Cryptocurrency exchange

How to Short Crypto Like a Pro: Strategies & Risks Explained

With the recent volatility in the markets in 2022, many investors are looking for ways to profit from downward price movements. Despite what many HODLers think, crypto goes through bear markets just like stocks do. One of the most important tips when deciding whether to sell crypto is to ensure you’re not just selling for the sake of it or because you’re hyped about a new opportunity.

So, if you think the price of Bitcoin is going to drop, you can short it and make money when it does. After choosing the way to short cryptocurrency, it is advisable to develop a trading strategy. Using technical analysis tools can help you to get long-term benefits from trading. We will describe the most popular reversal patterns how to buy sell and trade cryptocurrencies such as Head and Shoulders and Double Top to help you get started. They are similar to binary options as they also allow betting on the outcome of events. ” The answer is unequivocal — yes, bitcoin volatility allows you to make substantial profits by short trading.

  • For short traders, it is essential to be able to work with pending orders.
  • However, there are indicators you can track to increase your odds of success.
  • When you have a self-custody wallet, you can trade thousands of crypto tokens.
  • Liquidity is key to closing short positions without significant slippage.

Where can I short cryptocurrency?

Another lesser-known way to short crypto is through the use of a contract for differences, or CFDs. With CFDs, you don’t actually own the underlying asset — in this case, cryptocurrency. At the same time, there are no direct bans on short sales of digital assets in the U.S. Many popular cryptocurrency exchanges allow customers to use derivative contracts to short sell BTC and the like. Shorting is an advanced method of making money in a falling market. Experienced traders can take advantage of the volatility in the cryptocurrency market and maximize profits in a bear is the coinbase app safe to link with your bank account market.

Until January 2024, the only exchange-traded product available to U.S. residents was ProShares’ Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITI). That month, the SEC approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETPs that can be used for shorting Bitcoin. In line with the Trust Project guidelines, the educational content on this website is offered in good faith and for general information purposes only. BeInCrypto prioritizes providing high-quality information, taking the time to research and create informative content for readers.

Additionally, you may come across funding rates, which are periodic payments between short and long holders. These fees, if trading frequently or holding shorts during periods of negative funding rates, can add up quickly, thus significantly reducing profits if not monitored. Bybit’s perpetual features contracts are a major draw, initially forming the core of the exchange. The availability of high leverage (up to 125x on some contracts) allows you to control larger positions. MEXC demonstrates strong growth in trading volume, particularly in perpetual futures, ranking among the top global exchanges. Recently, MEXC has shown spot trading volumes exceeding $3B across 24-hour periods.

Where to sell crypto?

So you now know that this is one of the ways to profit from the falling crypto markets. With that said, beginners should avoid shorting strategies due to the increased risks. See our guide to trading cryptocurrencies for more ideas, including day trading and ETFs. You should also have the capital to recover from the loss if you’re shorting position doesn’t pan out.

Spot and Futures Account Fee

For instance, if you buy Bitcoin and its value drops by 50%, you can hold it until its value rises again, avoiding realized losses. However, in short selling, you must return the borrowed asset within a set time. So, if you short Bitcoin and its value increases by 50%, you must buy back and return it at this higher price, resulting in a loss. Unlike regular trading, this approach can lead to losses without asset retention. Most crypto exchanges support short-selling Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, like Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash, allowing investors to profit from a bearish market. They enable short sellers to trade crypto using margin or derivatives trading.

The Role of Market Sentiment and Analysis

The KuCoin trading bot will automatically short-sell Bitcoin at the $30,000 level. There are several crypto platforms on which margin, futures and options contracts can be traded. Some of the best include Binance, Robinhood, Coinbase, Kraken,  Bitfinex, Interactive Brokers, Cryptohopper and Kucoin. This approach is much like how traditional short selling works in the stock market.

While technical tools are great for finding the right price points to sell, sentiment analysis is equally important. Sentiment analysis uses data visualization, customer insights, social media trends, and other resources to help you understand the market’s viewpoint. Relative Strength Index, or the RSI, is a standard momentum indicator that helps you gauge trend reversal at BTC or any best indicators for cryptocurrency cfds technical analysis other crypto asset’s counter.

Hence, if you’re investing in cryptocurrencies to make profits in the long run, you can still short crypto to use it as a hedge against a price decline. A short hedge helps you take a short position to protect against a decline in the price of their long positions. If you wish to short Bitcoin, you will execute a put order to be able to sell the currency at today’s price, even if the price drops later on. Put options allow you to sell the underlying asset when the contract expires.

Alternatively, since Ethereum is exchanged in pairs such as BTC/ETH, you could simply go long in one of the other pairs in order to bet against Ethereum. Short-selling can be a risky proposition, but it can also be profitable if done correctly. With prediction markets, investors can create their own event to bet on its outcome. For instance, you can predict that the price of BTC will fall by a certain percentage of the current price. If somebody accepts your bet, you will make a profit if it turns out to be right. It is worth noting that binary options are very similar to simple gambling.

Then you buy a put option for $1k (that is the so-called premium to the seller). But the strike price of your put option is still $20k, that is, you can still sell Bitcoin for $20k. If you had not purchased the put option, you could only sell bitcoin at $18k. There are various methods of shorting Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

Pros of shorting crypto

The loss will continue to grow until the price turns around and goes down again. In the worst case scenario, if the collateral goes below a certain threshold, then the position will be liquidated. In contrast to the deposit fee, which is free, KuCoin does charge a fraction of the withdrawal fee.

  • Experienced traders say that under favorable conditions, the profit from shorting is 7-10% of the investment amount.
  • The price difference between the selling and buying price is the profit on the trade.
  • It is characterized by a rapid increase in the price of the asset, increased trading volume and high volatility.
  • As opposed to this, in short selling, the first step of the trade is to borrow the asset (in this case, a coin or token) and sell it at the current price.

Buying low and selling high is the most vanilla BTC trading strategy ever. To profit from this knowledge, you borrow 1 BTC from an exchange and sell it for $60,000. A week later, just as you predicted, Bitcoin drops to $40,000 — and you promptly buy back that 1 BTC you borrowed, thus getting $20,000 of profit. Leveraged tokens are special types of assets in the crypto market that provide amplified exposure to the price movements of cryptocurrencies.

Prediction markets are platforms where people can wager on the outcome of certain events. Although not technically shorting, you can still earn a profit by betting that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin will decline by a certain percentage. However, you won’t make a profit unless someone else takes you up on that bet. With UpDown Options, users can choose to buy or sell a contract depending on which way they think the market will go. If they think the cryptocurrency’s price will rise, they can buy a contract to open a long position.

MAs can be simple or exponential and give an idea about the price trends. Plus, moving average crossovers are great for forecasting price reversals. Bollinger Bands are statistical momentum indicators that use standard deviation to determine the highs the lows BTC has been touching in a given time period. When the upper and lower Bollinger Bands squeeze, you might expect a short-term burst in price action, direction notwithstanding.

Currently, the only exchange-traded inverse product available to US residents is the Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITI) ProShares. Investors outside the US can invest in the BetaPro Bitcoin Inverse ETF (BITI) from Canada or the 21Shares Short Bitcoin ETP from the European Union. Margin trading is a fairly popular way to open a short position on BTC.

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