What You Need to Know if Your First Crypto Experience was During the Super Bowl

Important lessons any new cryptocurrency investor needs to know

So you watched the Super Bowl and the Coinbase advertisement got your attention. Or maybe it was the FTX commercial.

Either way, if this is your first experience in cryptocurrencies, welcome to the club. This is possibly the greatest transfer of wealth that you are witnessing today.

To be honest, I don’t see stocks or real estate changing your life unless you have millions of dollars available to invest.

We are still in the early stages of the market. You could consider that cryptocurrencies are in the mid-1990s when the internet was just beginning.

Back then, several websites emerged but not every company is still here today. Well, the same is true for cryptocurrencies. Not every cryptocurrency will be here 20 years from now.

The granddaddy of them all Bitcoin is likely to be here. It’s the original crypto and the cryptocurrency that gets compared to all the other alternative currencies or altcoins that aren’t named Bitcoin.

Ethereum could even be lumped with Bitcoin since this cryptocurrency has emerged as the second main cryptocurrency in the market. Ethereum and Bitcoin are gateways that allow you to buy other cryptocurrencies if the exchange doesn’t take fiat currency or your dollar.

Generally, to buy another cryptocurrency, you either need fiat, Bitcoin, or Ethereum. Some exchanges allow you to buy a cryptocurrency with your fiat currency. Others don’t.

Don’t let someone tell you the wrong information. Once you sell a cryptocurrency, that could be a taxable exchange of your money from the trade. You will need to report this information when you file your taxes or pay a nice little fine for not disclosing this.

Make sure you reference the information on the IRS page, your tax software, or even better, your tax accountant. Just make sure your accountant knows the cryptocurrency rules because some don’t.

If they don’t know how to help you file your taxes, then find someone else. You don’t want the headache of refiling your taxes when the IRS wants to verify your cryptocurrency information.

It’s better to get this right the first time.

4 Ways you can educate yourself about cryptocurrencies

Just as investing most likely wasn’t taught to you in school, investing in cryptocurrencies surely wasn’t either.

So you need to spend some time learning about this market.

1. You can watch hours of YouTube

There is a lot of information on YouTube to learn about cryptocurrencies. Some videos are good but others are really bad.

You may not have the time to see what sites are better than others.

I have watched thousands of hours on cryptocurrencies and can tell you there is a learning process. Initially, it will be a firehouse coming at you explaining what is a cryptocurrency or the many cryptos that are other there.

Many videos are not aimed to help a new crypto investor. So you’ll be playing catch up with many sites.

2. You can read dozens of books

The next step is reading books on cryptocurrencies. Some books will give you a basic understanding. Then others will take you to an advanced level and confuse you unless you understand programming.

Plus, you will spend hours reading the information.

3. You can read articles from cryptocurrency websites

The next step is reading articles online. You’ll get the current picture of where crypto is today and why a cryptocurrency rose or fell.

Most articles give you a picture of today and some may give you a historical snapshot at one period in time.

There is nothing wrong with any of the videos, books, or online articles. In fact, it’s just a lot of information for you to digest all at once. Plus you need hours to spend time learning.

So you’ll need to do a little of everything. I do caution you when reading cryptocurrency articles from mainstream media. Many of these analysts are not well-read into the market. A few could even leave you more confused.

But I saved the best for last.

4. You can follow me and read my articles that I share for free.

I have a catalog of articles that cover the basics all the way to some investing tips to taxes to NFTs.

Personally, I don’t chase the get-rich-quick cryptos that are controlled by investors who own a large portion of the market. You’ll see them as you may have heard about Dogecoin or others.

I don’t invest in these but trade them. I buy and sell these more frequently than other cryptocurrencies.

As a freebie, I don’t put my cryptocurrency articles behind Medium’s paywall so you should be able to read all of my cryptocurrency articles from my page for free.

If you haven’t, you need to go here, and then bookmark the page. I try to update the page often on the latest cryptocurrency article that I’ve written.

So, welcome to the world of cryptocurrencies.

One useful tool you can try is FeederFinance. Decentralized Finance or DeFi has a lot of options available.

Tom Handy is a top Crypto writer on Medium. He is open to partnerships and you can find him on Twitter @tomhandy1 and email [email protected].

This article is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information will be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any significant financial decisions.