What newcomers should not do when trying to deal with crypto

Cryptocurrencies have shown fantastic growth. The ROI of Bitcoin – the leader of the crypto market was more than 6,500%. This means that if you had bought BTC for $100 at the beginning of 2013, the amount of your capital would now exceed $6,500.  A handful of crypto enthusiasts were able to increase their capital by tens or hundreds of times: they have mined a few bitcoins once and forgot about them until they came across news headlines about the extraordinary growth of the cryptocurrency.

This fact attracts many newcomers, and also gives a wide scope for speculation, which is used by many exchanges and other crypto services. They point to these factors to attract as many buyers as possible and get them to deposit money. Under these conditions, it is important for novice users to know that along with the possible increase in capital, there are also risks of losing money. In this article, we will tell you what newcomers should avoid when getting acquainted with cryptocurrencies, to make sure they don’t lose their money. 

What newcomers should know before buying bitcoin

Financial management requires skills. Therefore, the “buy and hold ” strategy will work as effectively as the investor is aware of the principles of investment. Not only the principle itself plays an important role – all the nuances are hidden in the details. Time and the circumstances behind the reasons for buying and selling are of key importance. Without understanding this, one can rely only on luck. In this case, investing will be more like playing in a casino than a calculated business: you place a bet and expect it to play or not. And here we can highlight the first rule, which can be worded as follows: do not buy an asset if you do not know what fundamental factors affect its growth.

The crypto market is very volatile. This means that the exchange rate can change significantly in a short period of time. It happens that cryptocurrencies can grow by 20% – 100% in just one day. But they can also fall just as quickly. This volatility is characterized by relatively low liquidity. The crypto market is quite young compared to the stock and currency markets. The stock market has been around for more than 100 years, and the cryptocurrency market is only about 10 years old. For example, capitalization (the total value of market instruments such as stocks, raw materials, cryptocurrencies, etc.) of the stock market is approximately 400 times higher than the capitalization of the crypto market.

Therefore, just $1 billion dollars can cause noticeable changes in the market, and for a group of large investors and funds, this is not such a large amount, which makes it easy to manipulate crypto assets. Beginners are often “hooked” by the market whales (large investors). This is done in a simple way: whales buy cryptocurrency for a large amount, artificially inflating its rate. Other market participants see this and begin to believe that a wave of growth has started, i.e. the FOMO effect (fear of missed opportunity) is triggered. After purchases by other market participants, the whales sell their coins and sharply collapse the exchange rate, leaving newcomers in the red, and taking profit themselves. This scheme is known as Pump & Dump. At this stage, you can formulate a second rule: avoid emotions when trading and investing.

Emotions when working with finance lower your awareness and make you make quick and thoughtless decisions. When trading, it is always necessary to stay calm and focus on the fundamental factors that are behind the rise or fall in prices for cryptocurrencies or other assets. Figure out why the exchange rate is changing and try to predict further market behavior. Make it a habit to ask yourself these questions every time you see significant movements in the market.

At this point, we smoothly approach one of the most dangerous mistakes of newcomers: the use of leverage when trading cryptocurrency. Leverage allows you to borrow money from a broker or exchange against collateral in the form of a crypto asset stored on an account or deposit. When using leverage, you can both make a huge profit and completely lose your own funds, if you are not lucky, and the forecast turns out to be wrong. Leverage can vary from 10x to 200x or more. The larger the leverage, the higher the risks, respectively. Therefore, beginners are strongly discouraged from resorting to margin trading if they have not yet had enough experience. The conclusion of this phenomenon sounds rather ironic: do not wear shorts if you do not want to remain without pants.

How to buy and sell bitcoin and get a profit

Active cryptocurrency trading carries high risks for both beginners and experienced traders. In addition to volatility risks are associated with fees: with frequent trades, the cost of trading fees will increase. Therefore, for those who want to make a profit without understanding the nuances of trading, it is preferable to invest calmly. You need to choose the right moment, buy a cryptocurrency and store it in your wallet until the rate rises.

