Bitcoin vs Altcoins

[decenken88]

Greetings,

I just finished reading the Bitcoin Standard and am seriously considering restructuring my crypto portfolio as a result (not solely as a result of the text, but due in large part to it--I have other reasons which revolve around a fear of the effects of gov't regulation on the market). Since late 2017 I have been faithfully DCAing into BTC and 5 other projects that I have been able to research and understand as best I can. I've always been somewhat troubled by the centralized nature of some of these ALTs (ETH, ADA, LINK, DOT, ATOM) relative to BTC, but I invested anyway believing that these particular projects will have a strong role to play in the spheres of smart contracts, DeFi and overall blockchain tech adoption in the economy, generally.

So my thinking is to dump my altcoin holdings for BTC and continue DCAing into BTC only; (also feeling a srong desire to become a node operator in order to do my small part to protect and nurture the network as an aside). Bitcoin was my first love in the world of cryptocurrencies back in 2017 when my brother told me about a somewhat obscure digital form of money trading for a price in the low 4-figures; I dove in immediately based off of his brief description of it to me and a few articles that I had read. Immediately I was drawn in because in my mind it represented an alternative (and a giant FU) to the only real game in town, namely the almighty US dollar which has been in a state of decay for decades as a result of mismanagement. Over the years I have researched further which has only served to reinforce my belief in BTC and what the network stands for. Truly, we are all privileged to be living in a time where such a revolutionary concept has been gifted to humanity.

As for the plethora of altcoins out there, and, in particular, the few that I own, I worry about the long-term future of their viability. At the time of this writing, it seems as if the sky is the limit and these projects are not only growing, but here to stay. However, things aren't always as they seem and I'm starting to wonder if it may be more prudent to dump and invest solely in BTC which I feel provides the most benefit to society and potentially has the most durability.

 Anyways, any feedback is appreciated. Call me a crazy bitcoin maximalist, tell me I'm making the best decision possible or anything in between

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[OgNasty]

As for the plethora of altcoins out there, and, in particular, the few that I own, I worry about the long-term future of their viability. At the time of this writing, it seems as if the sky is the limit and these projects are not only growing, but here to stay. However, things aren't always as they seem and I'm starting to wonder if it may be more prudent to dump and invest solely in BTC which I feel provides the most benefit to society and potentially has the most durability.

I wouldn't say it's prudent to dump altcoins and invest only in BTC.  Diversification is important always in investing.  Bitcoin is the King though, and if you are holding over the long term I can't think of a better coin to put your money in.  That being said, a little exposure to coins like ETH & BNB that can provide revenue through staking isn't a bad idea.  Coins that offer exposure to liquidity pools like CAKE & UNI are another great way to provide some revenue for your portfolio.  Additionally, you can use platforms like CoinEx to provide your own liquidity pair of coins you choose to deposit.

I guess my point is that crypto is full of cool stuff if you look around for it.  Holding is great, but remember to keep some coins to actually use as well.  If you're buying altcoins and not using them, that's when I'd be worried about their value going to zero.

[jaytw]

As for the plethora of altcoins out there, and, in particular, the few that I own, I worry about the long-term future of their viability. At the time of this writing, it seems as if the sky is the limit and these projects are not only growing, but here to stay. However, things aren't always as they seem and I'm starting to wonder if it may be more prudent to dump and invest solely in BTC which I feel provides the most benefit to society and potentially has the most durability.

I wouldn't say it's prudent to dump altcoins and invest only in BTC.  Diversification is important always in investing.  Bitcoin is the King though, and if you are holding over the long term I can't think of a better coin to put your money in.  That being said, a little exposure to coins like ETH & BNB that can provide revenue through staking isn't a bad idea.  Coins that offer exposure to liquidity pools like CAKE & UNI are another great way to provide some revenue for your portfolio.  Additionally, you can use platforms like CoinEx to provide your own liquidity pair of coins you choose to deposit.

I guess my point is that crypto is full of cool stuff if you look around for it.  Holding is great, but remember to keep some coins to actually use as well.  If you're buying altcoins and not using them, that's when I'd be worried about their value going to zero.

My investment method is to hold Bitcoin for a long time. I will also choose some altcoins (I will not put eggs in a basket). For the choice of altcoins, I prefer the DEFI sector, and I will not touch contracts , Use leverage, etc. My method is very simple. The profit rule I set is to rise 10 points to meet my psychological expectations, and then sell.

[Darker45]

Focusing only on Bitcoin is a good option, especially if you think Bitcoin is the only coin that would survive after some time. If you are into long-term crypto investment, no doubt Bitcoin is the best coin you can DCA with. But if you are not that busy to do research and study fundamentals and have interest in acquiring trading skills, I guess it is not that bad to make use of top altcoins to increase your Bitcoin holdings. There's risk, though.

[mk4]

In the end, it really just comes down to your risk appetite. A good number of altcoins has a lot of room to grow price wise, while a huge majority of them is just going to go up temporarily and end up just failing miserably. Whereas bitcoin, probably lower potential price increase compared to other cryptocurrencies, but has the best risk:reward ratio in my opinion.

