Understanding the risks of cryptocurrency
Understanding the risks of any practice in which we trade, invest or spend money in is crucial for financial protection and preservation. This is fundamental to trading responsibly, and applies to any investments you make, not just with cryptocurrency.
In this section of the Beginner’s Guide, we’ll outline the risks you should be aware of before using digital currency.
Sending to the wrong address
The blockchain is designed so that transactions are irreversible. There is no way of cancelling or issuing a chargeback request for cryptocurrency payments once they’ve been sent to the blockchain. If you make a payment to the incorrect address, those funds are lost unless the receiver chooses to send them back to you.
Before you make any cryptocurrency payments, we recommend triple checking the address and doing a test transaction of a small amount first before making a full payment to avoid making this irreversible mistake.
Price fluctuations
Bitcoin especially is well known for the volatility and unpredictability of fluctuation of its price. In most markets, especially digital currencies, prices are mainly driven by speculative trading activities.
As we are still far from these technologies maturing, volatility should be expected.
Cryptocurrency currently should be seen as a high-risk asset and therefore it is not recommended that you trade money that you can’t afford to lose when starting out in the cryptocurrency world.
Ponzi schemes
Be wary of falling into the trap of companies offering guaranteed high-interest payment in return for initial investments in bitcoin ‘packages’. This is a huge red flag of highly unsustainable business practices, and you risk losing all funds, including any initial investment, when participating in these schemes.
We’ve written about this before in our blog post on the ‘Five Commandments For Those New To Bitcoin.
It is important to note that this article is not comprehensive. We have outlined the most prominent risks applicable to our customers, and depending on how you’re using digital currency, there may be different risks you should be aware of.
There are new developments occurring daily, and we always have and always will advise you to conduct your own research before you make any financial decisions.
Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high‑risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 minutes to learn more: www.coinjar.com/uk/risk-summary.
Cryptoassets traded on CoinJar UK Limited are largely unregulated in the UK, and you are unable to access the Financial Service Compensation Scheme or the Financial Ombudsman Service. We use third party banking, safekeeping and payment providers, and the failure of any of these providers could also lead to a loss of your assets. We recommend you obtain financial advice before making a decision to use your credit card to purchase cryptoassets or to invest in cryptoassets. Capital Gains Tax may be payable on profits.
CoinJar’s digital currency exchange services are operated in Australia by CoinJar Australia Pty Ltd ACN 648 570 807, a registered digital currency exchange provider with AUSTRAC; and in the United Kingdom by CoinJar UK Limited (company number 8905988), registered by the Financial Conduct Authority as a Cryptoasset Exchange Provider and Custodian Wallet Provider in the United Kingdom under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017, as amended (Firm Reference No. 928767).