Investing in Cryptocurrencies

[peach0000]

38 minutes ago, Ginger_Filbert said:

What are the fees on binance?

0.1% I don’t even factor them in to my trading they are so low.

4 hours ago, Trumpet said:

So far I’ve been trading XRP and XLM, they seem to have the perfect volatility at the moment.

Pretty stable as far as crypto goes. I tend to favour the high risk high reward coins. Good luck with you trading! 

[Trumpet]

1 hour ago, Ginger_Filbert said:

What are the fees on binance?

They charge 1.5% for the initial deposit and then I think thereafter it’s 0.1% per trade. 
 

I’m playing with £200 so the trade fees aren’t noticeable. I withdrew £50 profit earlier and they charged 80p for that.

 

 

[Trumpet]

1 hour ago, peach0000 said:

0.1% I don’t even factor them in to my trading they are so low.

Pretty stable as far as crypto goes. I tend to favour the high risk high reward coins. Good luck with you trading! 

I may dabble in a few higher risk ones if I can build a decent pot and if I can try and get my head around it all 

 

Cheers, you too!

[Sambiasso]

4 hours ago, peach0000 said:

0.1% I don’t even factor them in to my trading they are so low.

Pretty stable as far as crypto goes. I tend to favour the high risk high reward coins. Good luck with you trading! 

Which higher risk ones do you favour at the min? 

 

[peach0000]

6 minutes ago, Sambiasso said:

Which higher risk ones do you favour at the min? 

 

So I was heavily investing in crypto back in 2017/18 and the collapse of the market has kept me away for a while. I've started reinvesting in the last month or so in small quantities and I'm still really exploring the changes that have happened since I'd been away. That being said my research has lead me mainly to 4 coins. 

 

Nano - Has doubled in the last week so may have missed the boat on this one although I feel it has potential to go a lot higher still.

Matic Network - Really interesting product 

Dragonchain - tiny market cap with Disney as their backers

SelfKey - for me the one with the most question marks in this list in how useful it actually could end up being but worth looking into.

 

But I will reiterate that I have been away from the crypto world for a while so please research before throwing money at these. Also remember that low market cap coins can be highly volatile and you could genuinely lose all your money (happened to me with Oyster Pearl a couple of years a go).

[Sambiasso]

Just now, peach0000 said:

So I was heavily investing in crypto back in 2017/18 and the collapse of the market has kept me away for a while. I've started reinvesting in the last month or so in small quantities and I'm still really exploring the changes that have happened since I'd been away. That being said my research has lead me mainly to 4 coins. 

 

Nano - Has doubled in the last week so may have missed the boat on this one although I feel it has potential to go a lot higher still.

Matic Network - Really interesting product 

Dragonchain - tiny market cap with Disney as their backers

SelfKey - for me the one with the most question marks in this list in how useful it actually could end up being but worth looking into.

 

But I will reiterate that I have been away from the crypto world for a while so please research before throwing money at these. Also remember that low market cap coins can be highly volatile and you could genuinely lose all your money (happened to me with Oyster Pearl a couple of years a go).

I've got a few quid in matic too

Sold my nano and some others last week.

 

 

I'm holding: AMP - Got it through Gemini at less than 1p and has given me a great return.

 

Matic, Reef Finance along with Amp are my smaller parts approx 10% portfolio

 

Synthetic(SNX) and Venus(XVS) are 39%

 

and my big bag is Ethereum 51%

 

The one I'm looking at is Spartan(SPARTA) but the team behind it are anonymous which is meant to be a red flag.

 

Wouldn't mind adding a few quid in to Polkadot, I think it will hit £200 before the end of the year.

 

What I've found is everyone has their own favourite who think will 'moon' but if this bull market continues everyone should be making a decent profit.

[peach0000]

8 minutes ago, Sambiasso said:

I've got a few quid in matic too

Sold my nano and some others last week.

 

 

I'm holding: AMP - Got it through Gemini at less than 1p and has given me a great return.

 

Matic, Reef Finance along with Amp are my smaller parts approx 10% portfolio

 

Synthetic(SNX) and Venus(XVS) are 39%

 

and my big bag is Ethereum 51%

 

The one I'm looking at is Spartan(SPARTA) but the team behind it are anonymous which is meant to be a red flag.

 

Wouldn't mind adding a few quid in to Polkadot, I think it will hit £200 before the end of the year.

 

What I've found is everyone has their own favourite who think will 'moon' but if this bull market continues everyone should be making a decent profit.

Yeah the last bit is the most crucial. Everyone thinks they are a genius but in reality with the money flowing in to crypto it’s almost impossible not to make money. The crucial part is judging the exit because I have no doubt this bubble will pop again it’s just a matter of predicting when.

[BigGibbo]

Still can't bring myself to get into crypto as there's no inherent value other than what someone else is willing to pay you for it. Now a select few are going to be used on PayPal, Square, etc they are more interesting but those coins are already at such a high premium that they're not worth the risk for me. I like the idea of decentralization, but the fact that it is literally just confidence backing them makes them the ultimate fiat currency except without the government or any real backing.

