to pay attention to you or for you to convince him. So the best thing you can do for him is to send your friend a link to this forum. Some sections in this forum will teach him all he needs to know about cryptocurrency.

Aside from other altcoins, Bitcoin has lesser risk. However, he shouldn't put all the 20k into Bitcoin, in my own opinion, instead, 80 percent of it is okay.

Since he is too excited about purchasing cryptocurrency, he shouldn't dive into trading, but HODL the Bitcoin for some certain period. As for the remaining 20 percent of the 20k, he can spread it to other coins or projects after excellent research.

Possibly invest it on a good coin or cryptocurrency as long as the person or someone understand the risk of it. Bitcoin and even ethereum are major coins but even they arw big projects chances of losing its price is possible. If your friend is a risk taker, I suggest he would join new projects with little conservative approach or should I say projects with potential. I am looking into these Casper Labs project that conducting token sale.

1. Forget about and stay away from altcoins
2. Learn what bitcoin is, what it is meant to do, a little about how it works and a lot about how you (or they) could use it like for buying stuff.
3. Learn about what different wallet types are, which ones are safe and which are not (eg. custodial wallets and web wallets in general even if they aren't custodial are NOT safe). Then decide which wallet types to use. For example a cold storage + desktop wallet.
4. Create that wallet.
5. Decide if $20k is what you can afford to lose and reduce if it is not.
6. Buy bitcoin and move it to that wallet.

Investing in crypto at the moment seems like the best thing to do for a lot of persons with the capital to come into the market. By all means do, its the best of ideas but, it would be better still should you have a sound knowledge of bitcoin or cryptos in general. You can't just go about risking money just because you've got it without knowing what are the stakes and key players of the market your investing in. $20k is a lot of money and it would go a long way as an investment capital but not to invest than have regrets later.

you must specify at what price you will buy "the dip".  we don't have super powers that can buy "the dip" right.  one thing that often happens is when the dip ends, Bitcoin will not come back to that price and continue to rise.

No one knows for sure, I would do dca at every fair price. And that fair price is not above 50k for me.

I'd spend a good amount of time researching assets first before actually buying anything. No offense, but if you're asking such a question, then chances are, you probably haven't done the work yet. Because if you did, you'd be asking specific questions instead of asking this broad "what to invest" question.

That's a lot of money and a lot of income if used the right way but before that, you need to learn more about some way on how to choose the right coins to invest your money with and don't be shy asking some questions here if you are not sure about something you have read about certain coins. The fatal mistake is when you go on your own to choose a certain coin without even asking some questions because those coins have their own way to promote themselves to make it look like they have a promising project and guess what? they don't have anything but only those sweet words they've posted on their social media pages. Remember that's a lot of money and needs some consideration to take some time on where you gonna put that money. Since you are asking as well, my answer would be ETH or BTC when the price will go down these coming days.

So far you want to invest, it will be good to use cold wallet which are safer than hot wallets.
You will need to stay connected and read crypto news always, knowing when whales are buying
You will need to look for the coin to invest, it can be three, two or one or more, but do not let it be too many, but I will prefer to only choose like three at maximum and bitcoin will make up to 50%
Wait for the price to reach like $50000 or still decrease below such price
You will need to know how institutions are buying, any big buy, you can invest at that point.

For now, nobody knows if truely bitcoin price will still increase, it is constant that it will increase over long period of time but it could take longer than thought, and we do not know if the price will still dump below $50000, this is just a hard time period to invest. And, do not use the money you can not afford to lose, because the market is volatile.

If you/your friend are new to all this, I would suggest that you stick to bitcoin, or at least to invest majority of money in it, especially until you figure something sout and how this market works. But even then, if you decide to invest in altcoins, name of the game should be "make as much BTC as possible".

Thing is, while altcoins might offer bigger returns in the short time period, being a newbie means that you won't sell that altcoin at the right time, greed will kick in no matter what you said to yourself before like "I will get out when it makes 3x) so in the end you will end up with less money than you would have if you just invested in bitcoin.


