With the bull run of BTC upon us, and Bitcoin surpassing the $10,000 benchmark, now might be as good a time as ever to use your BTC before the volatility heads back south. It’s been a while since we got above this psychological breakpoint, and many analysts suggest that eventually, Bitcoin will sink lower again. On the other hand, we might be in for much higher values by 2021.
Here are five ways that crypto holders can shed, diversify, or leverage digital coins if they feel like short-term BTC growth is not in the cards.
Offline Staking
One of the most popular ways to use crypto assets today is the practice of staking, where users simply tie their crypto to a blockchain and collect value in the form of available staking rewards.
Most of the staking programs operate “online”, meaning you need to deposit your crypto into a full custodial smart contract or exchange, but recently some top selected projects and platforms have been beginning to offer much safer, offline staking options – Where you don’t lose custody of your crypto.
One such project is veteran Eth competitor Qtum, who is expected to launch its upcoming offline staking wallet in the near future. Qtum’s protocol enables the average user to truly be their own bank by not just storing their crypto and earning rewards for themselves, but by allowing users to offer services to others, like staking and taking a fee without taking custody of them.
Unlike other proof-of-stake networks that utilize token delegations, there’s no limit to the number of nodes in Qtum. With Offline Staking, users can run a node for their friends and collect a fee without ever touching their coins. Users can also delegate their coins to their own online node or a service provider from their phone, hardware wallet, or web wallet
Earn Double-Digit Interest
In addition to getting into tokenized assets, cryptocurrency holders who have been through Bitcoin swings and other changes can also elect to put their cryptocurrency values into platforms like Cred to earn equitable interest that they couldn’t otherwise get in traditional markets.
In the days when fiat currency depositors can barely hope to get 1% or 2% annually on their money, Cred, in the interest of what the firm calls “greed-free investing,” is offering a full 10% interest on cryptocurrency assets. So, in many cases, investors don’t need to really do anything – they just put their money into Cred and let the interest payments roll in. This is a great short-term or long-term strategy for parking assets when you don’t want to keep betting on the market for one reason or another.
Invest In Tokenized Assets
This is truly the broadest option for using accumulated cryptocurrency assets.
The world of tokenized assets is quickly expanding. It covers such wide vistas as equities, bonds, commodities, real estate, and much more.
Nearly anything that can be traded can be assigned a token, or ‘tokenized,’ as an asset. In many cases, this eliminates labor-intensive processes for trust and verification. It also makes traditional assets much more versatile. Imagine trading (or just holding) a tokenized piece of an iconic real estate asset such as the Empire State Building, and you’ll see how wide open the opportunities are with tokenized assets. No mortgage required! For best results, though, if you are wary about market volatility or the printing of money by the Fed, choose those tokenized assets that track least with the equities market. For example, tokenized asset choices available through Currency.com allow for this kind of key hedging.
Blockchain-Based Provably Fair Gaming
For those who love to wager on a good game, the provably fair gaming industry can be a great way to utilize crypto assets.
With blockchain provably fair gaming, the decentralized and open nature of the ledger technology ensures that the dealer or other partner is not cheating on payouts or anything else. Because data on the blockchain is immutable and transparent, players can see exactly what the transactions are, so there’s “no funny business.”
In a way, sporting events complement verifiable gaming platforms in a big way. That’s because it’s impossible to fudge the numbers on the actual outcomes – the gameplay and scoring, etc. With that said, sports betting doesn’t have to have the same scrutiny into algorithms that has to accompany online casino games like craps or roulette.
Players can use platforms like FortuneJack, which accommodates a wide variety of wagering options with various cryptocurrencies. With these kinds of decentralized finance tools, cryptocurrency holders can invest in sports outcomes as a way of actively using the value they have aggregated over time, instead of just passively waiting to beat inflation.
Use Crypto for International Transactions
Maybe there is a business asset you’d like to purchase in a cross-border transaction. If you’re into flag theory, you may be looking for a good piece of foreign real estate. Or, you might want to send money home from abroad.
Cryptocurrencies are great resources for international transactions because they eliminate those traditional payment methods and technologies that take a lot of time and effort. SWIFT transfers are something that seems archaic today, but fiat currencies are still handled in these sorts of ways. Bypass that tollbooth with easy ‘frictionless’ crypto transfers.
Buy Back Cash
Since Bitcoin has crested 10,000, some traders are going to divest themselves of the cryptocurrency by purchasing back into their fiat market. Then, on the dip, they will buy Bitcoin, or some other altcoin, again.
This strategy of buying on the dip is one that can help you accrue value over time, but because of the volatility, it can also be tricky. Others are buying and holding cryptocurrencies for the long term with the understanding and the hope that they will blossom over time. The aforementioned Cred interest rate is one attractive reason to go with this kind of strategy.
Any of these strategies can be a winning way to ride out lulls in BTC value growth, and keep your net worth working actively for you.
