In 2022, investing in cryptocurrencies has the potential to make you very wealthy, but it also has the potential to cost you everything. The danger of investing in cryptocurrencies is weighed against the possible rewards.
If you want to have direct exposure to the demand for digital money, investing in cryptocurrency is an excellent idea. Purchasing the stocks of businesses exposed to cryptocurrencies is a more secure but maybe less rewarding solution.
Let’s look at the benefits and drawbacks of bitcoin investment.
Are Cryptocurrencies Secure?
Cryptocurrency is not totally a secure investment due to a number of variables. However, other indications are growing that cryptocurrencies will remain popular.
Cryptocurrency Risks
More than stock exchanges, cryptocurrency exchanges are susceptible to hacking and are often the target of other illicit activities. Investors who had their digital currencies stolen as a result of security breaches suffered significant losses, which prompted several exchanges and third-party insurers to start providing insurance against hackers.
Additionally, keeping cryptocurrency secure requires more effort than keeping equities or bonds. Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) may be purchased and sold on cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), however many users choose not to retain their digital assets on these platforms due to the security concerns associated with giving any corporation access to their holdings.
Cryptocurrency storage on a centralized exchange implies a lack of complete control over your holdings. You may not have any options to get your money back if an exchange goes bankrupt or freezes your assets in response to a government request.
Although cold storage has its own set of difficulties, some cryptocurrency owners choose offline “cold storage” solutions such hardware wallets. The danger of losing your private key is the greatest since you can’t access your bitcoin without it.
Furthermore, there is no assurance that a cryptocurrency project you fund will be profitable. Thousands of blockchain initiatives are in intense competition, and many of them are nothing more than frauds. The majority of cryptocurrency initiatives won’t succeed in the end.
If countries regard cryptocurrencies as a danger rather than a cutting-edge technology, regulators may potentially clamp down on the whole cryptocurrency market.
The dangers for investors are further increased by cryptocurrency’s cutting-edge technological components. The technology is currently being developed and has not yet been thoroughly tested in real-world situations.
Cryptocurrency Adoption
Despite the dangers, the market for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology is expanding. Financial infrastructure that is desperately required is being created, and institutional-grade custodial services are becoming more accessible to investors. The resources required to manage and protect their cryptocurrency investments are progressively being made available to both professional and ordinary investors.
Futures markets for cryptocurrencies are emerging, and several businesses are getting first-hand exposure to the industry. Large financial institutions like Block (NYSE:SQ) and PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) are facilitating the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies on their well-known platforms. Additionally to Block, other businesses have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin and other digital assets. Early in 2021, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) bought Bitcoin for $1.5 billion. The manufacturer of electric vehicles claimed to have around $2 billion in cryptocurrencies as of February 2022. Since 2020, business intelligence software provider MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) has started acquiring Bitcoin. By the end of 2021, it had $5.7 billion invested in cryptocurrencies, and it said it will continue to do so using extra operating income.
Although other variables still influence how risky cryptocurrencies are, the market is evolving as adoption rates go up. In order to invest huge quantities of money directly in cryptocurrencies, both businesses and individual investors are looking to do so.
