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Let me be blunt: Don't buy crypto unless you're fully prepared to lose your shirt

I was losing 10% here, 20% there. Pretty soon, you're talking real percentages.
Written by David Gewirtz, Senior Contributing Editor
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People like to gamble. I get it. Well, actually, I don't get it. I've never been comfortable with the idea of flinging hard-earned cash money at a gimmick that's been rigged so that most players lose.

Back in the day, when I went to COMDEX in Vegas with my company, most of the company executives would bet bonkers bucks at all the various tables. Me, I allowed myself to spend up to five dollars (in total, for the entire show) on the slots. Needless to say, I always came home five dollars lighter.

My bosses couldn't understand why I was so risk-averse when they reveled in the ups and downs of the cards. Of course, they all made a lot more money than I did as a low-level executive. But I suspect that even if I'd been pulling down "I'm venture-funded and I'll take home all the salary I can get away with" money, I'd still have been frugal and averse to risk. It's my nature.


See also: I bought Bitcoin from PayPal. Here's what happened


Let me bring your attention back to my 2022 foray into cryptocurrency gambling with that in mind. As I described at the beginning of the year, I bought $50 of Bitcoin via PayPal. The PayPal connection was amusing enough, but I also wanted to share with you the experience of the wonders of crypto.


See also: In just a week, my Bitcoin 'investment' plummeted by almost 14%


After a week, I lost almost 14% of my stake. So much for winning big.

Crypto's deep dive has been headline news for the past few weeks, so it's no surprise my stake has been plummeting like a near-miss asteroid.

But here's the thing. My "investment" is all of three weeks old. In three weeks, my stake is now down 28.11%. At this rate, I'll be bust in about two months.

Now, to be fair, my $50 is really more of a MacGuffin that allows me to write about crypto from personal experience than it is an actual serious investment. But as a plot device, it's working.

Look, I promise I'm not going to be posting investment reports every two weeks. I wasn't expecting to write another piece on my Bitcoin sliver for months. But when its value crashes by almost 30% in three weeks, that's news. It's also a cautionary tale.

Sure, Bitcoin could skyrocket. It probably will as soon as I cash out my stake or lose it all because that's just life these days. But it's just as likely to crash into the ground, flatten trees, and leave people scratching their heads in bafflement for another hundred years.

The bottom line is this: you know your investment profile and your comfort with risk. I'm just saying that if you're not comfortable with the idea of losing 30% in three weeks, don't invest in Bitcoin. It is volatile AF. If that kind of volatility makes you uncomfortable, stay away.


You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.

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