Is it still profitable to invest in Bitcoin and crypto generally today, or have I missed out on the party? Is there still money to be made with Bitcoin and crypto today?
Continue reading to find answers to these questions and much more in this article.
Bitcoin Happened
Bitcoin is the first, most valued, and most popular cryptocurrency that was created by an unknown person or group of people under the pseudonymous name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009.
This innovative technology — Bitcoin — enables anyone to transfer value from point A to point B without the need for a middleman or financial institutions such as banks.
Study the Bitcoin Whitepaper to know what it is, how it works, why it works, and why it is called the future of money.
In the rest of this post, we will be walking through the historical price and development of bitcoin and the rest of the cryptocurrency market to see whether there’re still opportunities for new entrants to make money off of crypto.
Bitcoin Historical Price Analysis 2009 to 2013
As at 2009 when the Bitcoin blockchain was launched as open-source software, the coin was practically worthless.
There was nothing to it, except for a single transaction between Satoshi and a bitcoin early adopter named Hal Finney in January 2009.
Very few people understood what Bitcoin was then — and they were mostly cryptographers — aside from Satoshi himself.
And then on May 22, 2010, the first recorded real-life transaction with Bitcoin was executed when an early Bitcoin miner named Laszlo Hanyecz purchased two Papa John’s pizzas with 10,000 Bitcoin.
Of course, when this transaction happened — May 22 — the entire 10,000 Bitcoin was worth just $25, as Bitcoin was trading at $0.0025 per coin as at then.
But at today’s price of $11500 per Bitcoin — August 13, 2020 — that could well be the most expensive meal ever purchased — now worth $115,000,000 USD.
In July 2010, the first substantial Bitcoin price movement was recorded when the price jumped 10 times over from $0.0008 to $0.08 USD per coin in less than one week.
However, it was not until 2012 and 2013 that Bitcoin gained greater publicity and many more retailers and everyday people began buying and using the coin.
Fast forward to December 2015, Bitcoin was trading in the range of $600 - $1000 USD per coin.
So, if you had invested from the early recorded price of $0.0008 — even bought the top at $0.08 in 2010 — and held onto it for the 3 years that followed, then sold the bottom at $600 in December 2013, you would have made a profit of 750, 000% .
To make it clear, that is 7,500 times your investment as profit. So if you invested $10 in Bitcoin in 2010, by the end of 2013 your investment would have been worth $75, 000 USD.
And a $1000 investment would have been worth $7.5 million USD after just four years.
Bitcoin Historical Price Analysis 2014 to 2017
From 2014 to 2016 could be considered the winter period for Bitcoin as the premier cryptocurrency did not see its 2013 high of $1000 until 2017.
Most people in crypto right now and many of those sitting on the fence — waiting the “right time” to invest — got to know about Bitcoin during the 2017 “bubble” which saw Bitcoin touch its yet to be reclaimed all-time high price of $20,000.
Again, if even you had bought the 2013 top of $1000 per Bitcoin and sold the 2017 top at $20,000 you would have made a profit of 1900%. That is 19 times the amount you invested in 4 years.
For emphasis and clarity, if you had invested $100 into Bitcoin in 2013, your investment would be worth $1,900 by the end of 2017. And a $10, 000 USD investments would have amounted to $190,000 USD in profit.
Bitcoin Historical Price Analysis 2018 to 2020
As the saying goes, everything that goes up eventually comes down.
The bubble that took Bitcoin up to its all-time high price of $20,000 finally burst in early 2018 and gave way to a severe bear market that lasted all through 2018 and 2019.
During this short period of 2 years, Bitcoin had kissed $3,600 per coin, topping at $13,000 around the middle of July in 2019 and everything in between to date (Aug. 2020).
As at the time of writing this line, Bitcoin is trading at exactly $11,642.33.
If you bought into the top of the 2017 bubble, you will be down by close to 50% today.
However, year to date return on Bitcoin is 61%.
Meaning that if you had bought Bitcoin in January 2020 when it was trading at $7,200 per coin, you will be 61% richer today — August 12, 2020.