After the value of the digital currency has increased, you will be interested in the next question: how to sell bitcoin profitably? You can sell a crypto asset on an exchange, but there are services that allow you to sell cryptocurrency at a higher rate and get more profit. One of such services is the HiRiBi crypto exchange platform. 

The rates on different platforms may differ significantly, but it will take a long time to check all the sites and find the highest rate for selling bitcoin. In addition, while you are doing this, the rate may fall. The hiribi exchange is notable in that it tracks the rates of more than 20 crypto exchanges, which allows holders to sell bitcoin at the 10% or more above the weighted average value of BTC on cryptocurrency exchanges.

HiRiBi supports the exchange of BTC to PayPal USD. The service has a lot of reviews on Trustpilot, and you can contact the support service at any time to resolve any issue. The exchange takes place automatically: after sending the coins you need 2 confirmations of the Bitcoin network and the money is sent to your PayPal wallet.

We have reviewed the main mistakes that novice crypto investors make. Avoid these mistakes to reduce the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies and increase the efficiency of your investments.

How to choose a reliable crypto exchange platform: simple and effective tips

Cryptocurrencies experienced a real boom in 2017 and caused a huge hype around them. This, on the one hand, has encouraged entrepreneurs around the world to develop crypto projects aimed at facilitating user interaction with cryptocurrencies. But on the other hand, such a hype has attracted a lot of scammers who seek to get the money of unscrupulous users by illegal means. We will tell you how to choose a reliable crypto exchange platform if you are interested in buying and selling bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

Signs of a secure exchange

Before determining which bitcoin exchanges are reliable and choosing the right service, you need to identify the key reliability criteria. Among them are:

– Legality. This is an optional point, but it is still very important. This is a dual indicator, since legality and anonymity are usually incompatible parameters. Therefore, the significance of the criteria depends on the individual preferences of the buyer. If you want to maintain complete confidentiality, then use verified exchange platforms without obligatory KYC procedure. But if your financial and legal security is above all else, then choose legalized and regulated crypto exchanges.

– Availability. “Shady” exchanges can either provide services for too limited a number of users, for example, within a specific country or a certain zone, or they are completely blocked in some regions.

– Support of the main payment methods. Pay attention not to the quantity of methods but the quality. Make sure that the service supports not only cryptocurrencies and electronic payment systems such as Skrill, Perfect Money or Payeer. It should support at least one of the following methods: credit cards, PayPal, Advanced Cash, or bank transfers.

– Reputation. It’s no secret what role reputation plays in our lives. One significant failure can cause a serious blow to the company’s reputation. And if the faliure repeats itself from time to time, the service will inevitably crash. Therefore, you should choose sites that exist for at least six months or a year and have collected a sufficient number of positive user reviews.

– Speed. Another important selection criteria. A good service should transfer funds within 15 minutes, or better yet, instantly. The faster the platform transfers money, the more reliable the exchange platform is. If you see hat users often complain about transaction delays, think three times before using this crypto exchange.

– Cryptocurrency exchange rate. For those who want to buy bitcoin (or sell it), the exchange rate will be an equally important criteria. The more popular the exchange platform is, the lower the purchase/sale rate is, at least in most cases. Large exchange platforms may offer low fees, because due to the large monetary turnover, their profit remains high even with small fees. But it still depends on the method of exchange. For example, bank transfers themselves are accompanied by fees, so the rate will be much higher.

– Quality of support. If you doubt the security of the exchange platform, then check how the support works. Try to evaluate how quickly operators respond and how much they try help you to solve issues. Some services only work through the ticket system and email, so the optimal response time for these methods is within 1-2 hours.

Where to buy and sell bitcoin

Bitcoin purchase is most profitable on crypto exchanges, because they offer the lowest rate. This method is less convenient and will also be accompanied by costs, since you must first top up the balance to purchase, but not all exchanges support fiat, and cryptocurrency exchanges charge a fee for making a deposit. Therefore, when buying, calculate the cost to determine where you can buy cryptocurrency low indeed. After that, decide which method to use – more convenient or more profitable one.

If you want to know how to sell bitcoin and get a profit, then the opposite is true: you should be guided by the highest possible price of the cryptocurrency. Much depends on the payment method. Most exchange platforms use bank cards and payment systems. But what is really rare is PayPal support. Just the presence of this method says a lot about reliability, since the payment system is reluctant to work with cryptocurrency services.

