What are Cryptocurrencies and why are they so big right now?

Picks and Updates

Hi everyone! I forgot February is shorter and missed sending this out on the 1st. Anyway, since Connor decided to buy cryptocurrencies in poppy seeds this past month, now is as good a time as ever to explain what cryptocurrencies are. Here's a good video introduction about cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin, which started in 2008, is the most prominent coin by far and the most well-known. Fun fact: the first bitcoin transaction was payment for a pizza, which cost 10,000 bitcoin. That would be worth $500 million today. The resource everyone in the crypto industry uses to check prices and market caps is a site called https://coinmarketcap.com/. Although major, extremely awesome, fantastic companies like PayPal now let users hold bitcoin in their accounts, the biggest 'brokerage' for cryptocurrencies in the United States is a bay area startup called Coinbase. Coinbase lets you buy and sell cryptocurrencies, while traditional brokerage firms, like where we hold our stocks, do not.

The easiest way to look at crypto is that it is another currency type, and its value can go up and down just like how the US dollar to the Euro does. Of course, cryptocurrencies have the benefit of not being controlled by any government. I took a few classes and attempted to launch a startup in crypto, so if you'd like to learn more about cryptos or about blockchain, the technology that makes cryptocurrencies work, just ask.  

Just my opinion, but I think cryptocurrencies are absolutely here to stay. I predict there will be some event or 'killer app' in the next decade to bring them into the mainstream. Perhaps instead of sending each other money via Venmo, we will send cryptocurrencies to each other.

Trades

• Connor bought three of the biggest cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
• Kyla sold Costco (back in July) and put all of her money into Tesla (TSLA).
• Brenna bought PayPal (back in July) with all of her money.
• Milena bought... something a few weeks ago, but I don't remember what it was because she didn't update the spreadsheet!
  Nonetheless, that means 100% of us have invested in something!!

Please remember to update the google sheet detail tab when you buy/sell something. I look at the revision history each month so I can include your trade in this newsletter. The summary tab is at the bottom of this email as a picture and the live link to it is here.