Hello. I’m trying to learn a bit about cryptocurrency just out of curiosity so am thinking of buying some v. small quantities of a few cryptos then watch their value over time. Maybe £10 of a couple of big ones (BTC/ETH) and the same for a couple of small/new ones (dunno yet).

Does anyone have any advice about which exchange to go for? I’m after ease of use, mainly. And I guess fees that won’t wipe out my cash too much.

I know I could just follow the rate for free, but will be more motivated to pay attention if I have a tiny nugget of skin in the game.

Any advice greatly received!

Coinbase app will suit your needs.

Whs

OP. Do you have any shares ISA?

Just noticed I can buy a Bitcoin tracker on my AJBell ISA.

Oh dear 😄😉😁🙄😔

Honestly, for small amounts (sub £100), I wouldn’t bother – the fees (circa 4-5%) will eat up most profits.

Coinbase is easy, but as mentioned above their fees are exorbinate for small amounts – for example last time I bought some (£50) the fee was £1.99. 😳

The answer is to use their pro platform. Most recent purchase of the same amount resulted in a £0.25 fee 😀

It is not as user friendly and you will need to go through the KYC and deposit funds – buy that is pretty much the same for all platforms.

Kraken is another platform, but not aware of the fees.

Avoid peer to peer “exchanges” like local bitcoins or bittylicous, good for tax avoidance, just as bad for fees.

I was curious in 2017, and bought £10 pounds. It is currently 30x the value.

I am aware that it is extremely volatile and I may lose everything. But I only put in what I would have spent on beer!

Avoid forums, and people who profess to be able to do technical analysis.

Have fun.

You may already know this but worth pointing out.

Some platforms don’t allow you to “buy” crypto just trade it (etoro for example) – if you want to own bitcoin use a platform which allows you to withdraw crypto to your own wallet.

And on that point – research the withdrawal costs. Again coinbase stiffs you here, but coinbase pro again is reasonable.

Coinbase pro is what I use but I am sure their are other platforms which are competitive on prices. Do some research.

Some good wallets for your mobile again look around. Whatever wallet you use remember to store safely your key (normally 12 words) – this is really what your wallet is.

Fees on Kraken are 0.26% for bitcoin purchases and its free to transfer in funds from a UK bank account.

Kraken is also the first dedicated crypto exchange to be granted a banking licence (albeit for the state of Wyoming, but it’s more reassuring than none at all!).

The other positive about Kraken is that when you log in on the Android App it tells you that it’s “Releasing the Kraken” which always makes me smile.

Colleague of mine reckons XRP is where it’s at. Something to do with a court case scaring the Average Joe off, but those in the know will stick it out and reap the rewards. What’s the consensus on this?

I do not know what I am talking about.

Consider the likes of Argo Blockchain, KR1 or Coinsilium. Crypto mining companies whose values largely track the crypto sentiment / Bitcoin price. ARB was 4p last May, recently peaked ~£1.30. I’d forgotten I invested a couple of hundred in my daughter’s ISA and made a cool grand. Plenty of potential there to invest without being exposed to a single coin.

I also have BTC and ETH trackers with Hargreaves Lansdown but they’ve ceased ability to trade in them, albeit I can still HODL and intend to long term. They were in the red for years, now they’re up around 200% on avergae. But I’m not blind to the fact I could lose everything.

XRP? Recently cashed out on the pump to the tune of doubling my original investment and have stuck that in “real” shares (like ARB 😉 ). So I’ve missed the lawsuit fiasco but might reinvest.

Just tagging thread! 🙂

I used Blockchain for BTC purchase, it’s still sat in there at present.

Also purchased some ARB shares (£100 worth) and they’re doing ok! I didn’t get in on the mega cheap prices, but not doing bad.

Another similar to ARB (Argo) is one in the US called MGT Capital Investments – another block mining company. Bought £30 worth under an equivalent US penny and doing ok on these for now!

I’m also no expert , I just do my own research and only put in what I’m happy to lose.

Have a listen to a Gavin Woods interview on the Polkadot block chain. I can’t understand a word so it must be good.

