Yeah, staying above $4K is definitely a good sign and shows that ETH has stronger support now than it did in the past. Liquidity and consistent recoveries are proof that it’s not just drifting like many weaker altcoins do.

Still, I’d stay cautious – resistance can flip fast if whales decide to dump or if leverage gets out of hand. Long-term, ETH remains one of the few altcoins with real fundamentals and adoption, but that doesn’t mean it’s immune to shakeouts. Better to review regularly and not just assume the trend will continue without corrections.

ETH definitely looks like it’s at a crossroads right now. On one side you’ve got the ETF narrative and institutional money flowing in, which is a strong long-term driver. On the other side, the leverage and whale activity you mentioned can easily cause a sharp shakeout before any bigger move.

For me, that’s why I always stick to the same approach: don’t chase hype, review the fundamentals, and avoid overexposure. Ethereum still has strong tech and adoption compared to most altcoins, but it’s not immune to corrections.

If it holds above support, we might see the next leg up. But even if we get another drop first, long-term ETH is still one of the few altcoins worth holding compared to the outdated or weak projects I’d rather rotate out of.

Nice work! That’s exactly the kind of step more people should take if they really want to understand Bitcoin beyond just the price chart. Running your own node – even pruned – means you’re not relying on third-party explorers and you’re actually verifying your own transactions. That’s the whole point of decentralization.

I’m still running mine on local hardware, but VPS is a solid choice if you want 24/7 uptime without worrying about your own machine running all day. The main thing is to keep control of your setup and not just trust someone else’s node.

It’s a small step for you maybe, but for Bitcoin it’s a big deal – every additional honest node strengthens the network.

That’s exactly why I always say: if someone is offering Bitcoin at a discount, it’s a red flag by default. Nobody sells below market price when they can just use an exchange – unless there’s something shady behind it.

Trusting friends or “friends of friends” doesn’t change the fact that stolen coins can get you into serious trouble, even if you didn’t know. And once you move them onto a centralized exchange with KYC, you’re basically pointing the finger at yourself.

It’s safer to just stick to reputable exchanges or P2P platforms where there’s at least some level of protection. Buying face-to-face with no guarantees is simply too risky nowadays.

Yeah, DOGE is a good example of what happens when hype runs out but there’s no strong tech or real use case to back it up. It had its moment, but without innovation or solid fundamentals it’s hard to stay relevant long-term.

As for these new meme coins – sure, they might pump hard in the short term if the hype catches on, but the same red flags apply. If the tokenomics don’t make sense, if most of the supply is held by insiders, or if there’s no real value being created, then the risk of being left holding the bag is huge.

I’d rather focus on coins that combine actual technology with adoption potential. Meme coins can give crazy returns, but they can also go to zero overnight. DYOR is key, otherwise it’s just gambling.

Good checklist, you’ve already nailed some of the biggest ones. A few more I usually watch out for:
   •   Overpromised partnerships → if a project keeps dropping names like “we’re working with Google/Microsoft” but there’s no proof, huge red flag.
   •   Liquidity locked? If the team controls the liquidity pool and it’s not locked, that’s an easy rug setup.
   •   Anonymous devs + aggressive marketing → that combo is almost always bad news.
   •   No real use case → if the only “utility” is pumping the token, it won’t survive a bear market.
   •   Copy-paste contracts → a lot of rug projects literally just fork code and don’t change anything except the name.

At the end of the day, if the tokenomics look like a trap and the community is just hype with no depth, I’d rather stay out. Too many “next big things” end up being the next rug.

Safest way to buy Bitcoin is usually through a reputable exchange like Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, or similar (depends a bit on where you live). They make the on-ramp easy, you can just link your bank account or card.

But here’s the important part: don’t leave your coins sitting on the exchange longer than necessary. Exchanges can get hacked, accounts can get frozen – “not your keys, not your coins” is a saying you’ll hear a lot.

For storage, you’ve got a few options:
   •   Hardware wallet (Ledger, Trezor, etc.) → safest for long-term holding, because you control the private keys and they’re offline.
   •   Software wallet (Exodus, Electrum, BlueWallet, etc.) → good balance for smaller amounts or everyday use.
   •   Exchange wallet → only for short-term (like if you’re actively trading).

Most people use an exchange to buy, then transfer to their own wallet (hardware if they’re serious about holding long-term).

Take it slow, don’t rush, and never share your seed phrase with anyone.

I think you’re right to be skeptical. Most altcoins really don’t survive in the long run, and a lot of them are just pump-and-dump projects with no real use case. That’s why I always say it’s better to review them constantly and get rid of outdated bags like Tron or EOS instead of holding and hoping.

