Bitcoin Forum

This is not a financial advice

I have read some posts, comments and topics on this forum that talk about borrowing money to invest in crypto.

I know this is a bad idea because the chances of getting a good result from this are 50/50 since crypto is risky but I want to talk about how borrowing money has helped me a lot.

The first time that I invested in BTC I used money that's not mine, I borrowed 150$ and invested in BTC years ago (2017) I never knew what halving was all about or even bull market then the market started appreciating, I sold around April 2017, yea too soon.

This was how I made my first gain with crypto, I paid the money back and have some money, borrowing money is not entirely bad but you need to stay within your range, I knew if things went wrong I will be able to repay the 150$.

If you have to borrow money ( for BTC investment ) make sure the owner won't be needing the money too soon, also make sure you borrow the amount thats not or will never be a life threatening for you to repay if things go wrong.

Within that time range, I'm sure you bought at less than a thousand dollar. And yes, it was selling too soon. I'm sure you kicked yourself real hard when you saw that price continued up north after you sold off. Anyway, for me the idea of borrowing to invest/trade is likened to borrowing to finance a project. I really don't see it as something that can't be done when we look at it in deeper perspective.

Looks like you invested in a good time, 2017 was a good year for crypto that's why you are able to make gains in a few months, would you dare borrow money in this bear market to invest in crypto?

To be frank with you, this post covers everything you needed to say and you also concluded by giving the right advice. Many people will advise against borrowing to buy Bitcoin but just as you rightly said in your post, it depends on individual conditions and chances. In your case you were lucky to have bought Bitcoin in 2017 when the Bitcoin bull market was highly intense according to the price at that time and you were able to sell at a gain but you did not tell us how much profits you make from the $150 invested into Bitcoin and what your entry and exit price was, but am sure you made some good profit and you didn't go above what you can afford.

Risk is associated with any form or type of business, including cryptocurrency, but the risk involved in cryptocurrency is extremely high due to its digital, rather than physical, nature. Borrowing money to invest is almost the same as investing money you cannot afford to lose because the money is not yours and must be repaid.
You are extremely fortunate to have profited from your investment with borrowed capital, but it is strongly discouraged due to the high risk involved; having such a benefit is not for everyone, and even if you are extremely fortunate, someone may lose it all because the Crypto market is unpredictable.
Always invest only what you can afford to lose, and avoid borrowing money for crypto investments.

There’s no wrong actually from borrowing money as long as you intend to use it for bigger and brighter purposes. And it’s definitely most of the big time investors are doing so that give them more opportunities to gain and earn. However, as long as you never invest for a wrong investment or that has a red flag, then your borrowed money won’t be compromised.

That's not how probability works. Just because there's two possible outcomes doesn't mean that the chances are 50/50. Investing in Bitcoin higher chance of success than investing in an altcoin. And your success also depends on your actions. Even if you buy Bitcoin and it will go up, you need to have patience to hold it and not sell at a loss. And you need to avoid losing it to malware, scams, hacks.

Investing with borrowed money is never a good idea. Investing should only ever be done with your own spare funds that you can lose. Because if you are risking your last money, you're achieving the opposite thing - making yourself poorer.

I don't think borrowing money is always a bad idea, it depends on how you use the borrowing money and how much money you borrow. You have proven that borrowing money is a good idea. It is very helpful if you use the borrowing money in the right way, isn't it? As long as we don't borrow money excessively and use the money for something that we really understand, it sometimes effectively gains bigger profits. However, don't make it as a habit, you won't always succeed to gain profits every time borrow money.

Regarding the chance to get a good result, it is actually the same as using our own money. And the chance can be higher (more than 50% to succeed) if we have enough knowledge and experience in it. Crypto investment is risky, but it isn't like gambling, we should have many ways to increase the opportunity to succeed.

First off, if you are looking for a way to get quick cash and then invest it into Bitcoin, this is not always going to work out. It is important to remember that borrowing money is rarely good for your financial situation and will put you at risk of defaulting on your payments. There is no guarantee that Bitcoin will rise in value over time, so you may end up in a worse financial situation than before. You should only borrow money if it is absolutely necessary, and then do so as sparingly as possible.