Ripple the company behind XRP is being investigated because their “currency” looks more like a “security” (I.e a share in ripple) and as such has been accused of selling unregulated shares in itself.

Buying is gambling that they don’t get fined into non existence. They have been de listed from many exchanges until the issue is resolved.

All these crypto threads are shades of late 2017.

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. I ended up going for Kraken as the app looked the nicest to me. My £10 of ETH is now worth… £9.45.

If anyone needs me I’m just off setting up my own financial advice agency.

Ripple the company behind XRP is being investigated because their “currency” looks more like a “security” (I.e a share in ripple) and as such has been accused of selling unregulated shares in itself.

Buying is gambling that they don’t get fined into non existence. They have been de listed from many exchanges until the issue is resolved.

According to my colleague, there’s no way the court case will go against them because the whole world is waiting to use whatever it is they provide. Most “normal” investors will be too scared to stick it out, but once the courts rule, the price will soar. It’s pretty much guaranteed….. apparently!

Something’s happening, I’ve lost £5.70 since lunchtime!! 🤣

According to my colleague, there’s no way the court case will go against them because the whole world is waiting to use whatever it is they provide. Most “normal” investors will be too scared to stick it out, but once the courts rule, the price will soar. It’s pretty much guaranteed….. apparently!

He is right the court case probably won’t go ahead as they will probably settle for a large out of court fine. The price hasn’t dropped that much as it only impacts US exchanges and is a global market, so price has been remarkably resilient but as it has been delisted from a number of large exchanges, I don’t see money flooding back in for it, everything else has risen around it so any money tied up it has just lost out on the gains that could of been had elsewhere.

Just noticed I can buy a Bitcoin tracker on my AJBell ISA.

Is it still available? I thought all these had been shut down in the last couple of weeks due to UK regulatory changes

I thought the same as HL ceased trading in crypto trackers.

Having a weird phase of stabilisation. Was expecting a pull back to ~$25k but looks like it’s holding a bit firmer this time round.

Good to see some discussion in this site at last but not suprising that less than 1% own crypto.

I “invested” £45 in 3 different crypto’s via coinbase. Like the OP, just out of curiosity really and to see what happens. Maybe one day I’ll pop a bigger chunk in when I understand it a bit more.

But FYI if you’re looking into this, on coinbase there’s a “rewards” function. You watch some videos and answer questions and earn a few dollars worth of crypto. In 20 minutes I got an extra £20 worth which I’ve added to the ones i’ve already invested in.

So even if BTC stays stagnant for a while, I’ve already made £20! For 20 minutes work. Can’t argue with that!

The coinbase rewards is a bit of a no brainer bought so xrp on new years day just to dabble to see what happens so hopefully it will pay for some bike or pc upgardes in the furture. That is the best way for me to look at these being very volatile.

Cant understand cryptocurrencies, the value of them is baseless so they will surely forever rise and fall by huge amounts. Dotcom bubble all over again.

Dotcom bubble all over again.

Although in the dotcom bubble most of the companies had some assets, so their real value was above zero. With bitcoin etc there is absolutely nothing there at all, just greed underpinning the whole system.

Fiat currency is also valueless. The luddites misconceptions around crypto just show how little they understand what value is and how it’s derived.

Big traditional investment funds are pouring billions into crypto now that they realise it’s technogically sound and secure. As an asset class, as a hedge against a deflationary dollar, as an area with potentially spectacular growth – it’s just a new part of people’s (and banks, including central banks) financial portfolios.

The more regulated the ecosystem becomes the better. I wish our current banking system was as transparent as crypto though – you can read every transaction yourself. Imagine walking into Barclays and saying “show us your ledger”. You’d get told to foxtrot oscar – which is why they get to facilitate trillions of dollars of money laundering (banks have been fined billions this year for their continued criminal complicity).

It fills me with pity to watch those who haven’t bothered to educate themselves properly losing out on a potential bonus as a new technological asset class establish itself. *Of course* there’s massive uncertainty and volatility – it was the same at the start of the internet. It’s new (relatively speaking) and still in it’s infancy.

If you’d put $1000 into Microsoft or Apple in their infancy you’d be a millionaire today. That’s where we are with Crypto.

