Should you buy bitcoin now? Nobody has a crystal ball that allows them to see the future – so it’s left to us to analyze, comprehend, and make educated guesses as to what the future holds for cryptocurrency…and pretty much everything else. Since I’ve entered the crypto-arena, people I know have started asking me questions and the most often asked is: “Is it too late to buy bitcoin now?” – therefore I am going to give my opinion on that topic.
Since Bitcoin (as well as some other altcoins) is based on a fixed supply of coins, it seems quite evident that the value of the coin will continue to rise until its supplies are maximized. In other words, Bitcoin price will continue to increase until it hits its 21 mln supply cap. Even when the supply cap is reached, if the demand of the currency continues to increase, its price will maintain an upward trend. In general, cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, are all at their early stages. Therefore, in my opinion, it is most certainly not too late to buy bitcoin now when the potential to grow and evolve is so great. If this technology does shape the future of financial transactions, now is a good time to invest with a small portion of your portfolio – not your life savings. Over the long-term, there is potential for Bitcoin to have an even more dramatic increase in its price. An allocation of 1%, for example, can be beneficial without incurring much risk. Worst case scenario – where Bitcoin completely tanks – the portfolio only loses 1% of its value. To put that in perspective, there is a 12% chance that the S&P 500 will lose 1% of its value on any given day.
I did not buy bitcoin now with short term gains in mind. My goals are long term, and I’ve have chosen to do more than “invest” – by joining the Trade Coin Club, my bitcoin is being auto-traded for me daily. Instead of making money just on the ups-and-downs of the bitcoin value, I acquire more bitcoin everyday by earning from trading and compounding those earnings. My goal is to acquire more bitcoin without expending additional monies to buy bitcoin. Since I am not an expert trader by any means, it’s great to have the TCC trading for me with a “stop-loss” in place – and I am earning passive gains daily.
Too Late to Buy Bitcoin Now?
Obviously, the best time to buy bitcoin was about 8 years ago – the second best time is probably today. Averaging your buy over a few weeks is a good strategy, since the risk of buying at the top would be minimized. I would not recommend buying the whole amount desired at one time right now. When I became involved in February – bitcoin was between $1000-$1200, and I thought that was a lot. I bought some at $982 and some at $1224 – and some in between. Today – that price looks like a bargain! Will today’s $1,782 look like a bargain in another couple weeks or months? I believe it will based on what is happening in the world to make bitcoin even more desirable.
It’s important to realize that just like a $1 bill can be broken down into 100 pennies, bitcoin (the currency) can also be broken down and divided into smaller units. Bitcoin’s ability to do this is crucial for user adoption, and for encouraging practical usage as an everyday currency alternative. This also makes it easier when buying bitcoin; depending on its value at the time, it may be more affordable to buy a fraction of the digital currency here and there instead of an entire bitcoin all at once. In fact, a lot of people think they have to buy a whole bitcoin to get started, but you can buy almost any amount you want!
Buy Bitcoin Now in Smaller Units
The first and most common unit of measurement is a single bitcoin or 1 BTC (BTC being the acronym for bitcoin, like USD is for US Dollars). And as we mentioned earlier, a single bitcoin is divisible into smaller units – all the way down to eight decimal places, or 0.00000001 BTC to be exact. The chart below outlines the most commonly referred-to measurements, ranging in value from the greatest (BTC) to the least (satoshi). There are more, but they are referenced much less often.
Unit | Value in BTC | Value in USD ($) |
BTC | 1 | 670.40 |
Cent-Bitcoin (cBTC or bitcent) | 0.01 | 6.70 |
Milli-Bitcoin (mBTC or millibit) | 0.001 | 0.67 |
Micro-Bitcoin (μBTC or bit) | 0.000001 | 0.00067 |
finney | 0.0000001 | 0.000067 |
satoshi | 0.00000001 | 0.0000067 |
If you need to convert any portion of bitcoin to currency values such as dollars, you can use a bitcoin calculator. Bitcoin.com has a helpful calculator tool that breaks down bitcoin’s units and their value at any given time. It isn’t critical that you know all the details behind bitcoin units, but learning the basics can help you understand transactions, their value, and how they work. I suspect that as bitcoin value increases, use of these other units will become more common.
So, if one is not in a position to buy a whole BTC – it could be more practical to buy bitcoin now in smaller units. Bitcoin has very high potential in future, with the target price somewhere around $100,000 to $1,000,000 … it’s only $1,782 right now … dirt cheap.