My suggestion is to not invest money you cannot afford to lose, not just because of the risk that Bitcoin may not rise in value but also because of the risk that it may fall dramatically. It might be better to save up and wait until you have the money required, instead of putting your financial future at risk by borrowing money to buy Bitcoin. Understandably, there is incredible excitement regarding future investments given how well cryptocurrencies have performed over the years. But that does not mean you should treat buying Bitcoin as an opportunity to get rich quick.

Yes, you're lucky to invest the money you borrowed in Bitcoin that the end of the bearish season when the market is also preparing for bullish and I will advise you don't make a risky investment in crypto because tomorrow is never promised.
Instead of borrowing money from an individual, there are some crypto exchanges and decentralized platforms that offer lending service.

It is never financial advice but borrowing money to invest in Bitcoin is not a bad idea if the money borrowed is an amount ones can afford to pay back.

Investing in bitcoin may also comes with luck but it’s more on knowledge and skills. And when you think borrowing for initial investment is good, well it depends. If you are investing in potential coins that have proven its worth a lot of times, then maybe borrowing money is a good alternative as long as you also borrow an amount that you are capable to pay even when crypto investment fails.

The knowledge one develops before investing in Bitcoin doesn't correlate with the price (if it will appreciate or depreciate), because the direction the price will take at any given time is unpredictable. You can't have enough knowledge or experience to increase your chances or time your ROI when you invest in Bitcoin, you basically just buy and hodl for the long term, thus if your lender will be needing their money anytime soon, borrowing to invest shouldn't be part of ones plans.

Having said that, when it comes to Bitcoin investment i don't think there is any particular trick to it in order to increase your chances of success, you basically just have to do the simple things like being patient and understanding that it isn't a get-rich-quick scheme, and it is much easier to do all these if the money invested is yours.

Ain't know if there are still people doing this, a lender that didn't need money after a year or how many months.  But if there's really it is, then that's good.
Lending money to invest in Bitcoin is good but this will depend on your agreement, there shouldn't have a time range when you pay it back.

But IMO, investing in Bitcoin with the amount that you can afford is the best way to invest, just like saving the amount little by little and storing it in the bank that you have control with your own money (in a non-custodial wallet).

All kind of investments has been tied up with risk, you should understand it first and be ready for the consequences that may happen in the future, at least there's should be a plan B.

First of all, let me congratulate you OP for able to return the loan you borrowed. Very rarely do we see that people return their loans from an investment since the result is always the opposite- most people who borrowed money to invest in cryptocurrency fell short due to the latter's nature.

Good thing that you borrowed a relatively short amount of capital. There are others here who aim to loan large amounts of sum for their returns to double.

While your case may be the living proof that it is possible, the cons outweigh the pros in this case. But as a general rule, if someone were to borrow a loan to invest into cryptocurrency, better have a backup/contingency plan in case your investment incurred a loss in the process.

but in my opinion, nowadays if you invest with borrowed money, it is not very good or not good,
because if investing or trading in crypto especially, it is very risky and may have an impact on your psychology when you trade,
for example
- if the market goes down, there will be more panic, because it's borrowed money and if we don't make a profit or loss it will be a problem.

- in essence, it will be more difficult to focus.

You might as well have borrowed $150 to go to the casino. It wouldn't be much different, in fact, which is far from saying that it's a good system for making money.


I would apply this to borrow money in general, not just if you are doing it to invest in Bitcoin.

The time you borrowed money to invest on bitcoin 2017, was a good time to invest and that is why your enable to pay back quick at second quarter (Q2) of the year 2017, base on the bear market, that cryptocurrency market has been experience for few months now, has not recover, and is a very high risk to borrow to invest in bitcoin, as you said, accept is a long term holding before paying back.

You never say a thing about how you borrow the money, this part matters too because I won't take a loan from a bank for example to invest in BTC, if it's from a family member or a friend who understands what type of a person I am then it's all good, even if loss happens they know I will pay back, still it depends on where you get the money and what's the payback time.