I think it’s plainly certain Crypto is here to stay. It’s just which ones will prove their longevity.

In the meantime, I’m happy with the investments I’ve made.

Very happy 🙂

Just chucked my first few £££ in to have a play – I’ll essentially risk whatever I used to spend on the national lottery each month! 🙂

What @chevychase said!

Fiat currency is also valueless. The luddites misconceptions around crypto just show how little they understand what value is and how it’s derived.

This is kind of my reason for looking into it. The thing is, even though I don’t really know what a ‘pound’ is on a fundamental level I do know that I can swap a certain number of them for stuff I want. It’s quite hard to see that for crypto as so far the local shop is stubbornly refusing to exchange Litecoins for milk.

So where does it derive its value from? Does it help finance people do their job better in some way? Is it just because it’s ‘rare’?

So is coinbase the best access point for someone who might want to have a dabble?

I wish our current banking system was as transparent as crypto though – you can read every transaction yourself. Imagine walking into Barclays and saying “show us your ledger”. You’d get told to foxtrot oscar…

Aye but that’s not quite right is it. Because crypto is anything but transparent. It’s not as though the keychain actually has anything particularly identifiable in it. Crypto is a fantasy. Open ledgers have a use. But not as you think.

Blockchain…

Opps yeah blockchain

Is it just because it’s ‘rare’?

This requires a decent sized answer which I’m not really qualified to give (knowledge gained from YouTube vids)-but in the case of bitcoin – yes it is rarity ( well it’s a good point to start with). Only 21mil according to the code and unless you can convince 51% of the miners to allow that to be change then it’s gonna stay that way. And they won’t want to change because it will effect the price and the trust of the fundamental rules. Elon finds gold on a astroid, there goes the gold market but he and bezos’s love child can’t create more bitcoin. Now imagine if the bank account you had that coin in could never be frozen by the bank or govt. Nor could they stop you from transfering it to whoever you wanted. Not a issue for most of us on this forum but in other countries where life is a bit more political or economiclly volatile….
Apparently Asange has been supported all these years by donations in bitcoin after the US govt told all the institutions to freeze/shut him out. And the Belarus demonstrators are receiving funds from outside supporters in bitcoin as the govt has tightened the controlled on inbound foreign currencies.

Aantonop is the channel name. He lists 7-8? properties they pro bitcoiners say give it value.

Fiat currency is also valueless.

They are backed by governments and regulated to some extent. They are also widely used and pretty stable eg selling £200 won’t crash the value of the £ by 10%, whereas selling 200 Bitcoins will.

The luddites misconceptions around crypto just show how little they understand what value is and how it’s derived.

Pretty sure they were saying the same about Tulips at some point….

The biggest problem with crypto etc as that anyone who owns any relies on someone else paying more for them down the line, based on the belief that someone else will then pay even more etc. This results is anyone holding them paroting the same crap about how it’s the future and anyone who doesn’t think so is a luddite. Very different to fiat currencies, we all expect them to be worth slightly less in the future thanks to inflation….

Whatever you say @footflaps. You seem stuck in an argument that was being made 2 years ago.

You know, when JPMorgan were trashing it daily, before buying billions worth and creating their own (JPMCoin). With regulators trashing it, before saying they’re genuine securities and building up regulatory frameworks.

It’s no different from investing in gold. You don’t get a lump of it to hold in your hand and there’s no simple mechanism to do so. Other than a lack of “shiny” cryptos have significant advantages.

Meh. Keep on with the “tulips” argument. The rest of the world isn’t even looking in their rear view mirror at you.

The biggest problem with crypto etc as that anyone who owns any relies on someone else paying more for them down the line, based on the belief that someone else will then pay even more etc.

See also Tesla.

They are also widely used and pretty stable eg selling £200 won’t crash the value of the £ by 10%, whereas selling 200 Bitcoins will.

Its very early in crypto time. Hence buy now, and by the time things have stabilised – well, imagine the volume of fiat required to get to that point 📈

Anyone who owns any relies on someone else paying more for them down the line

See also Tesla.

And houses, and classic cars, and antiques, and, er… gold.