Understanding the Difference Between Cryptocurrency and Stock

CrossFi_Official
CrossFi_Official
Published in
4 min readSep 14, 2022

Many debates have taken center stage in choosing between stocks and the new giant in the market, cryptocurrency, among investors. Whereas the traditional stocks market has been a long-established investment program that can render short-term and long-term interests. Cryptocurrency, on the other hand, is a newer inventory of the financial world that’s susceptible to computer-aided risks and fluctuating price take-offs, despite being considered an unobjectionable alternative to traditional assets. Most of the big players in the crypto world, in fact, garnered much experience from engaging in stock assets trade.

However, regardless of their similarities, there are quite some notable differences between them, ranging from structural operating systems to strategies.

A Sneak Peek Into Stock and Cryptocurrency

What Is Cryptocurrency?

Simply put, a cryptocurrency is a digital currency that runs on blockchain technology and makes use of cryptographic algorithms to encrypt and process trades. In this case, there’s no need for central authorities or third-party souvenirs that would hold custodial authority over transactions, and sometimes bring forth rules that might be unfavorable to the trader or user. Cryptocurrencies are also decentralized assets that exist on a public ledger operated by disparate nodes all over the world. Most of the cryptocurrency trades happen on exchange platforms such as Binance and Coinbase. Popular examples of cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH).

What Is Stock?

A stock refers to an asset that incorporates a company’s shares. When you purchase stock, you are given partial ownership of equity in a functioning company. In most cases, the stock owner is also enlisted to the share-getters of the company’s profits in the form of a dividend. Whereas stocks are quite a cumulative term, shares are units purchased by individuals or corporate business owners.

Stocks, like cryptocurrencies, are often traded on exchanges. This means that anyone interested in owning a fraction of an existing company can purchase shares on exchanges such as NASDAQ and NYSE (New York Stock Exchange). The value of a stock, however, is dependent on the overall performance of the company and relevance in the business stream. Also inasmuch stocks gives its holder certain leverage like voting rights and profit stakes, a shareowner doesn’t have control over the company.

Notable Differences Between Crypto and Stocks

Accessibility

Truth be told, purchasing stock is inarguably harder than buying crypto. For instance, to purchase an asset traded on a crypto exchange, all the prospective buyer needs to do is to provide answers to the exchange’s Know-Your-Customer requirements. And this takes a short time to get done. In contrast, buying a company or corporation’s shares isn’t always such a linear course, and does require more information as compared to its counterpart.

Regulatory Directories

One major problem faced by most crypto owners is its unregulated nature, and yet to be defined in some parts of the globe. This is also a much bigger problem for retail stores, service providers and crypto exchanges who might be sceptical about the whole process. Although there might be countries whose institutional policies differ, thereby sometimes making crypto exchanges to halt activities in a specified region. On the other hand, the stock market runs on a more regulated structure. More still: almost every country can boast of a security exchange commission or an equivalent regulatory directory that oversees how the market operates, or the companies listed on exchanges, in a bid to protect user funds

Price Volatility

Price volatility has been a major problem for both the stock and cryptocurrency markets. Their significant volatile nature has been as a result of several economic stimulus including supply and demand. However, the cryptocurrency world is quite popular for its immediate, oftentimes surprising change in value. The stock market, however, isn’t free of price swings. If a company is running well, without hitches, its stock prices will be on the rise. The same is the case if a company amasses losses or finds itself in the nib of a bad media outrage.

Scams and Security Risks

Scams and hacks abound in the crypto market. Every day we are thrown into the news of another fake coin or token project swindling unexpectant traders of their money. Even centralized crypto exchanges are also very prone to hacks due to their single-point failure. Aside from that, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin grant a private key for accessing the coins or tokens stored in a digital wallet. To forget any of the seed phrases or mistakenly lose a physical crypto wallet will mean losing any access to your assets forever. As a counterpart, the stock market is less likely to be hacked to accrue these risks even though it’s not guaranteed.

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