December 17, 2017: the value of a bitcoin reaches $ 20,000 and ends up unleashing the craziness among individuals who are becoming increasingly clear that investing in Bitcoin is a train that should not be missed. After all, in one year he had achieved a return of 20,000%. Enough to change the lives of more than one with a reduced initial investment.
It was between November and December when that fever came and there were those who decided to go into debt to buy bitcoins, even who mortgaged their house hoping that its value would multiply in a few months. There was someone who went viral commenting but it turned out to be a tease. We have spoken with some of those who actually resorted to credit to buy cryptocurrencies and now see with concern how their value has depreciated. For different reasons, none wants to appear publicly.
"I entered Bitcoin because I did not have another one"
One of them is Juan José, Valencian, father of two teenagers. Its economic context is complicated: after a peaceful working life thanks to its small but prosperous business, the crisis brought bad news. He has been reinventing himself for ten years to work in different fields intermittently. After the fifties, he saw one of his last opportunities in the stock market. "I had been reading forums and investment books for a while, learning to get 100 euros a day buying and selling stocks, I had read some Bitcoin but never paid attention to it, until in the summer it started to rise and tripled the value".
First problem: from what is learned in the stock market there is little to apply to cryptocurrencies. Second problem: there is less literature, and less in Spanish, to learn from. That's why he was following him during the fall from the barrier. "If I wake up in the middle of the night and go to the bathroom, I take the opportunity to read about Bitcoin for an hour or two, I have entered Bitcoin because I did not have another."
The day it was decided, a Bitcoin was worth about $ 10,000. By the time the transfer arrived at the exchange that it chose and could operate, it had risen to almost 12,000. First fortnight of December. It did not bother him, he thought it was a good sign to invest. He pulled out a credit card.
"I made numbers and saw what I could get on credit, what I have in the bank and what I need in case something happens, I spent 9,000 euros on the credit account, almost everything that I have pre-granted, to the current. Coinbase [presumable winner of the Bitcoin fever] with a tutorial on buying bitcoins and I put alerts on my mobile phone when it reached the prices that interested me ".
What prices? Juanjo decided to sell if it reached $ 50,000, in some forums he read that this could happen around March 2018. He did not put a limit on the downside, according to himself because any decrease would be "minimal and brief". It preserves just under a bitcoin that it bought. It came to be worth € 16,200 and is now, between the depreciation and commission of Coinbase, below 6,000. The idea of Juanjo, endure until a new rebound in which he continues to have faith, and only sell urgently if the price drops to $ 6,000. Something that has been about to happen at the beginning of February.
"It has not gone as I expected in this first month, but I think it will grow back, bitcoins are getting scarcer every time." He also tells us that at the beginning he naturally counted on his movements, but that he stopped doing it because of "how people judge without knowing, if I had done the same thing in the stock market, nobody would tell me anything". Since then it remains hermetic. For the moment, he has only had to face the first monthly payment of the loan. He hopes to sell with benefits before April.
"I went for fear of being the only one of the work that was left out, but it went well"
Dani (fictitious name, "that my bosses can not find out about this") does not reach his thirties and has also given himself up to the investment in cryptocurrencies. And not only in Bitcoin. He has worked in a professional soccer team since July 2017.
"In my department we are almost all young people, working all day with the computer and there are mornings in which we have little to do." A colleague told us one day about Bitcoin in the food and since then we started talking a lot about it, find out about the cryptocurrencies ... And I did not want to, but many started to get in and you end up afraid of being the fool who runs out of money, many of them are still living with their parents or have been working for many years, but I I started in the summer and I live with my girlfriend, so I can not save what others save.Totally, I asked for my bank's credit card and when I got it, I got 3,000 euros. "
When he bought, in October, it was just over $ 8,000. When he doubled his value, a month and a half later, he sold half of it, he returned the 3,000 euros of the credit card all at once (the commission was only 7.5 euros) and he left the other 3,000 euros in the long term. "I was tempted to take them out the following week thinking that I had already won too much, but I decided to try what happened."
Now he continues to earn some money with about $ 3,800 at the time he told us about his move. "If it does not come back fast, I'll take it out, I've already won more than enough." On what his environment thinks of his risky movement, he tells us that his family has never known anything.
"My girlfriend does know that because she found out, I can not tell you how, but she found out, she felt terrible that she did something like that without telling him anything, but since it worked out well, she missed the mosquito." As to whether he would go back into debt for an investment, he is concise: "No way, even if he had the money already in the bank".
"I sold my bitcoins for 1,500 euros, if I had put up with what I wanted, I would have 7,000."
The third protagonist of this history of debts and cryptocurrencies is Salamanca. He does not want to give his data beyond being a father of a family. "I've done this without anyone knowing, not even my wife." For this reason decided to borrow, to avoid having to touch the money that is in sight of his spouse.
"What I did wrong was not getting into debt to buy bitcoins, it was selling them too early for fear of losing everything"
This man, whom we will call Jesus, has his own business selling to the public and tells us that he has always looked for ways to earn extra money through an alternative way. With the recent cryptocurrency boom, he was encouraged.
"I was thinking for two months whether to go into Bitcoin or not, and in that time the value doubled, I always thought it was too expensive, I could not go much higher, and at the beginning I did not know it could be split, I thought you had to buy one whole, or two, or three ... "
When he found out that he could split the purchase of cryptocurrencies and finished deciding, he bought 1,500 euros in bitcoins. "I thought about holding on until Christmas to have a good holiday with that money I earned, I hit 2,000 and started to go down, when I went back to 1,500, I was scared and sold, that was October 3rd, I had 0.42 bitcoins. Endured until Christmas, I would have won more than 6,000, a good host. "
The week before the sale, he invested another 1,000 euros to buy almost four ethereums. Today they would be worth almost 3,000 and they came to border the 5,000, but not all of them. "As soon as I sold the bitcoins, they started to rise to the beast, that's what I learned with Ethereum, I've been selling fractions to pay the credit and I'm still making money, and I want to hold on for another season, to see if it keeps going up."
About if at some point miner bitcoins were raised, only Juan José got to know if it suited him, but quickly dismissed it due to its technical complexity. The three agree that having patience is synonymous with success, although someone regrets not having run out with the benefits before the January cold cut off the value of their portfolio. Whoever is still waiting for a rebound like someone waiting for spring. The one who faces the most problems is Juan José, the only one who was not selling to pay what was owed. "At the moment I lose money, but I still think that it will rise again between now and March."