How not to lose money on Crypto and NFTs

Reading Time: 4 mins

Our CEO and personal finance expert Jasmine Birtles recently hosted an Instagram Live to discuss how not to lose money in crypto and NFTs. She was joined by experts Boaz Shoshan and Gary Nuttall.

Afterall, crypto can be confusing (did you know, for example, some people are proponents for Bitcoin SV, which has its own unique characteristics distinct from regular Bitcoin?), so it’s good to get as much help as possible!

You can watch the full video on our YouTube page or check out the summary below!

• Can you explain what an NFT is?
• What scams have you seen and what advice do you have?
• What is the safest platform to use to invest in crypto?
• Have you seen any ridiculous scams?
• What happened to DogeCoin?
• What can we learn from the GameStop fiasco?
• What’s your sense of the Crypto market at the moment?
• Is crypto more open to manipulation?
• What is your opinion on Bitcoin vs Ethereum?
• Are banks preventing payments for crypto?
• Any advice to those looking to invest?

 

Can you explain what an NFT is?

Boaz says:

• An NFT is a digital collectable
• An NFT is not the same as another NFT – they are unique
• NFTS in general have been around a long time – since around 2014
• In the past year, the market has grown – the value of around 40 billion $
• Some NFTs can come with rewards like access to special discord channels to communicate with other NFT owners
• Need to know what it is that you’re buying, understand the value proposition of it for example if it comes with a utility, it might be worth now
• Know what you’re doing before you risk any money on it
• Crypto and NFTs are very volatile – but there is treasure out there

 

What scams have you seen and what advice do you have?

Gary says:

• There are several ways of losing money such as making mistakes, there’s volatility so the value of crypto can go up and down.
• In terms of scams – there’s a mix of things, someone may have made a mistake in the computer programme that may allow exploiting.
• Red flags for me – if it looks too good to be true – it is.
• If anyone is guaranteeing a profit – that’s a red flag.
• If you do your research and you only find bad news around the people involved – there’s a reason for that.

 

What is the safest platform to use to invest in crypto?

Gary says:

• Safety is relative – crypto always carries risk
• Coinbase has a good reputation if things go wrong
• Binance – is a centralised exchange but it is used worldwide
• Kraken and blockchain.com are good
• Nothing is 100% safe

 

Have you seen any ridiculous scams?

Boaz says:

• Never let somebody else look at your private keys.
• In the NFT space, people get drawn in by scammers who offer to add a hat to their yacht club ape and they end up giving away their NFTs worth 6 figures.

Gary says:

• The best one I know of was called Ponzi coin
• Ponzi coin was an out and out scam, they even said it was a scam
• At the end of it, they returned the money to the people as they wanted to see how stupid people were

 

What happened to DogeCoin?

Boaz says:

• It seems to have gone down, you get these trends that appear and disappear.

 

What can we learn from the GameStop fiasco?

Boaz says:

• There’s all manner of things you can take away from it
• Some of the narratives behind it are incorrect
• Public opinion on short-sellers can change in public opinion very quickly especially after the film The Big Short.
• We’re starting to see the millennial generation and activist investors express themselves in the finance markets.
• You should never be swept along by FOMO

 

What’s your sense of the Crypto market at the moment?

Gary says:

• Bitcoin is trading around $38,000, if you’re a pessimist it’s dropped, if you’re a realist is grown by 50% this year.
• I don’t know if it’s going to go up, down or sideways
• If you hold onto crypto for more than 4 years, you end up ahead
• Be calm, don’t buy into the fear and panic, you’ve not lost anything until you sell.

 

is crypto more open to manipulation?

Boaz says:

• It is, not to say there isn’t manipulation in traditional financial markets
• Its broadly speaking very unregulated so it is more prone to manipulation.
• In a free market, you will find people trying to push things around

 

What is your opinion on Bitcoin vs Ethereum?

Gary says:

• On a tech level, they are different
• Bitcoin is a payment method, Ethereum is a programmatic platform
• How do you compare the US dollar to the British pound?
• They’re just different

 

are banks preventing payments for crypto?

Gary says:

• They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, because of the laws they must follow
• If banks do something wrong to enter the crypto market they can get in trouble and lose their license
• The government and regulators need to be more crypto-friendly

 

any advice for those looking to invest?

Boaz says:

• If you’re interested, learn as much as you can before you start
• Start with a small amount of money before you invest loads

Gary says:

• Don’t put money in you can’t afford to loose
• Do not borrow money to do it
• Don’t listen to social media
• Join crypto communities to learn more
• Have fun

 

Disclaimer: MoneyMagpie is not a licensed financial advisor and therefore information found here including opinions, commentary, suggestions or strategies are for informational, entertainment or educational purposes only. This should not be considered as financial advice. Anyone thinking of investing should conduct their own due diligence.