Category: crypto

Is Now the Time to Buy Crypto?

To be fully transparent, my crypto portfolio is down 83% from all time highs. My overall net worth is down 40% from all time highs. However, I started seriously investing in crypto in 2018 and my crypto portfolio is up about 700% from then.

Now that 2022 is coming to an end, I have found that this year is the first year when my net worth has declined. In fact, from the start of this year to today, my net worth has declined by 23%, but the peak of my net worth was back in November 2021 and from then my net worth, as mentioned, has declined by 40%.

Focusing on how much your net worth has declined against the all time high is an example of the achoring bias. There are many ways to measure how much you have made or lost from an investment. For example, if you purchased dogecoin for $0.007 back in 2018 and held it until today when it is $0.07, it seems like you have made 10x off your investment. However, dogecoin reached a peak of around $0.70 back in November 2021. If you had sold all the dogecoin back when it was $0.70, you would have made 100x, but because you waited, you only made 10x. Or did you lose 10x because you could have sold back in November 2021 but did not? Did you make 10x or lose 10x? I have thought about this and my view now, after listening to Dave Ramsey, is that it doesn’t matter. According to Dave Ramsey, when you have purchased an asset in the past is a sunk cost. What matters is when you sell it and if you’re comfortable with the volatility when you sell the asset.

Although 2022 has been a hard year, it is important to remember that downturns happen, especially in the stock and crypto markets. In fact, looking at history, none of this is new. The crypto market especially has seen a spectacular decline, especially with the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. However, in my opinion, the collapse of FTX is not as bad as many make it out to be. FTX is merely an exchange, and staff in this exchange stole funds. It doesn’t necessarily mean that there is anything wrong with the actual crypto. To use an analogy, if a bank is corrupt and the staff siphon off money for themselves, it doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with the currency they stole. If a robber breaks into a vault and steals gold, it doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with gold as an investment.

I have recently started allocated more of my salary into to dollar cost averaging into various cryptos. In my view, there is a real use case for crypto. It is not just imaginary money. The use case for crypto is much clearer in developing countries. For example, if I were an expat or migrant working in Zimbabwe, I would convert my pay into crypto rather than deal with having to send it back to Australia or convert it into Australian Dollars. Look at the recent war in Ukraine. Crypto has been used by many Ukrainians and even Russian who have had to use crypto because their banking system does not work as well during war. Crypto has been used to send money to help the Ukrainian war effort. Crypto is useful when there are problems with the banking system in your country. According to Bitcoin Cash (BCH) user Roger Ver, there is a Russian man who now lives in Saint Kitts and Nevis and spends in Bitcoin Cash because his bank accounts have been frozen.

Although the use case of crypto is clear in developing countries, what about developed countries? Quite simply, there is no telling when a developed country may become a developing country due to a collapse of civilisation. In fact, due to political polarisation and extremism, I think it is becoming more and more likely that developing countries could collapse. And although I currently support the sanctions and asset seizures of Russian oligarchs currently, who is to say that another political party may get into power later and rather than target Russian oligarchs they come after me? Or you?

As such, I view crypto as a safe haven similar to gold. Some people argue that if there is a collapse of civilisation then the internet will not work and therefore crypto will not work. However, just because there is a collapse of civilisation it doesn’t mean that the internet everywhere will stop working. Crypto is useful when there is a situation where there is a collapse where you are but not in other areas. A good example, as I mentioned, is Ukraine.

Which cryptos as best?

After the recent crypto downturn, I have learned again that it is best to diversify across multiple cryptos and to stick to the ones that have been around for a long time. In my opinion, bitcoin, ethereum, and dogecoin are all good cryptos and make up the majority of my crypto portfolio. If you invest in some of the newer cryptos, I recommend investing only a small amount (e.g. PancakeSwap has not done well). If in doubt, diversify. Also I do not recommend staking or investing in stablecoins. If you want exposure to USD, just get actual USD.

As I said, if in doubt, diversify. All good investors are humble enough to understand they don’t know everything, and diversification is the antidote to ignorance. With that being said, I don’t recommend going all in crypto. It is important to not only diversify your crypto but also to diversify into other asset classes such as equities or bonds using ETFs.

