It’s a new year and a better time than ever to dive into financial planning. If you’re revisiting your IRA investment plan, here are six reasons why you should look into adding cryptocurrency to your portfolio.
Mainstream Adoption
With the launch of Bitcoin Futures across both the CBOE and CME markets, investors are approaching Bitcoin as a more viable investment opportunity, increasing the digital currency’s visibility and credibility at the mainstream level, and winning over some of its biggest skeptics.
Furthermore, regulated exchanges like LedgerX, (and tZero, which is expected to launch in early 2018), are reducing risk, boosting liquidity, and drawing more institutional investors to the cryptocurrency space.
Digital currencies have gained traction in the political realm, as well. Last September, the Cryptocurrency Tax Fairness Act was introduced as a way to create a taxing structure for purchases made with cryptocurrency and would allow customers to make purchases up to $600 without burdensome reporting requirements. “By cutting red tape and eliminating onerous reporting requirements, it will allow cryptocurrencies to further benefit customers and help create good jobs,” Colorado Representative Jared Polis said in support of the Act. Although it was not incorporated into the tax bill, it remains up for discussion and indicates a tremendous level of interest in streamlining processes surrounding digital currency.
Global Prominence
Bitcoin is being used all across the globe and it is more widely distributed today than it has ever before. Nothing has stopped the massive upward trajectory of cryptocurrency, not even China’s crackdown. Although the price briefly dropped following the news of China’s ban, Japan and South Korea picked up the slack and Bitcoin rose to another all-time high quickly thereafter.
All around the world, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a whole are rising in global prominence. Japan currently accepts digital currency in over 260,000 retail stores. In Venezuela, amidst the hyperinflation of the Bolivar, Bitcoin is used to buy food, plane tickets, and pay employees, and is referred to as a lifesaving currency.
All signs point to the fact that digital currencies are not a passing trend and are here to stay. In a recent survey of different cryptocurrency investors around the world, 90 percent said they believed in the future of Bitcoin and are investing with a long-term perspective.
Diversification of Your Portfolio
Diversification is an investment technique to reduce risk by allocating investments among various financial instruments. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency is one of the best ways these days to diversify your IRA or 401k. Bitcoin’s growth potential is greater than that of any traditional asset class. As Bitcoin legitimizes and stabilizes it will pass traditional investments.
With analysts predicting Bitcoin’s price to hit in the tens of thousands in the near future, it is certainly a portfolio diversification opportunity that will add value to your account.
Gold 2.0
Bitcoin and gold have many similarities. Both have a limited supply, involve mining, and are not controlled by the government. Anti Danilevski, CEO of KICKICO, a Russian blockchain platform for initial coin offerings, explained how Bitcoin patterns parallel those of gold in financially problematic times. “During the last year S&P 500 index was decreased, gold increased by 14.4%, whereas Bitcoin increased by 74.9%, during the last five years, S&P 500 increased by 68.8%, gold decreased by 26.5%, whilst Bitcoin grew by an impressive 24.9%,” Danilevski said.
In the volatile political climate we currently live in, investors are flocking to gold and Bitcoin as safe haven assets. And while cryptocurrencies are a younger asset class than gold, they have already demonstrated enormous growth and a continuous upward trajectory.
Blockchain Innovation
The growing influence of the blockchain and its technology is transforming the way people are doing business. It is increasingly transforming peer-to-peer interactions in the digital world, disrupting traditional processes.
The implications of this technology go beyond finance. Although finance was the first industry to embrace encrypted, distributed ledgers, other industries are adopting the technology as well. Recruitment and human resources departments are using blockchain CVs to verify qualifications of applicants, and intellectual property law, which involves tracking transfer of ownership, is also employing the technology.
Much more than a digital currency, Bitcoin can be thought of as the basis for a groundbreaking technology that many consider the greatest innovation since the internet.
Beyond Bitcoin: The Rise of Ethereum and Other Currencies
Bitcoin is not the only digital currency with a massive upward trajectory. In fact, many experts are now wondering if Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, may surpass Bitcoin.
There is a community of enterprises, academics, and Ethereum subject matters who comprise the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, an organization dedicated to learning about, and building upon, Ethereum’s capabilities. Ethereum’s technology is built upon smart contracts. A computer protocol dedicated to digitally facilitating, verifying, and enforcing the negotiation or performance of a contract, smart contracts are the building blocks for decentralized applications. By presenting a new way of processing agreement that removes the verification of a middleman, Ethereum is disrupting the way business is run, and all signs show indicate that this won’t be letting up anytime soon.
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