Hey {{first_name}},
Before I tell you what to do, let me tell you what I did wrong — because every piece of advice in this newsletter was paid for with real money and real mistakes.
I bought altcoins that went to zero. I chased yield on a platform called Vauld that went bankrupt — I got back 30 cents on the dollar. I used leverage thinking I was smarter than the market and nearly got wiped out. I learned every lesson the expensive way.
But here's what I got right: I bought Bitcoin. I held Bitcoin. I ignored the noise. And over time, that one decision — the boring one, the one that doesn't make for exciting dinner party stories — has outperformed everything else I've ever done.
HOW TO BUY YOUR FIRST BITCOIN (THE 30-MINUTE VERSION)
I'm going to make this as simple as possible. No jargon, no prerequisites, no technical background needed. If you can download an app and link a bank account, you can do this.
Step 1: Choose a platform. I recommend two options. Strike has the lowest fees in the industry — often under 0.1%. Swan Bitcoin is built specifically for automatic recurring purchases (dollar-cost averaging), which is the strategy I recommend. Both are Bitcoin-only platforms, which means they aren't trying to sell you 10,000 different tokens. Pick either one.
Step 2: Complete verification. Both platforms require identity verification (KYC) — government ID, selfie, the usual. This takes 5–15 minutes. Yes, it's annoying. No, there's no way around it for regulated platforms. Link your bank account once verification clears.
Step 3: Buy $100–$500 of Bitcoin. Not your life savings. Not your rent money. Just enough to have skin in the game. You'll understand Bitcoin 10x better once you own some. The number doesn't matter — the act of starting does.
Step 4: Set up a weekly recurring buy. This is the most important step. Pick an amount you can sustain — $25, $50, $100, $200 a week — and automate it. This is dollar-cost averaging (DCA), and it's the closest thing to a "set it and forget it" strategy in Bitcoin.
WHY DCA WORKS
Dollar-cost averaging removes emotion from the equation. When Bitcoin drops 20%, your automatic buy gets you more sats for the same dollars. When it rips up 30%, you already own some. You're not trying to time the market — you're systematically accumulating an asset over time.
This is exactly what Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) does at corporate scale. This week they bought another $1.3 billion in Bitcoin, bringing their total to 738,731 BTC at an average cost of $75,862. They're currently underwater on their latest purchases and they keep buying. That's not recklessness — that's a DCA strategy with a multi-year time horizon. If a public company with a $50+ billion market cap can commit to this approach, you can do it with $50 a week.
WHAT NOT TO DO
I'm going to be blunt because I care more about your financial wellbeing than your feelings:
Don't buy altcoins. 99% of them are going to zero. I know because I bought them. Learn from my tuition.
Don't chase yield. "Earn 8% on your Bitcoin" is how Celsius, Voyager, and Vauld customers lost everything. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
Don't use leverage. Bitcoin is volatile enough. Adding leverage turns a recoverable dip into a permanent loss. I learned this the hard way.
Don't try to time the market. Nobody — not me, not your favorite crypto influencer, not the hedge fund managers — can consistently predict short-term price movements. DCA and move on with your life.
Don't keep large amounts on exchanges. Exchanges can get hacked, go bankrupt, or freeze your account. We'll cover self-custody in detail next week — it's one of the most important topics in Bitcoin.
That's it. Four steps, thirty minutes, and you're in. Not "crypto." Not "web3." Just Bitcoin — the hardest money ever created, with rules that nobody can change.
THIS WEEK IN BITCOIN
• Strategy's total Bitcoin holdings now stand at 738,731 BTC — worth approximately $52.4 billion at current prices. They are the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin in the world.
• Bitcoin ETF daily inflows hit ~$53.9M, with BlackRock's IBIT leading the pack. This is significant because ETF flows reflect institutional and advisor-driven capital — not retail speculation.
• BTC price hovers around $70,982. If you're just starting your DCA journey, buying during a 25% drawdown from all-time highs is historically a great entry point. Not financial advice — just math.
🎙️ "What Bitcoin Did" podcast by Peter McCormack — One of the best Bitcoin-only podcasts for beginners and veterans alike. Peter asks the questions that normal people actually want answered, and his guests range from developers to economists to human rights activists. Start with any recent episode — they're all standalone. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
TAKE ACTION
Want to see the numbers for yourself? I built a free performance tracker that shows how Bitcoin has performed against stocks, bonds, real estate, and gold over every major time period.
Check it out at pymtw.com/performance.html.
If this issue saved you from making even one of the mistakes I made, it was worth writing. Forward it to a friend who's been "thinking about buying Bitcoin" — give them the push.
Stay patient. Stay consistent. Put your money to work.
— Frank