How do you hold crypto in a safe way?

As the FTX collapse has shown us (and the Mt Gox collapse before that), holding crypto on any exchange is dangerous. It is much better to hold crypto yourself (self-custody) rather than let an exchange hold it for you. This is one of the reasons why I do not recommend staking crypto anymore because you typically give up self-custody when you stake crypto.

Of course, when you say “self-custody” to the average person, it is very difficult to explain the concept to them, and self-custody is very hard to do correctly. This I think is one of the main barriers to mass crypto adoption. To make self-custody easier, many in the crypto community recommend buying a Ledger hardware wallet directly from the official Ledger website (do not buy a Ledger via eBay).

An alternative to buying a Ledger, in my opinion, is to buy an ETF that invests in crypto companies. An example of one on the ASX is the CRYP ETF from Betashares. For those who are familiar with ETFs but unfamilar with crypto and self-custody, CRYP is a good way to gain exposure to crypto without any of the issues with self-custody. Many people who look at the CRYP price will be stocked to see that has been trending down since inception. However, CRYP was introduced right at the peak of the crypto market, so it makes sense that it will go down with the market. In fact, if we compare CRYP to the prices of bitcoin and ether then we notice that CRYP roughly tracks these major crypto (see below).

CRYP ETF (blue) vs BTC (orange) vs ETH (cyan) throughout 2022

It s worth noting that although CRYP gives you exposure to crypto, it doesn’t actually invest in crypto. Rather, it invests in companies that work in crypto such as exchanges like Coinbase or bitcoin miners. This is analogous to holding a gold mining ETF such as GDX or MNRS rather than a physical gold ETF itself such as PMGOLD. It is like buying Woodside Energy (WDS) rather than storing coal and natural gas in your garage. Exposure to companies rather than commodities means that there is risk associated with company scandals, corruption etc but the advantage is that you don’t need to worry about self-custody of gas, coal, gold, or crypto.

Which crypto am I most bullish about?

Of all the cryptos I invest in, I believe ethereum is the most promising. I would not be surprised if, in the future, companies and even governments are run on the ethereum blockchain. Below is a recent video I watched that captures the many achievements of ethereum in 2022 including the monumental transition from proof of work to proof of stake. Of all the cryptos, ethereum seems to be the most open to innovation.

How to Live off Crypto by Staking

Update December 2022: I no longer recommend staking crypto. See this post for my more recent views on crypto.

I primarily invest in the stock market and aim to live off dividends mostly from ETFs. However, the cryptocurrency market is hard to ignore. When you compare the total crypto market to the S&P500 (see chart below) you will notice that crypto makes holding stocks feel like holding cash. In the last five years, the S&P500 has gone up by 109 percent which is almost double. However, the total crypto market cap has gone up 18,942 percent.

Total crypto market cap (blue) vs VOO ETF, which tracks S&P500 (orange) over the past five years.

Institutions are starting to look into crypto. For example, Tesla invests in bitcoin, and the Commonwealth Bank has announced it will soon allow crypto to be used within its app. All this shows that crypto is going mainstream.

Recently ETF provider Betashares has released its Crypto Innovators ETF (CRYP). For those who are interested in exposure to crypto, I highly recommend this ETF, which doesn’t invest in crypto itself but in crypto companies (e.g. crypto miners, crypto exchanges, and companies that hold a lot of crypto). It is analogous to investing in a gold mining ETF rather than holding physical gold itself. What is reassuring about this ETF is that it roughly tracks the price of bitcoin and ether, the two largest cryptos.

The CRYP ETF (blue) is roughly correlated to bitcoin (orange) and ether (aqua) prices.

The benefit of buying CRYP rather than holding the actual cryptos itself is safety and security. ETFs are regulated by government, which is reassuring. The alternative way to securely hold crypto is via a paper wallet, which I do not recommend to beginners as it is complex. If you do not know what you are doing, one small error can cause all your crypto to be lost.

When buying and holding crypto investments such as bitcoin, ether or CRYP, you mainly profit from capital gains made when prices go up. Usually there is little income to be made from crypto. The CRYP ETF pays dividends, but it is likely to be very low. However, a recent innovation in the crypto market that has changed all that is staking, which allows you to earn income on crypto.

