What a great start to the year! It all happened because I de-diversified and narrowed down my investments.
From January to May, my portfolio was roughly half and half Bitcoin and Ethereum. It wasn't until June that I started experimenting with altcoins. My portfolio of cryptocurrencies began to expand rapidly. Every new project that popped up looked so cool that I wanted to own a piece of it. By the end of 2017, I had a portfolio of over 27 different coins. It was at this point I realized that I was "too diversified". If a coin I held pumped 10x, which it often did, the effect on my overall portfolio would be miniscule. I caught all the pumps but my overall portfolio value plateaued.
At the same time, I also became more involved with specific cryptocurrency projects. I began writing more on Steemit. I started using Catalyst by Enigma, which was also an MIT company. I did the majority of my trades on Binance and later Kucoin because of their incentivization structures.
I use these projects personally. I believe in their success. So why was I so afraid to go "all in" with my crypto money?
Thus, for 2018, I sodl off most of my coins (short term capital gain taxes here I come gulp) and narrowed down my portfolio to just 8 crypto projects I actively use or really believe in. I still also own some Bitcoin and Ethereum on the side. I'll admit, I got lucky with my timing, as most of the coins I bought into pumped shortly after:
KuCoin Shares (KCS):
Jan 1st Value: $4.65
Jan 3rd Value: $7.69
+65.3%
Steem (STEEM):
Jan 1st Value: $4.36
Jan 3rd Value: $7.71
+76.8%
Enigma (ENG):
Jan 1st Value: $4.10
Jan 3rd Value: $5.58
+36.1%
Tron (TRX):
Jan 1st Value: $0.047
Jan 3rd Value: $0.106
+125.5%
Aion (AION):
Jan 1st Value: $6.05
Jan 3d Value: $8.16
+34.8%
Icon (ICX):
Jan 1st Value: $6.19
Jan 3rd Value: $7.12
+15%
Dragonchain (DRGN):
Jan 1st Value: $2.27
Jan 3rd Value: $2.68
+18%
Binance Coin (BNB):
Jan 1st Value: $8.85
Jan 3rd Value: $9.12
+3%
That's a 46.8% rise in my portfolio's value in just the past three days alone. For some of these projects, I had even bought in earlier! Binance at $1, for example. No trade analysis, no bots, no chart plotting. I just bought coins of the projects I believed in and held.
I'm not a "crypto tarding genius" and I won't shill you my "top ocins to the moon 201888!". We are in a bull market right now. My picks could have just as easily gone the other way. Throughout 2017, there were many times when my portfolio lost over 50% of its value in a day (Ex: China banning ICO's in September). I've learned to just hodl. I believe in these projects and want to have a stake in them whether or not the value of the individual tokens rises or falls. I encourage you to diversify, but ultimately, buy what you believe in.
As Mark Cuban says, "You only have to be right once."
This post is part of the January 30 Days Writing Challenge, started by 
Join the challenge simply by tagging your post #challenge30days. It's not too late to hop on board. But once you start, you can't quit!
January 30 Days Writing Challenge
- Jan 2nd: January 30 Days Writing Challenge
- Jan 1st: New Year's Steem Resolution for 2018