My friends, today I'm going to tell you what I've learned in eight years of experience buying, selling, investing, trading, and even getting burnt out, quitting crypto, and coming back. I'll show you my actual portfolio today — everything I'm holding — and I'm going to give you key lessons that will drastically speed up your success with crypto. I know crypto is difficult. I know because I swear I've made every mistake you can make. I'm sure somebody else has made some other mistake, but I bought Bitcoin in 2014. I made a video showing exactly how I could have become an effortless millionaire by buying a little bit of Bitcoin every day, and I didn't follow my own advice. I got fancy. But see, now I've got valuable experience I can share with you, and I think there are massive opportunities. There's a lot of opportunity in the future for crypto.
Why I See Crypto as a Global Revolution
To me, crypto operates on the collective human level, which is where I aim to spend as much time and energy as possible — focusing on connecting consciously with all humans on this planet and off. How can this body serve the seven billion other people? What is the will of the seven billion people on this planet combined? It seems the cryptocurrency revolution we're seeing is the people collectively saying, look, we're sick of this unfair financial system, which is leaving people across the earth unnecessarily in poverty. Our current financial system, with the U.S. dollar reigning supreme and each government issuing its own currencies, is a very unfair and unstable system that promotes war and violence and control and oppression of people. And I see cryptocurrencies as our answer — Bitcoin may be becoming the global reserve currency in the future, with many of these other cryptocurrencies having utility, being used, and allowing for innovation.
That's my big view of crypto, and it's very important to start with, because when I first got into crypto, I kind of thought, well, this is a great way for me to make money. In my experience, you don't want to operate on that level of thinking, because that's selfish, self-centered thinking. You want to think about the entire picture of all people on earth. To me, participating in crypto and helping with crypto adoption is providing a better financial future for all people on the planet — more fair and transparent financial systems. And when you look at participating in crypto and investing with that mindset — that I want to invest in a way that's going to help give a fair system to everybody, that's going to help communities and projects that have potential to help other people thrive — then you're going to be more stable when you get into it.
Lesson One: Stop Thinking Selfishly
So the first lesson is to stop thinking selfishly about your crypto and your portfolio and start thinking globally — like, hey, I'm assisting a worldwide financial revolution, and I want to do so in a way that helps other people have a better life. Because people who are comfortable rarely go around stealing things from other people. When you're desperate and you're so poor you can barely eat, and you're looking at it like, hey, if I steal something, maybe I can feed my family today or we starve to death — a lot of people are living in that reality today, and that makes things pretty rough. We can fix that with our financial system and by changing our consciousness.
When I invested in crypto selfishly, it was all about making my profits. What can I buy to make money? What can I buy to get rich? And when you're operating selfishly, you'll know it, because you go through all these huge emotional swings. Like, oh my God, I'm going to buy this and I'm going to make all this money — that's the high, the euphoria. And then the downswing of that is fear. You'll often buy high and sell low, in my experience, if you're operating on that level. Or you'll make some money and you'll make some profits for sure, but you'll also take some big losses, get really frustrated, and you might even quit messing with crypto in general.
This is also why a lot of people just don't interact with crypto at all — out of self-centered fear. Like, well, I don't want to lose any money on Bitcoin, so I'm just going to keep all my money in stocks. Which, in my view, helps the richest people in the world stay rich and have power and control over others. There's too much money in the stock market. We need to scale that back — it's centralizing power and control way too much, and crypto is a great alternative to the stock market. If you've got this fear — well, I don't want to lose any money — realize you're losing money with your money sitting in the bank through inflation. And if you want to make a better world, look at the companies that have so much money because of the stock market: they're just buying all these other companies up and holding huge levels of power and control. So I personally don't put anything in the stock market. My crypto is my entire retirement portfolio, and it seems like the more we keep going forward, this is where we're headed. I hope I can give you a vision for the future of crypto, because with crypto, if you're investing selfishly and you don't have a vision for the future, you'll lose a lot of money.
Don't Sweat the Price Charts
One thing — you are welcome to look at price charts, but don't sweat the price charts. Do not sweat the day-to-day price charts. You'll know you're in a selfish, short-term mindset if you're constantly sweating them. I look at my portfolio and I'm like, hey, it dropped $300 today — so what? I'm not selling. You don't lose any money unless you sell. If I sold my whole crypto portfolio right now, I would take losses. But since I'm not selling anything, I may be holding on to what in the future will be massive gains. If I don't sell today, I don't take any losses today. It's just imaginary numbers. So do not look at the price charts all the time in a state of fear — that's just a state of frustration and impatience.
If you're doing that, realize you can look at the charts with interest, with excitement instead. I keep an eye on the price charts looking at what's a good buy. I get excited when the price goes up or down — I generally feel the worst when it just stays flat. Like, well, something move! As they say in science, nothing happens until something moves. I'm looking at what's going to bottom out where I can buy it, and what do I already have that's pumping. Either way, if you want to look at these price charts and feel better: when something goes down, you get excited because you can buy more. When something pumps, you get excited because you already have it. And therefore down markets, up markets, and even flat markets mean you can save up some more cash and be ready to buy.