And that brings us to the next main question.
Will still be Profitable to Invest in Bitcoin Today?
Yes!
But before we go any further answering this question in detail, let me warn you that investing in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency generally is not a get rich quick opportunity.
Even though we all know the returns can be massive within a short period of time as seen from the above historical price analysis, past performance is no guarantee of future success.
Crypto is still in most cases, experimental and you’re always to advised to invest only what you can afford to lose.
With that said, let’s take a brief look into HOW investing in Bitcoin today may become profitable for you.
Except you’re a good trader who knows exactly what they’re doing, I would suggest that you take the long-term approach with investing in Bitcoin.
The number one cryptocurrency has been known to perform incredibly well over a period of 3 to 5 years or more.
Though we cannot expect similar price movement as in the early days of Bitcoin, historically, the price tends to appreciate over time as awareness and adoption of cryptocurrency build up.
And most people are now realizing that fiat currency is losing value fast, and looking for a way to protect and secure their wealth from being eroded by the impending hyperinflation of fiat currency caused by the reckless and seemingly endless money printing of central banks.
The number of retail and institutional investors in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and blockchain technology which makes all these possible has been on a steady increase since the beginning of 2018 through 2020.
This has to lead to the price of Bitcoin consistently inching closer to its all-time high even as many analysts predict that the cryptocurrency will reclaim and far exceed its 2017 ATH record price between 2020-2021.
Many prominent cryptocurrency investors have even predicted exact prices, $100,000 per coin, to $500,000, and even $1million — in some extreme predictions — between 2020 all the way to even 2030.
All things being equal, you can’t go wrong if you just buy and hold onto Bitcoin for the next 3 to 7 years untouched.
Another effective Bitcoin investing strategy you may employ is to budget a fixed amount from your regular income for buying Bitcoin regularly — say every month — for the next few years.
You’ll be truly surprised how much your little recurring investments would be worth at the end of 3 to 5 years.
Give it a shot! You can only die once.
How to Identify Potentially Profitable Altcoins to Invest in Today
As at the time of writing this line, there are exactly 6,442 and 5,896 different cryptocurrencies listed on CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko — the two major cryptocurrency market data aggregators — respectively and more are being added every day.
This means that Bitcoin is not the only horse available for you to ride in your quest for fortune and profit.
In fact, these altcoins — every other cryptocurrency aside from Bitcoin — will potentially produce a greater profit over time (if you pick good ones to invest in) compared to Bitcoin.
This is because Bitcoin can hardly move 50% to 100% in a day, weeks, or even months anymore whereas some good altcoins can do 100% upward move in a few hours and even 1000% in a few days.
So how do you increase your chances of producing duplicable success in choosing good projects to invest in with some level of confidence?
Click or tap here for the 5 Important factors to consider before investing in any cryptocurrency.
- Scour the various cryptocurrency listing and data aggregator websites for new and existing cryptocurrencies to consider investing in.
- Study their website and other available resources (e.g. whitepaper) for details of what the project is all about
- Identify the problem being solved, the project technology and solution, and its use cases
- Evaluate the market potentials to determine if the problem the project aims to solve has enough market to sustain its immediate and future relevance and growth.
- Find out if the team is visible or if any respected industry personality or organization is invested in the project that gives it some credibility —not that you’re investing based on their involvement, but it does help confer credibility to the project.
- Check out social mentions and what people already invested in the project are saying. A little overview of how far the project or the team has come will be nice at this stage.
- If everything feels alright to you and the project looks like it has a viable business model (not pure hype), you can then consider investing an amount you’re willing to lose if everything goes wrong.
If you followed these steps and try to avoid all the hypes and pump and dump scams that are richly prominent in crypto, you stand a very good chance of producing enviable returns on your investment within a fairly reasonable time.
Go a step further in your research with the following must-read extra resources for you:
- Investing in Bitcoin may not be ideal for everyone
- This Crypto Trading Strategy Will Help You Remain Profitable At All TImes
