FTX—one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges—recently went bankrupt.
Many billions of dollars in value evaporated in minutes as this unsound institution collapsed.
It has created a genuine “blood in the streets” moment, weighing heavily on the Bitcoin price.
Bitcoiner Matt Odell summed it up best:
“This is a story of fiat incentives, shitcoin games, regulatory corruption, and counterparty risk that ended in inevitable disaster. It will serve as an expensive reminder that bitcoin held in self custody is unique in its lack of counterparty risk. You can easily and cheaply store it yourself and send it around the world without trusting anyone or asking for permission. Learn how to hold bitcoin yourself and use it in a sovereign way.”
It deserves emphasis that FTX, and other companies like it, are not at all the same thing as Bitcoin—an emerging global money that nobody can inflate or control and is accessible to anyone.
For example, suppose there was an unscrupulous gold storage company that went insolvent. That wouldn’t mean gold is faulty.
The collapse of FTX will undoubtedly be a drag on the Bitcoin price in the short term. But on the bright side, it will help cleanse the industry of bad actors and offer some crucial lessons.
I don’t expect the FTX meltdown to have a lasting negative effect on Bitcoin.
Bitcoin has gone through several more explosive incidents in the past and come out stronger than ever (see Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy in 2014, for example).
However, I expect Bitcoin to remain volatile—as it has always been since its inception.
Something doesn’t go from having no value to being significant global money without volatility.
For example, Bitcoin went from having no value in 2009 to $69,000 in November 2021 to around $17,000 today, down more than 75% from its previous peak.
It’s essential to keep in mind recent volatility is par for the course.
It is common for Bitcoin to have significant corrections of 50% or more, which has happened eight times. Further, there have been three occasions where Bitcoin has declined by 80% or more.
If you zoom out and look at the Big Picture, Bitcoin’s volatility has mainly been to the upside over the long term.
Suppose you went back four years ago and told someone that Bitcoin “crashed” to $16,000. It would have been so unbelievable that you would probably be laughed out of the room.
Strategy #1: Dollar Cost Average (DCA)
The best way to buy Bitcoin is to avoid buying it in one large lump purchase.
Instead, given Bitcoin’s volatility, a long-term dollar cost averaging (DCA) approach is optimal.
For example, suppose you’d like to invest $10,000 into Bitcoin. Instead of buying $10,000 at once, make a purchase of around $192 each week for a year.
DCA significantly reduces the risk of buying too much at the top of a cycle and not buying at the bottom.
That’s how DCA can turn Bitcoin’s volatility in your favor.
Swan Bitcoin offers a convenient platform that automates DCA purchases for you—including withdrawals to your own wallet, which is essential to eliminate counterparty risk. I’ve personally used it and found their service useful.
More details can be found at the link above, including a helpful calculator that displays how a DCA strategy performed in the past and a $10 bonus of free Bitcoin for signing up with this link.
Strategy #2: Don’t Let Someone Else Hold Your Bitcoin
Bitcoin is a digital bearer instrument. A bearer instrument gives whoever has it in their possession ownership of it.
If you hold your Bitcoin on Coinbase or some other platform, you don’t really own your Bitcoin and are taking on significant counterparty risk. Instead, you own a Bitcoin IOU, which is something very different—as FTX clients are finding out right now.
It’s much more secure to hold your Bitcoin off the exchange’s website in your own self-custodial wallet, where you control the private keys.
For beginners, start with the Muun Wallet or the Blockstream Green Wallet for your phone. Both are excellent choices and are among the easiest to use. BlueWallet is a good choice for intermediate users on mobile phones. Finally, Electrum and Sparrow Wallet are great options for laptops and desktops—which are often more secure than a mobile phone.
Whichever self-custody wallet you use, ALWAYS ensure that you have properly backed up your wallet. Each wallet is different and will give you instructions on doing the backup. That way, you won’t lose your funds if you lose your phone or laptop.
It is crucial to take this step when setting up your self-custody wallet because this is the ONLY way to recover your funds if something happens to your device. Bitcoin has no customer service department.
Strategy #3: Have a Four-Year Time Horizon
Plan on holding Bitcoin for at least four years—through one halving cycle.
According to its fixed protocol, we know precisely how Bitcoin’s supply will grow in the future. A key feature is that the new supply gets cut in half every four years, a process known as the halving.
There has rarely been a period when the Bitcoin price was lower than it was four years ago. When it occurred, they were fantastic buying opportunities. But, of course, past performance does not indicate future results.
The 200-Week Moving Average (200 WMA) is a helpful metric, as it contains nearly four years of price data—around the length of a halving cycle. Historically, the 200 WMA has been a good indication of the Bitcoin price’s floor.
As we can see in the chart above, now is one of those rare times when the Bitcoin price is trading below its 200 WMA.
However, the opportunity could be gone soon.
Historically, Bitcoin’s biggest moves to the upside happen very quickly… especially amid a financial crisis.
The post 3 Ways You Can Turn Bitcoin’s Volatility to Your Advantage Today appeared first on Doug Casey’s International Man. Reprinted with permission.