So I'm looking at these price charts — I check the charts most days — and I'm asking, well, what's on sale? What's a good value? What do I want? Some of these things I'd like to buy, and I'd like to wait for them to go down. Others, like, I'm thinking about getting some FTX token — Superman Crypto thinks that's got potential to be the next Binance — and I'm looking to pick up some BNB. I'm keeping an eye on it, like, if I see this drop a little more, I'll be ready. The point is: be aware of the energy you have when you're looking at the price charts.
Two Big Lessons from My Portfolio: Buy and Hold, and Diversify
So here's my portfolio today, and there are two huge lessons from this particular portfolio. One is: buy and hold. If you're going to buy something, commit to it. Look at it like you're saying "I do." Right now, in my portfolio, I've got about $1,400 of Bitcoin — 0.07791 Bitcoin — and I'm saying, I do. I'm going to hold this 0.07791 Bitcoin indefinitely. There's no way I'm selling this Bitcoin until I can get at least twenty-plus thousand dollars out of it at a minimum, because I believe Bitcoin has that kind of future ahead of it.
And that takes us into lesson number two: diversify — spread your risk. Because crypto is risky and it's uncertain. Look at the stock market: if you had just bought across the whole stock market at any point and held on for the long term, you would win big. Now, if you had gone all in on one particular company, that could have been a big loss. It's the same principle in crypto. Being in here with a purely "how do I get money out of this" mindset, without a vision for the future, will take you into a place where you go all in on stuff, over-commit, sometimes make big profits, sometimes take big losses, trading and staring at the charts all day. These are all related, but the two lessons I'm going to repeat again: buy and hold, and do not go all in on one coin — because then what happens when everything but that one goes up?
I tried being a Bitcoin maximalist for a few months, and well, it's just annoying to watch Ethereum go up 80% while Bitcoin goes up 20%. I want to be in on the action. So a diverse portfolio is nice, because while everything's down today, I don't really care. And even if one thing pumps like 40% while the rest of the portfolio goes down, that's fun, and I'm probably even. And then if any of these 100x — if any of them 100x — now I'm in a whole different position.
That way, even if the rest of the portfolio goes down, I'm probably even if they all go to zero. If one 100Xs, I've come out way ahead. And on a collective level, I've supported a project that, if it 100Xs, people are really excited about. Realistically, I think very few of anything I'm holding now will go toward zero. However, you never know in the long term. Maybe in the long term Ripple will lose the lawsuit and just die — that's fine. I bought $500 of it, and I can afford to lose that.
Lesson One: Don't Trade — Minimize Your Transactions
So, lesson number one — and I'm doing this freestyle, I don't use scripts, because if you really know what you're talking about, you don't need a script. Lesson number one is don't trade. Minimize your transactions. You take a guaranteed loss every time you buy and sell, from the trading fee and the spread. So minimize your transactions. I've had hundreds of transactions this year, and going forward I want to minimize the amount of transactions I make, because every single transaction, if you're in the US, you need to have records of for taxes and such. Transactions make your life more difficult. So if you're going to get in on something, make sure it's worth it and make sure you can hold it for the long term.
That's why, when I put $500 into something, if I lose that, I can stand to lose it. But the more you have in something, the more pressure there will be to sell it. When I was holding $20,000 in Bitcoin, I was feeling massive pressure to sell. Whereas now I've got $5,000 spread across all these different cryptos, and I don't have more than $1,500 in any one in particular, so I don't feel pressure to sell. So what — my Ripple went down $35? The parking cost at the airport from my vacation was $120. It's $35 — who cares? My Bitcoin dropped 1%? There it goes, $14. So what?
Diversify and Rebalance
A diverse portfolio really helps to maintain stability over time, because you can very easily dump one asset, but dumping a bunch of assets takes a lot more work, and your mind says that's going to be annoying and take some time. I definitely don't want to go through and dump my whole portfolio. The nice thing is, you can rebalance. You can rebalance your portfolio. If something 20Xs, you could unload half of it and then put it into some other things, or just take that money to the bank. So I've learned so much with crypto that I'm finally in a great position for success.
Now, if you've been in crypto a long time, another big thing to do is just forgive yourself, and realize — you know what? It's more interesting the way it is. It's unreasonable to expect that I should have made every single perfect trade and made this huge profit that other people wouldn't. I had hundreds of Ethereum when it was like $10, and I sent it all away to pay for a transaction. I had like $1,500 of Ethereum when it was at $10, and I actually quit doing crypto for a while because I was so butthurt about all the profits I missed out on.
Staking and Getting Off Centralized Exchanges
My Ethereum will be staked. I bought some Coinbase staked wrapped Ethereum because it was a little bit cheaper, and I will stake my Ethereum on Coinbase. Another tip: do make sure you get as much of your crypto as possible off centralized exchanges. However, this is also a good place for diversification. Right now, my Bitcoin is not on an exchange, and my Cronos is on a different exchange. All the rest of these are on Coinbase, but I'm going to move most of them off of Coinbase. You want diversity in how you're holding your crypto and in which cryptos you have, and you want to hold as much off exchanges as possible. That said, unless you've got 32 Ethereum, you're going to need to stake your Ethereum somewhere to get the return on it. So I'm staking my Ethereum on Coinbase, I've got my Cronos staked on Crypto.com, and I'm going to move most of the rest off into other wallets.