You are still said to be very lucky because at that time the market was good, meaning that borrowing can be returned quickly because at that time it was friendly to the bitcoin price so this could benefit from the loan, but we must know that it is a very big risk especially invested in Bitcoin whose price fluctuations are unpredictable because of what I found in several articles many people are trapped in this because they borrow money for investment while interest continues to rise because every month they have to be paid this which makes them become chaotic when the market which is not lucky means it is in bearish.

Borrowing must be in the calculation and you can control what must be invested correctly, even if it's in Bitcoin but the movement must be able to be analyzed correctly at least don't get trapped which makes you a heavy pressure who has to return the loan money with the time that is due , it must be reconsidered so I always avoid borrowing to invest in bitcoin because I know this is not a good way to make a profit just because of a loan.

Indeed, many large companies make loans but they know about the financial stability that will be used and this is not in bitcoin which cannot predict the price.

I'm happy that it turned out fine for you. Even though you only borrowed a small amount of money, I'm highly against using money that you don't practically own. It's an unspoken rule not to use borrowed funds for investments, not just Bitcoin, for the same reason you wouldn't go to a casino with borrowed money. Things can quickly deteriorate, and you're screwed, especially if you have a bank loan and are paying interest. If something occurs and you're unable to make your payments on time, accrued interest will quickly accumulate, putting you in serious debt. If I remember correctly, a member here recently claimed that he took a loan of over $10.000 in order to buy bitcoin. This not only poses significant risks in the event that Bitcoin or the market crashes severely, but it also significantly reduces your APY, assuming everything goes as planned.

Luckily, Bitcoin's prices were much lower in 2017 and it was considered a great period for purchases, regardless of what your capital was, in which case it was small and even if it didn't go as planned, you wouldn't be in so much trouble, but it is still something to be avoided.

We all have different occurrences in our past lives, I borrowed money to build a farm and it all came crashing down, I had to be careful with my decisions because later I found out that borrowing money to do anything in my life always ends badly, I stopped it and grow up step by step on my own.

It is always a high risk to borrow money, especially to use for something that is unpredictable. If you failed with the loan money on building farms, many people in this forum failed with the loan money for crypto investments. So, if it isn't for an urgent need, it is better to avoid borrowing money. We can try to collect/save money little by little. When the amount of money reaches the expected target, we can use the money for building farms, crypto investments, or any other purposes. There should be another way to collect money, try to avoid borrowing money.

from the story you tell, it looks like you borrowed money from relatives or friends who don't need the money in a short time. but for other people it's not easy, not everyone has friends or relatives who are willing to lend their money, so most people borrow from banks or moneylenders.
indeed we can't say that borrowing money to invest in bitcoin is 100% stupid but it comes back to each other's decisions, if you are really ready with the risk you will accept then do the loan to invest in bitcoin but if you are not ready to take the risk that you are likely to receive, don't do that loan.

If you are receiving like $1000 as monthly salary and you know that you are not greedy and be willingly to return the money borrowed. If you know that bitcoin price will increase and you want to invest but having no money at that time and in haste about it. I do not see anything bad to borrow like $100 or $200 which you know you will still see in salary and pay back.

But the investment may be on the other way, if you think of the profit, you should also prepare for the worse. You should also know that borrowing money comes with high interest if not from family or friend. I mean if it is from bank or loaning company, the interest is always very huge.

Borrowing money that is small or an amount that you can afford to lose and you can just pay it to the lender easily without having a hard time finding that money again is good.
There are some lenders that offer interest and got some terms that you need to pay the amount of money you borrowed for a span of time, this is difficult.
So overall for me, borrowing money to invest is not good. Investment is risky, especially in cryptocurrency.

'within range' and having other means to repay, these are keywords, I think people forget these two and get drowned.

You can repay the loan because you entered the crypto market in the right time, it must be very different if you entered it at the end of 2017 where the price of BTC and altcoins was high, and after that the market immediately entered a bearish period, It is very possible that you will experience stress.

Even you can make a profit and also repay the loan but profits will decrease if the loan has interest obligations, but that's a personal opinion and for me I won't borrow even though I understand how the market works because the pressure will be greater and will cause quite high stress.

You have right moment when borrowing money and invest it in Bitcoin because price drop and you can repay loan on time after Bitcoin reach to higher price, I sure is not financial advice when using borrowing for investing in Bitcoin actually loan adopted with interest payment every months. I sure many people have doing this step actually they taking loan and used it for investing in Bitcoin.

