Do I Have to Buy One Whole Bitcoin?

Some investors think they missed out on Bitcoin because it's too expensive to buy at $11,418.70 a coin. But you don't have to buy one whole bitcoin at a time.

You can buy fractional shares of Bitcoin, and those fractional shares will increase in value each time the price of Bitcoin climbs. The best part is, you can buy as much or as little as you want and still profit from Bitcoin's rising price.

BitcoinFor example, if you purchase $1,000 of Bitcoin when it trades at $11,000 per coin and the price climbs to $12,000, your original investment would be now be worth $1,090.

Whether you just want to invest a few hundred dollars in Bitcoin or eventually want to own a whole coin, buying fractional shares is the best way to do it.

And now may be the perfect moment to buy the cryptocurrency, because its price is poised to soar even higher...

You Can Own One Whole Bitcoin Through an Accumulation Strategy

Even though Bitcoin may seem expensive now, you won't believe the projections over the next few years...

Standpoint Research founder Ronnie Moas hiked his Bitcoin price forecast from $14,000 to $20,000, according to a Nov. 29 Bezinga.com report.

That's a 75% increase from today's prices, and that estimate may even be too conservative...

John McAfee predicts Bitcoin will trade for $1 million by 2020, a 8,657% gain from the price of Bitcoin today.

If Moas' and McAfee's predictions come true, then today's Bitcoin price will look cheap in comparison.

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That's why any Bitcoin price dips that happen in 2017 and 2018 will allow savvy investors to own a piece of the cryptocurrency at a potentially huge discount.

For example, Bitcoin opened at $10,077.40 on Nov. 29 but dropped to an intraday low of $9,202.05 on Nov. 30. Investors could have used that intraday low as an entry point to work their way toward owning a full coin.

Investors who bought in at that price have already made a 24.08% profit.

But timing the market is impossible, which is why investors can use dollar-cost averaging to get closer to owning one full bitcoin.

Through dollar-cost averaging, investors would buy the same dollar amount of a crypto each month, no matter the current cost. For example, you would buy $1,500 of Bitcoin each month. If the price falls, you would be able to buy more Bitcoin, and if the price goes up, you would buy a smaller fraction of the coin.

By using dollar-cost averaging, you would accumulate Bitcoin without the risk of buying in during a particularly expensive month, while averaging it out by buying in during times when Bitcoin's price falls.

Let's say Bitcoin trades between $11,000 and $12,000 for the next four months.

You invest $1,500 each month, and the average cost of all your purchases turns out to be $11,500. If prices jump $1,000 or more in one day, to $13,000, you would make a 13% profit.

Sticking to this strategy helps investors avoid the pitfall of buying at a high and selling at a low. And it will allow you to accumulate the crypto until you own a whole bitcoin.

Again, we want to make sure Money Morning readers know Bitcoin should still be viewed as a speculative investment.

You should never invest what you can't afford to lose.

But the 1,084.93% gain of Bitcoin prices this year alone is just the start of the profit opportunity ahead...

That's why we're going to show you how to buy your first bitcoin and stake your claim in the $190 billion market...

How to Buy Your First Bitcoin

The easiest way to buy your first bitcoin is through Coinbase.com, and investors can buy as little as $1.00 worth of Bitcoin through the digital asset broker.

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Coinbase was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong, a former software engineer at tech travel site Airbnb, and Fred Ehrsam, a trader at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS).

Coinbase calls itself the "world's most popular way to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin." Its service is supported in 32 countries, and it has served over 10 million customers.

Through Coinbase, you will connect a bank account, debit card, or credit card to exchange Bitcoin into and out of U.S. dollars or your local currency. Once your account is approved, you will click on the "Buy" option for Bitcoin.

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Coinbase CEO: Everybody Is Interested in Digital Currency These Days

It can take a week or longer for Bitcoin to show up in your account through a bank deposit, but you are locked in at the price you pay on that day.

If you fund your account with a debit or a credit card, you should receive your Bitcoin within seconds.

All digital currency that Coinbase holds is fully insured. If it ever experiences a breach of its online storage, it would pay customers' funds that were lost.

However, losses resulting from a breach of Coinbase's physical security, cybersecurity, or by employee theft are the only ones covered.

It does not cover the compromise of your individual Coinbase account. If a hacker were to find out your password and login credentials, any of your losses would not be covered.

For additional security, you should consider using Coinbase's "vault" or a hardware wallet.

Through Coinbase's vault, 98% of digital currency is stored offline in safe boxes and physical vaults. It also has a 48-hour window that allows you to cancel a withdrawal, to give you more time to notice suspicious activity.

Coinbase's vault program allows joint accounts that require multiple approvers to initiate a withdrawal.

For even more security, you can transfer your bitcoins from Coinbase to a hardware wallet. Hardware wallets allow crypto owners to store their Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin offline on small hardware devices.

Now, hardware wallets can be complicated to set up. You also need to keep track of the pin number and pass phrases that you use for your hardware wallets.

If you don't, you could risk losing all of your bitcoins.

Two of the most popular hardware wallets are the Trezor Wallet and the Ledger Nano S.

This is a very helpful, step-by-step guide for setting up a Trezor for the first time, and this is a very helpful, step-by-step guide on how to set up a Ledger Nano S.

The Bottom Line: You don't have to buy a whole bitcoin if you want to invest in the cryptocurrency. You can buy as little as $1.00 worth of the cryptocurrency through Coinbase. But for investors who eventually want to own a full coin, today's prices may be a discount from where they will trade in the future. Investors can target price dips, or they can use a dollar-cost averaging plan to acquire Bitcoin over time and avoid the temptation of buying high and selling low.

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