[traderethereum]

But still, if you dump your altcoin right now, your profit will not be too big because almost the altcoins price is down a lot and it is waiting for the next bull run that can happen this year or next year.
My advice is just waiting for more until the bull run comes and give you the chance to sell your altcoin at the highest price and, of course, sell your bitcoin to take profit and then you can wait for the other bear run that will comes after the bull run.
That will be better to do because you can make a big profit from the market situations and you can buy back bitcoin at a low price and invest your money in altcoin for a short term investment.
While I am sure, you still have the other money from the previous profit.

[Rikafip]

But still, if you dump your altcoin right now, your profit will not be too big because almost the altcoins price is down a lot and it is waiting for the next bull run that can happen this year or next year.

Waiting for better times doesn't always end up well and more often than not you will end up with having less if you stick to altcoins, at least in the long run. Back in 2018 I decided to do something similar to what OP is doing; I sold all my alts except ETH and put everything into BTC which proved to be a great decision. Majority of them I sold with the loss, but I would be at even bigger loss now if I decided to wait.

I worry about the long-term future of their viability. At the time of this writing, it seems as if the sky is the limit and these projects are not only growing, but here to stay. However, things aren't always as they seem and I'm starting to wonder if it may be more prudent to dump and invest solely in BTC which I feel provides the most benefit to society and potentially has the most durability.

During bull everything looks great, but once we hit the bear, true nature of altcoins will be shown. If you want to sleep better and worry less, going all BTC is a pretty good idea. I did something similar few years ago, and I haven't regretted so far.

[TheNineClub]

I worry for the future of crypto if there is no future with ALTs. BTC can't and won't hold all of crypto on its back. It just wasn't built up that way. That's where ALTs come in. Crypto started to get mass appeal when ETH and the likes came into the space a brought more variety of uses to the table.  I don't think every ALT is valuable, but I do think there is a place for those types of projects and if they are pushing the boundaries of crypto space then that's a good thing in the long run.

[XUR_TIP]

I worry for the future of crypto if there is no future with ALTs. BTC can't and won't hold all of crypto on its back. It just wasn't built up that way. That's where ALTs come in. Crypto started to get mass appeal when ETH and the likes came into the space a brought more variety of uses to the table.  I don't think every ALT is valuable, but I do think there is a place for those types of projects and if they are pushing the boundaries of crypto space then that's a good thing in the long run.

We all get it 😉 BTC can't do it alone and that's why many ALT keeps popping up, some are good and some are bad and we have top 10 ALTs too each and everyone of these projects have their own use cases

The fact is many newbies want something new, they don't look into top altcoins instead the hunt for the next ETH or next BNB which makes things more risky, diversity and doing research is the only tool they have left, also it's wise and smarter to invest only what you can afford to lose, for me BTC is the king still.

[Charles-Tim]

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OgNasty posted the right comment about this, just make sure you do not do with cryptocurrencies that have low marketcap, dealing with the ones like ETH and BNB is not a bad idea. It will be good to do your own research very well and know the best altcoins. I like bitcoin maximalists, but your most holdings can be in Bitcoin while only few on altcoins.

[pooya87]

The problem with altcoins that go up in value (aka get pumped but smaller dumps) is that they are only increasing the size of their bubbles because none of them have any utilities in the real world we live in. Take the biggest pumped shitcoin called ETH for example. What problem does it solve in real world? What utility does it have? Nothing. It has been going up simply because it is easy to create "tokens" on this platform and then sell those tokens to idiots to raise money. This is not a real utility. ICO, IEO, STO, DEFI, ... these are the alternative names of the same scam and this kind of things won't last forever.
The longer these schemes last and the bigger their bubbles become, the worse their demise is going to affect the entire market. At some point it will simply be a catastrophe in the altcoin world that could set it back a decade.

[Yogee]

... Anyways, any feedback is appreciated. Call me a crazy bitcoin maximalist, tell me I'm making the best decision possible or anything in between

Keep DCAing with BTC but don't dump all altcoins you already have. I would probably keep ADA since I believe Cardano will beat Ethereum in the battle for smart contracts supremacy in a few years time. At least they are not rushing the deployment and then patch up problems with band aid solutions.

[Oceat]

As what the above keep telling, OP should not dump all of the altcoins because diversification is still important. It is to minimize the risk of losing everything in one go. So it's better to hodl the remaining altcoins that you think has a better chance to gain profit in the future like Ethereum or BNB.

But it's not bad just to hold Bitcoin if that's what you wish for although, holding only one crypto won't be sustainable I think because what if Bitcoin price goes down then the altcoins price rises where do you think you would trade when you are only holding Bitcoin at the moment.

[Zedpastin]

As what the above keep telling, OP should not dump all of the altcoins because diversification is still important. It is to minimize the risk of losing everything in one go. So it's better to hodl the remaining altcoins that you think has a better chance to gain profit in the future like Ethereum or BNB.

But it's not bad just to hold Bitcoin if that's what you wish for although, holding only one crypto won't be sustainable I think because what if Bitcoin price goes down then the altcoins price rises where do you think you would trade when you are only holding Bitcoin at the moment.

