Given that I'm interested in crypto, I'm pretty cautious when it comes to investing. I like the long-term outlook on investing over the crazy rough and tumble of the day trades. It's exciting for sure, but the risk is just too much for me!
So, it wouldn't be a real surprise to anyone that the bulk of my crypto is in pretty ordinary crypto. Bitcoin and Ethereum lead the list along with a batch of fairly reliable others. I guess in a future post, I should breakdown and have a look at some of the crypto that I hold... some have been disappointments, whilst others have been more successful than I would have imagined.
Occasionally, I do venture out of my comfort zone of slow and steady when I find an early crowdsale that is looks like it is worth backing, has a decent team and doesn't look like an influencer pump and dump! (Speaking of which, I forgot about one... I should check in again to see if it is worth it!).
So, I figure that it couldn't hurt to have a little punt now and then to see what it will yield. If it goes to nothing... ah well, the money was already written off when it came into the crypto ecosystem anyway!
One that caught my interest last year, was the FLOW presale on CoinList. It was a new blockchain being launched by the makers of Cryptokitties and it looked to be heavily based around creating NFT games with some really interesting companies already onboard, like the NBA from the United States. The crowdsale was at 10 cents per token but game with a lock-up period to prevent dumping... however, the locked tokens could be staked.
It turns out that this project has really caught fire... to the point where I have the very irritating problem where it is stomping on my Bitcoin and Ethereum holding! Trust me, there is nothing weirder than seeing some other crypto on the top of your portfolio when it has been the same unchangeable two for so long!
Ah well, I guess it is a good problem to have and I'm sure that it is a problem that many people would definitely be interested in having! The bulk of the tokens are still locked and inaccessible though, however, just with the staking rewards from two or so months, the initial bet has been paid off with a bit to spare. Actually, I sold too cheaply, I was more interested in recouping the initial payment than making a profit... if I had held on a little longer.... (it might have gone to zero!).
So, at the moment... paper profits. Until those tokens can be sold on the open market it is really quite hard to know what they will be worth. The time that they still have left is quite a long time in crypto terms... so, I'm not sure that they will preserve their value, but at the moment, they are really doing pretty okay in the collectible NFT space. Will that continue, will they manage to bring onboard established IP and companies. I really hope so.... but there is quite a lot of competition in the marketplace at the moment... but while everyone is being distracted by Art NFTs, I really do think that the real stuff is in collectible card NFTs and Gaming NFTs. I'm really dubious about the Art application...
Handy Crypto Tools
Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
Kucoin: My second choice in exchanges, many tokens listed here that you can't get on Binance!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.
