Bitcoin Investing 2.0

• John Vandivier

The first big movement in bitcoin-centric investing was to invest in bitcoin. The second big movement in bitcoin-centric investing is to invest in things that aren't bitcoin.

I know that sounds weird. Let me explain.

I have an account with Coinbase. It's a great firm. In the past I didn't move much of my investment capital into that account. That's because the only thing the account was good for at the time was to purchase bitcoin. Now, Coinbase has exchange.bitcoin.com which is a bitcoin forex marketplace.

Guess what I did? I moved more money into my Coinbase account. I still have quite a bit of money outside of my Coinbase account because I invest in other things, but what if Coinbase let me do all of those other things under their roof?

I would move more money into my Coinbase account.

I currently engage in a low volume of bitcoin forex trading, because I can't afford to keep transferring money in and out of my Coinbase account. However, if Coinbase owned a forex subsidiary and also a brokerage subsidiary which enabled me to transfer between sister accounts instantly, I would engage in a much higher volume of bitcoin transactions.

Coinbase and bitcoin would both gain value under such an arrangement.

So that's my proposal: The next step towards getting more money into bitcoin-centric investment is going to be by allowing bitcoin to live in harmony alongside other options, instead of being an interesting but out-of-the-way detour of an investment option.

To take action on this idea I tweeted at Coinbase. <a href="https://twitter.com/CoinbaseSupport/status/655761075837603844">To my surprise they tweeted back, asking me to email them the feature request. Below is the text of the email I sent:

Hello Coinbase!

The Coinbase Twitter account suggested that this was the proper channel for a feature request.

The two large features I am interested in requesting are:

  1. A Coinbase-owned brokerage account.
    1. This account would ideally allow me to deposit and withdraw relative to my Coinbase wallet, just like exchange.coinbase.com.
    2. The primary purpose of this account would be stock, bond, and options trading, in lieu of something like Scottrade, TD Ameritrade, and so on.
  2. Margin trading through exchange.coinbase.com, and perhaps as well through the hypothetical brokerage account.

These features would incentivize me to do all of my investment through Coinbase instead of through a number of financial firms.

Having all of my capital easily transfer between these accounts would encourage me to trade much more frequently. I'm quite confident I am not the only investor in such a situation.

Thank you,

John Vandivier