cryptocurrency

A little more than nine years ago, on Jan. 12, 2009, Hal Finney became the first recipient of Bitcoin. That was the day the computer game developer and well-known "cyberpunk" downloaded the Bitcoin software from the cryptocurrency's creator(s), Satoshi Nakamoto – and received 50 of the digital coins for doing so.

That was the very first Bitcoin transaction.

At the time, those bitcoins had almost no value – less than $0.003, in fact. But at Bitcoin's December 2017 peak of nearly $20,000, those 50 coins were worth a cool $1 million.

Since the Finney-Satoshi transaction, we've seen the "debut" of more than 800 cryptocurrencies. Today, their market cap is at $759.7 billion.

Despite all that, in December, I began warning retail investors to stay clear of buying Bitcoin directly.

You see, I was worried that the new ability to trade Bitcoin futures, with all the Wall Street muggers and sharks coming out of the woodwork, would burn new investors.

Moreover, I predicted that the leading crypto would become highly volatile.

I was right. Over the next few days, Bitcoin fell as low as $10,000 – a 50% decline.

Here's the thing: I still believe Bitcoin has unlimited potential and is a great place for tech investors to make money.