The best site for exchanging bitcoin to PayPal Is HiRiBi. The service provides the highest BTC selling rate on the market. Even higher than on crypto exchanges. This high rate can be achieved due to the fact that the platform regularly monitors several cryptocurrency platforms, which allows it to adjust the cost if a more favorable offer is found. The reliability of the service can be judged by real customer reviews on Trustpilot. The service has a lot of positive user reviews.

HiRiBi advantages 

  • The highest selling rate of BTC;
  • PayPal support
  • High exchange speed – the service automatically sends money to the buyer’s wallet after 2 network confirmations;
  • Quality email support. Support usually responds to user requests within an hour.

If you need to sell bitcoin for PayPal USD quickly and profitably, then you will never find anything better than HiRiBi

What will happen to crypto after halving: an overview of possible events

On may 11, 2020, the third halving of bitcoin took place on the block with the serial number 630,000. The reward for miners was decreased by half once again – from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC. That is, if bitcoin network hashrate will remain the same, coins will be mined two times slower, and emission rate will be reduced, which may be an impressive incentive for growth, but only if the demand for bitcoin will rise or at least remain at the same level.

Halving is one of the key events in 2020 not only for bitcoin, but also for the entire crypto industry, which will show what value digital assets carry for the community. The crypto world has to be tested for strength prior to further development. Events that will take place immediately after halving can set the direction of the crypto market development for many months or even years. This is why the result of halving and events that are happening in the market now are so important. In this article, we will look at possible events that await bitcoin after the reward for miners is halved.

Will bitcoin grow in price after halving

Perhaps this is the main question that worries users interested in cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin serves as the leader of the crypto market, and when its rate decreases, altcoins also follow it, and altcoins fall much faster than digital gold due to lower liquidity. We do not predict the exchange rate and do not know, like anyone else, in which direction the price will move, and we only talk about the likely consequences, based on various factors that each investor can evaluate independently, and then draw the appropriate conclusions for themselves.

So, in this section, we will look at the factors that speak in favor of the growth of bitcoin. Based on historical data, we can assume that bitcoin will grow in the long term, and there are several reasons for this:

  • Despite the past hype around cryptocurrencies and a long correction, interest in bitcoin continues to grow not only from ordinary people, but also from institutional investors. The number of futures contracts for bitcoin in the near-halving days on many platforms increased by more than 43%. Some sites have recorded record volumes of contracts;
  • Bitcoin is becoming a more limited asset. With each halving, the issue rate is reduced by about half, which makes the supply more limited and contributes to the natural inflation of the crypto asset price. After the last halving, bitcoin began to be mined more slowly than physical gold, which may favorably affect the investment attractiveness of bitcoin.

Often Internet users also cite the example of previous periods when bitcoin first grew in price before halving, and then after a small correction continued to grow even faster. But this does not guarantee that this will happen again this time.

Will the price of bitcoin fall after halving?

Although many crypto enthusiasts are filled with positive expectations regarding the event, analysts and financial experts of the crypto market urge not to rush and not to build up inflated expectations about the growth of the cryptocurrency. In their opinion, the price is rising because investors expect such growth when halving occurs. And in fact, such a price reaction is already inherent in the development of bitcoin. If you look at the chart, you can see that after each halving, the growth is slower and slower. This is also due to an increase in capitalization: more serious amounts of investment are required for significant growth than before.

The actions of miners also play an important role. Large mining pools have the main computing power, and before halving, they produced more than $1.5 billion in BTC. It is easy to assume that bitcoin pools and crypto exchanges have accumulated a critical mass that can bring down the entire crypto market in an instant. Therefore, it is important whether the miners will remain in order to maintain the functionality of the bitcoin network, or switch to other, more cost-effective to mine cryptocurrencies. Speed and security of the blockchain network depend on the hashrate. If large miners leave bitcoin, the network will be full of transactions that hang for a long time. In this case, bitcoin can be damaged quite seriously. In addition, there will be a serious threat to security: if many large pools leave, then one of them or a group can use their computing power to take over the bitcoin network, organizing a “51 attack”, which will allow them to essentially take over the entire network and, accordingly, all the bitcoins. Keep in mind that the block reward determines the profit miners get.

