Of course, as an investor all this should give you pause. Your goal should always be to buy low and sell high. And while no one knows where cryptocurrency prices are headed next, recent record prices make it that much harder for investors who buy in today to reap future profits.
How to buy and sell cryptocurrency with Coinbase
It’s time to pick your cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash — the four types of cryptocurrency available for PayPal customers to buy and sell — are among the safest, Hanna Halaburda, an associate professor at NYU Stern School of Business, previously told Money. Since they’re among the most popular and expensive cryptocurrencies, there is more computational power put into maintaining their blockchain, the technology behind cryptocurrencies, making them more expensive for hackers to attack. They have also been around for years, so if there was a bug, we would likely know about it, she adds.
For most investors, buying a bitcoin which has had a price as high as nearly $67,000 per coin likely isn’t an option. Ethereum costs more than $4,000 per coin and even Litecoin, at over $200, may be more than you want to spend. But Coinbase allows users to buy a small fraction of a coin. It’s common for investing apps like Robinhood to allow traders to buy fractional shares — like investing $25 in Amazon instead of the more than $3,000 you would need to buy a full share. With Coinbase, traders can buy or sell as little as $2 worth of digital currency.