What is staking?

According to Binance, the term “staking” is defined as “holding funds in a cryptocurrency wallet to support the security and operations of a blockchain network. Simply put, staking is the act of locking cryptocurrencies to receive rewards.”

To put it simply, when you stake crypto, you are locking it up and allowing it to be used to earn more. The passive income earned via staking is termed “staking rewards.”

Why stake?

What is the purpose of staking? Why not just buy and hold the crypto or invest in dividend-paying stocks? Quite simply, the returns via staking are huge. My favourite place to stake crypto is the PancakeSwap Syrup Pools, and as of November 2021, the average APR from staking is about 60 to 70 percent. Earning 70% from crypto staking is far higher than what you’d earn from dividends. Furthermore, if you buy and hold crypto or CRYP, you are earning either zero or very little passive income.

The huge risks of staking crypto

Of course, if returns from staking are 70% or more, why not just go all in? The answer is that staking is very risky, so I do not recommend putting in too much, and any amount you put in should be an amount you are prepared to lose. When staking crypto, you are giving up control of your crypto and handing it to a protocol. Protocols are merely code, and code can have flaws that hackers can attack. There have been many hacks recently e.g. billionaire Mark Cuban lost a lot of money following the hack of Iron Finance. Other examples of major hacks of decentralised finance networks include PancakeHunny and Poly Network.

So then if crypto staking is so risky, what is the point of staking? Basically you will need to consider whether the high gains are greater than the risks. Everyone has different risk tolerance. Thankfully there are many ways you can reduce the risk of crypto staking. The first is to stake on more reputable networks e.g. PancakeSwap and ApeSwap are examples. Research whether these networks have been audited by reputable crypto audit organisations (e.g. Certik). Furthermore, it is always a good idea to spread your money across different networks just in case one gets hacked. I currently stake crypto on PancakeSwap, ApeSwap and BiSwap.

How exactly do you stake?

In terms of the nuts and bolts of how to stake, more detail can be found on YouTube. In terms of how I stake crypto on PancakeSwap, I deposit Australian dollars into Binance and then convert it into BNB (Binance Coin). Then I withdraw the BNB into a crypto address generated using the Trust Wallet app. Using the Trust Wallet browser, I go to PancakeSwap and convert the BNB into CAKE. I then go to the syrup pool and stake the CAKE. When the staking pool generates a reasonable amount of staking rewards, I harvest the staking rewards, convert it back to BNB, send it to Binance, and then convert it back to Australian dollars before withdrawing it into my bank account.

Conclusion

As mentioned, staking is very risky, so I am relying on both staking rewards from crypto and dividends from ETFs to fund my living expenses. The staking rewards provide high returns whereas the ETFs provide safety and lower risk. Indeed the staking rewards are taxed in full. There are no franking credits on staking rewards. Regardless, for argument’s sake, even if you pay 50% in tax, staking reward of 70% means you have 35% after tax. Dividend yields are about 5% and assuming franking credits completely offset income tax, 35% is higher than 5%, so it is better to simply pay the tax. Often investors are focused too much on tax or other aspects of an investment (such as how much leverage you can achieve). What matters is total return.

Thoughts about the 2021 Crypto Crash

The cryptocurrency market has crashed. It peaked sometime in May 2021 but has gone down since. Major cryptos like bitcoin and ether have gone down about 50% while dogecoin has gone down about 70%.

What I find amazing is how negative people get when prices come down. Based on historical price movements in the stock, property and crypto makets, the downturns are usually great times to buy.

Reaffirming the cake and icing analogy

Of course, as I mention in my previous post about cake and icing, crypto is highly volatile, so it should be considered the “icing on the cake,” the extra returns above and beyond the core necessary “cake” portion of your net worth. Suppose you can live off $40k per year comfortably and you had $1 million invested in a balanced ETF that generates about $40k per year. Then any investments beyond that can be as risky as you wish and it will not affect your lifestyle. Because you have created a solid safety net, you are able to tolerate higher risk, and taking on higher risk allows you to potentially have higher returns.