 

At least with a company or even a currency there is something aside from confidence backing it, but if the bubble bursts and people suddenly decide most or all of these coins aren't worth anything then there is no recourse.

 

Still wish I got in years ago obviously and still think that Bitcoin hits 100K but there's potential for the bubble to pop and there's more money to be made from growth stocks so I'll stay on the sidelines for now.

[Merging Cultures]

I have a very small position in Ethereum, I like the integration with Blockchain, I think it has a lot more potential with smart contracts.

[RobHawk]

I checked my portfolio before work this morning, checked again this evening after I saw it was a good day of rises. Made £2k in about 8hours. Lovely stuff, hope this bull run continues a little while yet

[RobHawk]

For those looking at investing for the first time too, be aware that at some point in the future, prices will drop at least 30-40%. 

 

I'm not saying people shouldn't invest, just saying that this is the nature of the beast, it will happen and prices will boom again later down the line. If your looking long term, stay the course and be ready for what's ahead.

[peach0000]

1 hour ago, RobHawk said:

For those looking at investing for the first time too, be aware that at some point in the future, prices will drop at least 30-40%. 

 

I'm not saying people shouldn't invest, just saying that this is the nature of the beast, it will happen and prices will boom again later down the line. If your looking long term, stay the course and be ready for what's ahead.

I can't stress this enough. It happens every time. A massive bubble followed by a massive correction. Just be prepared to pull out! But I also second it shouldn't put people off. A lot of money to be made in the short term. To mitigate risk during bubbles like this I'll double up then withdraw my initial investment and invest with the 'free' money.

Edited 14 February 2021 by peach0000

[DennisNedry]

Can someone explain the mechanics of buying and selling?

 

Say, for example, you use a trading site and deposit £50 on there. You buy £50 of whichever cryptocurrency you want. Next week, it's worth £100 and you want to withdraw. Do you have to put your crypto stock on a virtual market for others to buy? Once it's all gone you've then got £100 in your account to withdraw into GBP or re-invest? Is it that simple?

 

 

[Kilworthfox]

On 14/02/2021 at 10:11, DennisNedry said:

Can someone explain the mechanics of buying and selling?

 

Say, for example, you use a trading site and deposit £50 on there. You buy £50 of whichever cryptocurrency you want. Next week, it's worth £100 and you want to withdraw. Do you have to put your crypto stock on a virtual market for others to buy? Once it's all gone you've then got £100 in your account to withdraw into GBP or re-invest? Is it that simple?

 

 

Even easier mate? 

 

I use Binance, I have used coinbase but find more options on Binance and it has cheaper transaction fees. 

 

 

So you add your Fiat currency GBP by a bank transfer. 

 

Then you trade gbp for USDT generally (there are many options). .. Which is a coin called tether which is tethered to the US Dollar price. With USDT  you can pretty much buy any currency available on the marketplace on Binance. 

 

When you want to sell you sell back whatever currency, back into USDT and then covert that into GBP and withdraw to your bank. 

 

It's very simple. 

 

 

Edited 15 February 2021 by Kilworthfox

[Nuneatonfox in Manchester]

Total noob, can someone please advise whether the coinbase wallet app is secure?

[st albans fox]

Article yesterday  on beeb website ref how much energy is used to run crypto currencies - if true it’s possibly unsustainable as it stands .....

[peach0000]

14 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

Article yesterday  on beeb website ref how much energy is used to run crypto currencies - if true it’s possibly unsustainable as it stands .....

It depends on the specific crypto to be fair. Some of them do no harm at all. The issue is the green ones tend to be less secure and no decentralised. Bitcoin I agree is unsustainable. 

[Sambiasso]

12 hours ago, Nuneatonfox in Manchester said:

Total noob, can someone please advise whether the coinbase wallet app is secure?

Yes, probably the most secure out of them as they are kept in cold wallets.

 

So much blood on the streets I'm getting stacks of cheap crypto atm.

[RobHawk]

5 hours ago, Sambiasso said:

Yes, probably the most secure out of them as they are kept in cold wallets.

 

So much blood on the streets I'm getting stacks of cheap crypto atm.

I think there's more blood to be shed so waiting a little while yet before topping up my portfolio. I've got a shopping list and price points ready though 🤣

[Nuneatonfox in Manchester]

8 hours ago, Sambiasso said:

Yes, probably the most secure out of them as they are kept in cold wallets.

 

So much blood on the streets I'm getting stacks of cheap crypto atm.

My coinbase decided it needs to verify my account again. How about binance? I've just bought BTC through the binance app, not sure if that means its just stored on the exchange or if its safely in a wallet provided by the platform

[Sambiasso]

13 hours ago, Nuneatonfox in Manchester said:

My coinbase decided it needs to verify my account again. How about binance? I've just bought BTC through the binance app, not sure if that means its just stored on the exchange or if its safely in a wallet provided by the platform

Just stored on the exchange, It depends on what you want to do with your BTC if its for a long term investment then get your own wallet, if its for temp gains then keep it on the exchange. Its important to do your own research there is 1000's of people out there with more knowledge.