I know people that said the exactly the same thing when BTC went to 30k, and are still waiting for dip to buy BTC for the first time. Imho, better tactic is dollar cost average if someone ain't sure. Less hassle and you don't have to time the market.

If your friend is a very risky person, and in such a hurry with investments, try to tell him about all the risks. It is necessary to show the whole truth not only from the beautiful side but also about the amounts that were lost by people. Stories with incorrect storage of bitcoin and its loss in the future, as well as the risks of volatility, can sober your friend, and possibly give him direction on what to do at the moment.
If he is ready to invest his money, ask how long is he going to do it? If he is ready for such risks and intends to invest for a long period, then perhaps he should not delay investing. And of course, it must be bitcoin.

Yes, I mentioned that in response comment (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5325771.msg56628735#msg56628735)

But that's not exactly a dollar cost average method if you waiting for the price to drop below certain threshold (in your case it's $50,000) and only buy then. So what let's say BTC goes down to 49k and you buy some with portion of your money, and then BTC goes back to 55k? Does that mean you won't buy again and instead you will wait for another "fair price"? How exactly is that DCA, and what if BTC never goes back below 50k, does that mean you won't buy ever again?

Point of dollar cost average method is to stop worrying about the current price and trying to time the market. Instead, you divide the money that you have to invest, and buy BTC in regular periods (let's say weekly or bi-weekly) no matter the price. In the long run this works flawlessly with bitcoin.

I second the opinion that discussing the risk is also a good idea for a new investor. Make sure they know that their portfolio can go -90% in a single day or more. I think lots of new users are interested in the opportunity without embracing the risk and then claim that crypto is a scam in the end when they failed to utilize the opportunities to make some profits.

Make sure he's really prepared to lose all of that money before he starts. Reduce the amount necessary since there's no use in guiding him if he can't be patient because he lost the money he can't afford to lose.

With that condition that you have mentioned, the best choice will always be bitcoin. But you should still keep on learning and make your own research before you proceed buying it.

Having an idea how it goes and how does the market works will make you confident that both of you are prepared to win and lose some as for its volatility.

You are actually right, that's not exactly dca. I just meant I would buy it at some interval as long as it's under 50k.

I would suggest you spread your resource. Bitcoin is a pretty cool coin to invest in. But there are lots of other coins with wonderful projects behind them one of such is ripple and dodge. Although you should also do your own research (DYOR).   $20k is really a huge start and you need not rely on one source for information. You certainly need to study various coins knowing the project behind each before thinking of investing in them. Different coins has different project behind them. If proper research is not done you might end up investing in dead projects

You have to start by understanding the risk in cryptocurrency investment, understand the fundamental aspect of it, know what to look out for before selecting your investment (coin), understand the entry/exit time and have good knowledge of stop lost strategy.

Also that friend really needs to understand the two terms FOMO and FUD.
After understanding them they need to vow never to let themselves be affected by either.

They also have to come to the relaisation that they are looking at tying up that $20,000
for the medium to long term to let it mature, this involves PATIENCE, and patience
is great for counteracting the effects of FOMO and FUD.

On a general note, its funny how some people need to see results before deciding to get
into Bitcoin - Blessed are those wo believe and have not seen

anyway its never too late to become a Bitcoiner!

I am starting my own ETH Mining Rigs and starting amount is $5k which will give me $5k back in 6 Months taking care of electricity bills and Hardware cost.
So, if you start with $20K, you can earn almost $30K in an year or so if Mining remains consistent.

I would definitely diversify my investments and expand my portfolio.

If I were to have $20k, I would allocate $5k for crypto, the other $5k for stocks and the remaining $10k for other purposes within both. It is imperative that you diversify your portfolio and explore other modes of investing. Going all-out in crypto may seem a good idea, but the risks are too high for me to handle given that amount of money.

In addition to the values I stated, it is also essential to determine your short and long-term plan on your investments. I will most probably day-trade half of $5k in crypto and the other half for long-term trading.