Of course, you need to be sure that you are comfortable living off $40k per year. If you lifestyle inflates, you will need a bigger “cake” which means you won’t be able to take on as much risk, which means your opportunities for larger gains become more limited.

Anchoring bias

One of the most common biases I’ve noticed coming out of the recent crypto crash is the anchoring bias, which Wikipedia defines as “a cognitive bias whereby an individual’s decisions are influenced by a particular reference point or ‘anchor’.” 

A great example of this is seen in Pro The Doge, a 33-year-old man who put in US$180k into dogecoin, which was everything he owned. At the time, the price of dogecoin was 4 cents. Dogecoin went up to around 75 cents, which resulted in his net worth ballooning to about US$2.8 million. However, he did not sell, and dogecoin went back down to 19 cents, and his net worth now is approximately US$800k, which means he is no longer a US dollar millionaire.

Pro The Doge went from $180k net worth to $3 million and back down to $800k

Of course, what should Pro The Doge have done? Clearly he should have sold all his dogecoin when it peaked at about $2.8 million, and many people have criticised him for holding onto his crypto as it went down.

However, market timing is very difficult. There is a lot of evidence that most of us are terrible at timing the market. Pro The Doge could have sold everything at $2.8 million, but it is easy to criticise him in hindsight, and if any of us had the ability to pick the tops and the bottoms perfectly, we would become the first trillionaire on earth.

So I don’t blame Pro The Doge for not selling. My point is that those who criticise him are suffering from anchoring bias. There is no reason why the all time high of $2.8 million is the “anchor” and that his current net worth of $800k must be compared to the all time high, which results in a loss of about $2 million. If you change the anchor to his initial $180k, then suddenly he has increased his net worth from $180k to $800k, which is more than a 400% return.

This practice of comparing the current price to when you got in or what your average entry price is (if you dollar cost average into the asset) leads to strategies such as “playing with house money.” The idea behind the “playing with house money” strategy is that Pro The Doge should take out his initial $180k and convert it into cash. This way it is impossible for him to make a loss.

However, this too is anchoring bias. In the same way that the all time high is an arbitrary anchor, so too the price you got in at is also an arbitrary anchor. It is useful for taxation when calculating capital gains tax, but it is not useful for your personal finances.

To understand why this it the case, consider that Pro The Doge is still dollar cost averaging (or buying the dip) into dogecoin. If he were to sell $180k worth of doge and covert it into cash, he would crystallise capital gains tax, and then when he continues to dollar cost average into doge, he would covert cash back into doge. Why covert doge into cash and then right after convert cash back into doge again? You are just adding more transactions and triggering capital gains tax when you don’t need to.

According to the “house money” strategy, this is what he should do, but as I have shown, this is self-defeating because he would be selling and then buying back into doge when he continues to dollar cost average into it.

I recall watching a video of Pro The Doge buying about US$30k worth of doge after it crashed because he wanted to “buy the dip.” If he were to sell $180k worth of doge and convert it into cash (as per the “house money” idea) and then go on to buy $30k of doge afterward, he would have been better off only selling $150k worth of doge and incurring less capital gains.

What this example shows is that when you get in is irrelevant. What matters is the volatility of your overall net worth and whether you can tolerate that volatility. For example, suppose your net worth is made up of 99% cash and 1% dogecoin. Suppose dogecoin went up 5x and suddenly you have 95% cash and 5% dogecoin. According to the “house money” idea, you should sell 20% of your dogecoin such that you are only playing with house money. This would bring your portfolio to 96% cash and 4% dogecoin. So you have gone from 5% dogecoin to 4% dogecoin and the rest is in cash. In other words, this will have almost no impact at all on the volatility of your net worth.

What this example shows is that the “house money” idea is just another form of anchoring bias. What you should do instead, in my opinion, is look at the overall volatility of your net worth and see if you are able to tolerate that volatility. To know if you are able to stomach the level of volatility of your portfolio, you need to look at your necessary spending vs non-necessary spending and then work out what portion of your net worth is the “cake” and what portion is the “icing.” The “cake” portion should be made up of low or medium volaility assets so that you can reliably and comfortably draw down on it or generate passive income from it to cover your necessary expenses.

