Well, I should say I bought my first fraction of one Bitcoin, approximately .02 bitcoins for about $1000. The Bitcoin price was $49,926. The process was fairly simple using the Coinbase app for iOS. It took about 15 to 20 minutes to get everything set up and approved. This included connecting my bank account as my source of funding, which is a little scary since things that I read about bitcoin and crypto trading seem pretty concerned about security. Although fees seem high, I believe Coinbase is one of the few places insuring your Bitcoin. And they store 98 percent of their clients Bitcoin in offline cold storage which is extremely secure.
Fees that bite into your gains
If you are already experienced with regular stock trading nowadays where most transactions are free, this will possibly surprise you that transactions cost more than other places. For $1000 purchase I was charged $15. For a $2000 Bitcoin purchase it would be $30. I knew fees could be high going in but it’s still means being very careful about transferring your bitcoin anywhere and purchases and sales of your Bitcoin. Update: Coinbase pro is supposed to be for more experienced traders but if you use Coinbase pro instead of Coinbase, your fees are considerably less.
Storing bitcoin in a wallet
One question I had is if your bitcoin still changes value when you store it in a wallet, software or cold/hardware wallet. The answer to that is yes. For anyone not familiar, a wallet can be used to store your bitcoin more securely than leaving it on a bitcoin exchange. The most secure is a hardware wallet which is a physical device that stores your bitcoin and that only you have access to and is completely off-line.
Why I finally took the plunge
One of the reasons I decided to finally buy Bitcoin was because of the recent dip in the bitcoin price. I’m currently up around $100 although my unrealized gain dipped into negative territory briefly.
I guess some would consider that I’m late to the game as I just watched a YouTube video of a popular tech YouTuber, Sara Dietschy, explaining how she sold all her Bitcoin, around $59,506, (original investment of $15,373) to pay in full for a Tesla. This makes me consider investing more already, but I think I will sit tight for just a little while first and see how it works out.
Update 5/14/21 I’ve invested another $1500 in Ethereum (on Coinbase). And started a position in Dogecoin ($990) on Webull. Was in negative territory on Dogecoin after a recent drop. Still hanging around even as of 5/14.