If you’re reading this, you are likely one of millions of crypto holders who have weathered “the crypto crash” of 2018. Maybe you’re an optimist and believe that it is bound to come back and fulfill your investment thesis. Perhaps you’re an enthusiast who truly believes in the cryptocurrency asset class in the long haul and you want to keep supporting the movement towards decentralized assets. Or maybe, you’ve just written off the entire investment, and are holding whatever is left over in your Coinbase account, just in case.
The fact is, you are not alone and you may have wondered if there is anything else besides holding that you could be doing right now. In short, absolutely yes.
An idle asset class equals dying exchanges
With crypto trading volumes down around 80% year on year, it means that a larger proportion of this US$200 billion asset class is sitting idle. Volatility is down to historical lows, so day trading is no longer as fun or as viable. Investors like you, are holding, and the majority of you are leaving it in your exchange account.
If you plan on staying in crypto, perhaps the first thing you should consider is moving your holdings to another wallet like Xapo’s vault in the Swiss Alps, perhaps even a cold storage wallet like Trezor, and soon-to-be-launched DoWallet.
There are two reasons for this:
1) Exchanges are honey pots. They are fending off millions of hacking attempts constantly, and sometimes even the most reputable systems fail, with an expected $1 billion in exchange hacking losses expected for 2018 according to a recent Coinbeat article.
2) Lots of exchanges will shut down.With low trading volumes, many of the smaller exchanges have become operationally unviable, and we’ve heard lots of anecdotal evidence of this from our network. You want to avoid having the plug pulled on them while they’re still in custody of your crypto — especially in emerging markets where consumer protections aren’t as robust.
A world of financial services you did not know about
Interest: Did you know that you can get interest on your crypto holdings? Why leave them in an account gathering dust? You can get between 4% and 7% if you deposit it with companies like Celsius Network.
Loans: Want to get some liquidity while still holding your crypto position? Celsius Network can also help with that, but check out Nexo.io as well. Essentially, you put your crypto in an escrow account and they give you a loan in USD or EUR. Make sure you understand the terms and agreements and shop around for the best rates and companies with the best track records.
Investment: Want to put your crypto to work using someone else’s algorithm? Check out Atlas Quantum, who programmatically take advantage of arbitrage opportunities across crypto trading pairs across different exchanges.
Crypto Debit Cards: Want to use your crypto to pay for things? Instead of exchanging your crypto into USD and depositing it back into your account, several companies have created an easy way to deposit your crypto onto a Visa or MasterCard-branded debit card for usage everywhere. Check out Bitpay and Crypto Pay as a few examples.
Global Micropayments: Owe your buddy in France $20? Good luck sending that via traditional methods without paying half of it in fees. Send it in crypto for instant settlement or look at companies like Uphold where they facilitate the payout in fiat in the destination country. Make sure you check the rates and the overall fees and compare it to traditional money transfer services. It should be much cheaper, but it’s better to measure twice and cut once as my carpenter friends say.
There are many more uses and applications that can help you get more out of your crypto and out of your crypto experience. Our mission in DoWallet is to consolidate the best of these experiences, wherever you are in the world, into one platform so you can take control, earn more, and do more. It’s not easy to navigate this crypto universe and tell friend or foe apart. We want to do the due diligence so you can rest assured that you are dealing with reputable partners.
Visit DoWallet and sign up for early access. The first 10,000 users will get exciting perks.
