I lost 43.44% in cryptocurrency (& I’m still hodling)
This was a painful article to write - not only because I had to face my exact overall losses due to the recent crypto crash, but also because Coinbase doesn’t give average costs/returns/etc. for each coin so I had to do a lot of calculations myself. I manually went through all the transactions for each coin and calculated the gains/losses/averages/etc., so if you see a mathematical error, feel free to call it out.
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The past
I was burned by the 2018 “Great“ crypto crash. I recall bragging in December 2017 to my mom about how my investment was growing unbelievably fast and feeling like a smug twenty-something at how smart I must have been to pick that good of an investment. In truth, it felt like a Christmas miracle that would turn my broke college life around - I envisioned myself in my garage with my Ferrari, telling YouTube how I made it (just kidding on this last part).
Just a short while later, the value plunged and my return on investment went deep into the red.
Disappointed, I sold almost all of my crypto, including Ethereum at $300 per coin (now worth $2,114.27 at the time of writing even in the midst of this June 2021 crash). I left a small amount - maybe $25 - in an alt coin that I didn’t care enough about to sell.
I forgot about the Coinbase app, opening it only years later in December 2020 in an attempt to diversify from real estate and stocks (and because my partner was and is a big crypto fan). I quickly realized the investment in that single alt coin I had left alone had quadrupled in value, despite the crash years earlier.
This realization reminded me of a question I had asked myself back in 2017:
What would happen if someone bought a ton of coins and “forgot about them” intentionally for a few years? No panic selling - just commit to leave the investment alone, never sell, and check back in later.
This year, I decided to start that process.
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The present
Unfortunately, my timing on picking up crypto investing repeats my 2017/2018 experience - a lot of my transactions occurred near the peak of the market (shown in the table below).
If I learned anything from the crash in 2018, it’s that - on the coin that I didn’t sell - my investment still quadrupled in value 3 years later despite going through a significant bear market and that I lost out on a few thousand dollars selling Ethereum at the bottom.
All I had to do was not sell.
So, I am determined to “hodl” for the next 3 years (or until some coin does so exponentially well that I can take the money and run) regardless of the losses. In fact, I may even “buy the dip” to lower my average cost over the next several months.
The plan
The plan is simple:
buy at least 500 coins each of as many different alt coins that look promising
wait for one of the following:
a single coin does extremely well, reaching a value of $2,000 per coin (Ethereum has reached $3,000, Bitcoin has well exceeded this, yearn.finance is at $28,345 at the time of writing - i.e. this is a stretch goal, but possible)
4 coins reach a value of $500 per coin, which totals $1,000,000 (an easier to reach goal than $2,000 - COMP is an example)
the overall value of the many different coins rises steadily over time, reaching a total combined value of $1,000,000 (most likely)
i.e. the plan is throw a bunch of darts at the wall and see if any stick - scientific, right?
This picture is a little too accurate for what ended up happening in my portfolio
As long as you can accept potentially losing all the money you invest and are willing to hold this extremely volatile asset until your goals are met, it should be a fun ride.
My current portfolio
I bought a variety of coins all on Coinbase (which charges high fees for each transaction but is beginner-friendly and doesn’t risk you forgetting your wallet passphrase and losing your cryptocurrency in a locked wallet forever).
The current value is definitely not what I hoped as the Bitcoin charts have officially formed a death-cross and news of cryptocurrency crackdowns have made all coins within the asset-class fall dramatically in value. Regardless, here are the coins I have currently, the average cost I bought them for, and what I gained (more like lost) thus far.
Note: USD INVESTED means my personal money invested - it does not include any rewards given to me by Coinbase.
| COIN | AMOUNT OF COINS | AVERAGE COST | USD INVESTED | CURRENT VALUE | GAIN/LOSS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iExec RLC (RLC) | 507.85 | $5.21 | $2,645.12 | $1,449.92 | - $1,195.20 |
| Polygon (MATIC) | 602.62 | $1.56 | $939.83 | $672.10 | - $267.73 |
| Cardano (ADA) | 500.00 | $1.74 | $872.18 | $658.35 | - $213.83 |
| Compound (COMP) | 2.00 | $536.97 | $1,073.94 | $606.79 | - $467.15 |
| Celo (CGLD) | 142.65 | $3.30 | $470.87 | $488.56 | - $17.69 |
| Algorand (ALGO) | 501.07 | $0.93 | $467.45 | $421.39 | - $46.06 |
| 0x (ZRX) | 500.69 | $1.86 | $933.19 | $348.17 | - $585.02 |
| Storj (STORJ) | 500.00 | $0.95 | $473.44 | $348.10 | - $125.34 |
| Decentraland (MANA) | 584.62 | $0.35 | $202.99 | $294.89 | + $91.90 |
| The Graph (GRT) | 500.36 | $1.88 | $938.30 | $286.06 | -$652.24 |
| Basic Attention Token (BAT) | 500.16 | $1.55 | $776.41 | $278.20 | - $498.21 |
| Cartesi (CTSI) | 500.00 | $0.90 | $452.02 | $325.95 | - $126.07 |
