Should you keep your money in crypto during the bear market?

by Arthur · November 10, 2022

Of course, there’s more than egos at stake: There’s real money, too. And you’re not alone if crypto’s ongoing hype makes you nervous about your investments.

Financial advisors are divided on whether the average investor should keep their money in crypto. While the typical advice for a bearish stock market is to stay the course, the crypto market hasn’t been around that long and it’s hard to know when (or if) it will bounce back.

“My clients are retired or close, so I would advise against it,” says Nicholas Bunio, a Pennsylvania-based certified financial planner (CFP). “And realistically, even some young people shouldn’t keep all their money there. Too much risk and potential for a crypto exchange to go bankrupt or get hacked.”

But financial advisors agree on one thing: if you’re invested in crypto, it should be a small percentage of your overall portfolio.

“I generally recommend limiting any investment in crypto to 1% of your risky investments,” says Rick Nott, a CFP and senior wealth advisor at LourdMurray, or up to 5% “if you have deep pockets and understand the risks.”

All investments go through cycles, he notes. The stock market has also been in rough waters this year too, although there is much more historical data to confirm that it is a good investment for ordinary people. Crypto is more of a “science experiment,” says Nott. Nobody knows what it’s really worth.

If that scares you, that’s okay. But don’t invest.

“I think that retail investors should understand what [crypto] is and does before I even consider buying it, says Nott. “Then expect that all the money they plan to invest it in may well go to zero, so the amount you invest should be a very small part of your portfolio dedicated to speculative investments.”

The point of investing in crypto, he says, shouldn’t be to get rich. Rather, to build wealth for the long term.

“Wealth is better, but it takes longer and requires the disciple to watch from the sidelines while you research, then decide when the world looks scary,” he says.

This advice has not changed due to recent headlines – retail investors should always be cautious when it comes to crypto or proven investments.

“For someone with a substantial enough portfolio to warrant an allocation to alternative asset classes … you could do worse than cryptocurrency,” says Ben Waterman, co-founder of Strabo, an investment app. “There will undoubtedly be some outsized gains to be made on the upswing that follows the downswing, but when this can be expected no one really knows. This is exactly why you shouldn’t invest money you can’t afford to lose.”

Going forward, stick with the biggest and most established cryptocurrency coins—Bitcoin, Ethereum—says Waterman. Many of the smaller projects are the most speculative, and you run the risk that they may not exist in a few months.

If you have investments now, follow the traditional financial advice for a downturn, he says: Sit tight. This moment of investor panic is the worst possible time to sell.

“In the worst case, you’re going to sell out at the bottom. Don’t try to catch a falling knife, as the saying goes,” says Waterman. “If you were smart about the cryptocurrencies you chose, they’ll probably persist through the downturn simply because of the amount of institutional capital now invested.”