The stars have aligned for investors to consider the role they want crypto assets to play in their retirement portfolio to help reach their long-term goals.
In 2021, cryptocurrencies made their way further into the mainstream thanks largely to the rise of market segments like non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized finance (DeFi), meme coins like Dogecoin, and, last but not least, bitcoin’s fresh all-time high.
2021 also saw the approval of the maiden bitcoin ETF in the U.S., the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), which invests in BTC futures rather than the spot market.
Miami, Fla. Mayor Francis Suarez has helped to hasten bitcoin adoption and currently gets paid in BTC. Now he’s hoping to receive part of his 401(k) retirement savings in the leading cryptocurrency, too, according to Real Vision. Mayor Suarez fully expects the digital asset to appreciate over time.
Since bitcoin’s launch in 2009, however, plenty of other coins have emerged, some of which have charted their own course in the blockchain terrain. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency, boasting a market capitalization of $877 billion at last check. Bitcoin’s two chief use cases are as a store-of-value to hedge in times of inflation and as a medium of exchange to pay for stuff.
Ethereum is the second-biggest cryptocurrency. Also called ETH or ether, it is the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain used to pay fees to secure the network. ETH is also used to help support the decentralized apps (Dapps) that are built on the Ethereum blockchain, including those in the DeFi and NFT markets.