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I have to admit my time in the Crypto Space the king of rumours has to be Ripple (XRP), it certainly does create a lot of ripples but rarely a splash (pardon the pun). Today we are seeing XRP above $1 and it is 100% because of a rumour that it will be listed on Coinbase very soon. Yet the whole rumour is based on a U.S. TV show CNBC’s “Fast Money” that has not been confirmed. Nor has the rumour been confirmed that Coinbase COO Asiff Hirji and/or CEO Brad Garlinghouse from Ripple are on the show. It has been 100% speculation and no confirmation of where the rumours have even been started. Although this is common in the Crypto Space I do find Ripple riding these waves more than most. But even if this is proven to be yet another speculative rumour the reality is “Buy on the Rumour” and “Dump on the news”. As hearing the rumour early you could or have gained some nice gains. While if it does nose dive once proven to be a bit of fake news you will or should have cashed out early with a tidy profit.

Although you may have guessed I am not a fan of Ripple or XRP (Ripple being the network and company XRP being a currency on it). But this has mainly been down to the fact is it seems to live on rumours and a life of none delivery. At the same time I have made some regular income on such events as we have experienced today all the way back to nearly a year ago. As everyone waits with anticipation to hear that Ripple is now working with banks, delivering its network via Western Union or something else of substance. Yet every time soon far it has been a case of “we are just testing it”, with no follow up of even if these large companies and groups even like the product and have a solid interest. But simply may have been given some testing for free and not taken things further. For me it its why I have concerns with Ripple as people invested in XRP yet it may not even need XRP itself on its own network. Especially if there is functionality for banks and other financial enterprises to generate their own token systems on top of Ripple.

Meaning those behind Ripple would prosper but there is a risk of the investors of XRP being left out in the cold. Even though we are seeing some positive interest out of the South Korean markets I am still unaware of the markets being added back into Coinmarketcap. As this was yet another devaluation issue when they were removed without any warning as it collapsed the price of XRP previously.

Certainly worth watching XRP but I do have a concern on who is benefiting from investment and how long it will be until we see something of value. Coinbase would certainly be a high value target, but yet we will have to wait and see if we are heading for a bull run or a lead balloon.

Buying and selling Bitcoin can be expensive if you do it wrong. Coinbase if you exchange through its wallet for example will cost you around 4% in charges. However if you use their exchange GDAX its pretty much free, they are that close that opening your account in Coinbase you don’t even need to create one in GDAX because it’s exactly the same.

What you do have to be careful is on the exchange where it asks for the values because it isn’t talking about the value of your money or Bitcoin but the rounded amount. For example if you were selling 0.5 Bitcoin you may think you need to put the value of half the Bitcoin. In reality its the whole amount as the trading is based on rounded numbers. It may sound confusing which is why I recommend watching the video and anything that doesn’t make sense please feel free to leave a comment and I will walk you through it.

The most interesting thing about putting the money through GDAX instead of using the very simple wallet function is that there doesn’t seem to be anything that flags up that your Coinbase account is used on GDAX. Because I am sure if it had there would be a lot more people transacting directly through the exchange.

As on the exchange you are finding a buyer for either your FIAT currency or your Bitcoin. This means it’s actually a market transaction rather than a wallet transfer which makes a huge difference. As 4% doesn’t sound a lot but it is a lot of money that you didn’t even need to pay. Also once on the GDAX exchange you can transfer between lots of different coins giving you access to not only LTC,ETH,BTC but every other coin on the exchange that you can transact with your FIAT currency.

Main thing is taking your time and make sure you get the first transactions correct. Once you get the hang of how to use the exchange and pushing your funds out of FIAT and into Crypto or back to your bank account you will find it extremely easy and routine. It certainly makes life a lot easier for getting money back and forth between the Crypto Space and the real world.

Another important aspect of this is making sure you setup the banking properly. I use SEPA which takes upto 4 days to transfer money in or out of Crypto but pretty much has zero fees. You will need to provide ID such as a passport and validate an address for security reasons. Also please be aware there could be tax implications long-term if not declared. As obviously it is heading to your bank account on a regular basis and may be questioned as to where it is coming from. I am also aware that Coinbase has been approached by the IRS in the United States wanting access to its accounts for this very reason. However it is one of the main solutions currently being used as a bridge between Crypto and FIAT. There are new options becoming available such as TENX, BonPay and others if remaining anonymous is important. I have my BitPay card arriving next week so will be reviewing it soon.