A few months ago I helped a friend setup a Kraken account to buy some BTC. This guy is completely tech-/crypto-illiterate. To him, Bitcoin, Ripple, Stellar, DOGE, are all equivalent.
A few weeks later he told me that BTC was too expensive for him to buy (a common newbie reaction). I explained to him that 1 BTC = 1000 mBTC, etc., so even 0.1 BTC is still a good investment. He ignored my advice. Using common sense, he concluded that the only chance he has to quickly multiply his investment would be to buy cheaper altcoins, because, according to his thinking, if they're cheap they have the potential to grow much faster and much more than BTC.
He bought a few altcoins. No BTC. His two biggest purchases were 10000 Ripple and 10000 Stellar Lumens. He paid about 2000 € for both purchases.
Today, his crypto stash is valued in excess of 30000 € (a 15x gain), with the majority of the gains coming from XRP and XLM. All this in just 4 months! Had he followed my advice, he would have less than 1/4 of what he has now...
I told him that he should consider buying some BTC, but he's blinded by his unexpected gains and is now determined to ride the Ripple/Stellar wave until the end. I just hope he won't be disappointed when the trend reverses and the bank-coins start losing value (or BTC does a 10x again this year)...
A few weeks later he told me that BTC was too expensive for him to buy (a common newbie reaction). I explained to him that 1 BTC = 1000 mBTC, etc., so even 0.1 BTC is still a good investment. He ignored my advice. Using common sense, he concluded that the only chance he has to quickly multiply his investment would be to buy cheaper altcoins, because, according to his thinking, if they're cheap they have the potential to grow much faster and much more than BTC.
He bought a few altcoins. No BTC. His two biggest purchases were 10000 Ripple and 10000 Stellar Lumens. He paid about 2000 € for both purchases.
Today, his crypto stash is valued in excess of 30000 € (a 15x gain), with the majority of the gains coming from XRP and XLM. All this in just 4 months! Had he followed my advice, he would have less than 1/4 of what he has now...
I told him that he should consider buying some BTC, but he's blinded by his unexpected gains and is now determined to ride the Ripple/Stellar wave until the end. I just hope he won't be disappointed when the trend reverses and the bank-coins start losing value (or BTC does a 10x again this year)...
He's not wrong, but it would be good to be able to quickly trade his gains back into BTC.
I do alts too, but in the end you need to either get back into BTC or into fiat, if there is a direct exchange for Ripple/USD or Stellar/USD.
There are tons of small altcoin only exchanges that don't ask for any info other an email address.