Home Latest Cryptocurrency News Profit Time Machine: A Peek into the Potential Gains of Investing

Profit Time Machine: A Peek into the Potential Gains of Investing

By Oliver Carding - min read
15 March 2021

With the price of Bitcoin soaring to new heights this year and inching ever closer to $60,000, many are wishing they had got on board sooner. So, what if you had invested in Bitcoin before this most recent bull run – where would that leave you now? Our Profit Time Machine can answer this question and more.

What If I Had Invested in Bitcoin 10 Years Ago?

Well, at the end of February 2011, Bitcoin was worth $0.91. That means if you had bought $1,000 of it back then, your investment would now be worth a whopping $63 million! The last 10 years have seen the price of Bitcoin increase by an incredible 6,307,600%. This means that to be a millionaire today, you would only have needed to invest $16 back then.

However, the majority of investors 10 years ago were piling their money into stocks instead – so how do these compare? Well, one of the best performing stocks in that time has been Tesla, whose share price rose by an impressive 16,000% over the last decade, from $780 in February 2011 to $4.722 now.

This means that if you had put that $16 which would have made you a Bitcoin millionaire into Tesla instead, it would today be worth $2,650. Not a bad return; however, Bitcoin was almost 400 times more profitable than Tesla over the same time period!

Given these figures, it’s perhaps not surprising that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has frequently endorsed Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on Twitter, or that Tesla has invested $1.5 billion into Bitcoin, amounting to a huge 7.7% of its gross cash position – clearly, even some of the major stock market players can see what a good investment opportunity crypto presents.

What if I had Invested in Cryptocurrencies in 2020?

Perhaps you think 2011 is ancient history – most people were unaware of cryptocurrencies back then. So let’s look at their more recent performance.

The Coronavirus pandemic caused a global stock market crash in the first quarter of 2020, signalling the start of the COVID-19 recession, and the US markets didn’t return to their January levels until November.

Cryptocurrencies didn’t escape the crisis unscathed, with Bitcoin’s price halving in March to bottom out at $3,780. However, the dip seemed to be driven by panic rather than fundamentals and the crypto market quickly bounced back. In fact, 2020 saw many investors get into crypto for the first time, prompted by dwindling confidence in governments and fiat money.

Looking at Bitcoin, whose market cap recently surpassed $1 trillion, it started 2020 just below $7,200 and, after rapidly recovering from it’s March drop, ended the year above $28,900, which represents an increase of 302%. If we compare this with the largest stock by market cap, namely Apple, we see that Apple was trading at around $74 as 2020 started, and by its end was worth over $132, meaning it rose by 79%. Thus, Bitcoin was almost 4 times as profitable as Apple in 2020.

Ethereum had an even better year. It’s price began 2020 at around $129 before growing an amazing 470% to $736 by the year’s end. Many of the smaller cap altcoins also showed impressive gains in 2020: Binance Coin was up 172% on the year, Stellar 186%, Litecoin 203%, Cardano 456% and Chainlink was up a massive 528%.

On the other hand, if we look at some of the most popular stocks for comparison, we see that the price of Amazon shares rose by 74% last year, and Netflix by just 66%.

So, if you had invested $1,000 in each of Apple, Amazon and Netflix at the start of 2020, it would today be worth just under $5,150. If however, you had put $1,000 into each of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Chainlink at that time instead, you would now have over $42,000! Therefore, the crypto investments would have made you more than 18 times as much profit compared with the stocks.

What if…

If you are tired of asking yourself ‘What if…’ and instead want to get involved in this rapidly growing marketplace, use the Profit Time Machine to justify and inform your decision. The figures speak for themselves, and the crypto revolution is only just beginning.

Using the Profit Time Machine, simply select an amount of your preferred cryptocurrency, any date in the past, and it will show you what your investment would be worth today. Conveniently, it also reveals how much you would have made if you’d invested the same amount in some of the most popular stocks instead.

Use the Profit Time Machine to see how much profit you could’ve made!

What if I Invest Today?

If you’re feeling like you’ve missed the crypto boat, don’t worry – there is still plenty of profit to be made from cryptocurrencies. When deciding where to invest your funds though, analyzing past performance is a good way to work out how to get the best bang for your buck, and on an exchange like eToro you can make your first investment today.

Disclaimer: All cryptocurrency and share prices featured are approximate and subject to change.