It would be better if you are going to introduce him to this forum so he would know or read directly the replies or the advise of some experts here in this forum, it will also help him or her understand more about the cryptocurrency and not rely only for the hype. A lot of beginners are really risk taker because they don't have enough experience yet so they don't have enough idea how risky to invest in cryptocurrency without any knowledge.

If you or your friends have that much money and are confused about where to invest, you need to divide the money for several coins. Bitcoin became the main coin for investment and was followed by ETH then BNB, when the coin was good and trending well.
The top 20 altcoins on Coinmarketcap are also available to choose from. Really have to do the analysis first.

Investments must also have a target, whether the target is short term, mid term or long term. Because it will also affect the results to be obtained. Don't use all that money, leave 50% in reserve in case of emergency.

The truth is that in a bull market, even a novice with no experience in trading cryptocurrency can multiply their capital. And I know several such examples from my environment. And this investment was not related to bitcoin, but it allowed him to increase the deposit, because altcoins showed a very strong price increase. This way, your friend can make money without having enough knowledge about cryptocurrency, but he can also lose everything.

I would purchase a Ledget or Trezor hardware wallet. You should not buy coins for the entire amount at once.
Divide the amount into 4 or 5 parts and buy cryptocurrencies every week.
The ideal option would be to send money to the exchange and make purchases of 500-1000 dollars every week, and then withdraw the coins to a hardware wallet.
This method will allow you to buy coins at an average price.

All that has to be in reserve with $ 20k available so we need to share some cryptos that we can rely on in the future, we have to know what to buy and it certainly takes a strong and precise analysis even if you are a beginner you can follow people. those who already understand what it means can ask which step is better, while the capital of 20k is quite large.

And it's true @zasad said we should buy a hardware wallet because it's the safest one if you want to store it for longer for the long term at a later date.

Every investor will definitely have a portfolio, so there we must be able to manage and not buy certain coins, so percent what will be allocated, well, there we will know how that is generated.

Wooo!!

Surprised by these answers! You guys rock!

I took my laptop and opened this topic in front of my friend and we both read carefully each reply here and at least we know where to start. I know crypto world is about staying updated with the latest trends but also learning different aspects of it such as trading and holding them for x amount of time.

I spent a consideration time watching Youtube Videos/Documentaries, Although most of them are very confusing and I had to stop them just because I got lost but I learned few things at the moment the process for me looks like this:

In order to start investing you should open an account in any big CryptoCurrency Exchange after doing that you have to deposit x amount and convert them to BTC/ETH the next step will be opening an wallet to store the coins.

I saw here a lot of answers that replicated that I should strongly tell him about the risky part of losing everything and I can't argue on that because you guys are totally right but sometimes not knowing the risks is actually a good thing because you might end up winning lol jk

I definitely need to read more and this forum I think is the best way to do that, which thread is a MUST Here, any suggestion?

However we still have questions like:

- Which Exchange to use and is it risky to deposit all the money through VISA card?
- Which Wallet is a secure one. (I heard the hardware one is the most secure but for the beginning we can use an online one)
- Everyone on youtube is suggesting the ETH because of the advanced blockchain technology and it is going to be the currency of the future in contrast to the replies here where everyone is suggesting BTC, any thoughts on this?
- What about PolkaDot and Cardano?

I couldn't be more thankful for your time guys.

Don't buy any crypto coins before someone understands enough how the crypto investment works and how to do it properly. $20K isn't small money, I think it is a too big amount for a newbie. I suggest your friend use a small amount of money first, maybe about $50 or $100 to start. Regarding what coin to buy? I think for a beginner, it is better to buy top altcoins. Your friend can buy top 20 or top 10 coins, except stable coins.

