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Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

crypto.robinhood.com

131–140 of 317 posts

Re: Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#131
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I put money down on a blackjack table, play a hand, win, and cash out with more money than I put in. How is that not an investment?

In gambling, you stand to lose your entire stake if luck is against you. In (spot) market movements, your value goes down as the market declines, but you don't stand to lose everything in a moment.

Imagine a raffle where tickets cost $1. After the winner is drawn, the house agrees to buy back the first few losing tickets for $0.99, the next few for $0.98, and so on until they work down to $0. The players don't stand to lose everything in a moment, but it's still pretty clearly gambling.

Re: Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But is it not an investment?

I don't think so, as gold has no inherent expected return.

The combination of its increasing scarcity and real world use doesn't drive a return?

Re: Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#133
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What separates investing from gambling is the expected return for everyone is greater than zero. AKA buy stock at 100$ and sell it at 100$ does not mean you broke even. You could have gotten 10$ in dividends. Now that positive may be small and some people may lose money, but that's allowed as long as the expected returns end up positive. Bitcoin's can't have a net positive return because they only way to add money in…

Not all crypto is bitcoin. Smart contracts could accomplish the same thing.

No, smart contracts can't make money show up from 'thin air' aka outside the system the way dividends do.

Re: Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#134
post #27
post #22

> Invest in Bitcoin & other cryptocurrencies > Cryptocurrencies, stocks, ETFs, and options are now available side by side — all easily accessible in one app. Managing your investments just got even easier. There is a dangerous theme of companies aimed at millennials that misappropriate Bitcoin (etc) as an investment, when it is just glorified currency exchange speculation. Blurring these lines obscures the real-world…

I buy bitcoin, it changes in value, I cash out, I now have a different amount of money than I put in. How is that not an investment?

If it doesn't generate cash flows its not an asset. When you invest in something you're buying an asset.

Re: Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#135
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the market is priced perfectly efficiently you will still make money because your capital is put to work. A perfectly efficient market just means you can't beat that intrinsic rate of return.

Wouldn't this expectation be built into the current price of the stock?

Yes, but money in the future is valued at a discount today. So even if an asset is 100% sure to be worth $100 a year from today, the market will value it at slightly less than that because there's no sense tying up $100 in capital for a year unless you get some profit in return.

Re: Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#137
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What separates investing from gambling is the expected return for everyone is greater than zero. AKA buy stock at 100$ and sell it at 100$ does not mean you broke even. You could have gotten 10$ in dividends. Now that positive may be small and some people may lose money, but that's allowed as long as the expected returns end up positive. Bitcoin's can't have a net positive return because they only way to add money in…

What about stocks with no dividends (which constitutes the vast majority)? By your definition, only dividend investing and rental property investing is true investing. I'm not disagreeing with you. In fact I almost agree with you, but your argument fails for most stocks.

Stocks with no dividends have some probability of paying a dividend (or doing a buyback) in the future. If you could prove that a company will never pay a dividend or do a buyback then its value would be zero.

Re: Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#138
post #2

Coinbase (aka GDAX) is extremely profitable, making couple million per day in fees. Evey piece of this pie is sweet, so we will probably see more serious legit US-based players on this market of casual crypto trading for housewives.

Coinbase bought GDAX. GDAX fee structure is different from Coinbase. Coinbase is geared towards consumers and they take bigger fees for buying. GDAX is geared toward professionals and take way less fees for buying and selling.

Re: Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#140
Here is a thing about Robinhood: it does advertising in ineligible countries, apps are allowed to be downloaded, profiles must be filled in down to the last field and only then there is a message saying that you're not allowed to use the app because it's unavailable (really?) in your country. Guerilla data collection at its finest.
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