57 – “Bullish on Bitcoin” with author Misha Yurchenko

The author of Bullish on Bitcoin joins Luke Scorziell in part one of the Crypto Series

Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, or Spotify.

Episode Description

Bitcoin, blockchain, and the crypto economy are here to stay. This is the first episode of the Crypto Series on Bills with Luke Scorziell, with expert interviews breaking down this emerging economy and technology.

In this episode, Misha Yurchenko goes in-depth on investing in bitcoin, what he’s learned from Bruce Lee, and why it’s not too late to invest in bitcoin. He shares some exclusive tips from his new book, Bullish on Bitcoin: 37 Strategies to Profit in the New Crypto Economy.

Let me know what you think of today’s episode on Twitter, Facebook, by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, or just by leaving a comment below.

Thank you to to Scott and Michelle, Mike, Julie, and Tiana for their generous support on Patreon! Head over to Patreon to learn how you can support Bills with Luke Scorziell.

Join 8,965 other subscribers

Related Episodes

34 — The Evolution of Blockchain with Shane Liddell

25 — The Rise of Bitcoin with Daniel LaCalle

Subscribe for the rest of the Crypto Series!

What is bitcoin?

A currency

Yurchenko believes it’s possible to lump cryptocurrencies and bitcoin into the same definition. Bitcoin was, after all, the first very successful cryptocurrency, if not the first ever.

Bitcoin was created in January 2009 by an anonymous programmer. It offers the ability for money to be transmitted around the world with very low fees, and fast speeds. It also provides the ability for people to store money without access to a bank.

Key Quotes

“I think the best way that we can describe bitcoin is that it’s a currency on the internet, and it really serves the needs of the internet generation. It’s not controlled by the government, it’s not controlled by any banks, there’s no middle man.”
~ Misha Yurchenko

“To be honest, I don’t think there is a huge use case in the western world, yet. But there is in the developing world.”
~ Misha Yurchenko

An investment

Value fluctuations

Bitcoin’s value has fluctuated tremendously in the last few years. Its value shot up from around $800 per bitcoin in late 2016 to over $19,000 a year later in December 2017 to around $3,600 in January of 2019. You can see a chart of bitcoin’s value fluctuations here.

In fact, the first person to buy anything using bitcoin bought two Papa John’s pizzas for $30 for 10,000 bitcoins. In today’s economy, he spent well over $80 million on those two pizzas. Shocking, right?

Investing with high volatility

Yurchenko sees bitcoin’s high volatilty as an attractive feature for investors. He gives the example of someone who put just a few thousand dollars into bitcoin and watched their profits soar. However, the fluctuations don’t just go up.

Economist Daniel LaCalle gave his thoughts in an interview on Bills with Luke Scorziell. “Do I invest in cryptocurrencies?” LaCalle said, “No I don’t. The reason why? Because my fund has a headline, ‘Low volatility.’”

Key Quotes

“With something like bitcoin you can have a few thousand dollars and when the price goes 20 or 30 percent up or down, you can make a pretty decent profit off of that.
From an investor’s perspective the volatility, not just in bitcoin but in other cryptocurrencies as well, is actually quite attractive.”
~ Misha Yurchenko

“Bullish on Bitcoin”

Why bullish?

The title of Misha’s latest book is Bullish on Bitcoin: 37 Strategies to Profit in the New Crypto Economy. Bullish is an investing term which means someone is optimistic about the rising value of an investment. This is as opposed to bearish which signal feelings that an investment will lose value.

Three reasons

Yurchenko is bullish on bitcoin for a few reasons. First, bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency available and adopted by the masses. “It has the first-mover advantage,” Yurchenko says. “The best products are not always the first products.”

Second, Yurchenko believes most new institutional investors building cryptocurrency trading infrastructure will enter using bitcoin. “Bitcoin is going to be most likely the first point of entry for them,” Yurchenko says.

