I’m not a true believer in crypto, but I used to play around with it. I have received a 5-figure USD sum of bitcoin from the MtGox settlement, and I’m considering my options. It is a true windfall. It was worth maybe $100-200 when I used to play daytrader and shop silk road with it.
We are on track for early retirement as it is, but my “smart money” intuition says pay the long-term capital gains and invest in funds, how we do everything else. More money earlier is always good.
My gambler side says to withdraw some maybe, but split the rest into a half dozen likely candidates for someday real world crypto use which may take off. I don’t stay up to date on them anymore, so this would take some real research.
The weird Trumpy stuff going on with BTC makes me think it couldn’t hurt to hold through the election in case prepper types panic buy it lol.
My wife says it’s unexpected so just leave it as a high-risk part of our whole portfolio, but I worry she underestimates the risk and scamminess of it all.
Update: I sold the account down to 0.1 BTC today. I may sell more later on. Thanks everyone for your input.
Take your free money and put into something with real, actual backing value. Ignore the gambler side - it’s just the devil on your shoulder. This is free money. Let it work for you over the next couple decades.
This seems to be the majority opinion. I’m thinking moving the majority to sound investments is my likely course. I do think keeping a little that wouldn’t sting badly to lose still scratches the itch without risking regret.
You got the money in the first place because you stood apart from the majority. Don’t assume they are better than you
I would not have kept it this long. I remember being mad it was gone when it hit $1000, because that seemed insane. It’s realistic to think I would have sold then.