As further evidence that the crypto market never sleeps, bitcoin just breached the $4,000 level.
As I write, it’s up to a record $4,271.
According to The Wall Street Journal…
“The gains seem to be coming at the expense of other digital currencies — many of which have been issued just this year in a developing trend called ‘initial coin offerings’…
“Saturday, coin-offering tokens and digital currencies across the board started falling, and it appeared that the liquidated capital was flowing directly into bitcoin. Of the top 20 tokens listed on the site CoinMarketCap, 18 were negative.”
As you might know, I’ve taken an intense interest in such ICOs.
Based on the Journal’s article, you might be asking yourself…
“Should I worry that bitcoin’s gains are coming at the expense of ICOs?”
The answer is no!
And the reason is this…
Rightly or wrongly, crypto is taking its place alongside gold, foreign real estate and other asset classes as a “safe haven” or “crisis hedge.”
Bitcoin’s recent move confirms a massive paradigm shift.
Want proof? No problem!
As angst over North Korea soars, the traditional safe haven of gold barely budged, rising about 3%.
Meanwhile, bitcoin rallied 26%. And it’s up over 40% so far in August.
Clearly, investors are voting with their capital that they view cryptocurrencies as a new hedge against uncertainty.
It makes sense that bitcoin is attracting the most of the money flows, too. That is, since it’s been around the longest.
However, it’s only a matter of time before the same investors start pouring money into lesser-known, superior but undervalued cryptocurrencies.
In other words, a rising tide will lift all boats.
Indeed, it’s already happening…
One of my three favorite cryptos, Komodo, is up 33% in the last week, outpacing bitcoin and gold.
I expect other lesser-known cryptos to start outperforming imminently, too.
So don’t let mainstream scaremongering keep you from taking a decisive step to secure your financial future — maybe the most decisive step you can take this year, or even this decade.
The next big ICO, with $241 trillion up for grabs, is just a few days away.
If you want to be properly positioned to claim your share, click here.
The Blackest of Swans
In his groundbreaking book, The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb defines a Black Swan as follows…
“An event, positive or negative, that is deemed improbable yet causes massive consequences.”
With that in mind, is bitcoin a Black Swan?
I emphatically answer in the affirmative!
Now let’s get even more granular.
Taleb says that all Black Swans have three characteristics…
#1 — “Blacks Swans are outliers, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility.”
I’d say bitcoin definitely satisfies this requirement. That is, unless you had gifted insights, and predicted a digital currency would emerge that operates beyond the control of any Central Bank and offers total anonymity.
#2 — “Black Swans carry an extreme impact.”
It’s impossible to consider any geopolitical event without also considering its impact on bitcoin prices. So I’d say we’re good here.
#3 — “In spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and unpredictable.”
Since pundits have tried to rationalize the price of bitcoin every day since the most recent explosion, put a check next to this box, too.
I believe it’s official now…
bitcoin is the biggest recent example of a Black Swan event, and such events can be infinitely profitable.
For example, bitcoin’s success is spawning a brand-new cryptocurrency — one quietly about to launch.
Now that we know bitcoin is a legit Black Swan, I’ll answer an even tougher question…
bitcoin Cash: Smash Hit or Trash It?
I’m presently hyperbullish on the entire cryptocurrency corner of the market.
Especially a few alt-coins trading for pennies on the dollar.
As such, I truly hope your portfolio has a 10% allocation to cryptocurrencies.
If you don’t own any alt-coins yet, you’re costing yourself thousands. Perhaps even more!
For those ready to dive in, you’re probably wondering…
“Should I buy bitcoin or bitcoin Cash?”
Great question!
Here’s the quick backstory…
After three years of cutthroat infighting, on Aug. 1, a consortium of bitcoin miners voted to split the blockchain into two.
The “hard fork” immediately spawned bitcoin Cash, which processes transactions faster than bitcoin.
With a market capitalization of $5.3 billion, bitcoin Cash is suddenly the fourth-largest crypto in existence. (Behind bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple.)
I believe bitcoin Cash’s speed advantage holds intrinsic value. CNBC had this to say:
Bitcoin transactions, grouped into “blocks,” have always taken on average 10 minutes each to process. But as the virtual currency’s popularity has grown, used for everything from buying pizza to anonymously buying illegal drugs on online black markets, the transaction network has started to get bogged down.
With a 1 MB block size limit, bitcoin can only process seven transactions per second.
Meanwhile, Visa’s (NYSE:V) network can handle 56,000 transactions per second.
Bitcash aims to close that gap.
In every other respect, bitcoin Cash is the same as bitcoin.
Since money loves speed, I’m declaring bitcoin Cash a “smash hit.”
Ahead of the tape,