Reasons to be Thankful for Crypto

In light of recent challenges and high-profile news in cryptocurrency, Thanksgiving presents a perfect moment to take stock of the positive, review the long-term outlook of the crypto space, and recall the ethos of this asset class that made it popular (and historically lucrative) in the first place. Read on for three enduring, foundational advantages to be thankful for in crypto, regardless of ticker trends.

Crypto Offers More Opportunity

Unlike exchanges or yield platforms you may have heard about recently, Bitcoin IRA offers secure, cold-storage custody, and insurance on most crypto investments in your individual retirement account through BitGo.

With peace of mind established, investors can instead focus on what’s often seen by cryptocurrency veterans as critically important – capitalizing on the tremendous discounts available on tried-and-true crypto assets in each bear market cycle. While headlines can be scary, the current bear cycle is not expected to be drastically different from those prior, which means one thing: opportunity.

The beauty of cryptocurrency is that while institutions may struggle, the assets themselves are autonomous and decentralized – the Bitcoin network, for example, will continue to produce blocks and verify transactions regardless of the success or drawbacks of large, centralized players. Hash rate rises over time, and historically, it has been shown that price eventually follows. If you understand the nature of the assets you’re investing in, it’s easier to find the courage to seize opportunity when fear abounds, an investing strategy long-championed by famous investors far before cryptocurrency existed.

When investing during a down market, it may be wise to select assets with a proven track record. For example: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Dogecoin all have a history of making new all-time highs when the bull market returns, despite drawdowns as harrowing as 95%. It’s important to always do your own research, and select assets that match your risk tolerance and diversification goals. Bitcoin IRA makes it easy to both buy and swap over 60 different cryptocurrencies tax-free once you’re funded your account.

Digital Assets Provide Ultimate Flexibility

Digital assets are unprecedented in a number of ways versus their traditional forebears, be it 24/7 trading hours, the ease and speed of fungibility, or the vast availability of not just hundreds, but thousands of coins and tokens. This diversity and flexibility provide another reason to be thankful for crypto.

In the wake of the struggles of large industry players, there’s no better time to hone your knowledge of the crypto assets you hold, the assets you might like to buy, and the levels of risk you are comfortable with. Bitcoin IRA makes this simple and straightforward, offering instant swaps between crypto assets carried by our custodial partner, and the ability to research and study those assets before doing so, be it Ethereum, Bitcoin, Doge, and more.

Also important to note is that while excessive trading is not always wise, occasional swing trades or actions based on larger market movements can be of benefit to cryptocurrency investors. Of course, this should be done at one’s own risk – with the outsized returns cryptocurrency volatility enables, the safest and most responsible strategy, especially with a retirement account, is to simply use consistent fresh capital to dollar cost average and grow your position, regardless of what the charts may be saying.

Endless DeFi Possibilities Make Us Thankful for Crypto

With opportunity and flexibility understood, there is one final reason to be thankful for crypto, offering perhaps the strongest reassurance that cryptocurrency as a whole is doing just fine. Just like how the Bitcoin network produces blocks regardless of current events and goings-on, an emerging and strengthening segment of the crypto landscape known as decentralized finance, or DeFi, is similarly and impressively unconcerned with news cycles, at least when it comes to platforms and protocols that utilize the core tenets of DeFi properly.

Ideally, decentralized finance products run themselves – they comprise immutable code deployed to the blockchain that carries out functions, responds to inputs from users, and performs tasks running the gamut of nearly every financial instrument or tool you can think of. A major DeFi player experiencing zero problems or losses in the current down market, for example, is Aave, the liquidity and borrowing platform. The service can be described as an “open-source, non-custodial protocol,” with no central counterparty or concentrated point of failure. Transactions are facilitated between the protocol and users by audited blockchain code, alleviating that pesky human error that tends to crop up when institutions are run improperly.

Recently, JPMorgan acknowledged the important distinction between centralized finance (CeFi) and DeFi, when equity analyst Steven Alexopoulos stated the following:

“Moreover, while the news of the collapse of FTX is empowering crypto skeptics, we would point out that all of the recent collapses in the crypto ecosystem have been from centralized players and not from decentralized protocols.”

The company even formally participated in DeFi for the very first time recently, completing a trade using “DeFi, Tokenized Deposits & Verifiable Credentials.”

Of course, DeFi is not perfect – if protocols do not adhere to important standards of immutability, permissionlessness, and decentralization, then their advantages may fall short. Bitcoin IRA embraces the ethos of DeFi, providing multi-key security that protects your wallet against any single point of failure, and merges it with the strengths of CeFi, such as charters and custodial licenses that ensure proper regulatory oversight, secure storage and insurance of customer funds. That provides peace of mind for which we are thankful.