After every halving, the profitability of mining decreased, and the hashrate somewhat dropped, as some miners stopped mining. You can see their reaction on the figure below. The same thing happened in 2016.

The pattern is repeated in 2020. But note that then the network’s hashrate continued to grow and set new records. But why didn’t the hashrate dropped so much after the last halving, if mining became almost unprofitable? Perhaps companies are finding areas with cheaper electricity and conditions that improve the performance of mining equipment. And they also expect the exchange rate to rise in the future.

So what should I do? Is it better to buy or sell bitcoin now? Keep in mind that the current situation is very different from what it was in 2013 and 2016. Now there are other external factors that can have a positive impact on the development of the crypto industry, such as the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Traditional assets and currencies show a strong dependence on the impact of disasters, political and economic actions both globally and within a particular country. Traditional markets have become no less volatile than the crypto market in the current situation.

Perhaps now is not the best time to buy cryptocurrency. Although it is likely that in the long term, bitcoin will grow, most likely you will still be able to buy it at a lower cost for quite some time. If you are not sure that bitcoin will grow in the near future or think that it may fall, then you need to take care of selling bitcoin profitably.

There are services that allow you to sell bitcoin at a higher price than on many exchanges. One of such services is the HiRiBi crypto exchange platform. You can sell bitcoin and earn more on the exchange than on most other platforms. For example, at the time of writing, the sale rate on the exchange site was $9750 with an average cost of $8865 on exchanges. That is, if you sell one bitcoin, you could get additional revenue of about $880 – this is about 10%.

Advantages of the service:

  • PayPal support;
  • Favorable sale rate;
  • Attractive referral program;
  • Fast payments: you only need 2 network confirmations to automatically send money to your PayPal account.

You can profitably exchange bitcoin to PayPal using HiRiBi service and get a higher profit from investing in bitcoin.

Summary

Whether bitcoin will grow or fall in price depends on one of the main economic indicators: the balance of supply and demand. The price depends on how much people are willing to buy and sell an asset for. When there is a low demand for an asset, as for any product, the price decreases – this is the basis of the market. Conversely, with increasing demand, the price also increases. Thus, much is based on investors expectations. If bitcoin does not meet their expectations, then we can expect a new deep stage of correction. But at present there are no serious reasons to believe that will really happen.

How to start trading cryptocurrency: a simple guide for beginners

Among crypto enthusiasts, the BUY & HOLD approach is very common, i.e. they simply buy a cryptocurrency and hold it on their wallet. Many newcomers are attracted to the volatility of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which can grow in price by 100% or more in just a few hours. And in the long run, cryptocurrencies can bring incredible profits. For example, if you invested in bitcoin at the beginning of 2013 and still kept it in a crypto wallet, by now the yield would exceed 7000%, meaning your portfolio would grow by 70 times. Sounds fascinating, doesn’t it?

However, as the number of investors and trade turnover increases, growth is not as fast as it used to be. In addition, the cryptocurrency does not always grow. There are long periods of correction when the price continues to fall rapidly. For example, by the end of 2018, bitcoin had fallen by more than 80% relative to the historical high in 2017. Therefore, some crypto enthusiasts prefer trading to investing, since you can make a profit on the waves of growth and fall of the bitcoin exchange rate. But, in fact, this approach is much more difficult and requires higher skills. The risks of losing money when trading are higher than when investing, because the number of transactions increases significantly, and a trader can make a lot of mistakes in crypto trading. In this simple guide, we will tell you how to start trading cryptocurrencies and what are the main mistakes beginners make when using crypto exchanges.

