(Updated 21. September 2022)
After learning about Bitcoin, it’s natural to start looking at Ethereum for its potential to increase your returns. But is it safe to invest in Ethereum?
Here’s the short answer:
Yes, Ethereum is one of the safes cryptocurrencies to invest in. Ethereum dominates the DeFi and NFT markets and it is larger than all its competition combined. ETH 2.0 is currently rolling out, making Ethereum even safer.
I get this question all the time, and I can’t believe how many investors miss out on Ethereum due to worries about Ethereum investing being safe or not.
If you’re interested in investing in Ethereum, but don’t have a strategy formulated, you need to check out this article: Ethereum Trading And Investing Strategy – What I Personally Do
Yes, Investing in Ethereum is Safe
Most people investing in Ethereum have no idea what they’re doing. To mitigate risk, you should do the following:
1) Formulate a strategy. You need a goal, and clear steps to reach that goal.
The best way to do this to figure out at what prices you’re going to sell your Ethereum, how much Ethereum you’re going to buy, and how you’re going to buy it.
2) Actually do it – take action!
You wouldn’t believe how many people tell me about their plans to invest in Ethereum, who never actually pull the trigger…
Below you see an example of what a decent Ethereum investment strategy looks like, making it much safer:
Investing in Ethereum without a plan of action often becomes an emotional choice, which stops many people from reaching success.
Creating a strategy, like the example above, removes the emotions from the equation. It lets you make investment decisions based on logic and analysis, which is much better, and safer, in the long run.
In other words:
You need to develop a well formulated strategy including what price you’re going to sell at, how much Ethereum you’re going to buy, and how you’re going to buy it (like what exchange, what date, etc.).
This way is by far the safest way invest in Ethereum. However, there are still risks associated with the investment.
The Risk of Investing in Ethereum
Even though Investing in Ethereum is safe, it still carries risk, as all crypto investments do. To really understand the risks associated with investing in Ethereum, this is what you need to know:
When investing in cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin, there are two major risks:
1) Bitcoin might crash, dragging down the market with it (because Bitcoin is the market mover)
2) The risk that the specific coin, in this case Ethereum, might fail.
The risk of Bitcoin crashing is not the topic of this article, to learn how to tell if the Bitcoin bull market is coming to an end, read this article. The second risk is what we’ll focus on, as that’s the relevant one in this case.
So, what exactly are the risks of investing in Ethereum? There are mainly two risks; the blockchain being hacked, and competitors catching up.
Risk 1 – The Ethereum Blockchain Being Hacked/Attacked
This is highly unlikely. Ethereum is the second most secure blockchain, after Bitcoin, due to its high number of validators and decentralization.
To “hack” the Ethereum blockchain one needs to control 51% of all the staked ETH, which in theory is possible, but in reality isn’t.
Think about it:
To attack the blockchain one needs to scoop up 51% of all the Ethereum that’s being staked. That’s going to push Ethereum’s price to the sky. The more you buy the higher the price gets.
The added layer of security is that there is no incentive to hack it: After spending a fortune to accumulate all that ETH, it becomes worthless as soon as you perform the attack! You’re gonna spend billions, potentially trillions, only to steal nothing?
Risk 2 – Competitors Catching Up
This is always going to be a risk, as competitors like Cardano, Binance Smart Chain and Polkadot generally have more scalable, faster and cheaper to use blockchain.
Lots of new cryptocurrency investors stay away from Ethereum, in favor of its competitors, for those reasons. It is often justified with “bro, the tech is 100x better, and Ethereum is slower than my granny”. Which are valid points, for the time being. However, there’s more the Ethereum than meets the eye:
The fact is, that Ethereum is WAY ahead of its competition when it comes to adoption, which is the most important factor of success in the crypto market.
Adoption means to be accepted and used by people and businesses. When people ask me about the adoption of Ethereum, I usually tell them about three things: Ethereum’s dominance in DeFi, in NFT and the “EEA“:
EEA stands for “Enterprise Ethereum Alliance”. There are some huge names in EEA, like Microsoft, J.P.Morgan and Santander who work together to improve Ethereum and make it better for business.
Almost 60% of the entire DeFi market is built on Ethereum:
Over 75% of all NFT sales have been on Ethereum. (source)
None of the competitors have adoption levels even remotely close to what Ethereum has, making it a much better option for investors who seek lower-risk cryptocurrency investments.
Below you see the difference in market capitalization (total value of all coins combined) between Ethereum and its closest competitors:
The fact that Ethereum is four times as big as its closest competitor, and that the adoption of Ethereum is way beyond any of the others, builds strength in my belief that it is safe to invest in Ethereum.
Ethereum Is Historically A “Safe” Crypto Investment
Ethereum has proven insanely profitable in the past. The returns we saw in 2016-2017 were absolutely brain-melting.
Let me show just how much Ethereum surged in the bull market of 2016 – 2017:
That right, in 2016-2017 Ethereum surged over 153,000 percent.
If you invested $2500 at the beginning of 2016 and sold at the end of 2017, it would turn into: $2,500 * 1,530 = $3,825,000
In the most recent bull market, and the following bear market, Ethereum has once again proved itself as one of the safest cryptocurrencies to invest in:
Most other cryptocurrencies are down 85 – 95 percent in the current bear market. Ethereum “only” being down 72% is a sign of maturity.
Conclusion: Ethereum Is One Of The Safest Cryptocurrencies
The main risks of investing in Ethereum are an attack on the blockchain and competitors catching up. An attack on Ethereum is practically speaking impossible, and the closest competition is only 1/4 of Ethereum’s size. In addition, Ethereum dominates the crypto market and will likely continue doing so for the foreseeable future.
Make sure to formulate a strategy before investing to mitigate the risk of emotional decisions!
Happy investing, fellow crypto enthusiasts!
– Oskar