How Much Bitcoin Should I Own?

Anthony Pompliano is a well-known Bitcoin investor. He invests in Bitcoin but he also invests in crypto-related startups through his firm Morgan Creek Digital (an example of a company he has invested in is BlockFi - a crypto financial services provider).

Read this guide on LeoPedia

He was recently on the Bill Bert podcast with Bill Burr and Bert Kreischer and was educating them on the nuances and values of the Bitcoin world. Bill and Bert are comedians and are far from “financial regulars”. Clearly, they have a solid foundation of finances and money, but they aren’t your typical finance types.

This is what made their conversation so fascinating and important. Pomp went through the fundamentals of what Bitcoin is and the questions that Bill and Bert had were the most foundational questions that you would expect from any average person on the street who has no exposure to cryptocurrencies.

Bill Burr: “How do I go from the current system to the new system without going from the frying pan into the fray?”

I thought this question was particularly great. One of the most common arguments to buying Bitcoin/opting-in to crypto is this idea that you’re just going from one monetary system to another. Why would we jump ship from something that everyone else is using (and has been using for hundreds of years) and opt for this new digital currency that is complex and berated in the media?

Pomp’s answer prompted the topic of this LeoPedia article and answers a core question to any Bitcoin newcomer:

How Much Bitcoin Should I Own?

Pomp: "The way I think about a portfolio is what percent confidence do you have in the new one [Bitcoin] versus the old one [legacy financial system]?"

“Most people are 99% old one. 1% in Bitcoin or 2%. Me, I’m younger and I’ve got a higher risk tolerance. I understand this stuff in a nuanced way, so I’m 50/50. I took 50% of my net worth and put it in the new system and bought Bitcoin.”

This answer is one of the best that I’ve heard when it comes to framing the idea of opting-in to Bitcoin. Whether you’re someone who already owns some crypto and has dabbled in the space or someone who has never even setup a wallet and tried to purchase Bitcoin, this is one of the best questions you could ask yourself:

What is your confidence level in the old system vs. the new system?

Bitcoin is the new system. It’s only 11 years old and it is not perfect. If you talk to people who are heavily invested (not just invested in terms of money, but in terms of time and brain space), then they’ll point out all the flaws of the legacy financial system and fiat currencies like the U.S. Dollar and proclaim the benefits of being in Bitcoin.

With Bitcoin, we have a decentralized, peer-to-peer global currency that cannot be controlled by any central bank or government.

If you live in a place like Venezuela or Lebanon, you experience the woes of a corrupt central bank and a poorly managed currency system first-hand. That is why it’s so easy to convince people in those places to buy Bitcoin and opt-out of their legacy system. In fact, many of those people don’t need any convincing.. you tell them that there is a system of money that cannot be controlled by their central bank, cannot be stolen from them by their government, etc. and they are fully on board.

Their % confidence in Bitcoin is easily higher than their % confidence in their local currency.

Answer This Question For Yourself

Here is my message to anyone who's trying to answer this question - whether you’re new to crypto or have been in the space for a while:

Nobody can tell you how much Bitcoin you should own. There are no financial advisors out there who can properly answer this question for you. Instead, you need to educate yourself about the nuances of Bitcoin and why this new system of currency matters.

In doing your own research, you should also setup a wallet and buy just a small amount of Bitcoin. Something that you’re willing to lose, send to others and play around with. Having just a little Bitcoin changes everything because it allows you to see the crypto space from the vantage point of an actual user.. the insight you’ll gain from this practice is far more than you’ll ever get from a book or YouTube video.

Alternatively (or even parallel to a Bitcoin wallet), I recommend getting a Hive/LeoFinance Account. One of the most common arguments to this idea of getting a Bitcoin wallet and playing around with the currency is that many people around the globe don’t have even a small amount of money that they can just throw around and lose. The thing I like about a Hive wallet is that you can earn crypto rather than just buy it. So you can invest $0 and still learn about crypto from the vantage point of a user. I wrote an extensive guide about Hive, which you can find Here.

As you dive deeper and deeper into the ideas of Bitcoin/crypto and how the new system works, your confidence level in it will either increase or decrease. If you find that you become more and more confident that Bitcoin is a better system than the legacy financial systems (as I and others like Pomp have experienced over the past several years), then you can continually re-evaluate what % of your net worth is in the legacy system compared to the new system.

Pomp is 50-50 in the old system and the new system. He doesn’t believe the old system will just die off, but he does believe that the new system has a decent probability of replacing the old system as a global reserve currency.

My percentages break down as about 20-80 in the old system versus the new system. The majority of my net worth is in crypto and that makes perfect sense to me. I believe that there is a high probability that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies will be around for the foreseeable future and will only continue to grow in use cases and real-world adoption. On top of that (and following a similar line of reasoning as Pomp), I’m young, highly risk-tolerant and have been working/researching in the crypto space full-time for the past 4 years.

We built the LeoFinance community (and resources like LeoPedia) with the exact purpose of teaching people about the new system. If you want to learn more about crypto & finance and even get hands-on help, feel free to jump-in to our Discord and we’ll help you out. You can also create an account and start earning cryptocurrencies on our social media platform at https://leofinance.io.