Last month, somebody needed to send me a lot of\u00a0money.<\/p>\n
He couldn\u2019t use Zelle, didn\u2019t have a checkbook, and didn\u2019t want to pay a $25 wire\u00a0fee.<\/p>\n
Venmo would\u2019ve taken many batches over many days, and I didn\u2019t want to pay 3% to a payment processor to take his credit\u00a0card.<\/p>\n
I mentioned he could open a Coinbase account and use USDC to send me the money for free, in full, instantly.<\/p>\n
He laughed.<\/p>\n
In the end, he paid $10 to overnight a paper cashier\u2019s check through USPS priority\u00a0mail.<\/p>\n
(And you think ETH fees are\u00a0high!)<\/p>\n
DALL-E drew a cartoon about\u00a0it:<\/p>\n
LOL DALL-E<\/p>\n
People are strange. They will go through all sorts of inconveniences to stick with what they\u00a0know.<\/p>\n
Crypto peeps go on and on about usability and product-market fit, but that\u2019s a big\u00a0hurdle.<\/p>\n
Ask anybody who\u2019s had to guide Aunt Sally and Uncle Morton through their iPhone settings. They can tell you it takes more than a good interface and UX. You need to give people a compelling reason to\u00a0switch.<\/p>\n
(For Aunt Sally and Uncle Morton, those reasons are Facebook, Facetime, and text messages.)<\/p>\n
So far, we have two compelling use cases: stablecoins and Bitcoin\u200a\u2014\u200aamazing technologies that serve niche categories of\u00a0users.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re still trying to find that killer app or service that reaches \u201cthe\u00a0masses.\u201d<\/p>\n
That could take a while. We\u2019re fighting against powerful disincentives.<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s crypto market, you can make more money with memecoins and new blockchains than apps and services that give people a compelling reason to use crypto. We know this because we can see where the money\u00a0goes.<\/p>\n
crypto is 1 person digging a hole, 10 people debating the best way to dig holes, and 100 people betting on how fast the digging will go<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t get rewarded for creating things people use. All that matters is whether your token goes\u00a0up.<\/p>\n
As such, you can understand why entrepreneurs feel discouraged and developers feel\u00a0angry.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a shame because some crypto projects generate economic\u00a0value.<\/p>\n
People use AAVE to make money from lending activities. Traders earn income contributing liquidity to decentralized exchanges, from huge ones like Uniswap to tiny ones like\u00a0Demex.<\/p>\n
Investors get millions of dollars in staking or mining rewards from altcoins and crypto protocols. Entrepreneurs squeeze revenue out of upstart payment networks built on crypto rails, particularly in less-developed economies.<\/p>\n
Fold built a debit card that rewards you with Bitcoin when you spend on its preferred vendors. Use my referral link<\/a> when you sign up (it\u2019s\u00a0free).<\/p>\n tZERO built an SEC-compliant platform for buying and selling natively digital securities like real-world assets (RWAs), altcoins that regulators label \u201csecurities,\u201d private placements for new token offerings, and similar products.<\/p>\n RWA platforms like Maple, Goldfinch, and Figure have tripled their total assets since 2023. Stablecoins are\u00a0booming.<\/p>\n We have plenty of other examples.<\/p>\n Why not talk about\u00a0those?<\/p>\n Because they\u2019re boring. To make money from them, you need patience, persistence, fortitude, and a willingness to learn new\u00a0things.<\/p>\n Tapping buttons on a screen for quick 1,000x\u00a0gains?<\/p>\n Easy sell.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard the routine from your favorite guru. \u201cIf you bought my super-secret altcoin pick, you had a chance to make a 10,000%\u00a0gain.\u201d<\/p>\n That is, if you bought a few months before or after the recommendation, then sold at the exact top. That\u2019s why they promise a chance<\/em>, not a guarantee.<\/p>\n I know this because I mystery-shopped several of these services when I started my newsletter. They ain\u2019t\u00a0cheap!