I am even surprised you are putting this out here, since you've got a fine job with IBM then why don't you keep saving your income until you become a millionaire or until you find a clear cut lead in bitcoin or cryptocurrencies that can help you double up your money? At the moment i wouldn't advice you to invest it into cryptocurrencies unless you can afford to loose the money else then keep it in the bank or learn to trade with it.
The problem is that there are no expert financial advisors here. OP might get several opinions from everyone but it's still up to him to make the final decision. Nice that you bring up about the risk because it seems the OP is not aware of it.
To the OP, you're possibly attracting bad actors here specially when the amount you are willing to invest. So be careful if you received some PM and offering something in return. I'm sure that you are a intelligent person since you have mentioned that you work at IBM, but it's not smart asking financial advises here. IMHO.