[Nod.E]

55 minutes ago, Sambiasso said:

Just stored on the exchange, It depends on what you want to do with your BTC if its for a long term investment then get your own wallet, if its for temp gains then keep it on the exchange. Its important to do your own research there is 1000's of people out there with more knowledge.

This will be a difficult question to provide a quick and simple answer to, but realistically what are the risks of storing crypto in Binance? Seems pretty secure to me.

 

I don't know anything about wallets, and the complexity of keys etc puts me off. 

[Sambiasso]

16 minutes ago, Nod.E said:

This will be a difficult question to provide a quick and simple answer to, but realistically what are the risks of storing crypto in Binance? Seems pretty secure to me.

 

I don't know anything about wallets, and the complexity of keys etc puts me off. 

I think its just having an awreness and not being complactent thinking your funds are totally safe being left on an exchange. Anyone could hack your computer or phone and easilly transfer those funds if the right securities are not in place.

I keep my smaller bags on Binance exchange but my bigger Etherium bags are kept offline in cold wallet. 

[Christoph]

24 minutes ago, Nod.E said:

This will be a difficult question to provide a quick and simple answer to, but realistically what are the risks of storing crypto in Binance? Seems pretty secure to me.

 

I don't know anything about wallets, and the complexity of keys etc puts me off. 

It's not regulated like a bank for example. They could get 'hacked' like other bitcoin websites and people can lose their money. Who are people going to complain to or get their money back from? 

 

Probably worth moving to a wallet if you have a lot of money in there anyway. It's a lot of  trust given to a website. 

[Sambiasso]

So Binance was hacked back in 2019, hackers stole $40m worth of Bitcoin. Binance reimbursed any users who lost their funds through Binance funds insurance.  

https://www.wired.com/story/hack-binance-cryptocurrency-exchange/
 

BINANCE IS ONE of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges. As of Tuesday, it’s now also the scene of a major cryptocurrency theft. In what the company calls a “large-scale security breach,” hackers stole not only 7,000 bitcoin—equivalent to over $40 million—but also some user two-factor authentication codes and API tokens.

Theft has long been endemic to cryptocurrency; hackers stole more than $356 million from exchanges and infrastructure in the first three months of 2019 alone, according to a recent report from blockchain intelligence company Ciphertrace. But it’s less common to see an established exchange like Binance get hacked—and for the attackers to get so much other information along the way.

The Hack

Binance has been fairly forthcoming about the hack, detailing its impact in a blog post from Binance CEO Zhao Changpeng. “The hackers used a variety of techniques, including phishing, viruses and other attacks,” wrote Zhao. “The hackers had the patience to wait, and execute well-orchestrated actions through multiple seemingly independent accounts at the most opportune time. The transaction is structured in a way that passed our existing security checks.”

 

It appears that hackers were able to compromise several high-net-worth accounts, whose bitcoin was kept in Binance’s so-called hot wallet—which, unlike cold wallets, are connected to the internet—and filch those funds in a single transaction.

Zhao says the company will conduct a security review of all its systems and data, which he expects to take about a week. In a surprising move, Binance will continue to allow trading during that time—even though hackers may still control some high-net-worth accounts—though it will disable deposits and withdrawals until it’s sure the hackers are accounted for.

 

“Binance knows that they lost user credentials, that their users' 2FA got compromised, they do not know the exact extent of the attack, yet they keep trading going,” says Emin Gün Sirer, a computer scientist and codirector of Cornell University’s Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts. “This is a huge risk. Anyone can take highly risky positions, and if the trades turn sour, they can claim that it wasn't them, they were compromised by the hack.”

Who’s Affected?

Good question! Binance itself isn’t clear on the scope of the breach. The bad news is, if your bitcoin was in Binance’s hot wallet, it now belongs to bad guys. The good news is that $40 million comprises only 2 percent of Binance’s overall bitcoin holdings. The even better news is that the company will cover the losses out of its Secure Asset Fund for Users.

Binance traders generally will also be affected, both because they won’t be able to deposit or withdraw their digital money and because, as Sirer notes, the uncertainty of who exactly is participating in those markets could lead to some mayhem. “Hackers may still control certain user accounts and may use those to influence prices in the meantime,” writes Zhao. “We will monitor the situation closely. But we believe with withdrawals disabled, there isn’t much incentive for hackers to influence markets.”
 

The more interesting question might be who could have been affected, not by the hack itself but by Binance’s reaction. The company apparently considered doing a rollback on the bitcoin network, to undo the offending transaction. They ultimately decided against it, but even the specter has implications.

“It takes only a handful of miners who will go along with a reorg. And perhaps they wouldn't do it for $40 million, but there is a price at which they would do it,” says Sirer. “If it were to happen, it would undermine confidence in BTC, whose main claim to fame has always been security and immutability.”

Edited 1 March 2021 by Sambiasso