Have another source income when using borrowing money for investing in Bitcoin actually have interest system, we can't expected with profitable every time entering in Bitcoin investment, when price drop have alternative way for paying loan interest without need to cut loss or selling Bitcoin in lower price.

It all comes to how knowledgeable you are in terms on how the market especially the crypto market is moving.  I will share my own personal experience because I also did the same thing.

Just a few months ago, I borrowed a small amount (around 350$) and the whole amount will be used to invest into good stocks. We agreed that we will be paying it monthly, and we don't have any problem paying it at all on a monthly basis because we can pay it. The good thing is that we had funds to be used to buy stocks at a cheaper price since we are in a bear market. I will just wait until the bear market ends and the bull market comes. The good thing as well is that the stocks that I bought pays dividends on a quarterly basis so regardless of what happen, I will still be paid thru dividends. If it goes down, I will just buy more.

There is nothing wrong borrowing money just to invest into different assets as long as you know when the good time is to buy it. The problem with some of the investors is that they are borrowing money because they've been FOMO'ed. They are afraid that they might be missing out thus, they will borrow money to buy it and most of the time, investors tend to lose money because of this. There is a risk yes but also take note that if you invested in a bear market and as long as you can pay that debt like I am then there's no problem with it. If you can borrow $10,000 as long as you can repay it and you bought at a bear market, then I guess there's no problem at all.

Your investment experience may be 1 in 10 who successfully repay the loan from the profit earned from the loan. I don't want to follow in the footsteps of anyone who managed to profit from borrowed money, the risk of investing in crypto assets is volatility and we don't know whether we can make a profit or even lose because of FUD.

Investing from borrowed money can increase psychological problems if expectations do not match reality. When you can't get a profit due to very high fluctuations, it will even mess up investment management. Even though I often get offers from co-workers to use their money for investment, because in my opinion the offer is a risky activity, until now I have never even traded using other people's money. Even though he said he didn't really mind if the money ran out, I still refused because I felt responsible for the money.

This is very lucky for you, borrowed money to invest in Bitcoin at a profit, paid the borrowed money and was able to profit from the investment of the borrowed funds.
Not everyone is able to make a quick profit. Borrowing money to invest is very risky, it is equivalent to investing money that you cannot lose. You should only use your own idle funds to invest and wait for the desired goal to be achieved.

I think borrow money for long term is a good move like 4,5 years which a gives you good returns and if not you will be able to pay back money for selling i suggest to invest whatever you afford its may be 20$ par month but the key is invest every month .

Only when you are confident in your ability to return the money borrowed from someone can borrowing money be beneficial. Don't borrow money if you can't pay it back.

Your financial condition might change in an instant due to life circumstances. You may lay out a plan for how to pay back the borrowed funds, but something else could derail your repayment strategy. Since our financial intentions for the future are uncertain, it is advisable to prevent this situation by refraining from investing in crypto with borrowed funds.

Investing using personal money will also have psychological and depressive effects if we don't have crypto knowledge and don't understand fluctuating price movements and even choose the wrong coin to invest in, especially if investing is using money from co-workers even though the initial agreement he has trusted you to manage the investment, but one day he will ask him to return her money even though she knows that the assets in the portfolio have decreased. In conclusion, the initial deal will be betrayed if the economic conditions deteriorate so he asks for all his money back, so never manage investments from other people's money because it is very risky and it is also not recommended to invest in crypto.

Timing is very important if you are making a loan to invest in Cryptocurrency like when halving is almost happening and there's no FUD in the market, but the money that you should loan is within your capacity to pay and it should have the option to extend, I would not recommend a bank loan, a loan coming from family or trusted friend are good as long as you have a good reputation in paying a loan.
This is not also a piece of financial advice the market is highly volatile you never know what's going to happen next, take a cue from Luna and FTX and you know what I mean.

