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.

        • Mubelotix@jlai.lu
          5·
          5 months ago

          Bitcoin is publicly and clearly documented. It has always been. It has never failed its goals. It has never been shady

          • SoJB@lemmy.mlEnglish
            7·
            5 months ago

            I will never, never get tired of these CHUDdy types self-reporting every time.

            “It has never been shady,” commenting on a post about one of the largest scams of all time lmfao

            Oh yes, it’s just as good as money, it’s a real currency and totally not vapor as long as you act as your own bank and maintain ironclad digital and physical security, never slipping up a single time. Oh and your savings (because this is a currency) are completely uninsured. Totally reasonable asks to make of an average consumer.

            • PiJiNWiNg@sh.itjust.works
              5·
              5 months ago

              You guys seem to forget that it had a very real purpose before… buying illegal shit on the internet. It didnt “start as a scam”.

            • index@sh.itjust.works
              5·
              5 months ago

              Instead of writing shit you have no clue about spend 10 minutes of your life learning what cryptocurrencies are. MtGox scammed people and they were a bank.

              • Superb@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
                1·
                5 months ago

                Just spent 10 minutes researching MtGox, sounds like they were a pretty terrible bitcoin exchange and nowhere close to a bank.

            • Mubelotix@jlai.lu
              4·
              5 months ago

              You don’t seem to be well aware of the inner workings of the traditional banking system you claim to like so much. What you believe to be “real” money is a lot less real than you think

              • Superb@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
                3·
                5 months ago

                Yeah but the value of my money doesn’t swing rapidly daily, and transactions process in seconds instead of minutes to hours. Oh and it’s actually accepted as a form of payment at most institutions.

                Bitcoin, and all other cryptocurrencies, are securities at best and straight gambling at worst.