What's nice is that if you have some crypto on centralized exchanges, it's harder to lose in a lot of ways. If I lose my Bitcoin wallet file or my private keys — however I lose them, whether I lose them myself or somebody else loses them — or I lose the password, then I could lose all my Bitcoin. Whereas with my Cronos staked on Crypto.com, I could fool around and lose about everything, and just send them my driver's license and get access to my crypto again. And in that respect, I can go to the DMV and get another license. With crypto on exchanges, I think there's a balance. You want some on exchanges, some off exchanges — as much off exchanges as possible. That said, in some instances it's better to have it on an exchange. So: diverse portfolio, don't have it all on exchanges. I'd say you want at least half off of exchanges, and diversity in terms of your assets. I'll tell you, at my highest point in crypto, I had six hundred thousand dollars in Steem all sitting in one wallet, and man, I was nervous. I'm like, man, if somebody hacks this wallet, I'm going to lose a half million dollars. Then I had to forgive myself, because I only sold about a hundred thousand of it.
How I've Made — and Lost — Money in Crypto
Some people ask: why, after losing money with crypto, would I seriously buy more? I've actually made thousands of dollars with crypto this year even as it's gone down, and I've made hundreds of thousands of dollars with crypto since 2014. The only reasons I've lost money on crypto were trading it and over-investing. And yes, some of the gains I made were because I traded it and because I over-invested. For example, I bought a thousand Dash at eleven dollars each, obsessively promoted it for three months, then sold it for eighty-seven thousand dollars. I did the same thing with Steem — I bought a whole bunch of Steem at like a dollar, pumped it to four dollars, and ended up selling, I don't know, hundreds of thousands. So I've made lots of money with crypto.
But I could have done even better. If I'd held on just a little bit longer, I could have sold that same eighty-seven thousand dollars of Dash for over a million. If I would have held some of my Steem longer, I could have sold it for a lot more — instead, I sold my Steem from four dollars all the way down to the bottom at like 10 cents. The two reasons I lost money in crypto were over-committing — putting way more than I could afford to lose in — and trading: paying a bunch of money just trading back and forth in fees, and buying something purely with the intention to trade it. If you look at my crypto portfolio, I imagine with those assets I probably will have $50,000 to $100,000 in crypto within a year or a few years, and I probably will put a few thousand more in before that happens. Crypto to me is a financial revolution, and in the short term it may go up, it may go down, but in the long term I believe there's a ton more money coming into crypto.
Money That Makes More Money
It's all about the passive income. How do the richest people in the world make most of their money? Through having money that makes more money — through investments, through assets. Most people in the world work for money, but the richest people in the world simply get more money just for having money. What a great system: if you already have money, we'll give you more money, and if you don't have any money, you'd better go to work. To me, crypto is giving everybody access to a system where even if you have a little bit of money, just holding on to it will give you more.
Our financial system right now is so consumer-centric. By having inflation, you constantly have to spend your money to buy assets in order to just keep your wealth over time, whereas if you just sit in the bank with your money, your spending power goes down over time. Crypto is giving us a way out of that, which is why I don't think we want to regulate it at all — this is very good for people financially in the long term. It's scary to try something new, and it can be confusing, but in my experience, one of the best things I've ever done financially is get involved in crypto. And it's still really early.
The Advice I Wish I'd Followed
I got in so early that I didn't have a long-term enough vision — I got into making money quick. My original advice was better: in 2015, I put out a video when Bitcoin was several hundred dollars, instead of almost $20,000, and I said, if you want to do well with Bitcoin, all you need to do is buy a little bit of Bitcoin every day, every week, or every month, and hold it until it goes way up. If I'd have literally followed my own advice, I'd have millions of dollars in crypto today, and I would have sold millions of dollars' worth by now. I'd probably have at least 10, maybe 30 or 40 Bitcoin, and have sold about the same amount. I could have made way more money with almost no effort at all — and all I would have needed to do is just what I'm doing today. I bought Ethereum for $9. I had like 150 Ethereum. Do the math on that today — multiply by 100, that's $120,000. The Ethereum I sent away and sold for like $12 each — look how much that is today. What's worked for me: diversify, buy, hold. And when you realize massive gains, then you think about selling and balancing your portfolio out.
I appreciate the chance to share my experience with you. I am grateful for my experience today, because a lot of you are new to crypto, and I just gave you eight years of experience here. This is what I'm doing today. Every month I'm planning on updating you with my crypto portfolio — maybe every time I buy something, I'll show you exactly what I bought. I'm just going to hold on to this. I've got $5,000 today. Let's see how much it's worth a year from now, and a few more years from now.
Where to Keep Up With Me
We'd love to see you on Twitch, or just keep watching on YouTube — you can also find more of my videos on money and business in my Crypto Reviews playlist. And if you're on the Jerry Banfield Show podcast, thanks for listening here. If you're anywhere else, the podcast is the easiest way to just listen and keep up with the non-gaming stuff over time.