I think we are in the very beginning stages of the blockchain phenomena. Days like this to me are a gift for long term speculators/investors. I added to my Ether and Bitcoin positions late this morning after Coinbase came back online. But these purchases are for short term trading as I think there is a good chance of sideways consolidation of, say, 100 a ETH channel and serveral 100's on a Bitcoin channel for the next few months. I do not plan on trading my long term portfolio of cryptos.
Speaking of Coinbase dropping offline, to me it seems clear to me that during heavy rapid price movements the platform has trouble keeping up and can become unaccessible. So I think it helps to have a strategy for these times. For me, I diversified by my recent registration on the Kraken platform as a backup and thinking of Poloniex too. In addition, I have started today to accumulate BTGC (Bitcoin Trust - arguably has a steep premium) on the Fidelity platform during the significant correction on GBTC over the last few days. I plan on a long term accumulation of BTGC as prices correct in the future.
Having lived thru trading equities during the 2000 and 2008 meltdown I've lived to learn a few things. First and foremost is capital preservation, ie...risk and money management is critical to live to trade another day, ie stay in the game ("Bulls make money, Bears make money...pigs get slaughtered,"); diversification across brokerages, sectors and leading companies and third...discover over time where you have success in trading/investing and stick to your knitting.
Cryptos to me can be a frustrating speculation because it is hard if not impossible to discover its true value. Is Bitcoin worth $10,000 or $100? With equities you can look at growth rates, debt, cash flows, earnings, discern market tops, bottoms etc and make educated guesses. For me it helps to take a very long term view of the blockchain technology and diversify with a basket of several cryptos built on the blockchain having unique real world in demand applications and are arguably the leaders in their respective spaces. Thus Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, Dash, Iconomi, Steemit, etc. Meanwhile, discovering solid technical support and resistance levels can result in interesting short term trades opportunities.
The most important thing is to realize we are in the midst of a possible digital revolution. It's important to have fun while finding how we can profit from this new phenomena.