Third, Yurchenko believes that cryptocurrencies will be very important in developing countries. “A lot of crypto and blockchain companies,” Yurchenko says, “are entering that space to try and provide a more distributed and decentralized version of money.”

Key Quotes

“Around the time [bitcoin’s value] was really at the bottom, about $4,000 or $5,000, I was writing this book. So, I had to have a lot of confidence to write this book because it didn’t look to pretty at the time.”
~ Misha Yurchenko

Lessons from blockchain CEOs

In the process of writing his book, Yurchenko interviewed about 30 blockchain CEOs. These businessmen and women have found opportunities to increase the efficiency of certain sects using blockchain technology, which is the underlying foundation of bitcoin.

Key Quotes

“One of the thinks I kept hearing is that starting a business, whether it’s blockchain or anything else, is not synonymous with short-term gains. So we shouldn’t be confusing the volatility of cryptocurrencies with the business-side of things.
You can’t expect the world to change overnight when a new technology comes out. So rather than thinking in one to two year timeframes think in five to ten to twenty year time frames.”
~ Misha Yurchenko

“The second big lesson was to work with finance rather than against it.”
~ Misha Yurchenko

Tips for investing

Yurchenko’s book includes 37 tips for investing in cryptocurrencies. I asked him to share his best ones with the audience.

“One of the first tips would be don’t day trade.”
~ Misha Yurchenko

In the podcast, Yurchenko cites a study from the University of California, Berkeley which found that more than 8 out of 10 day traders lose money. The study found that much of the loss was actually because of the transaction fees associated with buying and selling stock. You can read the UC Berkeley study here.

“It’s not too late. Just jump in the rabbit hole and start exploring and learning on your own.”
~ Misha Yurchenko

Key Quotes

“I wouldn’t listen to too much financial advice that’s in the media…I think most bad advice is free.”
~ Misha Yurchenko

Bruce Lee? Yes, Bruce Lee.

Chapter five of his Yurchenko’s book is titled, “Five Things Bruce Lee Taught Me About Trading.” Of course, I had to ask what he’s learned from Bruce Lee that had to do with training.

He told me he’d learned a lot from one of Bruce Lee’s most famous quotes:

I fear not the man who has practiced ten thousand kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick ten thousand times.”
~ Bruce Lee

The significance of this quote, Yurchenko explains, is that you must put in the hours to become an expert in one area of investing, as opposed to trying to spread yourself too thin.

Key Quotes

“From the investment perspective, there are so many different trading tools and strategies and ways you can invest, but if you can just find one that you have some sort of strength in…just get really good at that one area, and it’s okay to missout on other investments.”
~ Misha Yurchenko

“It’s not like Pokemon, you can’t catch them all.”
~ Misha Yurchenko on JOMO (Joy of Missing Out)

Support Bills by Joining on Patreon!

Patreon allows fans to gain exclusive access to my show by donating just a few dollars a month. In return, fans will be rewarded with the new mailbag, stickers, and more. I have a limited supply of Unprecedented: The Election that Changed Everything (2017 Inaugural Edition). All money will go towards funding my college tuition, expanding my podcast, and making more content for you! Find out more below!

Become a Patron!

Bills with Luke Scorziell does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice or recommendations. This material is solely intended for educational purposes based on publicly available information and may change at any time. Additionally, this article’s content is a summary of the Interviewee’s comments and, while rephrased by the Author, are not from the Author himself.

Subscribe! Review! Follow!

We love reviews. If you need a little inspiration for your own check out everyone else’s here.

iTunes | Stitcher | Edge of Ideas | Twitter

About Luke Scorziell

Mr. Scorziell created The Edge of Ideas when he was 15 years old. After a few years of blogging he found a passion for podcasting and now regularly has guests on his show, Bills with Luke Scorziell. He currently writes for USC Annenberg Media and produces a weekly segment on Annenberg Radio News called “Politicking.” You can find more of his work here. Find out more about Luke and his unique journey. Feel free to send Luke a message below.