<\/p>\n They also cherry-pick the information that they show you. Yes, a handful of picks do well. The rest do\u00a0not.<\/p>\n It\u2019s like the miracle diet you see on TV. You can eat anything: ice cream, cookies, brownies, Big Macs, fries, cake, milkshakes, and whatever else you\u00a0want.<\/p>\n Do you know why they call that a miracle\u00a0diet?<\/p>\n Because it\u2019s a miracle if you lose any\u00a0weight!<\/p>\n To be fair, you only need a handful of winners to do well with crypto. 20% of your portfolio will deliver 80% of your\u00a0gains.<\/p>\n Most altcoins will fail. The ones that succeed will do so well that they will pay for your investment many times over and probably beat the returns you would get buying and holding\u00a0Bitcoin.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the approach I take with my altcoin\u00a0reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n Altcoin Reports<\/a><\/p>\n But that\u2019s not the pitch you hear from the gurus. Their\u00a0pitch?<\/p>\n Financial freedom and insane wealth for $2,000 or $5,000 each year\u200a\u2014\u200ano effort\u00a0needed!<\/p>\n Why do the gurus feel the need to hype everything up?<\/p>\n Because you won\u2019t sell many $2,000 or $5,000 subscriptions promising people they\u2019ll get better results than most traders and everybody who buys Bitcoin in a fixed amount on a fixed schedule, regardless of market conditions.<\/p>\n (Ironically, you will beat most traders and gurus by simply buying Bitcoin in a fixed amount on a fixed schedule, regardless of market conditions.)<\/p>\n Instead of paying thousands of dollars for somebody\u2019s secrets, try my\u00a0plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n My Plan for Buying and Selling Bitcoin<\/a><\/p>\n No timing the markets. More upside with less risk. Three lines tell you when to buy. Two metrics tell you when to\u00a0sell.<\/p>\n With my plan, here\u2019s what you would\u2019ve done after buying for most of\u00a02022:<\/p>\n That looks good, but natural volatility makes comparisons challenging.<\/p>\n For example, Bitcoin\u2019s price traded as high as $74k and as low as $62k while my \u201csell\u201d alert was actionable. Even if we both followed this plan, you may have done better or worse than me. A lot depends on when you start and how you do\u00a0it.<\/p>\n I like my plan because it\u2019s an easy, efficient way to get Bitcoin without trading or timing the market, with results that beat dollar cost averaging.<\/p>\n The plan doesn\u2019t apply to altcoins, but when Bitcoin\u2019s price is in the buying zone, you can usually feel comfortable buying them,\u00a0too.<\/p>\n Does it seem odd to buy when OGs are peeling out and VCs have left to chase new markets? When developers pour their hearts and souls into apps that nobody uses? When memecoins and L2s suck up investment capital?<\/p>\n Each day, more crypto insiders see no point in putting time, money, and effort into new projects. In the United States, the SEC might sue you for creating anything that benefits token\u00a0holders.<\/p>\n Adoption is harder than you think. Much easier to launch a memecoin and hope speculators will pump your bags (or hire influencers to do the\u00a0same).<\/p>\n As such, is it any wonder that so much time and effort goes into get-rich-quick schemes and projects that make fast money from token-generating events and vesting\/unlocks for insiders and early investors? It\u2019s what people\u00a0want.<\/p>\n There\u2019s your product-market fit.<\/p>\n If that leaves you empty or doubtful about whether any of this stuff matters, I know how you feel. We will never capture \u201c1% of institutional capital\u201d or benefit from a wave of financial innovation when most of our money goes chasing after cats, frogs, dogs, and\u00a0bonks.<\/p>\n Does that mean we should give\u00a0up?<\/p>\n No.<\/p>\n The industry will grow beyond its greed. Meaningful projects will grow, too. Hype around memecoins and VC tokens will die out as it did for ICOs, NFTs, and yield\u00a0farming.<\/p>\n Time and temperament will sort winners from\u00a0losers.