Ethereum follows Bitcoin's movements look at the history of Bitcoin and Ethereum and you will see that when Bitcoin increases in price so does Ethereum and the same for the opposite market direction. All other altcoins are not worth investing in the only one that is the exception is Ethereum and like I say that follows the ups and downs of Bitcoin.

[Pokapoka124]

Bitcoin is king. Bitcoin is more stable than alt coins, the prices of alts are dependent on Bitcoin a crash in btc price results in crashes in alts and if bitcoin rises so those alts. But it's also a good idea to diversify one's portfolio for example I made more gains holding eth. Most alts are only good for scalping for short term gains 

[isaac_clarke22]

~

As for the plethora of altcoins out there, and, in particular, the few that I own, I worry about the long-term future of their viability. At the time of this writing, it seems as if the sky is the limit and these projects are not only growing, but here to stay. However, things aren't always as they seem and I'm starting to wonder if it may be more prudent to dump and invest solely in BTC which I feel provides the most benefit to society and potentially has the most durability.

 Anyways, any feedback is appreciated. Call me a crazy bitcoin maximalist, tell me I'm making the best decision possible or anything in between

It is your money, OP. I had sold my Ethereum after I traded back then and just decided to do what you are planning to do which is go all-in solely in BTC and never regretted it since. This isn't an investment advice, and it just came from my experience. It play out differently into your side.

Though if you're really asking for a feedback, maybe keep something for yourself unless those altcoins you dumped aren't really needed immediately.

[traderethereum]

But still, if you dump your altcoin right now, your profit will not be too big because almost the altcoins price is down a lot and it is waiting for the next bull run that can happen this year or next year.

Waiting for better times doesn't always end up well and more often than not you will end up with having less if you stick to altcoins, at least in the long run. Back in 2018 I decided to do something similar to what OP is doing; I sold all my alts except ETH and put everything into BTC which proved to be a great decision. Majority of them I sold with the loss, but I would be at even bigger loss now if I decided to wait.

Maybe that will work for some people, but we will have our own consideration to still hold or sell all of alt.
Maybe if you are not too late to sell your altcoin at a high price, that will be good for you as you can make a big profit and have bitcoin as your hold.
But I guess this time will be different than a few years ago since the bitcoin price increase so high and that can make altcoins will not get down too deep if the correction for bitcoin price comes.
The altcoin will have the chance to increase higher, so maybe that is why waiting can be a good solution for some people.

[Anguwa]

Bitcoin lays an important foundation because almost all altcoins price depend on Bitcoin price. VERY GOOD altcoins always get hope when the price of Bitcoin is rising because the market will be good for them all with influence of Bitcoin. But whenever the market is in red sea, Bitcoin drop value also all altcoins dump and keep dumping until bitcoin regain its standard.

[hatshepsut93]

I've always been somewhat troubled by the centralized nature of some of these ALTs (ETH, ADA, LINK, DOT, ATOM) relative to BTC, but I invested anyway believing that these particular projects will have a strong role to play in the spheres of smart contracts, DeFi and overall blockchain tech adoption in the economy, generally.

You are right to doubt altcois. People are doing "research" by reading altcoin's marketing materials and shilled blogs or videos, instead of pulling some real data. The reality is, no one in real world cares about smart contracts and defi, there is no demand for it and they have too many drawbacks like security, lack of features, scalability, etc.; but this doesn't stop altcoin promoters to tell people that their smart-contract coins are the next big thing that will change the world. It's very easy to buy into this hype for a newbie who knows nothing about crypto, and these newbies tend to very quickly start thinking of themselves as "crypto experts" because a shitcoin that they bought 2 weeks ago is not up 54%. But in the long run it all ends very badly.

[Swordsoffreedom]

But still, if you dump your altcoin right now, your profit will not be too big because almost the altcoins price is down a lot and it is waiting for the next bull run that can happen this year or next year.

Waiting for better times doesn't always end up well and more often than not you will end up with having less if you stick to altcoins, at least in the long run. Back in 2018 I decided to do something similar to what OP is doing; I sold all my alts except ETH and put everything into BTC which proved to be a great decision. Majority of them I sold with the loss, but I would be at even bigger loss now if I decided to wait.

I always suggest to people that you don't always have to wait for buying opportunities. Because you don't know which is actually the buying opportunity, and when exactly it will come. The price that seems high to you today, maybe tomorrow that price will seem to be the buying opportunity. So I tell everyone not to wait for buying opportunities, to build the habit of buying bitcoin regularly, this will help you to buy on to the average price and it will be risk-free.

~
So my thinking is to dump my altcoin holdings for BTC and continue DCAing into BTC only; (also feeling a srong desire to become a node operator in order to do my small part to protect and nurture the network as an aside).

It is good that you love Bitcoin the most. But, sometimes altcoin gives much profit, Investing a portion of your money in altcoin is not a bad practice. But before picking altcoin keep caution, choose those altcoins that have a real-life utility like ETH, NEO, ADA. I don't prefer holding altcoin for long term, but there is no problem to hold a little while and fixed the profit when your target is filled.