How to invest in cryptos and have fun with it. That's the message from Charlie Shrem, a bitcoin and crypto advocate and.......well, a former prison inmate. Charlie got busted in 2014 for conspiring to sell bitcoins to the folks who used the infamous Silk Road illegal marketplace (drugs). BUT, Charlie was also the co-founder of Bitinstant crypto exchange that once processed up to 30% of all bitcoins in circulation. In other words, he knows his stuff. So, when Mr. Shrem says buy cryptos, hold for five (5) years (he kind of had to) and have some fun (uh, Charlie, Silk Road is gone) he is right on. Here are his views.
(Bill Taylor/Fintek Capital)
"Speaking to Yahoo Finance at the MoneyShow Conference in San Francisco on Thursday August 23, Shrem advised against excessive exposure to crypto assets on the part of new investors.
Acknowledging the unpredictable nature of cryptocurrencies, he said:
“You’re putting your wealth in these things, and they break. Things happen. The values go down 90%, then the values go up 100%. I always tell people if they want to get into crypto, ‘How much money, if you lost it right now, would you be OK with?’ ‘$500,’ they tell me. So invest $500 in a basket of crypto, and then just have fun with it. Just enjoy it, learn. There’s a lot of good ones: bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Litecoin. Just learn what makes them different.”
Shrem also advises investors to buy crypto with the aim of holding for five years, after which they will have a heightened probability of getting a return. This he says, is because bull and bear markets usually occur in two-year cycles.
In July 2016, CCN reported that Shrem was freed from prison following his 2014 conviction for conspiring to sell bitcoin to users of the illegal marketplace Silk Road. At the time of his arrest and indictment, Shrem was the founder of BitInstant, a crypto exchange that once processed as much as 30 percent of all bitcoin in circulation..."
Full Story at CCN.com