<\/p>\n Along the way, we will have plenty of opportunities to grow our financial portfolios\u200a\u2014\u200aas long as we act now, when the market is soft and prices are\u00a0low.<\/p>\n Once speculative enthusiasm runs out, people will smarten up about their investment decisions. Speculators will lose enough money that they will stop chasing fast profits. The market will have to develop useful products and services.<\/p>\n With adoption, our projects will grow bigger. We\u2019ll also have more liquidity and usage, which will lead to milder price swings and more sustainable uptrends.<\/p>\n Our returns will not depend on banana zones and cycle theories but on the benefits we get from our\u00a0tokens.<\/p>\n By buying now, we gain from this growth. It will raise the value of our tokens and make our wealth more durable, secure, and\u00a0useful.<\/p>\n There is no reason to wait. The altcoin market hit three of my four\u00a0targets.<\/p>\n While I would love to hit that fourth target, the ideal zone, it\u2019s too risky to wait for it. We may never get\u00a0there.<\/p>\n The market is low enough already. Some altcoins are down 90% from just a few months\u00a0ago!<\/p>\n Consider my experience with\u00a0AAVE.<\/p>\n I got into crypto in late October or early November 2017 (can\u2019t remember exactly). Watch this video for a funny story about\u00a0that.<\/p>\n https:\/\/medium.com\/media\/cc892a272c160aa3ab56532657948a85\/href<\/a><\/p>\n After a big pump, I pulled out my initial capital for a \u201cfree ride\u201d and started gambling on altcoins. The first one I\u00a0bought?<\/p>\n ETHLEND, AAVE\u2019s predecessor, at the peak of the 2018 altseason. It was a pioneer in DeFi with some amazing people working on\u00a0it.<\/p>\n The token price collapsed, going down 99% at one point. Foolishly, I thought it was dead. I gave up on it. When it rebranded to AAVE, I figured it was toast. I didn\u2019t buy any more tokens until November 2020, even though its team helped me write Consensusland.<\/p>\n I made a crucial mistake that so many beginners make: I assumed a project was bad, dead, or a scam because its price went\u00a0down.<\/p>\n As a result, I missed out on massive growth and sold earlier this year at a 400% gain instead of a 100x\u00a0gain.<\/p>\n Oh well.<\/p>\n You may feel like it\u2019s useless to buy altcoins because they keep going\u00a0down.<\/p>\n Think about how the market moved in July, when the altcoin pumped 40% in a few weeks. Or October to March, when some altcoins went up 300\u2013500% or more. Two of my altcoin reports went up over 1,000% in that\u00a0time.<\/p>\n And that wasn\u2019t even altseason.<\/p>\n Play altcoins like\u00a0this:<\/p>\n Get your initial stake whenever you can. You know the altcoin market will crash, but you don\u2019t know if your token will go up 1,000% before that crash. You risk buying right before an 80% drop, but you can make up for it later. This is just an initial investment.After the market drops a lot, add more to your winners and favorites and pick up other projects that you think can do well. When the market inevitably turns, some of your tokens will run hard. Others will not. Many will pace the market. A handful will\u00a0die.After the market goes up, reassess your decisions and selections. You don\u2019t have to sell, but you may find yourself in a position where it makes sense to do\u00a0so.When the market drops again, add to your winners and favorites and pick up other projects you think will do\u00a0well.<\/p>\n Repeat the process until your portfolio has a few huge winners. Those winners will outpace a Bitcoin-only portfolio.<\/p>\n (Bonus if we get altseason, which is not guaranteed.)<\/p>\n Take profits at your peril! It\u2019s hard to get 100x gains when you sell after the first double. Follow my checklist, Taking Profits With Crypto? Check These Four Boxes\u00a0First<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Taking Profits With Crypto? Check These Four Boxes First<\/a><\/p>\n Other tips:<\/p>\n Stake whenever possible. You can do this on an exchange, but the exchange will take a hefty cut. Usually, you get better results staking directly to the protocol from your private wallet. Check on your opportunities with Staking\u00a0Rewards<\/a>.Appreciate the role of dilution and treasury policies. These things are different for each altcoin. I summarize some key aspects in my altcoin reports. You might want to brush up on the basics. Use the links on your token\u2019s CoinGecko<\/a> page.Read my altcoin reports and market updates, where I discuss altcoin strategy and, sometimes, individual altcoins.