Buy alt coin with bitcoin and both go up 300%, so did I even make any money?

Seems that my poor and rich bitcoin holding friends don't seem to even know the answer to this :/

Say I used coinbase and transfer BTC to an exchange like bittrex and exchanged BTC for some alt coin lets call it XYZ.

If say Bitcoin was at the time (months ago) $5,000 USD, and then say the value of this alt coin called XYZ was valued at $100 USD ( via the BTC estimation)

If we ignore fees...

XYZ goes up 300% from $100 to $300 , but at the same time period , BTC also went up 300% and goes from $5000 to $15,000
Exchange XYZ for BTC ,
Send BTC to coinbase ... send to bank account ( ignoring fees )

Ignoring fees, did I just break even???? serious question as it seems like I did, right?

Example say monero went up from $30 to $300 , and BTC did a 10x increase ... well then on one hand I was about to say I didn't make any money ,... but now that doesn't make any sense Ugh Help

Tom Stickel

Posted 2017-12-13T07:30:36.447

Reputation: 223

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because investment advice is off-topic – Adam Millerchip – 2017-12-13T12:57:26.140

Not investment advise, its an exchange rate and pure math question. I mostly mention bitcoin against a fake alt coin XYZ. I happen to mention Monero for a specific example. In no shape or form is this asking for investment advise. That is very very obvious. – Tom Stickel – 2017-12-13T16:18:46.857

It's a bit of an opinion based question, but I agree this is not investment advice. Voting to keep it open. – Pieter Wuille – 2017-12-16T01:33:18.637

Answers

Of course you profited, because your market value just increased by 300%.

In your case:
You had 1BTC (worth $5000) on Monday.
You sell 1 BTC and buy 50 XYZ( 50 * $100 = $5000).
Then comes Tuesday, both XYZ and BTC goes up 300%.
Now your 50 XYZ is worth $15000, you exchange 50 XYZ for 1 BTC.
You see, your total market value increased from $5000 to $15000.

Chak

Posted 2017-12-13T07:30:36.447

Reputation: 1 187

So if XYZ didn't grow in value at all, and BTC went up, THEN I or anyone would lose because the money was in something stagnant and then it was then exchanged months later to say BTC that say went up 3x .... Thus lost money or just stayed the same? – Tom Stickel – 2017-12-13T16:21:09.573

Meaning - If BTC goes up 300% , but the XYZ contained the money value and stayed neutral , thus not going up or down in value ( albeit if it was at say $30 ... that is valued in USD per the being tied to BTC ... ) I'm wondering if the money (without fees considered ) stayed neutral which exchanging back after BTC went up and XYZ did no movement in value .. Or if it would be a loss ? – Tom Stickel – 2017-12-13T16:24:11.520

As long as the XYZ price stayed unchanged, your market value will stay the same. The correct term will be "missed out on the chance to profit". Is not considered a loss, since your portfolio market value didn't decreased. – Chak – 2017-12-13T17:01:21.197