Bitcoin
3 Safe Ways to Invest in Crypto
Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) may be about to become truly popular, but the crypto market continues to see no shortage of new scams. And it doesn’t matter how big or sophisticated an investor you are. Even billionaires and experienced long-time investors can be fooled by crypto scammers.
The good news is that you can take several basic steps to protect your crypto investments and avoid most crypto scams. Let’s take a closer look.
Use ETFs whenever possible
Arguably, the safest way to invest in crypto is to only invest in exchange traded funds (ETFs) for specific cryptocurrencies. You can buy and trade these ETFs the same way you would technology stocks, so there is no learning curve involved. You don’t need to open any new account. Plus, you can sleep easy at night knowing that every ETF has a seal of approval from the the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This helps explain why the new spot Bitcoin ETFs have become so popular.
As new ETFs launch for cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin, you can slowly diversify your cryptocurrency holdings. For example, the SEC recently approved new ETFs for Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), so they will be arriving soon. And some have suggested that Solana (CRYPTO:SOL) could be the next cryptocurrency in line after Ethereum to get its own spot ETF.
Choose a Reliable Crypto Trading Platform
For many investors, however, an ETF-only strategy is probably too limiting. You will need to find a safe place to buy and sell your cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase Global (NASDAQ: COIN) are a popular choice.
Since Coinbase is regulated by the SEC, it has some strong safeguards built in. For example, Coinbase will not list a cryptocurrency for trading unless it meets certain key criteria. And since Coinbase is a publicly traded company, it needs to run a squeaky clean ship and provide audited financial statements. Coinbase also has best-in-class security protecting your crypto vaults, so you don’t have to worry about a cyber-heist.
But Coinbase is hardly the only option when it comes to crypto trading platforms. There are literally dozens of possible options. Motley Fool Ascent analyzed many of them and determined which ones are best for buying Bitcoin, as well as which ones are best for buying altcoins (i.e., all cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin).
It’s important to do your own due diligence here. Remember: Everyone thought FTX was a reliable cryptocurrency exchange until it collapsed in November 2022. In hindsight, we now know that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was using client funds for operations proprietary trading platforms, while also lining up celebrity endorsements. .
The story continues
Establish clear investment rules
Finally, it is important to set some rules upfront about which cryptocurrencies you will invest in, as well as which cryptocurrencies you will not invest in. There are no surprises here, but the cryptocurrencies most likely to be targeted by a scammer are those with small market capitalizations and limited trading liquidity.
Image source: Getty Images.
As a general rule, you should avoid cryptocurrencies that are not offered for trading on major cryptocurrency exchanges. And you should avoid cryptocurrencies that are below a certain market capitalization threshold. Right now, a sensible target would be a market cap of $1 billion. This would give you access to the top 100 cryptocurrencies ranked by market cap. But if you are particularly risk-averse, you might consider increasing this number to $5 billion, which will limit you to just the top 25 cryptocurrencies.
Perhaps the best advice here is to avoid any crypto that attracts get-rich-quick investors. Unfortunately, this means that meme coins should be off your investment radar. While the value of popular meme coins may increase for a brief period of time, their long-term appeal is very limited. The situation is even worse for meme coins with small market capitalizations, which are often subject to extreme market manipulation such as pump and dump schemes.
Be a more educated investor
Ultimately, the more informed you are about crypto, the better you will be when it comes to avoiding classic crypto scams. For example, if you plan to hold cryptographic tokens in a blockchain wallet, you should familiarize yourself with the basics of blockchain wallets. This way, you won’t be tricked into handing over your cryptographic keys to an unscrupulous scammer who will use this information to break into your account.
Fortunately, crypto is becoming more and more popular and the crypto market is starting to look less and less like the Wild West with each passing year. As the regulatory environment becomes stricter and larger Wall Street investors become involved in cryptocurrencies, the risk of fraud will likely decrease over time. But until that happens, it’s certainly worth exploring the safest ways to invest in crypto right now.
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Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana. The Motley Fool has positions and recommends Bitcoin, Coinbase Global, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Cryptocurrency Scams Still a Threat: 3 Safe Ways to Invest in Crypto was originally published by The Motley Fool
Bitcoin
RIOT, MARA and CLSK shares at risk
Bitcoin (BTC) Mining stocks like Riot Platforms (RIOT), Marathon Digital (MARA) and CleanSpark (CLSK) retreated in pre-market trading as BTC retreated.
