How to Invest in Cryptocurrency in 2026
It's a new year complete with new FUD and FOMO. When I look at the markets all I see is uncertainty. People celebrate the short-lived ups and hate the longer downs. The bitcoin chart has about as much pain as it has elation so it's no wonder people are feeling whiplash.
I've been in the space for a long time and I've seen the ebbs and flows of this place. Over time people seem to get ground down into tribes and stay there until they can get their bearings.
I get it. It's tough to choose. A tribe is safe- there's comforts in groups. And with new projects come online every day selling you familiar looking tools and telling you their coin is going to fundamentally (pun intended) change the world... it's can be overwhelming.
How do you choose a cryptocurrency to invest in? Safely...?
Here's how I find crypto investments and how you can use these ideas to make better decisions which positively impact your portfolio's bottom line.
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1) How long as this project existed?
I always start with this question because it's the most important one because it's going to tell you whether the market thinks there's value in it. My threshold is 2-market cycles. If a coin has been through a couple bear markets and back, there's a good chance it'll be around for a little while longer. It means enough people find its narrative, it's utility, it's price action appealing to some degree and they're back for more.
Longevity is meaningful here.
2) Is it the best in class?
Sites like CoinGecko have a page you can visit and discover coins by category. It'll list them by marketcap and you can go through that list and research. At first glance, I usually look at 24hr trading volume- this, over marketcap, let's me know that people are actually trading the thing. If there's no volume but has a huge marketcap tends to be a red flag.
Now... don't confuse price with "best". It might be at the top of the marketcap list, but it certainly doesn't mean it's the best. Although, to be fair... "best" is subjective anyway. As investors, we might see the top spot as "best for long term hold" or "best for price action".
3) Is it in the top 100 by marketcap? And how long has it been there?
There are over 20,000 coins out there. Many great coins exist outside the top 100 coin marketcap range but choosing them might be a huge risk. Most coins don't come back once they leave the top 100 making them a real risk to your portfolio. Most rotate in and out of the top 100 making it dizzying to find something that might be helpful, not hurtful to your overall portfolio.
Coinmarket.com has a handy tool that let's you look at the historical marketcap list. You can go back as far as 2013 to see what's been in and out of the top 100.
If you're like me and want a little risk in your portfolio... you might even choose coins outside the top 100... but... you HAVE to keep tight control over how much you choose to invest in it. To me this usually means adding 1% or less to my total portfolio. That way if it goes to zero, I don't feel it. On the other hand, sometimes these coins go 10x and having it in your portfolio was a blessing. It all depends on how you structure your postions.
4) Does it have liquidity?
People often over look this one and get stuck in a trade unable to sell for profit.
The problem is, let's say you bought $100 of Toadcoin at $0.0000001... then you've got 1,000,000,000 Toad... If that coin goes up 1000x and it's price becomes $0.0001... you just turned you $100 into $100,000... not a bad day... yet...
BUT... here's the thing: it only has $5,000 of 24hr volume. There's no way you'll be able to sell $100k of your Toadcoin with $5k liquidity... so you're stuck holding coins, waiting for the liquidity to increase.
I've seen this play out countless times. People watch with fascination as their portfolio goes to the moon and then with equal horror as they can't sell.
Liquidity is extremely important.
5) When should you buy and sell?
That's the literal $1 million dollar question.
Everyone has their own financial goals, theories, advice, and more... this is really up to you. Do you sell when you're ready or when the market tells you? Do you never sell? Do you wait for the top of the bull market or the bottom of the bear?
This is on you. The only thing I can give you is context. What I do is this:
I wait for the bottom of the bear and buy in. I wait for the top of the bull and sell out.
It's easier said than done but I use the CBBI historical indicator to make that determination. I don't need to know the exact top or bottom... I just need to know when we're close enough and act accordingly.
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It's really easy to get caught up in the hype and fud train out there. When I first started I lost so much money and felt the same despair and hopelessness that others do in the crypto space that I nearly quit.
It wasn't until I finally figure out how to find and invest like a professional that everything changed for me. No more sleepless night. No more worrying about price action... just good old fashioned control.
If you made it this far, I thank you and I hope you'll check out the follow:
If you're like me and want to give your portfolio the super powers it deserves... then check out my app Fundamentally. It's like a fitness monitor for your portfolio so you can keep it healthy and happy. It's $5/mo or $50/yr and I'm giving away free yearly subscriptions for people who find bugs and can provide meaningful feedback and suggestions.
Cheers!
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