<\/p>\n You can also read a series of Medium<\/em> articles I posted about altcoins.<\/p>\n My Medium Articles About Altcoins<\/a><\/p>\n Mark, it\u2019s stupid to buy until prices start going\u00a0up!<\/em><\/p>\n Right. Everybody else tells you to wait for the pump. \u201cIf Bitcoin\u2019s price goes above $65,000, I\u2019m buying. If it goes below $50,000, I\u2019m selling.\u201d<\/p>\n The problem?<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to win with a \u201cbuy high, sell low\u201d strategy. If you wait, you\u2019re probably late. Many of those altcoins will go higher\u200a\u2014\u200apotentially much higher\u200a\u2014\u200abefore you\u00a0buy.<\/p>\n And you\u2019ll still get those 25\u201350% drops you\u2019re worried\u00a0about.<\/em><\/p>\n Sticking with AAVE as our example, look at what\u2019s happened since its most recent major \u201cbottom\u201d last\u00a0summer:<\/p>\n And that\u2019s a tame chart. Other altcoins show bigger\u00a0swings.<\/p>\n My alternative?<\/p>\n Buy low and\u00a0grow.<\/p>\n When the market falls, gas and transaction fees drop. Use this time to migrate, stake, bridge, swap, and take advantage of these low\u00a0costs.<\/p>\n Prices have already started to climb. Once they start shooting up, you\u2019re\u00a0screwed.<\/p>\n Today, you\u2019re getting the same opportunity you had six months ago with less downside and more\u00a0upside.<\/p>\n Accept that you have an opportunity to make slow money. Slow money is easy money\u200a\u2014\u200aeasy to get, easy to grow, and easy to keep. The market does all the hard\u00a0work.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll still suffer volatility, but now you can turn that volatility into an advantage.<\/p>\n For example, RUNE, one of my altcoin reports, hit $11.50 this year. When I published the altcoin report, each RUNE token was $0.11. A few months after I published the report, its price dropped below $0.09\u200a\u2014\u200aa 25%\u00a0drop.<\/p>\n It zoomed to $1.30 during DeFi summer of 2020, then crashed to $0.32 that fall. Since then, it has followed a similar pattern\u2013up a lot, down a lot, with higher\u00a0swings.<\/p>\n Many altcoins share this pattern. You buy at $1, $11, and eventually, if we\u2019re lucky,\u00a0$111.<\/p>\n Instead, try buying at $0.11, $0.55, $1.50, $2, and $4 (twice), like I\u00a0did.<\/p>\n That way, you\u2019ll be ready for the zoom to $111 and not upset when RUNE only<\/em> returns to its all-time high of\u00a0$20.<\/p>\n Do you prefer to set price targets? I\u2019m happy to consult about that, even if just to have somebody to bounce ideas off of. You can reply to this post, email me at mark@markhelfman.com<\/a>, or schedule time on Tealfeed<\/a>.<\/p>\n Crypto still has powerful narratives.<\/p>\n DeFi generates hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for crypto protocols. Developers continue to make it cheaper, easier, and more\u00a0secure.<\/p>\n Tokenization of real-world assets can unlock trillions of dollars in global capital. $12 billion in RWAs and $170 billion in US dollars have already been converted into natively digital\u00a0tokens.<\/p>\n Blackrock\u2019s BUIDL and Coinbase\u2019s BASE should bring a lot of support for those building out crypto technology.<\/p>\n Narratives abound.<\/p>\n Special Report: Three Big Crypto Narratives to Follow<\/a><\/p>\n In the coming decades, many goods and services will flow across decentralized physical infrastructure networks\u00a0(DePIN).<\/p>\n Today, most DePIN tokens are highly dilutive and contain lock-ups and aggressive vesting schedules for early backers. Once emissions taper off, we will have plenty of fertile ground to find great opportunities there,\u00a0too.