9th February

Portfolio: -1%

Quite nice to have a day without a double digit swing! The market definitely seems to have calmed down and although there might be a further downward drift it’s pretty evident that the crash is over. Looking back it’s probably the third I’ve been involved in since I started in May last year and definitely the best I’ve handled, which probably isn’t a coincidence. I was only really worried when the stalwarts of crypto starting wondering a) how low it would go and b) how long it would take to recover, and even then I wasn’t on the verge of selling anything. However low it would have gone it would have come up eventually, although it’s very reassuring that $6k was the lowest it went, even though there’s a chance it may drift lower before the next run.

After all the FUD there is some great bullish sentiment, despite particular outlets doing their best to avoid the positive and only focus on the negative. One great example was the Guardian who posted a list of quotes by so called ‘experts’ about the future of cryptocurrency. Those experts included Warran Buffett, who advised to steer clear of Amazon and Apple stocks for many years; heads of major European banks, who will obviously have their own agenda (including the ECB, who stated that they may well buy Bitcoin because of its rate of acceptance by institutions); and Theresa May who I’d suggest is far more likely to be focused defusing a particular political timebomb than looking into the details of cryptocurrencies, rendering her something less than an ‘expert’. It was a ludicrously one-sided piece of propaganda that reflected quite badly on them and represents another example of their extraordinary and frankly perplexing battle against the cryptocurrency ecosystem and community. I wonder how long it will take them to realise? We’ll see.

The bullish sentiment got me dreaming again of where I could be this time next year. It will probably still be too early to move into it full time, but there’s a good chance I’ll be working part time while my passive income takes care of daily needs. On that note I am still looking into potentially picking up a cheap masternode before the next bull run, but without selling a stack I can’t get anything worthwhile so I’ll probably leave it. ICX is supposed to be having masternodes, but I’ve no idea how many I would need – probably 10,000 or something, which I can’t afford, at least not without selling a wedge of BTC and I’m not going reduce my BTC position at this point. The returns on that would be amazing though.

I managed to apply for the dock.io whitelist which was hell in itself, and likely represents one of the last few ICOs the public are going to be able to participate in. The allocations are getting smaller and smaller, to the point where it’s not worth the effort, and most of the work is being done behind the scenes with the crypto version of VCs. It was a good run, but it’s probably over now.

After realising the tax implications for crypto, I’m much less likely to do many trades now, as each one has to be logged and should be proved (see my blog on UK crypto tax), so I’m only going to buy into a coin now if it has exceptional chances. I’m looking into QASH because it’s quite cheap and has been shilled heavily by those who also predicted the rise of WTC and VEN, but I need to find out more about it first. I’m also trying to get a plan in place for the next bull run. I’m thinking of having a limit for each one at which I will sell 50% in anticipation of another bear season. It will be trick though because each one has different projections, but I’m determined not to be complacent next time round and make the most of any gains.