As More Cryptocurrencies Fail, Few Understand the Risks
The cryptocurrency market has been one of the fastest growing sectors over the last couple of years, with Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum hogging most of the spotlight. With any new industry, there are going to be growing pains and it’s important for investors to understand the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
Investing in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies is not for the faint of heart. After years of neglect, Bitcoin experienced an unprecedented bull-run in 2017, with prices for a single bitcoin soaring from the $2,000 level in July to almost $20,000 in December.
Investors, afraid to miss out (just like during the dotcom era) jumped onto the cryptocurrency bandwagon, without fully understanding the risks. And frankly, you can’t blame them. Industry experts were predicting bitcoin would hit $50,000 by the end of 2018.
But the shine started to wear off cryptocurrencies at the start of 2018, with bitcoin prices losing almost 70% of its value. If a cryptocurrency investor bought at the top and was still holding on, bitcoin prices would need to increase 205% just for that investor to break-even.
It’s been a tough year for cryptocurrency and blockchain companies in general. While initial coin offering (ICO) volume is up more than double that of 2017, the industry is fraught with failure. More than 1,000 projects have failed in 2018, meaning, they trade for less than one cent. Some died because of organizational incompetence while others were total pump and dump scams.
Even the most well-intentioned investors have lost a lot of money investing in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. What’s worse, many investors have jumped into cryptocurrencies without fully understanding the risk.
According to the Ontario Securities Commission, five percent of Ontarians, or over half a million people, currently own some form of cryptocurrencies—but do not really understand the risks. In fact, only five percent of those who own cryptocurrency could explain the details of cryptocurrency to someone else.
That’s a recipe for disaster.
Learn-To-Trade.com, Canada’s Leader in Stock Market Trading Courses
The cryptocurrency market is still in its infancy and will continue to experience growing pains.
While that’s good news for cryptocurrency and blockchain bulls, the market will continue to be volatile and investors need to tread cautiously. After all, investing is investing, whether it’s stocks, commodities, cryptocurrencies, futures, etc. And investors need to understand what they’re investing is. You can leave that up to the expert traders at Learn-To-Trade.com.
As Canada’s oldest and leading provider of stock market trading courses, the professional traders at Learn-To-Trade.com can teach you how to understand technical, spot market trends, teach you about cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, commodities, futures, foreign markets, stock index trading, and Forex trading. You’ll also learn about risk management and capital preservation.
At Learn-To-Trade.com we also understand that investors have different needs, that’s why we provide a unique, Lifetime Membership that allows you to re-attend any part of the program as often as you’d like.
To learn more about Learn-To-Trade.com’s stock market trading course, contact us at 416-510-5560 or by e-mail at info@learn-to-trade.com.
Photo Credit: iStock.com/Marc Bruxelle
George Karpouzis
George Karpouzis is the co-founder of Learn-to-Trade and has been personally providing education and mentoring to over 3000 members since 1999. George has been trading in the stocks, options, futures and forex markets using technical analysis since 1986. With the help of advancements in trading technology the Learn To Trade program is now accessible worldwide. His background and passion for teaching brings an invaluable asset to our members. George is constantly striving to improve the program content and develop new strategic relationships for the benefit of the members.