How to Invest in the Companies Behind the Digital Currency Revolution

Bitcoin is still a strange thing to most investors.

People seem to realize the price has gone up a lot, but they’re missing what’s really going on.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are becoming widely used as stores of value. They’re digital gold for millions of investors who appreciate the upside and don’t trust their other options.

As a result, businesses around the world are adopting bitcoin.

Burger King is working on accepting bitcoin, for example. Virgin America, Dell, Overstock and others have long accepted digital currencies. There are now around 300,000 bitcoin transactions per day.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have had a tremendous run over the past year… but only a tiny fraction of the world’s population has dipped a toe into digital assets. It’s safe to say that fewer than 1% of the world’s population has had any exposure to them at all.

Confidence is being restored to the cryptocurrency world. For years, the market languished after a hack caused the largest exchange, Mt. Gox, to declare bankruptcy back in 2014.

But during bitcoin’s long drought from 2014 to 2016, true believers never stopped working on building and improving the network.

Some of the best venture capitalists in the world invested in promising cryptocompanies like Coinbase. And they’re doing it right this time around. Secure offline storage and added security features are among the more notable improvements.

All that hard work is now paying off. A repeat of the Mt. Gox disaster is highly unlikely. There will be bumps along the way, but overall, the uptrend remains strong.

As the digital currency revolution continues, new businesses will form. This is where big money will be made.

Buying digital can be a profitable route… but buying into the right bitcoin-related business can deliver even higher returns. That’s why this report will explain how to invest in pre-IPO companies.

A New Way to Invest

When a company goes public, it’s called an IPO, or initial public offering. That’s when the company is listed on a stock exchange and anyone can buy shares of the business. But before a company has its IPO, it’s in the early investing stages.

During the early stages, a business needs funding to grow. So the business often raises funds from investors. But up until 2016, only accredited investors could buy into a business before its IPO.

An accredited investor is someone who has more than $1 million saved up… or has had at least two years of annual income of $200,000 or more.

Average, non-accredited investors couldn’t invest in the pre-IPO companies with enormous growth potential… and startup companies needed more investors… so the rules were changed…

The new startup investing rules opened the door for everybody to be able to invest in early-stage companies. One new rule, called Title 3, lets businesses raise up to $1 million from you. The round is very early – usually the company’s first attempt at raising money from strangers.

As the startups grow, they raise new rounds of funding.

Another rule, Regulation A+, lets companies raise up to $50 million from you. Since this round comes later, a startup’s development is expected to be further along.

To access these deals, you don’t need to invest much today. Depending on a startup’s guidelines, you can put in as little as $100 per deal. The minimums will vary, but it’s doubtful they’ll be above $1,000.

Your access to pre-IPO investing keeps getting better. Hundreds of deals are popping up. You have a huge selection of early-stage companies to invest in… but not every deal is great.

That’s why Early Investing Founders Adam Sharp and Andy Gordon specialize in pre-IPO research. They analyze thousands of companies and use their connections to find the best deals.

When you’re finally ready to invest in pre-IPO companies, you don’t have to invest in everything that comes along. You might want to start in sectors that you’re familiar with. But it’s good to diversify.

As for how many companies you should collect over a year’s time, the answer again is “Whatever you’re comfortable with.” But the general rule is the more, the better. So if you can do 10 a year, that’s great. Fewer than 10 a year is also fine, but you should really try to invest in more than a handful.

Why is it better to have more? Because all it takes is one big winner to really make a difference in your life. And the more companies in your portfolio, the better your odds are of owning the shares of a big (as in REALLY BIG) winner.

Now, before you can diversify – or even buy into a single deal – you need access to these deals.

To gain access, you can invest through online portals, not just through brokers or brokerage firms. The portals are just as helpful as brokers are. If you run into problems, they’ll be able to help you out.

Below, you’ll find a few of the top portals to invest in pre-IPO companies…

Three Top-Notch Equity Crowdfunding Portals

Wefunder.com

Wefunder has taken the early lead in equity crowdfunding.

It hit the ground running on May 16, 2016 (the day early-stage equity crowdfunding launched), with 20 high-quality offerings within its first week. That was more than everyone else had combined.

The first deal on its platform was a startup called Zenefits, which has gone from being worth $9 million in 2013 to around $3.5 billion today!

Wefunder was also instrumental in getting the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (which made this whole service possible) passed and signed into law.

Right now, it’s the best place for investors to start looking at deals. It has a large number of quality offerings and the lowest fees around (5% total). All the information is clear and easy to understand, and the deal terms are shown prominently.

A couple of the recent bitcoin-related deals are SpectroCoin and BitAccess. BitAccess is the larger of the two, and it develops bitcoin ATMs.

SeedInvest.com

New York-based SeedInvest has also been doing these types of deals for a while. But until recently, it’s accepted only accredited investors.

Adam has gotten to know the experts there over the last two years. They’ve built an impressive platform and do a great job of screening startups. Adam has even recommended a few of their featured companies to members of his research service Startup Investor.

SeedInvest has a number of live early-stage deals. One bitcoin-related business on its platform was SNAPCARD. It also has a number of Regulation A+ listings. (As a reminder, Regulation A+ offerings are larger deals of up to $50 million.)

Republic.co

Republic is a spinoff in the making from AngelList, which is a leading accredited investor portal. AngelList has some truly impressive deals, and some of its startups will opt to “top off” their rounds via the crowd on Republic.

For consumer startups, offering a small part of a round to non-accredited investors is a great option, attracting more investors, champions, helpers, enthusiastic supporters and money. It also gives friends and family a way to invest.

AngelList should feed Republic a steady drip of quality deals as it builds its own brand. Republic is positioned to have some of the best deal flow around.

Republic’s co-founder and CEO, Kendrick Nguyen, was former general counsel at AngelList. Adam has spoken on the phone with Kendrick a few times and was impressed. This business is one to watch.

These three portals are top-notch ways to access equity crowdfunding.

You can now invest in pre-IPO businesses with as little as $100. And investing in the right startups could produce huge returns.

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Good investing,

The Early Investing Research Team