Over a decade after the release genesis block on the Bitcoin network, blockchain technology has changed how people invest their money, with many platforms in the crypto space having much more relaxed requirements for investors when compared with traditional finance.
It’s easier for investors to buy into cryptocurrency than traditional assets. Anybody can download a free Bitcoin (BTC) or multi-crypto wallet and sign up for one of the many available cryptocurrency exchanges. Many exchanges still don’t require users to verify their identity, while others only require ID verification once certain limits have been reached.
Compare this to buying stocks, where almost every platform has Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures that users must complete before buying their first stock. On top of this, users can only buy stocks from publicly listed companies and cannot own any shares from a private company.
On the other hand, crypto investors can invest in tokens that public or private companies have created. Investors in the crypto space can also participate in early-stage funding rounds, including seed-stage funding.
In traditional markets, usually only accredited investors and high-net-worth individuals are allowed to participate. In contrast, seed-stage funding in crypto projects can allow anyone with a wallet to take part. It’s all at the discretion of the founding team. Jeremy Musighi, head of growth at Balancer — an automated portfolio manager and trading platform on Ethereum — told Cointelegraph:
“Crypto investors have access to a level of transparency that goes way beyond what’s possible in other asset classes. In contrast to stock market investors who can analyze quarterly reports written by a self-reporting company, a crypto investor can permissionlessly dig into data on a decentralized protocol’s performance and track key metrics in real-time or on a historical basis.”
Musighi continued: “The transparency of communication between a crypto…