$20k for a starter is not a small amount. It may involve high risks, but as long as your friend has known about the risks and ready for all the risks,I think that Maybe this way can help:
1. Your friend is better to diversify the money into several cryptocurrencies because putting it all into one coin will be much riskier.
2. Ask your friend whether the coins are for the long term or short term of trading, maybe some coins will fit into each.
3. If he is willing to get into the long term, Bitcoin, Etehreum, and also BNB are the best choices. However, Bitcoin still becomes the highest priority.
4. Then, if it needs some coins that are worthy for sort-term or trading, I think that coins like Zilliqa, DOT, SXP, and also SFP are good choices.
5. Never try to get into a new project if he doesn't know the legit project or investing in certain platforms with very high profits, because they may be scams.
6. INvesting in top coins are better, of course,  with diversification

If I have that amount I'll diversify my portfolio I invest 50% of my $20k to the top 3 coins in the market with Bitcoin getting the lion's share, the other $5k or 25% I will invest on coins that are on the top 4 to 10th with equal shares, and the remaining $5k I will invest on new coins with good potential like IDENA, Bitgesell and ASK and other coins that I can research, the most important thing here is diversification and you are good to go.

There are a couple of problems with altcoin mining.
Generally speaking the altcoins are very volatile and their pump and dumps can cause a lot of harm to those who own them whether they are investing or mining and have to hold for some time before they can sell.
Specifically speaking coins like ETH are killing their mining, and due to centralization there is no guarantee that you could continue being able to mine it in the future either. They could switch to 100% PoS next week and your large investment in mining equipment becomes obsolete (unless you start mining some other shitcoin). This is a very big risk.

If i had such an amount to invest in crypto, i mist certainly throw in a larger amount say half the total amount (that is 10k) for btc first, then i split the remaining 10k into fractions in varying proportions and invest into other alt coins.

That is huge money to invest in crypto.
I think you need to reduce the amount, especially if you are new to cryptocurrency because you need to learn first about crypto to know which coin you should invest in.
But with that money, I think you can buy bitcoin, but make sure you already learn and know what the risk is behind bitcoin.
I will use a big portion of the money to invest in bitcoin and altcoin.
For the altcoins, maybe I will invest in ethereum and bnb.

Just an advice. Never go ALL IN in anything! Human emotions are very difficult to control when it comes to money so you and your friend basically have to train not to sell in fear to loose everything because that's what most people are doing and get rekt.

https://tfp-fp.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/fear-greed-1.jpg
image source: internet

When you are scared and sell is when the trained trades buy...

When there's hype then there will be a correction so don't buy the top, if you missed it, just wait to for the correction/dip to enter.
People are spreading the risk buying bitcoin every week for example for months.

Staking sats is the best way :)

There are many coins that you can buy or invest for as little as $20k. The main good investments are Bitcoin and some of the top altcoins that many people have recommended. Ethereum, BNB, DOT and altcoin are ranked in the top 10 on CMC.

For a newbie $20k is a huge sum. We recommend that you use only half or a few percent of that much money. Money Management is very important. Don't let your intention to invest become disastrous and suffer a lot of losses due to inexperience and don't know where to start.

If I have that much money I think it's good if I tried to invest in the bitcoin of course because this is the most and top coins and becomes volatile mostly other coins follow the same path and movement of the bitcoin if I made a ranking I think I will go for an ethereum, polka dot, and more just to make sure not to lose my money in just a single investment. Good to have different options to handle the investment.

So I looked at this thread.

Buy a trezor

trezor.io is the website.

It is a decent hardware wallet.

It is cheap.

If you are USA based.

Use two exchanges.

binance.us
coinbase.com

I would buy

85% BTC

5% LTC
5% DOGE
5% BCH

or
80% BTC

5% LTC
5% DOGE
5% BCH
5% ETH

I Would not go all in with the 20 k

I would spend 1000 every 2 weeks.

First     1000 at binance.us
Second 1000 at coinbase.
Third.   1000 at binance.us
fourth.  1000 at coinbase

do this for 20 controlled buys.

and transfer some coin into your trezor from each exchange.

good luck.

understand that the whole 20k could be greatly reduced.
once you do your buys.

hodl
hodl
hodl
hodl

took you 40 weeks to buy at 1000 every two weeks.

hodl for a minimum of 160 weeks.

make an assessment then.

