FOMO: Is it too late to invest in cryptocurrency?

In the world of cryptocurrencies, one of the most powerful forces in the sector is that of ‘FOMO’, which is the fear of missing out or the sense of anxiety that is often felt when you see others having a good time. In fact, FOMO is such a powerful force that The New York Times has recently written an article identifying it as one of the main motivations for novice investors getting started in the cryptocurrency world.

In the crypto world, FOMO is most often used to refer to the envy investors feel when they see others having benefitted from the fruits of early investment. These feelings are often amplified by frequent social media posts from individuals flaunting their life-changing investments earned by getting in when the Ethereum price was just right!

For individuals suffering from a bad case of FOMO, it can often feel like the ship has sailed on the early investor crypto gains. This is exacerbated by the recent turbulence the crypto markets have been experiencing, which compounds any feelings of having ‘missed out’.

Ultimately, however, we are still at a relatively early stage in the development cycle of popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. With so much still to come, any feelings of ‘FOMO’ are sorely misplaced!

With that said, in this short article, we will set out some of the reasons why it is not too late to invest in cryptocurrency. By keeping these in mind, you will hopefully be able to deal with any FOMO you have been experiencing lately!

Investing is a long-term game

One of the most important lessons to keep in mind to deal with any feelings of having missed out, is that investing is a long-term, rather than short-term, game. While this is generally true, it is particularly true in the case of cryptocurrencies which are very early on in their development lifecycle, having only emerged a little over a decade ago!

Generally speaking, most investors are making investment decisions for the long term, rather than short-term ‘trading’ decisions. This is how you should frame the decision to invest in crypto. After all, if you expect to invest in cryptos for the rest of your investing career, does it really matter in the long term that you missed out on some marginal early gains?

The best developments are yet to come

Building on this point about crypto investing being a long-term game, we should also note that ultimately popular coins such as Bitcoin SV Blockchain are still early on in their development lifecycles. There is still a huge amount of technical development work to be done on the biggest coins, with major planned upgrades just around the corner for coins such as Ethereum. 

While we might be getting close to some of these releases, we should remember that cryptocurrencies are not like traditional currencies. Instead, they are technologies that will be continually updated for quite some time to come. In fact, some of the most exciting technological upgrades could be just around the corner.

For this reason, try to focus less on whether or not you have missed out on the best ETH price, and instead look at the development potential it has left to realize.

Adoption is still low

Another important factor to keep in mind, which should help to lessen any feelings of ‘FOMO’ you might have, is the fact that cryptocurrency adoption is still relatively low — despite all the media attention it receives!

While this media attention is obviously beneficial to driving adoption, the fact of the matter is that a little over a decade since Bitcoin was first released, only 16% of Americans have invested in, traded or otherwise used cryptocurrencies of any kind.

This means there is still a huge amount of room for growth within the cryptocurrency industry. In years to come, we can expect to see access to cryptos increasing. We can also expect to see more and more applications for cryptos in our daily lives, with increased usability also helping to drive adoption. As this happens, cryptocurrencies will become an increasingly important part of the economy.

In light of this, there is still so much to come in the world of crypto. Even if you were to only invest now, you would still be within the first 16% of Americans to invest in cryptos, which is pretty good by anyone’s measure of success!