In today’s edition, we’re going to cover how to get started.
Be a Smarter, Safer Investor in 8 Weeks
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Welcome to the first edition of CoinDesk’s crypto investing course.
Our goal is to help you better understand cryptocurrency, how to invest in digital assets and importantly, how to be smart and safe with your investing decisions.
I’m Toby Bochan, the managing editor of Learn at CoinDesk, and I’ll be guiding you through week by week with articles and how-tos that will build on what we learn each week without throwing too much at you at once.
In today’s edition, we’re going to get started with, well, how to get started.
These low-friction entry points are great for testing the waters, but they are limited in which cryptocurrencies they offer. And some (like Venmo, for example) only allow you to buy and store crypto in the app but not send it for payments or transfer it outside the app. Plus, there may be higher fees than you would pay elsewhere.
To really get started, you’re going to need two things: an account on a cryptocurrency exchange and a crypto wallet. You may end up wanting several of each of these, but one of each will do for this week.
Crypto Exchanges 101
(Dall-E/CoinDesk)
Let’s begin by talking about crypto exchanges. These are simply online marketplaces like familiar stock brokerages (i.e., Schwab or Fidelity) but solely for crypto. Robinhood is one brokerage that allows you to invest in both crypto and stocks, so if you are already a customer they make it pretty seamless to enable crypto trading.
For most people, the best option is going to be opening an account on a popular exchange. Unfortunately, depending on where you live, you may have limited options because countries and even different U.S. states have specific restrictions around crypto exchanges that are still evolving. Luckily, we’ve got a guide that will help you get started on most of them:
Your second main task for our first week is to open a crypto wallet. A crypto wallet is just what it sounds like, a place to store your crypto just like a physical wallet stores your cash – which you’ll hear called “fiat” a lot around the crypto space. My first wallet was MetaMask. It’s great for a lot of things in Web3 and investing, but one thing it doesn’t do is store bitcoin.
Don’t worry too much about which one to open – you can change your mind or add other wallets later – but consider factors such as if you are going to want to do most of your investing on your computer or your phone, what’s compatible with that exchange account you just opened and what cryptocurrencies you want to start investing in. To help, here are two guides:
Finally, I’m going to end each week with advice on how to stay safe in crypto. Digital assets and investing are a very nascent industry and there are myriad bad actors exploiting newcomers and veterans of the space alike. Billions of dollars are lost through hacks, scams and fraud each year.
Today’s piece is especially relevant to the tasks I’ve set out for you this week, and will help you set up your new accounts securely and avoid falling prey to the most common scams:
Thanks for signing up! Next week we’ll dive into evaluating and buying your first crypto. Questions? Thoughts? Feedback? Reply to this email and let me know.
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Disclaimer: The information contained in this newsletter, and any information linked through the items contained herein, is not intended to provide sufficient information to form the basis for an investment decision. You should seek additional information regarding the merits and risks of investing in any cryptocurrency or digital assets.
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