I'd suggest you to first do a research about how bitcoin really works, and then decide whetever it's okay for you to invest your savings in it.

First of all, I don't recommend going all-in with crypto because just like what you have said it is too risky, one mistake and it will all be in vain. So invest only the money you can afford to lose. Usually, if you can notice people don't want to give any suggestions where to invest as the reason of they don't want to be the reason someone's failure, so I can't blame them for that, you are the one who is going to invest and technically it is your money so better if you will be the one who will choose for yourself, however, make sure you do make proper research. Nevertheless, if you still insist the only thing I can say is that choose among the top listed coins like Bitcoin or Ethereum and stay away from newly created coins unless you are prepared for the worse or done some proper research.

Do you know there are many people who are entering this crypto with this mindset in the hope of getting millionaire within no time ?

95% of those people will end up losing all their money. Believe me or not, that's a bitter fact. You can only earn in this market once you have the knowledge. Without k knowledge , it like throwing your money in gambling with slim chances of success.

My suggestion is very easy. Try to learn what are you doing/buying. Find a real usage for crypto currencies also in your daily life. Why people like crypto currencies (not only from a speculative perspective). Don't waste your funds in some unclear service or some others that are "too good to be true".
Avoid always shit coins.

Investing 20k straight away without prior knowledge of crypto is nothing but just a mistake. People think that crypto trading is very easy and everyone can do it. Many who came with this mind end up losing huge amount of money. My suggestion is to first learn and then start with small capital when market will be more stable.

I may have a unique starting question, but you should first Ask your friend first his financial stability. Why? 20kUSD is a huge huge amount and the volatility of the crypto market can make that 20kUSD be 15k, 10k, or even make it all lose. Also, it is never advisable for anyone to go all in in cyrpto. as much as possible, do a 50-30-20 or just 10-20-30-40 rule where you divide that money onto either savings, investments, personal need, personal wants, emergency funds, etc. After knowing that, he first accept that the money he will be using to invest is the money he can afford to lose. Again, the risks in crypto is too high, and knowing that you could lose it would give you enough confidence yet by expecting a negative outcome. Then lastly, what risk can he take? Can he afford to lose it all in a single coin? If not, then it is preferable to just use at least 100usd for a coin. While his money is invested on coins that he trusted, searched, and studied, he should now spend time understanding more and more about investment.s

Why do I suggest this? Some people can learn from experiences. Hence, starting already from doing investments could drive your more to learn and study it.

Another solution is to do dollars cost average during a fall.

Thanks for the method, is really useful !

However, why do you alternate between Coinbase and Binance. Why only use binance every two weeks ?

my advice Is very simple:

buy BTC, ETH and BNB for long term.

and remember that the price of altcoins in relation to bitcoin has not risen much and if by some disaster the price of bitcoin has dropped (something that I consider impossible to happen) the price of altcoins in relation to dollars will fall a lot, but it can also happen the case of years going by without the price of altcoins increasing a lot in relation to bitcoin, in which case you will make a profit only if the price of bitcoin increases.

Just a point. Doing DCA is only good if you are not psychologically strong enough. If you are able to withstand sharp market declines (or rises), it either makes no difference or you are even better off putting all your money in as soon as possible.

Let's assume bitcoin is going to go to between $100k and $200k in this cycle, $1M in the next cycle and much further in the cycle after that. If this is the case and you invest for the long term there is not much difference between you investing $20k today or investing $1k every week.

$20,000 is a good start, I suggest you start buying Bitcoin now because it's still making more bullish trends. Except you are ready for the tudious research that comes with other coins then I would suggest you stick to Bitcoin for now. Make the profit with other investors before going to get other coins of lesser value which has made tremendous breakthrough in the market like BNB, or Dash

Let him do his own research - this is the best possible way. Never FOMO. Someone would say buy a patreon subscription of some successfull trader but I did not my first investment (that ended up in a total loss) based on personal analysis and I'm still happy that I had that experience.