Jeff Reeves's Strength in Numbers: Bitcoin has no place in any portfolio

Bitcoin, the digital currency that took the world by storm about a year ago, is back in the news in a big way lately.

First, there is a San Francisco startup called Coinbase backed with over $100 million that has opened the first real marketplace for bitcoin. Coinbase has backers including the New York Stock Exchange and Andreessen Horowitz, and aims to provide real-time pricing and a true market for bitcoin.

At the same time, Internet entrepreneurs Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are making the rounds talking up the potential of bitcoin, claiming the potential market could be in the trillions. Of course, they are talking their own book as they wait for regulators to sign off on the first exchange-traded fund that will hold bitcoins but considering there is just $3.5 billion or so held in bitcoins at present value, thats a big-time prediction.

So whats the score? Should investors see the decline in bitcoin prices over the last year and the recent buzz about the digital currency as a sign of hope?

No way.

The sad reality is that while there may be a select few that are going to make money on bitcoins, the vast majority of investors should not give bitcoin the time of day.

Heres why the cryptocurrency is little more than a technological quirk, and has no place in your portfolio:

No True Value: Proponents like to talk about how bitcoin has no central bank or authority behind it as a net positive, but that fact also means a lack of true value. A bitcoin, then, is simply worth whatever a random person is willing to pay derisively known as the greater fool theory, because profits rely on your ability to find someone more foolish than yourself who is willing to buy higher.

Anonymity Is a Double-Edged Sword: Another purported benefit that the currency is frictionless meaning that there arent added costs associated with moving transactions through a megabank or credit card processor and anonymous. This is great when youre trying to keep a deal under the radar from the police or the tax man but if your account is hacked and your bitcoins are stolen, you have little recourse to catch the thieves. Thats what apparently happened to Mt. Gox in 2014 when hackers made off with bitcoins worth about $460 million at the time.

Big Volatility: These characteristics, naturally, lead to big risks in bitcoin and subsequently, big volatility in the price of the digital currency. While bitcoin surged from about $13 in January 2013 to a peak of roughly $1,150 at the end of November 2013, prices were as low as $178 a few weeks ago. Such a wild range in roughly two years should show how speculative bitcoin is.

Continued here:
Jeff Reeves's Strength in Numbers: Bitcoin has no place in any portfolio