RIOT, MARA and CLSK all fell more than 2%, while other crypto-related stocks such as MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Coinbase (COIN) fell 1.5%.
Bitcoin sell-off continues
Crypto-linked stocks retreated as Bitcoin resumed its downtrend on Wednesday. After rising to $63,750 on Monday, BTC is hovering at $60,0000 and it is unclear whether it will recover.
More importantly, Bitcoin is dangerously close to the crucial support at $58,273, which is the 200-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA). The next support level for Bitcoin is $56,426, representing its lowest level in May.
Bitcoin Price Chart
If Bitcoin drops below this price, it will be a sign that the bears have prevailed, which could take it to the $50,000 level, if not below.
This decline happened after a whale deposited nearly 2,000 Bitcoins to Binance in two separate transactions. While this isn’t always the case, deposits to exchanges often happen when holders are exiting their positions.
The whales’ action coincided with a period in which the German government continues to sell off its Bitcoin holdings. It transferred $52 million worth of coins to exchanges on Tuesday.
As a result, data from CoinGlass shows that the volume of Bitcoin balances on exchanges has started to increase. The volume rose to 2.49 million on Tuesday, from last month’s low of 2.47 million.
Bitcoin balances on exchanges
Bitcoin Mining Companies at Risk
If the Bitcoin sell-off continues, it will put Bitcoin mining companies like Marathon, CleanSpark, and Riot Platforms at risk. These companies have tended to have a close correlation with Bitcoin in the past.
This drop is happening a few months after the halving event, reducing the amount of Bitcoins that miners receive.
To compensate for this drop, most of these companies have added their mining equipment. CleanSpark has reached a hash rate of 20 EH/swhich helped her mine 445 coins in June after mining 417 coins the previous month. She did this after purchasing 5 mining sites in Georgia.
Digital Marathon mined 590 coins in June, down 40% from the same month in 2023 and flat from May.
Riot Platforms, on the other hand, focused on acquiring Bitfarms, a company that mined 189 coins in June.
Bitcoin
Michael Saylor Issues Statement on Bitcoin Amid Crypto Market Sell-Off by U.Today
U.Today – Amid an ongoing sell-off in the cryptocurrency market, Michael Saylor, a prominent advocate and president of MicroStrategy, made a statement on X (Twitter) that reverberated across the crypto space: “Just Bitcoin.”
This two-word tweet comes as the cryptocurrency market faces significant sell-offs as the price of Bitcoin plummets.
Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, began its decline in Tuesday’s trading session, hitting $63,223 at one point before falling further.
Losses deepened on Wednesday as investors considered remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, with Bitcoin hitting intraday lows of $59,509. At the time of writing, BTC is down 2.85% over the past 24 hours to $60,274.
According to data from CoinGlass, the sell-off has resulted in a significant amount of cryptocurrencies being liquidated in the past 24 hours, totaling over $166 million. However, this has not deterred Saylor’s confidence in Bitcoin, as he reiterates his longing for the crypto asset in his tweet.
Cryptocurrency market crashes
Cryptocurrencies fell on Tuesday after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank needs to see more progress on inflation before cutting interest rates, which are now at 5.25%-5.50%. Powell revealed at a monetary symposium in Sintra, Portugal, that the United States is moving closer to a disinflationary path.
“We want to be more confident that inflation is moving sustainably downward toward 2% before we begin the process of tapering or easing policy,” Powell said.
Market losses deepened after Wednesday’s economic releases that indicated the labor market is cooling. Recent data showed weaker-than-expected private payroll growth in June, but weekly jobless claims were higher than economists had forecast. The latest figures come ahead of the highly anticipated June nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.
As the cryptocurrency market goes through a period of uncertainty, the coming days and weeks will be crucial in determining the direction of BTC’s price.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin and Ethereum in GTA 6? Still rumors — for now
Rumors that the long-awaited Grand Theft Auto 6 will use cryptocurrency that has been circulating for more than a year now—and they’re spinning again.
