Each day, more and more people start investing in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC +1.74%). It's not hard to understand why. Over the past decade, the S&P 500 has risen roughly 278% in value. Bitcoin's value, meanwhile, has soared by more than 17,000% over the same time period.
If you want to add huge growth potential to your portfolio by betting on crypto, there's only one ETF that most investors need.
CRYPTO: BTC
Key Data Points
There's a reason why Bitcoin is so famous
When talking about Bitcoin six years ago, legendary investor Peter Thiel summarized the investment pitch for the cryptocurrency: "Money is the bubble that never pops." Consider the U.S. dollar. It holds value because everyone believes that it holds value. There are some backstop forms of value such as military might and the power of taxation. But in general, currencies like the U.S. dollar -- or even stores of value like gold -- have value because we all agree that they have value.
When it comes to investing, the rule is typically to find opportunities that will create hard value in the form of distributable cash flows or real world profits. Betting on what other people think the stock will be worth can be a dicey game. That's why most experts build complex models and analyze financials to determine whether the price they are paying for an investment will be worth the eventual reward.
Currency -- or more colloquially, "money" -- is the exception to this rule. Dollar bills don't produce more dollar bills. That's not where their value stems from. Their value, on a core level, is as a social instrument. We all agree that it represents the value of whatever work was put into earning it. Bitcoin operates in very much the same way. It's considered a proof-of-work cryptocurrency, meaning miners are continually working -- in this case, they're solving complex mathematical problems -- to produce more Bitcoins. And while it doesn't have much direct functionality besides as a form of money, it's the first time a form of money has been created that doesn't involve major nation states or other centralized powers.
Of course, a bunch of other things are happening in the crypto universe as well. And it's possible that crypto in general enters our daily life in ways we never expected, just as the internet continues to do. But regardless of whether those ventures are successful, Bitcoin will always "work." That is, it will always retain its ability to act as a form of money and a store of value.
This is the only crypto ETF you need
Due to these factors, most everyday investors only need one ETF to gain exposure to cryptocurrencies: the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT +2.25%).
As its name suggests, this ETF tracks the price performance of Bitcoin, without requiring investors to bother with the complex custodial issues related to buying Bitcoin directly. The fund currently has an expense ratio of just 0.12% -- even lower than most actively traded funds. And because the fund only tracks the performance of Bitcoin, you don't have to worry about betting on a fast-changing ecosystem of crypto-related start-ups whose future is anybody's guess right now. Decades from now, Bitcoin will likely still exist, while the long list of crypto ventures started in recent years may be a thing of the past.
The best part of investing in a crypto ETF like this is that it makes dollar-cost averaging easy. If you buy $50 per month of this ETF, for example, you make sure to continually invest throughout Bitcoin's somewhat volatile trading ranges. That way, you don't need to worry about timing the market, as you're making sure to buy when prices are high and when prices are low -- a wise investing strategy that's a bit more difficult when buying Bitcoin directly.