But you never told us how much profits you made from your $150 Bitcoin investment, because thou, borrowing money isn't bad to some extent, i.e if on you can borrow a certain amount you can afford to pay if in case things go the opposite expectation, because the problem will be borrowing an amount you simply can't afford to pay, just as we all know that also when it comes to investing, the issue of luck can not simply be overemphasize.

for my perspective I don't recommend it at all, to be honest, you maybe have luck that bitcoin is still at recovery stage but buying in bear market right know with borrowing money is very risky unless you understand with what you are doing and know how to market is going and the second one you smart that buy in spot only.

if you borrow to trade in futures and don't know what happen in market you will be doomed in matter of hours. so careful guys its better to do bounty and then trade it, if something goes wrong you at least doesn't borrow from the other

I'm glad you also stated the fact that it's a financial advice.
There are a whole lot of people that have take that very part and yet ended up shattering their lives and that's not really nice at all.
Borrowing money in general isn't a nice idea because most times one doesn't intend not pay back a debt in time but there could be possible hindrances such as failed plans and accomodations of more burden.
One reason why I don't advice people to borrow money is the fact that, the moment you borrow money to invest in crypto, now your emotions comes in and starts playing with you and there is always a great urge to start making money and taking profits without any room for failure.

You are lucky because after investing the borrowed money into bitcoin, but then the price of the bitcoin rises past the price at the time of purchase so that you manage to get fast profits and are able to return the borrowed money at the appointed time, imagine if after investing the loan results suddenly the price bitcoin has fallen drastically as we are experiencing right now during a bear market, so of course we have to be willing to sell everything we have to pay off borrowed money so we don't get frustrated.

Borrowing money to invest?  for me that's not a good option but for other maybe that's a good for them but as far as I know investing in crypto especially in Bitcoin it is too risky and it takes too long to gain more profit and if you borrow an amount you need to pay that amount in  due date. Then if that happen you will make a way to pay that amount and there's a chance that your crypto that invested for you will use that to pay your borrowing money if you don't have a extra money to pay  so it's better to invest a money from your extra and not to borrowed one.

I don't have braveness for using borrowing money to invest in Bitcoin, whatever have interest or not I don't sure Bitcoin investment can guarantee earn profit consistency. Most important thing with borrowing have schedule and late payment will paying highest interest, some time when Bitcoin drop and cut loss is not the best way how come to pay borrowing money.

If income still small, you should not be forced to invest in Bitcoin from loans, use your freedom fund for investing in Bitcoin and when loss it not get negative impact with our financial condition.

If I am the one borrowing you the money and I find out that you borrowed my money to invest in bitcoins, I will be mad and the end of our relationship will be after you can pay me back as quickly as possible which I will mount pressure to get. For me if you must borrow from me, it has to be important like an emergency, and not just for any reason, money is not easy to get even to the extent of having to give to someone, people should not abuse privileges. I am not saying investing in bitcoin is bad, but if you must do it, do it with your money so you don't give the person who borrowed you the money stress.

OP, you chose to be smart by selling your investment and made more profit,you were able to pay back your debt and still have your profit with you. You are very lucky that you bought bitcoin at the right time, which made this possible.

Like you said,it is good to borrow the money which you can pay back so that when the owner needs the money or the agreed time to pay back has elapsed,you can pay back. I wish you borrowed money to buy bitcoin at this bear market time,I don't think you will be happy with what you did because the bear market brought panic to people who have investment on bitcoin and only the strong could survive the challenge of selling their bitcoin. Don't use borrowed money to invest on bitcoin because of its volatile nature,when you will need to pay back,it might not be possible for you to.

It is generally not a good idea to borrow money to invest in anything, including Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. This is because investing carries a certain amount of risk, and if the investment does not go as planned, you could end up owing more money than you can afford to pay back.

Additionally, the value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can be very volatile, which means that the value of your investment can go up or down very quickly. This makes it difficult to predict how your investment will perform, and borrowing money to invest in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies increases the risk even further. It is always best to invest only with money that you can afford to lose.

Borrowing money to HODL BTC is a no-no for me ..... Ahhh, that's much of a risk to take. I won't even advice anyone to borrow up just to bury a dead relative; ....yeah, cus who knows? Well, you could do that if you're found with no other options though but for HODLing, it's not advisable --atleast that's how I see it.
There isn't any lender that will pretend not to be develop chrometophobia when they realize what the purpose of lending 'em funds eventually.
It's always safe to invest with funds that are not needed for immediate use; but that doesn't guarantee 'em when they're being borrowed, take note.