Bitcoin dominance above 58% shows clearly where the real strength is. Even Ethereum, which is one of the stronger projects, hasn’t reached a new ATH yet – so expecting random altcoins to suddenly outperform is just dangerous wishful thinking.

Predictions about “altcoin season” always come around, but in the end, most people who chase those headlines end up losing money. Better to focus on projects with solid fundamentals and proven technology, not just news hype.

I agree with you 100% on DYOR – it’s the only real protection we have in crypto, especially since there’s no full regulation to filter out the frauds for us.
That’s exactly why I always emphasize checking not just if a project sounds good, but if the technology is modern, the dev team is competent, and the track record is clean. A lot of coins might look shiny on the surface but are actually outdated or run by people you shouldn’t trust.

Scams thrive in the absence of oversight, so without doing our own due diligence, we’re basically walking blind. And it’s not just about avoiding obvious rug pulls – even legit coins can fail if they have old tech, low adoption, or no clear use case. That’s why I say it’s better to drop such bags early and move to stronger projects.

Long-term understanding of Bitcoin is essential, but for altcoins the review process needs to be ongoing, because the space evolves so fast that what was solid yesterday might be irrelevant tomorrow.

Honestly, it’s probably a mix of both – a bit of luck and being in the right place at the right time.
With small amounts like $10, people can take higher risks without worrying too much about losing it, so they jump into new projects early. If one of them moons, the percentage gains look huge.

The tricky part is that for every $BNKR or $CLIPPY that takes off, there are dozens that go nowhere or rug. The friends you’re mentioning might just have hit a few good ones, but that doesn’t mean the same strategy will keep working forever.

Exchanges listing solid projects definitely helps, but by the time most people see it on a major exchange, the early gains are often already gone. The real skill (or luck) is spotting those gems before the crowd does – and that’s way easier said than done.

I get your point about decentralization – and I fully agree that too much regulation could destroy what makes crypto unique in the first place. My intention wasn’t to say that regulation should control every aspect of crypto or turn it into a centralized system like traditional finance.

What I meant is that the complete lack of any oversight makes it easier for outright scams to flourish, especially for new investors who don’t yet have the knowledge to separate solid projects from “obvious garbage coins.” Even minimal consumer protections, without touching the core decentralization, could reduce the amount of fraud.

I also agree with you that the main reason many altcoins fail is bad tech, lack of innovation, or no real use case. That’s exactly why I emphasize doing proper research and regularly reviewing your holdings – because whether regulated or not, bad projects will eventually collapse.

I’m not advocating for killing decentralization, but I do think the absence of any framework means scams can run wild, and that’s where many people lose money unnecessarily.

Sounds like a solid allocation.
BTC as the main anchor simply provides the most security in the crypto space, and with a small altcoin share you can still take the chances of higher profits. SOL and ETH are definitely among the stronger candidates - they not only have hype, but also real usage and developer activity.

In the end, it all comes down to your own risk appetite anyway. Some prefer to play it safe, others want to gamble more. The important thing is not to invest everything in projects you're not convinced about.

80/20 sounds like a good balance between "sleeping soundly" and "still getting a slice of the cake".

Sounds sensible.
Especially if it's only small amounts, it's not worth leaving them in coins that you no longer believe in. That only ties up capital - regardless of whether it's "only" $50 - and you end up getting annoyed if the value continues to fall.

ETH is definitely the more solid choice, especially if you just want to park it until a better opportunity arises. And yes, sometimes it's better to make the cut and continue with a clean wallet instead of dragging legacy assets with you.

It's basically like a wardrobe: if you haven't used it for ages and it's just taking up space, it's better to get rid of it and make room for something new.

I can agree with that.
Even the few "reputable" providers such as Binance or NiceHash are often just a loss-making business in the end if you offset the costs. With all the no-name cloud mining sites, it's almost always just scam anyway - deposit once and that's it for the money.

I've also seen enough of these "investment opportunities" that promise you golden mountains and only end up giving you a headache. Many people are simply dazzled by the beautiful dashboards and the "guaranteed returns" without realising that the business model is unsustainable from the outset.

With your own hardware, at least you have something in your hands. Sure, you need cheap electricity and have to know a bit about the technology, but you're more flexible in the long term - and if it's no longer profitable, you can always sell the box.

Cloud mining is like a hire car with a fixed price - you pay no matter how far you drive. Owning your own hardware is like owning your own car - more responsibility, but also more opportunities.

Sounds to me like you've pretty much hit the nail on the head.
Many people just forget that "regulated" doesn't automatically mean "good" - just like an MOT seal doesn't guarantee that your car will never break down.

I see the problem with unlimited supply in the same way. Inflation eats up value, regardless of whether it's fiat or crypto. And just because a coin has a high market cap doesn't mean it will perform well in the long term - especially if the tokenomics are bad.

