This is a post from early 2018 - me and crypto in the infancies. I will update or share another post to where things have gladly evolved to till now (2021).
TL;DR
For a brought and managed exposure to crypto:
- Invest in crypto-fund.org or thetoken.io to get exposure to "the market"
- Invest in astronaut.capital to get exposure to ICOs
- Ramp up your game by having a look at crypto-researchers or crypto-VC funds
(Personal opinion. No investment advice. etc.)
I started investing in Crypto late 2017 fully aknowledging going into a bubble. My hypothesis was it wouldn´t "moon" that rapidly and will last 1-2 month longer. I started (already Juli 2017) with the major coins Bitcoin/Ethereum und began picking more and more "unknown" Altcoins. Luckily I got out of most with a decent gain in February. I adapted my investing strategy as follows to be aligned to my lazy nature... ;)
Additional upfront thoughts:
The whole cryptosphere is growing so fast, it has become near to impossible as an individual to get down to "true" information on each project to make informed investment decisions.
Many of my friends are interested in making a profit in this new asset class, but are scared away from the hassle of "crypto picking" – and probably the volatility as well.
I am as lazy as anyone and like to delegate work whenever possible. So I looked for other ways.
# Big ones
Lazy Martin´s choice: I keep holding some Bitcoin, Ethereum, Neo and Monero.
Other options: If you don´t want to get into buying each coin singlehandedly AND want a wider exposure to the crypto market these two funds/tokens work pretty much like an ETF/Index of the cryptomarket: crypto-fund.org or thetoken.io
# Alt coins
Lazy Martin´s choice: I bought a membership of Ronnie Moas, a stocky/crypto researcher (standpointresearch.com) who gives out 1-2 crypto recommendations per quarter. I give it 2-3 shots and hope he is worth the cost (1.200 USD/y). The burst of the bubble left me with holding minor stakes in a few coins, I still like and which I will hodl (ZRX, AION, VEE, GAS). I do not actively search for new Altcoins already on the market anymore.
# ICOs
Lazy Martin´s choice: I will invest in this fund/token which focuses on ICOs: astronaut.capital (Good to read Whitepaper with all relevant details here) Its an evergreen fund, that gives out 50% of its realized profits as quarterly dividends. The first quarter has seen a nice >20% return if you bought the coin for $ 2.00. Details here. I am just sorting out how crypto dividends are taxed as an individual and as a GmbH before I invest. (I probably still will try to get into some ICOs directly which seem to promising to pass, e.g. NEX, Dignity, Keep.Network, Nucypher.)
Background: There are some good ways to spot promising ICOs, since there is a whole group of individuals analyzing ICOs fulltime and sharing their insights/ratings with the web. The best way imho to get an aggregated view is here: https://web.telegram.org/#/im?p=@top7ico
They also offer a more extended summary at Google Drive, which you need to pay, though I am not sure if they still accept new invites.
So why do I turn to the aboved mentioned fund? a) Work. Research as mentioned is still killing me despite the aggregation plus it´s a lot of footwork to whitelist/register for all those ICOs b) Economics. More and more of the funding is happening in presales, where you need to allocate bigger sums (e.g. > 50k USD) to get in, but get hefty discounts (up to 60%). In order to participate and get the discounts you need a vehicle like the above mentioned fund. Even a "not so good ICO" will probably not become a loss due to the discount. Plus a lot, if not often the major part of an ICO´s profit is made once an ICO coin hits the market, thus eliminating a bit of the dreadful volatility game.
# Crypto VCs
Lazy Martin´s choice: I am still pondering if I should invest in a) the Apex Fund of Funds and/or b) the AngelList Syndicate of Blockchain Capital. a) The Apex Fund of funds invests in a list of the most prestigious funds. The money is locked for 24 to 36 month after which you receive the returns the other funds gained for them. b) Blockchain Capital is probably THE VC fund in the cryptosphere with some stellar investments like Ripple or Coinbase. They offered a token as well, but the metrics are imho not so great: no dividends, "maybe" redemption after 10 years; other then that only the market price of a hard to trade toke as potential source of gains – Pretty much like the syndicate where you can back individual investments, but get the returns directly after an exit.
Background: One tends to forget that some of the most thrilling companies in the cryptosphere are still "normal" incorporations, with "normal" VCs doing the backing, e.g. Coinbase. Good part: The VCs are opening up to smaller investors. The above mentioned being only two options. The funds also invest in Tokens/Altcoins so you could get exposure to those with one of the above as well. side-node: cryptofundlist.com is compiling a database of funds, though the access seemed to pricey for me.
# Securities
Lazy Martin´s choice: Wait till someone points out a probable winner (if you have an educated guess let me know) or hope one of the Crypto VCs get invested early enough.
Background: So far the majority of tokens and ICOs are NOT securities in the sense that you own a stake in something of real value – namely the company setting up the token. As a theoretical but possible worst case scenario: If a company redeems it utitlity token they are allowed to do so and you are left with nothing. Authorities are putting more and more pressure on the market to get investmens backed by securities.
The other and imho more interesting driver, are the vast possibilities opening up if you start tokenizing already existing securities: A stock is a security. So far it is bought and managed through an intermediary (aka a bank) who keeps track of transactions and ownership. The grand plan is to put all this on blockchains as well. Several contenders are starting right now. I had a closer look a tzero but they need 100k minimum invest plus the indicators/sentiment is not so crystal clear.
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