Both Bitcoins and altcoins have a lot of risk attached to them, simply because of the nature of cryptocurrency also being criminal currency. Currently, there really are no government-backed, government-guaranteed cryptocurrencies out there.

However, Bitcoin tends to attract the most speculators as well as the most scammers. This, in turn, puts Bitcoin as a riskier choice for most. The major hack earlier in 2014 proved that even savvy Bitcoin investors can lose it all because of theft.