As far as altcoins are concerned, most of them are more like start-ups - 90% won't make it in the long term, a few will survive and perform well. Those who hodl blindly in the long term are just playing the lottery. Get in for the short term, take profits and don't get married - that's probably the healthiest attitude for most projects.

The bottom line: regulation can make scams more difficult, but it doesn't turn shitcoins into gold. Scarcity, community, use case - without the three it will be difficult.

When we need to review a cryptocurrency if it’s legit or scam, we need to make sure to do a proper research. Like for every investment, we need to check it frequently and evaluate how to proceed. It is similar for Altcoins and very important.

Crypto currencies are a very fast evolving field of investment because of crypto technology.
Innovation is changing opportunities quickly and we need to select good Crypto coins for it.

Crypto is not regulated

Unfortunately, crypto coins are not regulated yet and we will see many fraud coins to be available for buy and we should avoid it. Due to a lack of regulation, we need to do a research ourselves and find out if a coin is legit or scam. Until coins are fully regulated, we need to do a research ourselves.
We should always review coins to prevent a loss. When a coin is reviewed badly by experts, like Tron and EOS have received bad reviews by experts, it is time to sell quickly.
But it’s even more important right now to sell all outdated Altcoin bags like Tron and EOS.

Why can unregulated Altcoins fail?

Altcoins are very volatile and many Altcoins have failed so far. Many ppl have lost money by holding failed coins. Altcoins are not regulated yet and it poses a big danger for us.
But how can we make sure to avoid such failing Altcoins?

We should have a very close look to such Altcoins and try to find out about very important details:

- Is it a promising coin where new technology is used? For example, Litecoin and Nano are using a very old technology.
- Are developers very experienced and professional to set up a good Code?
- Is it a coin involved in fraud (like BSV, Ripple or BCH)
- Is it a coin where security has been good or weak (avoid hacked coins)

Because if coins are not interesting, have not good tech or people are not interested in it, such coins will fail. Many coins are fraud, where we can’t trust owners.

When we have done our research, we can know why some coins will fail and how to avoid it.

Many coins have been started when Cryptocurrencies were less developed and much less innovative.
And here it is a big problem for many Altcoins: using outdated Blockchain technology.

A good example for such an issue is Tron.
Tron was developed from Justin Sun to compete against Ethereum 1.0.
But Tron was such a badly coded coin, it couldn't even compete against Ethereum and lost many marketcap against Ethereum.
Now, since Ethereum 2.0 is launched, Tron is completely embarrassed because of it's old tech.

Tron is based on an old technology where more innovative coins are outperforming Tron massively.
Tron is losing relevance very quickly compared to such new and more modern coins like Ethereum 2.0, Avalanche or Algorand.

One more old coin is EOS. It could not meet expectations and was even place 5 in market cap until it is now very irrelevant. People still holding EOS are having a big loss.
Lucky, who got out timely, to prevent a loss.


Conclusion

A lack of regulation is usually very bad for us because it enables fraud. Instead of an institution, where we can rely on, we have to do a research ourselves, which coins are fraud, outdated or just not good enough.
We should sell such outdated coins like Tron because such coins will become more and more obsolete over time.

When we need to review a cryptocurrency if it’s legit or scam, we need to make sure to do a proper research. Like for every investment, we need to check it frequently and evaluate how to proceed. It is similar for Altcoins and very important.

Crypto currencies are a very fast evolving field of investment because of crypto technology.
Innovation is changing opportunities quickly and we need to select good Crypto coins for it.

Crypto is not regulated

Unfortunately, crypto coins are not regulated yet and we will see many fraud coins to be available for buy and we should avoid it. Due to a lack of regulation, we need to do a research ourselves and find out if a coin is legit or scam. Until coins are fully regulated, we need to do a research ourselves.
We should always review coins to prevent a loss. When a coin is reviewed badly by experts, like Tron and EOS have received bad reviews by experts, it is time to sell quickly.
But it’s even more important right now to sell all outdated Altcoin bags like Tron and EOS.

Why can unregulated Altcoins fail?

Altcoins are very volatile and many Altcoins have failed so far. Many ppl have lost money by holding failed coins. Altcoins are not regulated yet and it poses a big danger for us.
But how can we make sure to avoid such failing Altcoins?

We should have a very close look to such Altcoins and try to find out about very important details:

- Is it a promising coin where new technology is used? For example, Litecoin and Nano are using a very old technology.
- Are developers very experienced and professional to set up a good Code?
- Is it a coin involved in fraud (like BSV, Ripple or BCH)
- Is it a coin where security has been good or weak (avoid hacked coins)

Because if coins are not interesting, have not good tech or people are not interested in it, such coins will fail. Many coins are fraud, where we can’t trust owners.

When we have done our research, we can know why some coins will fail and how to avoid it.

