Bitcoin and I: An Affair

I stumbled upon Bitcoin way back in 2018, when I spotted the large, orange logo as a sticker on a storefront proclaiming "Bitcoin accepted here" while strolling through a Swiss town. The loud logo definitely drew me in, mainly because I thought the logo was a rather lame design and the color quite garish. Nonetheless, I didn't give much thought about Bitcoin again until mid-last year, when a friend of mine vehemently pleaded its use case to me.

Although my friend did quite a good job explaining what Bitcoin is all about, I was still not convinced. Or maybe I still didn't quite understand all the hype about it. It didn't really sink in for me until I wanted to make a transfer into my investment account on a Friday to buy some stocks with and the transfer didn't show up until the following Wednesday. My bank was taking its sweet ass time to transfer my funds, and then saying when it finally did go through, that the transaction was "approved". I had never noticed this particular wording before, but at that moment, it struck me like lightning. Why wouldn't my transaction be approved? As the adage goes "crypto never sleeps" and such a transfer would have been done within minutes in the middle of the night and without anyone having to call it approved.

Passing the Vibe Check

As I started to go deeper down this rabbit hole, I found other women online who also had this interest in crypto (which in turn, fueled my own). I even went so far as to host various clubhouse rooms, listening to and discussing Gigi's "21 Lessons - What I've learned from falling down the Bitcoin rabbit hole" with these ladies.

One of the things that drew me to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, is this notion of decentralization, financial independence and a free society. That is, I am enamored with Bitcoin's origin story, how it is truly innovative in that it lacks central control (and thus, is independent from the regular banking system that can hold private citizens hostage) how crypto can be a huge source of financial independence (just think of all the Dogecoin millionaires) and how it's emblematic of a free society. All of this kind of vibed with me as I was still reeling from a nasty divorce, getting let go from a job and then facing a world-wide pandemic. The notion of financial independence and not being tied to the whims of banks and government passed the vibe check with me. Plus, it's one of the very reasons why I started this blog.

My Investment Strategy

However, I am still a risk-averse person and investor, and only been slowly adding to my crypto positions as part of my investment portfolio (although I wish I would have invested in 2018!). Over the last few months, I've been buying Bitcoin and other selected crypto, such as Ethereum, with the aim to make it around 10% of my entire portfolio. Although both Bitcoin and Ethereum have recently fallen from their all-time highs, I still believe in the technology and their use cases. It is my intention to hold these positions for the next five years, so I am not worried about their volatility. In fact, I continue to buy on a monthly basis and these lower valuations help me to decrease my cost averages.

Riding out the Volatility

Crypto is notorious for being very volatile -- there are lots of ups and downs and these can change daily or even minutely (whereas stocks appear quite stable in comparison). As Robert Arnott says, "In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable.", this holds true in crypto as well, as the massive volatility can be quite uncomfortable and one needs a certain will and strength of nerves to ride out these big bumps. As mentioned, I buy additional positions in crypto at least on a monthly basis -- trying to time the crypto market is difficult (as it is in the stock market. There are speculations that Bitcoin will reach USD100,000 by the end of the year and there are other speculations that it will go to zero. Because I buy monthly, I am not always buying crypto when it is very high, but also when it is low -- resulting in cost averaging. I use Bitpanda to execute a "savings plan" -- a monthly transfer from my bank account that buys Bitcoin and Ethereum for me.

Where I buy my Bitcoin

I buy my Bitcoins through Bitpanda: Austrian-based and founded in 2014, Bitpanda makes investing very accessible. Bitpanda is a registered digital assets service provider with the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) under FM-GwG and with the French Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) under PACTE law. The Bitpanda Payments GmbH holds a PSD2 licence.

Registration is fast and uncomplicated, the provider is reputable and has a great, user-friendly app that's also a pioneer in managing cryptocurrencies. Bitpanda accepts CHF for Bitcoin and Ethereum (but not for some other crypto like Cardano etc).

In addition, Bitpanda now also offers fractional share-buying, ETFs and metals. I've purchased a fractional share of Tesla, which is great, as it's a company I've always wanted to own but never bought into because each share is quite expensive.

The app is beautifully designed and makes it very easy to see if you've made a profit, what your average cost was as well as which coins you hold.

Beware of Scammers

Unfortunately, despite all these romantic concepts of a free society and financial independence, crypto is also surrounded by many scam artists. Recently, a number of people got scammed out of their dogecoins, during and before Musk's SNL appearence. There less obvious scams with lesser knows coins, so do your due diligence before you invest into crypto and other assets. At any rate, use only reputable services when it comes to your money.