For every crypto enthusiast, there is always a history, a story of how their entrance into the world of cryptocurrency came about, and everybody's story usually points to the kind of interest the person holds.
What is your pleasure? Do you want to buy and sell for the short term or buy and hold for long term?
For instance, those who bought their first crypto assets through an investor's recommendation usually end up becoming just investors (longer-termers), and the same is true for those who got their recommendation from crypto traders (short-termers). But whichever route anyone took to get in, two things are given and those are owning and ultimately making money off of crypto.
The first time I ever bought a fraction of BTC was in December of 2016, I bought 0.067BTC at the price of $52, which is currently valued at $3,449 from an exchanger. I actually bought my first fraction of BTC so I could invest in a Ponzi scheme that was operating on an international level at the time, with BTC as currency. (Some people had already begun thinking about the future).
Before I purchased my first fraction of bitcoin, I had been hearing about it, the way I had been hearing about Forex but I never paid attention and so I didn't really care. But in 2017, I had a bit of an education in all things cryptocurrency through airdrop bounty. I learnt about all kinds of crypto projects, read all kinds of whitepapers and accumulated all kinds of shitcoins, some of which amounted to a ton of money and some which are still worthless.
Around late 2017 and early 2018, I graduated from airdrop bounty, sold all my airdrop coins which had value and bought BTC and ETH and moved a bit more into holding and trading. My path soon took me through altcoin trading, when I learnt it had more potential of making you rich within a shorter period of time compared to the major coins. My brief crypto itinerary saw me move from investment to accumulation then finally into trading.
My journey might have encompassed all these many routes into the world of cryptocurrency, but I am sure everybody's routes couldn't have been the same and everybody's reason for being a part of the movement wouldn't be the same either.
At every point in time, there are always three kinds of people active in the crypto world who have one asset or the other to their name, these people have their preference according to either how they see the market or how they have been made to see the market. They are...
1) The Investor: Nobody knows which coin might be the next BTC and ETH, so you gotta catch them young and catch them cheap. This is usually the mindset of every investor and he usually accumulates solid projects, projects he had done a bit of research on. The rise of Bitcoin and some other major crypto assets has opened the eyes of so many people and potential investors to the prospects and profits which crypto holds - imagine my $200 transaction in 2016 as recorded by blockchain is valued up to almost $15,000 currently. Investors usually think long term, they usually think in years than in months and through years of holding, they sort of develop some kind of emotional attachment to such projects. Recently, a bulk amount of BTC (about 50BTC) was moved from a wallet for the first time since 2010, which means the owner has been sitting on his stash, knowing what he has and waiting for the right time to liquidate some of his holdings. A true investor.
2) Accumulator: An accumulator is a part investor and part trader, he finds himself in-between because he is a lot more flexible than an Investor and a trader because he usually thinks short/midterm and never long term like the Investor and he doesn't have a preference for any particular project. A typical accumulator looks out for very cheap coins, some of which he buys doing ICO, holds for a while and sell for any good spike, especially during exchange listings. Those who are in this category are more of risk-takers because they are willing to add any coin to their portfolio even when a good resale value isn't guaranteed and they are also willing to cut a coin loose when they have seen a reasonable profit no matter what promise or potential such project holds long term. They are never emotionally attached to any projects, they buy cheap, in large quantities hold for a few months then sell, rinse and repeat. An accumulator could spread $20k across TRX, ADA, POE, MANNA, CND, XRP and all those coins below $1 and wait for spikes to sell. They are more like domain flippers.
3) Trader: Crypto traders are very different from those in the other categories because of the way they approach accumulating and disposing of coins for a profit. Traders usually always buy well-established coins like BTC, ETH, BCH, BNB etc because their movements are less volatile and a lot more organic than very cheap and yet to be listed coins. Traders also usually buy the same type of coins every time and just ride out the natural wave of the good old demand and supply. People in this category are happy to sell their big bags on a small spike and fall back again to buy the dip and wait for another spike because they care more about turnovers than big chunk of profit from one sale. In other words, they buy the bottom and sell the top, rinse and repeat.
Traders have no particular love for any projects, they just want to trade something solid, stable and predictable, any project you could predict it's movements to a reasonable extent using fundamental and technical analysis. A trader usually just concentrates on one or two major coins, he doesn't usually spread himself thin.
Shout out to the bystanders, the skeptics and the headshakers, the analysts and the naysayers who have no asset to their names, your reward is in heaven.