Before you sign up to a crypto platform, it’s good to think about the following:
- Popularity (number of users)
- Compliance (for data privacy and protection)
- Number of supported assets (easily invest or switch to different cryptos)
Coinberry, one of the major crypto platforms in Canada, clearly matches those because:
- Popularity (more than 220,000 Canadians have already signed up to Coinberry)
- Compliance (OSC & FINTRAC registered, PIPEDA-compliant)
- Number of supported assets (35+ cryptocurrencies and tokens available)
Through Coinberry, Canadians can invest in the following cryptocurrencies:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Aave (AAVE)
- Cardano (ADA)
- Algorand (ALGO)
- Avalanche (AVAX)
- Cosmos (ATOM)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
- Gala (GALA)
- NEAR Protocol
- THORChain (RUNE)
- Tron (TRX)
- And dozens more and Coinberry is still adding more
For example, here’s how to buy Bitcoin in Canada:
- Sign up to Coinberry
- Verify your account and identity
- Add funds through Interac e-Transfer or wire transfer
- Buy some Bitcoin
The same steps apply to buying other cryptocurrencies.
Should you still buy Bitcoin?
Before you put in your money and buy some Bitcoin, let’s talk about its pros and cons first:
Pros of Bitcoin
- First major cryptocurrency (position remains strong and entrenched)
- Largest market capitalization
- Big investors and tech founders still support Bitcoin
Cons of Bitcoin
- Price is still too high now (you might want to explore other cryptos)
- Energy intensive
- Poor scalability
When it comes to speed and scalability, let’s compare Bitcoin with other networks that process transactions (in transactions per second, numbers vary depending on reports and calculations):
- Bitcoin (5)
- Ethereum (20 to 30)
- Solana (2,700)
- Visa, one of the largest payment processing networks (1,700)
Those are just estimates and the reported numbers might depend on several factors and conditions. Still, we can see that Bitcoin has poor scalability (future updates might address this problem).
Bitcoin still is the most popular cryptocurrency because it’s the first. Its position is entrenched already and several businesses, investors, developers and institutions have already adopted Bitcoin. They might support other cryptocurrencies, but still, they keep coming back to Bitcoin or keep a percentage of their investments in it.
When is the best time to buy Bitcoin?
Some reports say that the best times to buy Bitcoin are:
- In the morning
- 3pm or 4pm
- Monday or Thursday
- Near the end of the month
- At the first few days of the month
Notice that the reports are inconsistent and may depend on a sudden update or news about Bitcoin. For example, when a billionaire buys millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin, expect its price to rise in a few minutes or hours.
Also, Bitcoin’s price may also depend on overall economic and market conditions. If the economy is going down, more people might sell their Bitcoin (price falls) and put their money elsewhere. If the economy is doing well, people might have more resources and willingness to invest in crypto (this might drive the price up because of higher demand for Bitcoin).
In other words, knowing the best time to buy Bitcoin may not help much in maximizing our gains and minimizing our losses. After all, its price might be immediately influenced by:
- Hacks and fraud
- General economy
- Public and market sentiment
- Actions by major figures and institutions
Analysis might be far from helpful and productive because when we look hard enough for patterns and relationships, most likely we’ll see a few. As they say, “Even a broken clock is right twice a day.”
Getting smart about Bitcoin and crypto investing
To help you save time and make smart choices, here are some general recommendations and tips:
- Start small and get comfortable first (you can start with 50 CAD in Coinberry)
- Use dollar cost averaging (e.g. buy 100 CAD worth of Bitcoin each month)
- Stick to a budget and strategy
- Get busy with other opportunities
It’s good to get your feet wet first before diving in. This way, you avoid overwhelm and stress (it’s just a small amount so your losses will be minimal too). As weeks and months pass, you can slowly increase your fund and investment.
Dollar cost averaging is a smart and time-saving strategy. Instead of staying tuned to what happens in crypto (and reacting to it by suddenly buying or selling), you just commit a certain amount every month to buying more Bitcoin. If Bitcoin’s performance is good over the years, you might still get some nice profits.
Sticking to a budget and strategy will also help you save time. Instead of thinking about crypto every now and then, a good strategy will spare you from that mental effort because you’ll know what to do each day (or forget about crypto investing entirely because everything’s taken cared of). This will give you more time and energy to study and pursue other money-making opportunities.
Bitcoin trends and future
Some common themes and trends about Bitcoin are:
- Increasing regulation and interference from the government
- More businesses accept and support Bitcoin for payment
- More countries adopting or banning Bitcoin
- Scams and security breaches
- Scalability and sustainability issues
- Other cryptocurrencies that are said to have better features than Bitcoin (especially when it’s about the number of transactions per second and energy use)
Overall, recent trends point to Bitcoin getting more and more attention (especially from government regulators and policymakers). Also, scams and fraud are getting more frequent now. The tactics are old and the same. Criminals have just found a new way to get more victims.
To protect yourself, one way is to choose a popular crypto platform. For instance, Coinberry provides learning resources on how users can better protect their accounts and money. Also, the Coinberry team continuously invests time and money in improving the platform’s security.
Another way to protect yourself is to try to minimize your risks and losses. You can start with a little amount first and only scale up once you get comfortable (and get to know the ins and outs of the platform and crypto investing in general). It also helps to spread the risks and explore other opportunities. This will help you gain peace of mind and more mental energy for other important matters.