| Internet Computer (ICP) | 5.00 | $164.02 | $820.11 | $239.27 | - $580.84 |
| Stellar Lumens (XLM) | 603.65 | $0.50 | $304.22 | $158.18 | - $146.04 |
| Cosmos (ATOM) | 12.08 | $16.80 | $202.99 | $128.19 | - $74.80 |
| Loopring (LRC) | 500.00 | $0.56 | $279.78 | $138.95 | - $140.83 |
| SKALE (SKL) | 500.70 | $0.37 | $185.58 | $118.02 | - $67.56 |
| Civic (CVC) | 500 | $0.38 | $188.02 | $100.67 | - $87.35 |
| district0x (DNT) | 641.61 | $0.16 | $100.00 | $82.90 | - $17.10 |
| Ethereum (ETH) | 0.04 | $2,574.75 | $102.99 | $84.50 | - $18.49 |
| Enjin Coin (ENJ) | 65.61 | $3.14 | $205.98 | $66.40 | - $139.58 |
| Dogecoin (DOGE) | 907.61 | $0.62 | $559.82 | $231.72 | - $328.10 |
| Bitcoin (BTC) | 0.00159302 | $64,650.79 | $102.99 | $54.57 | - $48.42 |
| Chainlink (LINK) | 2.39 | $43.09 | $102.99 | $44.97 | - $58.02 |
| Ren (REN) | 111.59 | $0.90 | $100 | $39.86 | - $60.14 |
| Ankr (ANKR) | 627.14 | $0.16 | $102.99 | $45.11 | - $57.88 |
| NuCypher (NU) | 137.19 | $0.73 | $100 | $31.87 | - $68.13 |
| XRP (XRP) | 12.02 | $0.47 | $5.60 | $7.73 | + $2.13 |
| Amp (AMP) | 35.68 | - | $0.00 | $2.10 | + $2.10 |
| Ampleforth Governance Token (FORTH) | 0.08 | - | $0.00 | $1.44 | + $1.44 |
Note: These values were recorded on Monday, June 28th around 7pm
Total USD Invested: $13,709.80
Current Value: $7,754.93
Total USD Lost: $5,954.87
Percentage Return: -43.44%
😳
Top gainers (in USD, not ROI %)
This section should probably be called “least losers”. Funny but painful realities aside, this will be an odd list mostly of coins I received from rewards and is sure to change in the upcoming months. To be clear: I do not personally believe these are my best coins. I either received them for free from Coinbase’s learning activities or I have held them much longer (in small amounts) than the other coins I bought at the peak of the market before several international events and famous persons’ twitter accounts crashed the market (ha, I wish that last part was a joke). Timing is everything and unfortunately I bought a lot of good coins at the wrong time.
Decentraland (MANA) + $91.90 (+ 45.27%)
XRP (XRP) + $2.13 (+ 38.04%)
Amp (AMP) + $2.10
Ampleforth Goverance Token (FORTH) + $1.44
district0x (DNT) - $17.10 (-17.10%)
Top losers (in USD, not ROI %)
Just to be as clear as I was above, a coin being on this list doesn’t necessarily make it a bad investment. I bought a few high-profile coins at their peak price, which reflects on my fomo and not the project itself.
iExec RLC (RLC) - $1,195.20 (-45.45%)
The Graph (GRT) - $652.24 (-69.51%)
0x (ZRX) - $585.02 (-62.69%)
Internet Computer (ICP) - $580.84 (-70.81%)
Basic Attention Token (BAT) - $498.21 (-64.17%)
The coins that I believe will do well in the future
iExec RLC (RLC) - This is perhaps a funny choice because it is also my biggest loser. RLC is an Ethereum token, which seems increasingly popular in the crypto world and with larger investors. According to Coinbase, the token is used for the iExec cloud platform where users can monetize and rent computing power and data. This is a project that I believe will have great value as computing power has been a key part in mining crypto (and in other computation-heavy industries) and the ability to rent that power seems invaluable.
Compound (COMP) - Coinbase states that the Compound protocol allows “users to supply and borrow Ethereum tokens at variable interest rates”. To me that reads: basic, proven lending principles that investors have used for years to make money brought to the crypto world. Sign me up!
Polygon (MATIC) - Another Ethereum token that provides a “scaling solution for Ethereum … to … provide faster and cheaper transactions on Ethereum using Layer 2 sidechains”. Speed and the cost of transactions are two big problems in the crypto-world that MATIC aims to tackle. With Mark Cuban publicly expressing his belief in this token and investing his own money into the project, I feel a bit more confident in my own choice to back it, too.
Decentraland (MANA) - This coin is my “for fun” coin - and it is also the best-performing. MANA is another Ethereum token but this time it’s used to “power the Decentraland virtual reality platform. MANA can be used to pay for virtual plots of land in Decentraland as well as in-world goods and services”, according to Coinbase. I like this coin because it feels familiar to how people exchange USD for in-app mobile game gems and other “virtual” currencies, and what is familiar to existing marketplaces is easier for people to understand and adopt.
Ethereum (ETH) - I couldn’t really leave Ethereum out of this list. I see it everywhere and almost all of my favorite alt coins are an “Ethereum token”. From a non-technical investor-side, Bitcoin’s price can feel intimidating while Ethereum feels like we might be able to invest now and reach Bitcoin’s price someday, especially as Ethereum becomes more popular and used across different projects.
Updates
I’ll give updates on this journey every month and I, of course, hope to see crypto rebound from this crash (though I don’t plan on seeing it return to its peaks anytime soon). I’m in this for the long haul (3 years or more) and plan to lower my average cost on certain coins while adding more to the “500” coin club.
Good luck to everyone else on their investment journey and, if you choose to invest in crypto, remember it is an extremely volatile asset - never invest more than you’re willing to lose. In the meantime, stay bullish.