In case you’ve put yourself in a news blackout since the COVID pandemic took hold in March of 2024, you might have missed some of the incredible changes in the cryptocurrency markets. For instance, the market leader and the most capitalized of all the alt-coins, Bitcoin, rose from $8.900 to over $60,000, having fallen back to the $40,000 mark since hitting the all-time high. For the second-biggest coin, Ethereum, the rise was just as heart-stopping, going from $238 to $3,800, and falling back to $2,670 since the high.
Note that both those upswings were mirrored by most of the other cryptos, and all the action took place since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s not an exaggeration to say that virtual money found a new home among investors interested in finding safe havens during troubled times. That’s only part of the surge in interest that cryptocurrencies have enjoyed during the past several years. COVID only seems to have speeded things up. Here are 10 opportunities people now have, thanks to the introduction of cryptocurrency.
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1. Take Part in a Global Financial Revolution
The word revolution is wholly appropriate because cryptocurrency has literally changed the way people do business. Its introduction has affected corporations, governments, individuals, churches, small businesses, and charitable organizations. There’s no segment of the world economy that has been untouched by the block-chain technology that underlies crypto-money.
2. You Can Teach Yourself
Fortunately, there are hundreds of excellent educational resources out there for prospective investors and traders. So, if you want to know more about cryptocurrency trading, click here and acquire some essential information. The beauty of buying, selling, trading, or saving assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Dogecoin is that you don’t need IT skills or a degree in finance to get started. In fact, adding any amount of cryptocurrency to an online or offline wallet takes about 15 minutes the first time you do it. After that, you’re looking at one-minute transactions, whether buying or selling the alt-coins.
3. Anonymous Buying
When Bitcoin first went global in 2009, some of the first investors were surprised by both the transparency and anonymity of holding this new form of money. It seems contradictory, but it’s not. The block-chain, which holds every transaction, a sale or purchase using the coin, is open and available for anyone to see. What viewers can’t see is who made the purchase or sale, so anonymity was built into the system from the very beginning. For people who like to avoid banks and other financial institutions, using cryptocurrency is an ideal way to stay anonymous.
4. Potential Returns are High
Choose any of the top crypto-coins and it’s quickly apparent that even though volatility is part of the equation, the general trend is up. Bitcoin and Ethereum are perfect examples. Not only are they the largest alt-coins, but they’re market leaders. As their prices rise and fall, so do the prices of many other assets in this new niche. The founder of Ethereum, who began the venture in 2013 and opened it up to investors two years later, is now a billionaire. Fortunately, you don’t need to create a coin to take part in the financial windfall. For many early investors in the top alternative currencies, the profits have been staggering. Dogecoin, one of the newcomers to the segment, has risen from a value of five cents to 35 cents (600 percent) in six weeks.
5. Investing is Easy
Setting up accounts with online exchanges has become much easier than it was just a few years ago. Nowadays, because there are millions of people all over the world buying and selling cryptocurrency around the clock, exchange owners have made it simple to get started. Newcomers need to choose an exchange, have any amount of capital to invest, set up an account, and decide which alt-coin they want to buy. The whole process takes around 15 minutes. Some of the larger exchanges allow you to select from hundreds of coins. Others only deal with the top 10 or 20 virtual currencies. Always check out the exchange’s website and gather basic information before deciding to use it as your main way of purchasing alt-coins.
6. Avoid Reliance on Banks
If you don’t want to deal with banks, for whatever reason, crypto is an ideal alternative. The only thing you need is an online wallet, or an offline hard wallet in your own possession, to transact business with sellers who accept crypto as legal tender money.
7. Trade from Anywhere, 24/7
Mobility is one of the most attractive things about virtual money. If you have access to your online alt-money wallet or hard wallet, you can literally operate from any place on the globe where there’s a computer connection. If you’re on vacation in a faraway place, for example, and decide to purchase a newly released coin, you can do it any time of day from any location. That’s because the cryptocurrency markets never close.
8. Enjoy Super Liquidity
Most cryptos are highly liquid, which means you can find a buyer or seller quickly. Plus, trading one coin for another is a simple task, meaning you can switch your Ethereum for Litecoin, or Dogecoin for Monero, at the click of a mouse.
9. It’s the New Gold
Want a safe place to park an unstable traditional currency during an economic meltdown? Crypto offers a non-bank way to do just that. Since early 2024, for instance, millions of folks have begun to view alternative forms of money, like Bitcoin, as another form of precious metals. For centuries, the precious metals, particularly gold and silver, have been sought out in times of crisis, war, and natural disasters as a safe haven store of value.
10. Diversify Your Portfolio
For the vast majority of people who are interested in cryptocurrency, it’s not an all-or-nothing proposition. They hold other assets, like stocks, bonds, traditional money, and hard assets. In fact, cryptos are an easy and accessible way to diversity any portfolio. The new form of money offers one more tool for investors and traders who like to keep all their options open.