Sandra 🧑‍🦰

This is the main point here once a borrowed money get invested then the one who borrowed must find a way to pay once a the owner want to get his/her money back. We can not deny the fact that once the owner knows that you borrowed from him to invest then for sure they want to get their money back as soon as possible. Also it deferred from nay counties because like mine if this situation will happen then the owner will trash talk the borrower if he/she knew.

The purpose of bitcoin investment is to help to build people financially from the money the make or earn,  this is done by only investing with the money you can afford to lose. Investing on the money one can afford to lose is always advisable because of the market volatility and risk in the market. It is not idea to use a borrowed money to invest in bitcoin bitcoin it is unpredictable to tell when their will be a fall or rise. To avoid panic or waiting when to make profit it is better not to borrow to invest.  It is too risky to borrow money to invest in bitcoin.

i conclude that you say borrowing money to invest in bitcoin is not a bad thing as long as the lender is not pressing to pay.  i have never borrowed money to buy bitcoin or altcoins, but i borrowed money when setting up the business that i am currently running - fortunately, my business is running smoothly and i can afford to pay installments every month.  Money management skills are important and never borrow money more than you can't afford to pay.

How come you know Bitcoin and attracted to invest at the same time if you didn’t know Bitcoin halving, bull run or other event that will pump the price? You are borrowing money just to invest which means you knew exactly how profitable it is base on your story. Because I will definitely research first and do what you done If I knew that the things that I will put my money has the potential to grow in the future. Bull run and halving is common term in crypto because that’s what most newbie always tell when they are shilling.

I’m just surprised that you seems didn’t know anything in your story yet your action seems you are sure on what you are entering.

I will never agree on borrowing money to invest in bitcoin. Even if the amount you borrowed is still within your reach to pay I am still not in favor of it. You only got lucky that BTC at that time was bullish. It's gambling already when you risk money on something you have zero to little knowledge about. Investing money can affect our emotions and borrowing money for investment will only make our emotions higher which can affect our next decisions. It's the same scenario last 2018 when I signed a contract to construct my house and at that time over 90% of my assets are in crypto, especially BTC. We all knew the lowest BTC price since the 2017 bull run happened in late 2018. I cannot sleep well for many days until I just decided to sell all my crypto assets at the cheapest price. Emotions will fuck up our logic. The higher the stake, the more our emotions can affect our minds. And just like playing in a casino, luck cannot be always on our side.

I think if you plan to hold bitcoin long term & you think the price will be much higher in the future then it is not a bad idea to borrow money so you can buy bitcoin. As long as you can afford the loan repayments then it’s not a problem I guess.

You’re not going to feel too good if you borrow money when it’s in a bull market & the bitcoin price crashes like it has done. Your repayments on the loan won’t be less ;D

If you plan for long term holding though it’s not a problem.

Borrowing money to invest in bitcoin is called leverage. Now we know what happens to those who are overleverage especially in a market crash.
The OP is lucky because they invested at a time where all things were good. SO the leverage was an advantage to them.
I barely see anyone in 2022 who took out a loan from a bank or friend celebrate being able to 2x the money in bitcoin. 

Borrowing money to invest is not a bad idea but it should be within the income range of the borrower because prices are always fluctuating. Investing in Bitcoin which is a long term plan doesn't go bullish every time. Some time could be be bullish and some bearish but long term at low price is always bullish.

All this depends on fate and as well you had a means which you believed to raise such amount back to pay the owner otherwise it would have became something else, naturally not everyone that knows how to manage money and immediately they borrowed such amount it could results to something else whereby they owner might likely be getting worried over everything. I would have loved to share my little story as well but is very bad which i don't like to remember anymore, please anyone here that is thinking same thing to do i'm seriously on my knees begging begging because what favor's Mr A may not favor you coupled with bear market and bad news all over.
What i can recommend is to map out the little money which you think of not using immediately or not your tuition fee or anything else to buy bitcoin and hold maybe after 2 to 3 years then you would understand the power of investment.