I must be an idiot: Crypto has to be the most Risky

[MikeSD]

I have to be an idiot to be looking into this again.

A number of years ago, I put a few bucks, into one of the coins, just to see how it worked.  The first thing I found was that you have to be careful about fees. They can eat you alive.  But I left $50 in one of the exchanges and forgot about it for a few years.  When I looked again, after about 3 years, it was over $300.

But I still believe it's one of the most risky ways of saving/investing/storing your money.  Slightly better than chain letters and pyramid schemes. It's backed by nothing, produces nothing, and money put in is not invested in anything.  Every penny goes into a hole and disappears.  The only way you can ever get your money out, is by trusting there might be someone to buy what you sell.  To buy, someone has to sell.  To sell, someone has to buy.  It's like the mother of all pyramid schemes.

Crypto has a finite number of investors/players.  Once that number reaches it's saturation point, and there are no more investors, the value of every crypto suddenly drops to zero.  And yes, there is a theoretical saturation point. Further, that point isn't limited by the world population.  It can be reached based on world conditions. And no, just because there might be a world calamity like war, that doesn't guarantee that people will be more interested in crypto currencies.

That said, what is the best way to buy crypto c, that has the lowest fees and least headaches?  And while risky, it's not illegal.  So, I'm going to take a much larger amount of money (>$10000) and see how long it takes to double it.  The first thing I need to do is find a way to minimize the fees to play this game.

[noorman0]

People should value bitcoin and crypto after they read the whitepaper, with that they will know what value to earn per unit based on their function. Unfortunately, the majority of us (non-corporate) come to this space only to invest, not to implement it so that functions seem to never work and think there is no support behind crypto values, this is just another ponzi/pyramid scheme.

Crypto transaction fees are actually flexible (adjustable) if they are actually used on the network (decentralized). Unless you let it be managed by a centralized institution, the fees apply like taxes where the determination is not yours.

[Eternad]

What fee are you talking about? Withdrawal fee or trading fee because you can dodge it with the right token. Maybe you are using shady exchange that’s why you are considering all the tokens as a pump and dump scheme. What you are describing is what really trading is and not a Ponzi scheme because  you are buying tokens that has liquidity while ponzi don’t give you q chance to sell your asset if no one enter there money. The liquidity on the orderbook is what makes trading far different on Ponzi plus the token you are buying is a product of a project, Still its a case to case basis since there is a lot of scam project in crypto.

[ethereumhunter]

That's how investing works. You can't expect the value you put into buying and holding a coin to increase rapidly in a short period. Indeed some coins can be like that, but it is very rarely found in other coins.

You are lucky to have a coin that can go up high in 3 years and you can imagine how much value you would get if you invested in bitcoin 3 years ago and see it now. You will be surprised to see that the $50 you used to try to buy your bitcoins increases to $100 or more after 3 years.

The crypto market has an unlimited number of traders and investors because, all the time, many people are interested in investing in crypto. It is what makes crypto movements fluctuate all the time. Those interested in investing or trading will buy and sell their own coins for a profit.

[MikeSD]

Crypto transaction fees are actually flexible (adjustable) if they are actually used on the network (decentralized). Unless you let it be managed by a centralized institution, the fees apply like taxes where the determination is not yours.

That's why I am asking the question.

I'm currently using coinbase. To buy they charged $3.85 for a $100 purchase. To cash out I will have to pay a fee to convert to a fiat currency. To send the cash to my bank, another fee. So those fees could amount to $10%. I'd have to make 10% just to break even. The fees were listed as $2.99 fixed or 1.5% variable. The fee charged was neither, for 3 purchases. So I'm looking for lowest fee options.

I looked into all-in-one digital wallets and they charge 5%-8%, that might be even higher fees.

I'm going to be putting money into a few good prospect coins and just let it sit for the most part. But if I see one spiking or out performing, I might want to make a change. Keeping my fees low, helps in that regard.

So what I'm trying to find the best way to lower the fees for buying, transfering, and cashing out. I know there is an answer to that.  I'm just trying to find out the answer to that.

[lobo13hf]

Why are you thinking if the war will be the end of everything? Crypto was the most risky but again it's also can be the most profitable investment as long as you were picking the right project. So, are you only using coinbase in this case? have you tried binance US, Kraken, or something else before? I do know that how frustate you are when facing a huge fees that being charged in everytransactions that happened with your coinbase account. The only way for you minimize the fees to trade on the dex that was working into the scalable blockchain. You can just use centralized exchange site as a way to cash out your money into the fiat to be sent to your bank account. Have you tried this before?
$3.5 for 100 purchase was a lot.

[Murpheus]

I can't begin to point out your many wrong assumptions in this post,

You'll see crypto as a Ponzi if you are investing in pump and dump tokens which do not offer to solve any real world problems.

About crypto having finite number of investors, the stock market also has finite numbers of investors but has it gone down to zero ? Why has it not hit a saturation point since it's decades of existence??

There is no ceiling to how much money can pour into crypto and stock, as long as population keeps growing, production of consumer goods keeps going up and yes most importantly, the money printing machines of government keeps running... In the first place the reason behind investing is not only to build wealth but to also beat inflation which eats away at your savings....