Trading carries high risk with it

We must first answer the question: why do some people lose money, while others win and make a profit? It’s just a matter of experience. Keep in mind that everyone makes mistakes, including professional traders. They just make them less often and know how to reduce the negative consequences of losing trades. When a trader first starts trading, he is ready to chase any trade that promises him a profit, like a donkey chases a carrot. This happens as follows: a novice sees how the crypto asset is growing and begins to buy it feverishly, without thinking about the likely risks. It often happens that after a little time there is a collapse, and the novice cryptotrader loses money. Also beginners tend to buy a large amount of a single asset relative to their deposit. This is another of the main beginners mistakes. Let’s look at the main mistakes made by beginners that lead to the drain of the deposit.

Common mistakes committed by novice crypto traders

The first error was described in the previous chapter. This phenomenon is also known as the FOMO effect (fear of lost opportunity). A novice, watching a growing asset, blindly follows the market, thinking that the cryptocurrency will continue to grow. Of course, it may be so – it all depends on the activity (or greed) of other buyers, as well as on the patience of sellers. But what is certain is that this will not last long. Especially if this is an artificially pumped growth, and not an increase in buyers caused by objective external factors. If you find that you succumbed to a momentary impulse and made such a risky deal, then put a stop loss to fix the level of losses that you are ready to incur in the event of a strong collapse of the cryptocurrency. The price may return to the previous level that was before the pump, or even lower, as a rapid fall can cause a panic wave of sales.

The next mistake is to follow your emotions. Trading is primarily analysis and cold calculation based on mathematical modeling, not a game of roulette. A crypto trader has to be able to abstract from emotions to predict events, exploring the laws of the market. This is a skill that is developed over the years. Therefore, the more time you devote to training, the more effective your trades will be, and the better you will control risks.

How to start

To start trading, you have to to create an account on the crypto exchange and a blockchain wallet to which you will withdraw profits or where you will store part of the funds for insurance. Then you need to learn the basics of risk management. There are a lot of courses on this topic on the Internet, and they are available in the public domain. You should know that there are multiple markets: spot, margin and futures. If you are a beginner, you should start with the spot market, which does not involve the use of leverage, since margin trading significantly increases the risk of losing money, especially for beginners.

Cryptocurrency trading differs from other types of trading since crypto assets can be traded not only against fiat but also against bitcoin or altcoins. Thus, the approach to trading will also differ. For example, if a trader seeks to increase the number of bitcoins on his account, and trades in pairs with BTC. Then it can use cryptocurrency for hedging, and convert altcoins to bitcoin in case of their correction.

When traders accumulate a sufficient amount on the balance of the crypto exchange, or in the case when they want to fix a part of the deposit in fiat after bitcoin growth wave, they exchange bitcoin for fiat currencies. The exchange rate on many crypto exchanges is different, so a trader can find a more profitable platform where you can sell bitcoin more expensive than on a trading platform.

One of these marketplaces is the HiRiBi exchange platform. Using the platform, you can exchange Bitcoin for PayPal USD at a high rate –  higher than on most crypto exchanges. Such a high rate can be achieved on  HiRiBi due to the fact that the platform regularly monitors several crypto exchanges, which allows you to offer sellers a more favorable rate. In addition, you do not have to pay additional fees when transferring from one exchange to another. The fee is already taken into account when the rate was calculated.

Through HiRiBi, you can sell bitcoin for 10% more than the average market value. The bonus amount depends on the current exchange rate on cryptocurrency exchanges. The service only supports the exchange of BTC for PayPal, and is one of the few platforms that works with this payment system.

We hope that you have figured out how to start getting acquainted with crypto trading and what mistakes should be avoided so as not to incur serious financial losses. Remember that the main goal of a trader is to buy low and sell high. Therefore, use any available tools that will effectively help you achieve this goal.

How to buy and sell Bitcoin in Kenya

Cryptocurrencies experienced their boom in 2017, but despite a long correction, demand for them remains at a high level. And Kenya has a leading position in terms of trade volumes in Africa. According to statistics, Bitcoin assets account for more than 2% of the country’s total GDP.

