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🎯 If you're new to crypto, start here

PLUS: blockchain gaming & Vitalik

Author

Alex M.
September 05, 2023

GM everyone. This is 2036, the crypto newsletter that pays you.

Here’s what we’re serving up today 🍲: maybe you’ve got some bitcoin. Maybe you’ve got some ETH. Or maybe you’re still on the sidelines. What easy, no-brainer things can you do to increase your returns today?

Let’s dig in.

🥔 Today’s meat and potatoes

Get smarter on crypto in 2 minutes

Getting started in crypto ain’t always easy.

Crypto is volatile 📈📉. And our paranoid brains don’t like it.

To fight the emotional rollercoaster, we all feel the need to do something. Anything.

But…

  • 95% of what you do will likely be net negative

  • and only 5% is likely to be a net positive

So what’s the 5%?

Here are some (easy) things you can do to make sure you actually profit from crypto:

1/ Own Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana

Here’s why:

The biggest mistake crypto beginners make is NOT owning the majors (BTC/ETH). They want to find the ‘next bitcoin’ or the next ‘1,000X.’ So they put all their eggs in coins that have a high chance of going to 0.

But Bitcoin is the OG. It’s like the Catholic Church - mostly devoid of innovation. Bitcoin is time-tested and has the biggest brand and network effects.

Bitcoin will protect your portfolio during periods of volatility. And when your altcoin goes down -99%, you’ll be happy you had some bitcoin.

Ethereum is like New York City. It’s the sexiest player in town. It has the most developers, the most valuable real estate (NFTs), the biggest companies (DAOs), the biggest banks (DeFi), etc.

Ethereum is where large institutional players will find higher returns than bitcoin.

And Solana is everyone else’s favorite altcoin. It’s overcome its ties to FTX and no longer suffers from downtime. It’s fast, cheap, and home to an increasing number of cool games and apps.

A portfolio of those three will expose you to most of the upside of crypto and protect you from most of the downside.

If bitcoin can 5-10X during the bull market, Ether can 10-20X, and Solana can 100X (not financial advice).

We like a 45/45/10 split between the 3.

2/ Stake your ETH and SOL on Lido

Staking is a way to earn yield (= dividend) on your tokens by securing the network.

We explain it in detail here.

And the easiest way to do it is also the most popular: with Lido.

Lido lets you stake your ETH and SOL for a ∟4% and ∟7% annual yield, respectively.

It’s what all the big investors are doing with their coins.

3/ Secure your coins

20% of all bitcoin in circulation has been lost. And even OG collectors get hacked and lose their NFTs.

So either:

  • store your coins in the Coinbase Vault OR

  • store them on a hardware wallet

Alternatively, if:

  • you don’t want to store your coins yourself

  • don’t care about sovereignty (too much)

  • but you want price exposure to crypto…

… you can also buy the Canadian Bitcoin and Ether ETFs directly in your brokerage account (BTCC and ETHH, respectively).

Crypto fanatics don’t like ETFs (“not your keys, not your coins”) - but we’re here to make money - so whatever works for you.

And you’re feeling frisky…

4/ Bet on regulatory arbitrage in the US

The US has launched an all-out war on crypto. The SEC is fighting hard alongside Elizabeth Warren’s anti-crypto army.

Yes, this is real

But this won’t last forever. One day, crypto will likely thrive in the US.

And when it does, Grayscale’s investment products - like $GBTC and $ETHE - will probably get converted to ETFs.

Right now, they trade at double-digit % discounts to the value of their underlying crypto.

But since we first wrote about them, the discount has narrowed significantly. If you took advantage of that, great job.

If not, it’s not too late. We’ve summarized the best opportunities in our new-ish Market Opportunities section further down.

Just remember:

… so:

a) don’t fuck it up

b) don’t sell your coins early, and

c) don’t gamble all your capital on speculative coins that you think will 1,000X tomorrow.

Stick to the basics, safely maximize your ROI, survive, and occasionally swing for the fences when the opportunity arises.

🥂

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