On Wednesday, a pseudonymous Crypto Twitter influencer named Gordon — apparently named after Gordon Gekko from the iconic 1987 film “Wall Street” —shared to his nearly 500,000 followers that “GTA 6 will allow cryptocurrency payments” and that “so far only Bitcoin, EthereumIt is USDT [are] confirmed.”
But in reality, no cryptocurrency has been confirmed for Grand Theft Auto 6, despite ongoing chatter about the rumors. Rockstar Games and parent company Take-Two have made no such announcements this week on the subject, nor have they made any prior announcements, and official trailers and announcements have made no mention of cryptocurrency being included.
However, the tweet — which also included a fake trailer for the game — quickly went viral, with over 500,000 views as of this writing in a matter of hours. When Twitter users asked Gordon for his sources, he would jokingly respond that his “uncle works there” or say that previous reports on the matter were “old” at this point.
But really, nothing has changed since then. DecipherGG’s reported in previous rumors in May 2023, not even since the first official trailer — which initially leaked with “BUY BTC” stamped on itApparently by the leaker in question—premiered last December.
DecipherGG reached out to Rockstar Games for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
Could Grand Theft Auto 6 implement a crypto element when it releases in 2025? It’s certainly possible, and if so, it would be a transformative moment for cryptocurrency adoption by the traditional gaming industry.
Take-Two Interactive has explored the space before, acquiring casual gaming giant Zynga in early 2022, when Take-Two founder and CEO Strauss Zelnick suggested there were “Web3 opportunities” that they could explore better as a team. Zynga has launched its first blockchain game on Ethereum, called Sugartownbut Take-Two has yet to get involved with other brands.
Rockstar Games, on the other hand, prohibited the use of cryptocurrency or NFTs on player-run Grand Theft Auto 5 servers in late 2022, following a rise in the use of NFTs to represent unique player-owned assets on modded game servers.
And given Grand Theft Auto’s satirical tone, the game may be more likely to criticize cryptocurrency and poke fun at caricatures of crypto fans and NFTs, for example, rather than trying to launch its own on-chain currency. But that’s all speculation at this point, as there are relatively few official details about GTA 6.
For now, at least, don’t believe the hype. While Rockstar Games hasn’t officially closed the door on cryptocurrency usage in Grand Theft Auto 6, it hasn’t confirmed anything about it either. However, it’s sure to remain a hot topic in the long run leading up to release, which is currently scheduled for fall 2025.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
Bitcoin
Crypto President Trump’s ‘Lesser’ Regulation Will Bless Coinbase’s Bitcoin Leverage, Expert Says – Coinbase Glb (NASDAQ:COIN)
Chris SenyekChief Investment Strategist at Wolfe Researchrecently expressed his opinion on the potential impact of a Donald Trump win the 2024 elections in the cryptocurrency market.
What happened: Senyek suggested that a Trump presidency could ease cryptocurrency regulations, benefiting companies like Coinbase Global Inc. COIN due to its importance Bitcoin BTC/USD Leverage.
“Trump would be less harsh on crypto regulation, and Coinbase would be a big beneficiary of that given its influence on bitcoin,” Senyek said during CNBC’s “Last Call” on Tuesday.
See too: Enhance Your Retirement Portfolio: The Benefits of Adding Cryptocurrency
Why does this matter?:Senyek’s comments come in the context of the former president Donald Trump‘s reported plans to participate at the Bitcoin 2024 convention, which could reinforce his image as a “Crypto President”.
Trump’s potential participation in the Bitcoin 2024 convention, a major event on the cryptocurrency calendar, could have significant implications for the industry.
Pratik KalaHead of Research in DigitalX Limitedhe has predicted a Trump victory in the upcoming elections, but warns that immediate cryptocurrency-friendly regulations may not be a priority.
A recent report by 10x Search explore the recent rise in Bitcoin price and its potential connection to Trump’s strong position in the 2024 election race. The report, titled “Is the Bitcoin Trump Pump Sustainable?”, highlights a 4% spike in Bitcoin’s price following the news that the president Joe Biden will remain in the race despite a poor performance in the presidential debate.
Price Action: At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading 2.10% lower at $60,860.66, according to Benzinga Pro.
Read next:
Image created using photos from Shutterstock
This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Pooja Rajkumari
News and market data brought to you by Benzinga’s APIs
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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