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to remember these things when prices go down. The natural assumption is that they\u2019re all trash, destined for zero, useless. Every pump is a \u201cfakeout.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt least you can make money with memecoins,\u201d they\u00a0say.<\/p>\n Can you?<\/p>\n For every Shiba Inu, there were a hundred other dog tokens you never heard about because they failed too quickly to be noticed. Once the speculative enthusiasm dies, so does your chance to profit. If you don\u2019t sell in time, you\u2019re\u00a0screwed.<\/p>\n For any project that can sustain its success, the potential return is limitless.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the rub. Who\u2019s trying to build those projects? We\u2019re all trying to get as rich as possible as fast as possible. Chasing profits is\u00a0fun!<\/p>\n Until the money runs out. The fun\u00a0ends.<\/p>\n Narratives and cautionary tales don\u2019t matter when the market\u2019s\u00a0down.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have any \u201cgreater fools\u201d to buy your tokens after they go up. The shills seem hollow because prices don\u2019t go up as soon as you buy\u200a\u2014\u200awhereas earlier this year, they did. People talk about banana zones, but you don\u2019t see any\u00a0bananas.<\/p>\n You might be excited about liquidity cycles, but many people consider this a bad time for\u00a0crypto.<\/p>\n They wonder why Bitcoin\u2019s price is still lower than just a few weeks ago, after historic rate cuts and Trump making the first president Bitcoin transaction. They\u2019re holding cash for \u201cone last flush\u201d before \u201cup\u00a0only.\u201d<\/p>\n Use the bad times to prepare for the good times. When the good times come, they\u2019re really\u00a0good.<\/p>\n If you wait until the good times come, you\u2019ll miss the best opportunities. The projects that can sustain themselves\u200a\u2014\u200aAAVE, RUNE, and a handful of others, including some of my altcoin reports\u200a\u2014\u200awill deliver so much value that you\u2019ll laugh about ever trying to trade memecoins for\u00a0Lambos.<\/p>\n In the move from speculation to adoption, we have a tremendous opportunity to benefit from the shift in capital flows and mindset. It\u2019s big work that will take some time to bear fruit, but it\u2019s lucrative for those who dare to persevere.<\/p>\n With such tremendous upside, you don\u2019t need perfect timing. We\u2019ll discuss selling when (if) the time\u00a0comes.<\/p>\n Of course, you want the big discount. That big crash. That \u201cfinal capitulation\u201d that sends prices into the\u00a0gutter.<\/p>\n Sometimes, it\u2019s okay to take a good deal when it comes your\u00a0way.<\/p>\n Today, you\u2019re getting a good deal. Why not take\u00a0it?<\/p>\n Relax and enjoy the\u00a0ride!<\/p>\n Also available as a NFT on\u00a0Mirror<\/a>.<\/p>\n Crypto Crossroad: Profit or Adoption?<\/a><\/p>\n Mark Helfman publishes the Crypto is Easy<\/em><\/a> newsletter. He is also the author of three books and a top Bitcoin writer on Medium<\/em><\/a> and Hacker Noon<\/em><\/a>. Learn more about him in his bio<\/a> and connect with him on Tealfeed<\/a>.<\/p>\n Crypto Crossroad: Profit or Adoption?<\/a> was originally published in Coinmonks<\/a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last month, somebody needed to send me a lot of\u00a0money. He couldn\u2019t use Zelle, didn\u2019t have a checkbook, and didn\u2019t want to pay a $25 wire\u00a0fee. Venmo would\u2019ve taken many batches over many days, and I didn\u2019t want to pay 3% to a payment processor to take his credit\u00a0card. I mentioned he could open a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8569"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}That\u2019s the\u00a0setup<\/h3>\n
My plan<\/h3>\n
You get what you pay\u00a0for<\/h3>\n
Ride the king\u2019s\u00a0highway<\/h3>\n
Cautionary tale<\/h3>\n
What nobody tells you about\u00a0altcoins<\/h3>\n
You pay a high price for a cheery consensus<\/h3>\n
Don\u2019t look a gift horse in the\u00a0mouth<\/h3>\n
Strong stories<\/h3>\n
Missing out?\u00a0Hardly<\/h3>\n