Over the years, cryptocurrency trading has become incredibly profitable, generally for those who adapt to complex strategies. However, a recent example of an Ether ‘whale’ or large-scale Ether trader unveils the profits in a simple buy-and-hold method. The trader purchased around 16.6K ETH at $5.23 per token in February 2016, spending a total of $87K on the investment.
Eight years later, the same trader has begun liquidating their capital, the value of which has ballooned to nearly $40M. On September 16, they sold 350 ETH at $2,340 apiece, turning their initial expense into a profit of $819K or around ten times the initial investment. Yet, this doesn’t leave the trader empty-handed, as they hold over $38M in ETH.
Cryptocurrency doesn’t always have to follow the buy-and-hold strategy. An example of a more intricate strategy is in an acquisition of a $1.5M non-fungible token (NFT) by a trader investing only $23K. This was made possible through fractionalization, which involves sharing ownership of digital collectibles. Among the NFTs that were fractionalized back in 2020 was CryptoPunk #2386, an Ape-themed NFT, distributed into 10,000 shares amongst 257 owners.
Though the platform used for Niftex fractionalization is now defunct, the smart contracts needed have continued to run on the blockchain. This meant that traders could set a “shotgun” bid, which involves proposing a price to buy the pieces of the NFT, only to purchase it outright if no other bids come in within 14 days. Capitalizing on this, a trader offered 10 ETH, or Ether units, for the sought-after NFT and managed to acquire it successfully.