So no... This post can't be any right... Bitcoin has a working technology behind it, so is Binance or Ethereum, you only come to this conclusion because you have bought into hypes without a product

[Adbitco]

You should note something very important about the cryptocurrencies;
What really matters is from the angle you are sighting it from, crypto currency is not a ponzi scheme rather than you putting your funds in a wrong project and with the wrong people at the wrong time. Therefore, make proper researched about any project you want to venture into mostly the newly birth project with low ratings or similarly. Now talking about withdrawal fees; today we have many chain with low gas fee which you could only spend $0.1 or lesser. so it's advisable you switched to such network.

[MikeSD]

I can't begin to point out your many wrong assumptions in this post,

You'll see crypto as a Ponzi if you are investing in pump and dump tokens which do not offer to solve any real world problems.

This is not aimed at you directly. Sorry if it seems that way.  Almost every reply ignores answering the question and defends crypto instead.

I can't begin to point out how no one is actually answering the question.  Instead of trying to defend crypto, why not just answer the darn question.  The question, has an answer regardless of what crypto does or doesn't do, or is or isn't.

Is there anyone reading this, who can provide some insight into ways of investing in crypto, or depositing money into crypto, that has the lowest fees. 10% to move money from bank, and back to bank seems extraordinarily high.  There must be a better way.  As a test, I put $300 in a couple of days ago.  I'm going to put it all in my bank, and see what the round trip costs me.  Then I'll know a real world example. 

Then I'll put that and more into several different crypto currencies.  I just want to come up to speed quickly, so I don't put it into an exchange or network that's going to wipe out any gains.  Let me put this another way, say you had $10,000 extra, what system or network would you use, that has the lowest fees for depositing, transferring, and cashing out?

[MikeSD]

Now talking about withdrawal fees; today we have many chain with low gas fee which you could only spend $0.1 or lesser. so it's advisable you switched to such network.

Ok, name one way of moving $1000, into crypto, waiting a month, and cashing out, that cost only $0.1 or less.  Let me make this a little easier.

Say you had $10,000 to invest in crypto.  What is one of the best ways/exchanges/networks (exact name or signup link) where that money could be invested, sit for a year, and cashed out, with the least fees (and I mean all fees: deposit, transfer, withdrawl, or whatever).  I'm not going to be buying coins, to be able to pay for stuff. I will be choosing coins I feel have best chance of increasing value.  So, my intent is to park some money in crypto, and letting it sit till I wish to withdraw it.  I wonder if it's even possible to have fees that are less than 2% to make the round trip from bank, to crypto, and back, with total fees less than 2%?

I'm not trying to be contrary.  I'm seriously trying to find the best way of parking some money for a year or so, maybe longer or maybe shorter.  If I do see a spike, I might move it, but otherwise, it will just sit there for a year or so, or maybe longer, depending on if I need to use the money. But I don't want 10% fees, if they can be avoided. AND, I'm sure I can learn all this, if I took the time to just read everything out there, but I have found it a better practice to just ask those who have gone before.

Thanks,

[MikeSD]

Work in Progress Post

Ok, I just did another test.  Coinbase advised I should consider Coinbase Pro.  So what the heck.  They did say my $3.85 fee seemed correct for using Coinbase.

But being cynical, I signed up for Coinbase Pro, to see what difference it made. I was already signed up, but needed to use my Coinbase login credentials.  And I transferred some money into Coinbase Pro.  Seems to be seperate systems, because Coinbase Pro, doesn't list my Coinbase accounts.  Apparently I'd have to transfer those.  For now, I'll keep it seperate.

I did a test transaction of $10 and it charged only $0.03 cents for thee transaction.  My portfolio shows my initial cash deposit + the $10 buy, and I'm only $0.03 cents below my $300 (The fee).  And it's showing the $10 in coin I bought as $9.95 (fee + declining market).  So this is a good start.  It looks like I have only $0.03 cost for that $10 coin. 

I then setup for buying $100 in some crypto, and it's showing the fee is going to be $0.6, which is a little higher but far below the $3.85 I was previously charged.  And based on my pevious buy, I suspect that will be correct.

I haven't checked the cashing out costs because there is a 5 day wait to withdraw, since my initial deposit hasn't cleared yet. I'm thinking they are likely going to discount the value, upon withdrawl.  It will be interesting to see how much that is. if that is on the order of 10%. I wont have gained anything, except knowledge how this exchange works.

Still working on the lowest fee option.

Is it possible to get into crypto, and only have mining fees to deal with?

[Rupok]

I am also.i am a trader with 5 years.when i am a trade a new project then i will loss this project.if i am not wrong  crypto is always risky.Right now i don't believe any crypto. When i buy the some token that's the time the market is so dump.what happen with my i don't find this.Then i don't try the invest any cryptocurrencies.Day by day i am totally going a loss.i am so disappoint sometimes about crypto.i am suggest someone be carefully about crypto.           

[jossiel]

Is it possible to get into crypto, and only have mining fees to deal with?

Only if you already have the crypto.

You only have to deal with the transaction fee as per sending it to another wallet. There is a crypto that I know of that they don't charge fees per transaction you make.

Yes, you heard it right that it's a cryptocurrency that don't have a fee you have to pay if you transact.