Many coins have been started when Cryptocurrencies were less developed and much less innovative.
And here it is a big problem for many Altcoins: using outdated Blockchain technology.

A good example for such an issue is Tron.
Tron was developed from Justin Sun to compete against Ethereum 1.0.
But Tron was such a badly coded coin, it couldn't even compete against Ethereum and lost many marketcap against Ethereum.
Now, since Ethereum 2.0 be launched, Tron is completely embarrassed because of it's old tech.

Tron is based on an old technology where more innovative coins are outperforming Tron massively.
Tron is losing relevance very quickly compared to such new and more modern coins like Ethereum 2.0, Avalanche or Algorand.

One more old coin is EOS. It could not meet expectations and was even place 5 in market cap until it is now very irrelevant. People still holding EOS are having a big loss.
Lucky, who got out timely, to prevent a loss.


Conclusion

A lack of regulation is usually very bad for us because it enables fraud. Instead of an institution, where we can rely on, we have to do a research ourselves, which coins are fraud, outdated or just not good enough.
We should sell such outdated coins like Tron because such coins will become more and more obsolete over time.

Cloudmining or hosted mining is often recommended to generate good profits but let’s today check if and why Cloudmining or hosted mining is (not) profitable for interested people to generate a profit. Is it really a good idea to generate profits from Cloudmining or hosted mining?
After Bitcoin is already very established in 2025, it is not a niche anymore where we can make a profit easily, like from mining. In all belongs, current miners have to compete against highly competitive experts to get a new block.


How mining is working

Mining by itself is designed as a big competition: who will find and mine a new Bitcoin Block next? It is an essential question for mining because if you get a new Bitcoin Block mined, you are eligible for Bitcoin Block Rewards. Block Rewards are 3.125 Bitcoin per Block currently and it will get reduced to 1.675 BTC pro Block for next halving.

But here it is getting tricky: mining is a challenging competition and miners are top competition of professionals.
 
Mining is done under a very harsh competition where we need to compete against experienced businessmen and experienced coders

Mining is done by several experienced industrial and professional businesses under a very harsh competition where we need to compete against experienced businessmen and experienced coders. Top businessmen like from AntPool are very big players and can hire very experienced coders and technically experienced people, where we need to compete against in mining a block. It’s really a big competition.

Mining needs to be competitious and you need cheap electricity to make a good profit. You also need to have a modern miner to be competitious. After some time, new miners will be released where a better technology will create more hashpower.
When you look at a history chart of hashpower, it's always going up which is making mining more difficult.
It is very hard business because you are in competition against industrial and professional business who are able to hire experienced computer experts and finally, maybe you won't get your initial investment back. It is huge risk and can cause huge loss.

A middleman is necessary for Cloudmining or hosted mining

Cloudmining or hosted mining is designed to have a middleman in a factory where your miners are set up and operated by a professional. He will produce costs himself and his revenue share comes on top on your total mining profits.
Hosted miners or Cloud Miners will always charge a fee to set up and operate mining devices which will decrease your mining rewards even more.
If such costs gets too large, your overall profit will almost vanish and when mining business gets more competition, for example when a rising hashrate takes place or Bitcoin price is falling, your revenue share might vanish or turn into negative values because it is not profitable anymore to run your Cloudminers or hosted miners.

A cost for a middleman always comes on top on your total mining profits for Cloudminers or hosted miners and as a result, Cloudmining or hosted mining is simply not suited to receive a good and safe profit.

In previous years, Bitcoin was known to be involved in many fraudulent activities such as Silk Road, which has been an illegal Darknet market for drugs and weapons. Bitcoin was a big strategy by criminals but luckily, Bitcoin has become more mainstream and criminals were caught. Today, Bitcoin is known for being a reliable digital transactions asset but still some Bitcoin is involved in criminal activities.
Reliable Blockchain companies such as Chainalysis have helped to discover more crimes and make Bitcoin more reliable.

Even if goods sold by criminals are cheaper, don’t buy such goods! Often, criminals have also sold some drugs or weapons previously and such Bitcoin will be from criminals.
Possibly, you’ll also get hacked if someone will place a malicious file in a mail attachement. Be very careful! Better safe than sorry!

It is up to us to improve Bitcoin and get rid from fraudulent and illegal activities involving Bitcoin. We should not support fraudulent and illegal activities, we should not protect criminals or scammers. Bitcoin is very useful but if some criminals will use Bitcoin to purchase a weapon, where possibly people are murdered from, Bitcoin will take damage and we should not support it.
Bitcoin has improved impressively since Silk Road was busted and Bitcoin growing will help Bitcoin to get independent from criminals and scammers.

Beginners should pay attention to avoid falling for criminals and scammers. Criminals and scammers are very deceitful.