For Pro The Doge, it is hard to know how big his cake fund is. It is a personal matter that depends on not just your current obligations but also what your future needs are. For example, Pro The Doge currently lives in a studio apartment. However, if he feels that in the future he must live in a large house (e.g. if he plans on raising a family), he will need more money in his “cake” fund. However, if he is happy living in a studio apartment because it is lower maintenance and if he doesn’t want kids in the future, then he will be able to take on more risk.

Pro The Doge going all in on doge seems very risky to me, but it may be justified if he is comfortable living on little and keeping his obligations low.

How we understand risk tolerance

I remember when I booked in an appointment with a financial advisor to discuss my superannuation. It was a free meeting set up by my super fund, so I figured I’d book in time. At the session, I was given a questionnaire that set out to determine my risk tolerance. It asked me questions such as “are you willing to take on more risk if it leads to potentially higher returns?” Of course, I answered yes for that. Most people just want higher returns, so when they learn that you need to take on more risk in order to get higher returns, they will take on higher risk.

As a result of this meeting with the advisor, my super fund was set to a “high growth” strategy that was almost all in equities. Then the GFC happened and I have to admit that I was shaken watching money I saved disappear so rapidly. I experienced FONGO (“fear of not getting out”), and as a result I dialed down the risk in my super fund slightly to the “growth” strategy instead. However, once the markets went back up again, I suddenly felt FOMO (“fear of missing out”) and quickly scrambled to invest in equity ETFs and even to get a margin loan (which I still have today).

My point is that risk tolerance is something we need to experience to understand. It is normal, in my opinion, to think we can tolerate risk in order to gain higher returns, and this is why so many talk about tracking stock indices like S&P500 or the ASX200 but rarely talk about bond indices like the Vanguard Global Aggregate Bond Index.

In my opinion, we gain a better understanding of our true risk tolerance when we personally experience both FOMO and FONGO that comes from price volatilty. The problem with most people is recency bias. When prices shoot up, they feel FOMO and their risk tolerance is too high, but when prices collapse, they feel intense FONGO and their risk toleraence is too low. You need to remember how you felt when prices spiked and crashed and adjust your asset allocation accordingly such that you minimise both FOMO and FONGO.

I am also concerned about complacency due to constantly rising prices. Cryptocurrency has been rising for the past decade even when you consider the wild swings, but it is no guarantee that it will continue to go up. An asset class can keep going up even in the long run until it does not. However, this applies not just to cryptocurrency but also to e.g. the stock market. The stock markets of the US has gone up historically for the last century or so, which may lead many to think that it is inevitable that it will continue to go up. However, what if it doesn’t? This is why it is important to reduce risk and volatility up to the point where you are financially independent.

Conclusion about crypto

I do personally own cryptocurrency, but it makes up about 25% of my net worth, which is a level of risk and volatility with which I am comfortable. Most of my crypto is concentrated in bitcoin, ether and dogecoin.

If I had to advise on whether someone should invest in crypto or not, I am hesitant to advise them that they should because one of the biggest downsides of crypto is how difficult it is to secure. If you keep your money in a bank account, if you suddenly forget the password needed to log into your internet banking account, you can simply go through the password reset process or just walk into the bank and talk to somoene who can verify your identity and unlock your cash. There is a human element to the traditional banking system, but with crypto there is no human element, which is by design. If you lose your crypto mnemonic passphrase, your funds are gone forever. If you merely expose this passphrase to someone, they can sweep all your funds and it is impossible to reverse the transaction.

The future of crypto is uncertain, but I think over time crypto will become less volatile as the crypto world will integrate with the traditional financial system. We are seeing today bitcoin ETFs and large companies like Tesla investing in bitcoin, and conversely it is possible to buy tokenised stocks. All this shows that the two worlds are merging, and I speculate that this merging will continue into the long term. If these two worlds do merge, I speculate that the crypto world will be the main beneficiary as net value will flow from the much larger traditional system into the much smaller crypto system. As such, it is a good idea, in my opinion, to allocate a portion of your portfolio to crypto, but it should be considered the icing on the cake rather than the actual cake itself.