Diving down the crypto rabbit hole for the first time, traders are confronted with a choice: Buy bitcoin — the first and biggest cryptocurrency — or delve into the world of altcoins.
Bitcoin vs Altcoins
Whether you opt for the security and brand value of bitcoin or the allure of altcoins, that’s totally personal, and depends on your own risk tolerance and investing philosophy. To make deciding easier, most major exchanges like eToro offer a range of coins, allowing you to weigh up your convictions and then stack your portfolio according to your judgment.
More conservative traders are likely to buy bitcoin or one of its closest contenders — Ether, Bitcoin Cash, and XRP — that rival the leading cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization.
Each of these cryptocurrencies has its own appeal: Ether, the cryptocurrency that transacts over Ethereum’s blockchain, boasts of powering smart contract development and is fueling the growing Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystem; Bitcoin Cash, which forked from bitcoin in 2017, offers a big-block approach to scaling; and XRP, often referred to as “the banker’s coin”, has been instrumental in Ripple forging numerous partnerships with financial institutions.
Further down the totem pole, a range of smaller altcoins are available on eToro, and new ones are popping up all time. This includes coins like Tezos that are rapidly rising up in rankings.
Exploring the rabbit hole
Whether you choose to invest in bitcoin or altcoins, be aware of the risks. Bitcoin is famous for its stomach-churning price swings, and even these are dwarfed by the volatility of small-cap altcoins.
To navigate the market successfully and keep up with news and happenings, traders look to the community. From the eToro dashboard, traders can harness the wisdom of the crowd to build their own cryptocurrency portfolio, and then stay on the right side of the market by monitoring events via a newsfeed. So instead of weathering the storms of volatility alone, traders can share their portfolios and ride the swings together.
Or more passively, traders can even take advantage of eToro’s copytrader function to automatically mirror the actions of top performers.
Choosing between bitcoin and altcoins has never been easier!
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