Why are cryptocurrencies so popular? If you try to explain in detail what digital assets are, then you can write an entire encyclopedia on this topic. We will not go into detail and describe the key advantages briefly. Cryptocurrencies have many advantages:

  • Decentralization. Bitcoin is based on distributed blockchain technology. This means that the system does not have a single access center. Users have full control over their funds and are free to use them as they please;
  • Privacy. In order to use digital currencies, you do not have to disclose your identity;
  • Universality. Cryptocurrencies are easy to buy and sell anywhere in the world, which is not true for fiat currencies. If you transfer dollars to a person living in another part of the world, they will have to somehow convert them into the local currency with associated costs, not counting the transfer fees. But you can send them bitcoins for just a few cents;
  • Speed Of course, Bitcoin is inferior in terms speed to more modern cryptocurrencies and payment systems, such as Visa or Mastercard. But transactions are faster than bank transfers.

Let’s look at several ways to buy bitcoin in Kenya using credit cards, bank transfers, electronic payment systems and other methods.

How to buy Bitcoin in Kenya

There are many cryptocurrency platforms that allow you to buy and sell Bitcoin. Kenya does not regulate the market, but many international services are available for this country regardless. Let’s list the most popular ways to buy digital assets.

Note. Prior to buying cryptocurrency, you have to take care of storage. You will need a cryptocurrency wallet for that. There are many different types of wallets: desktop, online, mobile, hardware, and even paper ones. They are also divided into two types according to the principle of operation — “light” and “heavy”. Here are some of them that are popular among users:

  • Bitcoin Core (the official Bitcoin wallet);
  • Electrum (desktop or mobile wallet);
  • Blockchain.com (online wallet);
  • Ledger (hardware wallet).

Cryptocurrency exchanges

Cryptocurrency exchanges allow you to exchange cryptocurrencies at the market rate. This method is more suitable for those who are going to trade actively, since the exchange process is more complicated: you need to replenish your account balance, exchange, and then withdraw funds.

Binance

Binance is one of the largest and most popular crypto exchanges in the world. The daily trading volume of the platform may exceed $2 billion.

Pros:

  • Favorable rate;
  • High liquidity;
  • Low exchange fees;

Cons:

  • Inconvenience
  • Additional withdrawal fees.

Coinbase

Another major trading platform. Coinbase is also one of the few regulated crypto exchanges. The exchange is registered in FinCEN and is legal in the US, but it is not as popular due to certain restrictions.

Pros:

  • Favorable exchange rate and low fees;
  • High liquidity;
  • Proprietary wallet and credit card.

Cons:

  • Mandatory verification, user transactions can be tracked;
  • Payment methods selection is limited;
  • Not available in all countries (Kenya is supported).

Exchange platforms

Exchange platforms make it easier and faster to sell Bitcoin, but the exchange rate is usually higher than on the exchanges. This is a great way for those who want to invest in Bitcoin for long-term storage.

Paxful

This is a major international P2P exchange platform available in many cities around the world. Paxful launched in 2015 and aims for a mass adoption, allowing as many users as possible to access crypto assets.

Pros:

  • Easy and convenient exchange process;
  • A wide variety of payment methods;
  • High limits

Cons:

  • Rates are higher than on exchanges;
  • The exchange process takes more than on exchanges.

How to sell Bitcoin in Kenya

For sale, you can use the same exchanges and platforms that we listed earlier. But there is one service that should be paid special attention to — this is a cryptocurrency exchange platform HiRiBi.com.

HiRiBi exchange platform

HiRiBi allows to exchange Bitcoin for PayPal. This fact alone is enough to set it apart. The exchange happens automatically: your money is transferred to your account immediately after two confirmations in the bitcoin network. The main feature is that you can sell bitcoin at the highest rate, which is higher than the market rate by 10% or more. This is achieved due to the fact that the service monitors large trading platforms and looks for the most profitable exchange rate.

Pros:

  • PayPal support
  • The highest rate for selling Bitcoin
  • Automatic accrual (almost like on exchanges);
  • Qualified support

Cons:

  • BTC-PayPal is the only exchange direction available.

Despite the fact that Haribi only supports the sale of BTC, it remains perhaps the best platform for those who are looking for a way to sell bitcoin in Kenya.

Summary

Now you know how to buy and sell Bitcoin in Kenya. We have reviewed popular platforms for buying cryptocurrencies. But if you want to sell bitcoin, we recommend paying attention to Haribi, because it offers the highest BTC rate possible.