Dumping BTL for BTC what could go wrong
Discussion
Do I own property? Yes
Do I own stocks & shares? Yes
Do I own bonds? Yes
Do I own crypto? No
Do I consider crypto potentially the biggest ponzi of all time? Yes
To date I've been very surprised at the ongoing popularity of Bitcoin. Whether the people buying it understand what they are buying I very much doubt. What exactly are they buying? Is it a currency? Do they invest in other currencies? If not, why not?
Is there any reason to buy Bitcoin other than FOMO?
Do I own stocks & shares? Yes
Do I own bonds? Yes
Do I own crypto? No
Do I consider crypto potentially the biggest ponzi of all time? Yes
To date I've been very surprised at the ongoing popularity of Bitcoin. Whether the people buying it understand what they are buying I very much doubt. What exactly are they buying? Is it a currency? Do they invest in other currencies? If not, why not?
Is there any reason to buy Bitcoin other than FOMO?
Good Plan Ted said:
Ah yes. Not exactly what I'd call "institutions", but this most recent chapter of the mania had slipped my mind.I wonder what Satoshi Nakamoto, whoever he is, thinks of the current state of play. He/they ostensibly envisaged a stateless, decentralised P2P payment mechanism. And what we mostly have now is behemoth asset managers wrapping it in USD-denominated ETFs to fuel a speculative orgy, and Michael Saylor spawning a cottage industry in financial engineering among listed s
tcos 
Panamax said:
Do I own property? Yes
Do I own stocks & shares? Yes
Do I own bonds? Yes
Do I own crypto? No
Do I consider crypto potentially the biggest ponzi of all time? Yes
To date I've been very surprised at the ongoing popularity of Bitcoin. Whether the people buying it understand what they are buying I very much doubt. What exactly are they buying? Is it a currency? Do they invest in other currencies? If not, why not?
Is there any reason to buy Bitcoin other than FOMO?
It depends on your definition of an investment and what you want to get out of it, IMO.Do I own stocks & shares? Yes
Do I own bonds? Yes
Do I own crypto? No
Do I consider crypto potentially the biggest ponzi of all time? Yes
To date I've been very surprised at the ongoing popularity of Bitcoin. Whether the people buying it understand what they are buying I very much doubt. What exactly are they buying? Is it a currency? Do they invest in other currencies? If not, why not?
Is there any reason to buy Bitcoin other than FOMO?
Bitcoin is a currency, it's traded like any other. You may look at it as a currency that is not attached to a nation and is virtual, therefore risky, but then it could be argued that all currencies are virtual to a degree.
As to a reason to buy it, if the US dollar had risen by 990% in value in the last 5 years, would you be buying that?
Muzzer79 said:
As to a reason to buy it, if the US dollar had risen by 990% in value in the last 5 years, would you be buying that?
Just like Tulips then...... Many years ago I read this book about the various manias that have existed in finance over the last couple of thousand years. Not a long read, I'd recommend it - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Money-Mania-Panics-Ancien...While I'm not saying that Bitcoin / crypto is necessarily another one, the book does open your eyes as to how these types of things have happened consistently and numerously over the years. And when people who know very little about the item being purchased start getting involved, that's a sign of it being a bubble.
I've toyed with the idea of crypto over the years, and the "unregulated" nature combined with the CGT situation (which is clearly going to bite a bunch of the crypto bros hard when they realise that the ledger means that their gains are there for all to see (including HMRC) ! ) has meant that I'm quite happy "missing out" on this one.
Good luck to those who HODL but make sure you understand the risks (including the tax aspect)
fat80b said:
Muzzer79 said:
As to a reason to buy it, if the US dollar had risen by 990% in value in the last 5 years, would you be buying that?
Just like Tulips then...... Many years ago I read this book about the various manias that have existed in finance over the last couple of thousand years. Not a long read, I'd recommend it - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Money-Mania-Panics-Ancien...While I'm not saying that Bitcoin / crypto is necessarily another one, the book does open your eyes as to how these types of things have happened consistently and numerously over the years. And when people who know very little about the item being purchased start getting involved, that's a sign of it being a bubble.
But people are and have been making a lot of money out of it. If you can afford to invest in it and accept that risk and the fact that you might end up with squat all, it can pay dividends.
I know enough people who have got in and got out of it having cleared their mortgages and set themselves up for retirement. They've not made millions, but have done well. Fair play to them, they took a big risk with a relatively small investment and it paid off.
Is it a long term investment though? On that front, I'm as sceptical as Panamax........
Bitcoin seems like a bit gamble and yet its just going higher and higher. When I first noticed it, it had climbed hugely and then, as predicated, crashed, but then went back up, way past it's previous.
A friend 'lost' a couple of employees who piled everything in to it in the early days and left their jobs because they'd made a fortune. That friend now has 14 bitcoins!
I think, for me, its worth putting some money in to it, but not a lot/too much.
A friend 'lost' a couple of employees who piled everything in to it in the early days and left their jobs because they'd made a fortune. That friend now has 14 bitcoins!
I think, for me, its worth putting some money in to it, but not a lot/too much.
Kernow76 said:
Nice history but provides no reason to invest in it now, because 'past performance is not indicative of future results'.However, if you'd like to go back 10 years to take advantage of those results, you would be wise to invest in the Simpo Time Machine Company. The prototype is almost ready, I just need another £100M please
Panamax said:
Can you explain "why" the value of BTC has grown so much?
Magic.I’d do it.
No one got rich playing it safe and the current system has failed, that’s obvious. It’s just a slow, painful death / debt spiral.
You might be waiting longer than you hoped and you’ll almost certainly be down before you are up, but I’d still do it.
The moment we left the gold standard in the 1970’s and started printing money signalled the end of the current money working.
You only live once.
No one got rich playing it safe and the current system has failed, that’s obvious. It’s just a slow, painful death / debt spiral.
You might be waiting longer than you hoped and you’ll almost certainly be down before you are up, but I’d still do it.
The moment we left the gold standard in the 1970’s and started printing money signalled the end of the current money working.
You only live once.
FourCs said:
The moment we left the gold standard in the 1970 s and started printing money signalled the end of the current money working.
Don't fall for the pitch that "all forms of money are equally wobbly". Real currencies have governments, economies and taxpayers which underlie their value. Q: Where does Bitcoin's value come from?
A: The next sucker.
But as I've already said, I'm old-fashioned. Nonetheless, I'm very attracted by the idea of investing in Simpo's Time Machine Company.
Panamax said:
Do I own property? Yes
Do I own stocks & shares? Yes
Do I own bonds? Yes
Do I own crypto? No
Do I consider crypto potentially the biggest ponzi of all time? Yes
To date I've been very surprised at the ongoing popularity of Bitcoin. Whether the people buying it understand what they are buying I very much doubt. What exactly are they buying? Is it a currency? Do they invest in other currencies? If not, why not?
Is there any reason to buy Bitcoin other than FOMO?
A dream. They've seen other people make money and they want a bit of that. It's no different to seeing people win big on the lottery and dreaming of doing the same.Do I own stocks & shares? Yes
Do I own bonds? Yes
Do I own crypto? No
Do I consider crypto potentially the biggest ponzi of all time? Yes
To date I've been very surprised at the ongoing popularity of Bitcoin. Whether the people buying it understand what they are buying I very much doubt. What exactly are they buying? Is it a currency? Do they invest in other currencies? If not, why not?
Is there any reason to buy Bitcoin other than FOMO?
But ultimately it's millions of people sticking £10 in a big bucket, with every single one of them thinking that they will be able to take £1,000 back out.
And not a single crypto bro has been able to explain how that could be possible (with good reason!)
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