So… Something of an elephant in the room - Cryptocurrencies
Obviously Freetrade have already announced their plans to give users the ability to get trading CC post-launch, but I’d be interested to know how many members of the community are active in the space, I’ve only ever traded on CC CFDs, so would be cool to hear from those that have been trading the actual assets and what you made of the experience!
I’ve never traded them, and I’m not interested in doing so
I’ve never traded them, but plan to when they are available on Freetrade
Whilst I have tried multiple times to understand crypto, I do agree with the Freetrade’s team rationale for adding it on the platform - for millennials, crypto is probably their first exposure to investing.
Here’s an exclusive of my dabble in Bitcoin on Revolut… yesterday was the first time I broke even since March 8, glad to be in profit now Hodled hard through the bear market!
I wouldn’t call it trading but I’ve got hold of some bitcoin via earn.com & bought an insignificant amount on Coinbase. Just to make the price a bit more tangible really & to have a reason to keep an eye on what’s going on. It’s been fun trying to predict & sell before the crashes.
I’ve a small amount of a few cryptos as an experiment. The transaction and fx costs are typically high. There aren’t really any fundamentals underneath each coin yet with which to model a fair price, so it feels more like betting than investing.
No reason why cryptos/blockchain couldn’t be transformative eventually but also no reason why that means success for any given crypto. Oct-Dec last year felt like the dotcom experience 1999-2000.
If crypto is to succeed, there will most likely be more than one winner over the next decade+. So out of the 1500+ coins/tokens in existence, it’s way too simplistic & unpredictable to suggest XRP is the way forward.
In practice, nobody knows whether BTC is or is not overvalued. It’s mostly speculation as of now & until the strong +ve correlation between Bitcoin and Alts breaks down, BTC will remain king.
There are at least 20 coins in the top 100 that would constitute justifiable speculative “gambles”. To name a few: Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, NEO, Digibyte, OmiseGo, Dash, Golem, Zcash, Monero, XLM, XRP, etc
I’m glad you made the distinction between Ripple, the company, and XRP, the token. It is the RippleNet technology that is the competitor to Swift and fundamentally RippleNet does not require XRP according to CEO Garlinghouse himself who said “at the moment the company’s main product, RippleNet, doesn’t rely on [XRP]”.
Personally, I’m in the camp that the best use case for XRP is it’s potential as a bridge currency. The extrapolation from using Ripple’s tech to their token is too much of a stretch for me because no matter how fast XRP is, I don’t see why banks would add another layer of currency risk to their transactions. Exchange rate volatility is way too high.
I’ve known about XRP for a year now, but fomo’d in at all time highs. Sold.
Wanted to get back in at sub-50cents of last month, but foolishly was relying on Revolut adding XRP by April as I didn’t want to use Binance again. Sure enough, Revolut missed their target and now say they will add XRP within next 2 weeks. It’s already too keenly priced for me to confidently get in on it now. While I’m confident it’ll breach $1 easily this year, I’m not sure if it’s potential price action above $1.
P.S. all comments in the forum are just opinions given financial advice isn’t allowed here. So rest assured I take every comment with a pinch of salt & pepper, & expect others to do so with mine aha
I’m well aware that Revolut hold the private keys and not myself i.e. it’s more akin to crypto exposure as opposed to crypto ownership. However, knowing this, I’m willing to make the trade off with a trusted company given they’re held in a cold wallet. Tbh I’m not overly concerned given the small sized amounts I’m investing.
Overall, I use Coinbase, Abra, Revolut and I’m phasing out Binance.
Maybe a clause with a warning that crypto is incredibly volatile, unstable, particularly hard to predict and is only for investors that have an appetite for maximum risk and reward?
For example, Crowncube has a mini-quiz before you invest, where you must say yes to all things like “you may lose all your money” / “we are not liable for your losses” / etc. Maybe Freetrade could have a mini-quiz of its own?
To me personally the best way to understand it is to invest. Skin in the game.
