As cryptocurrencies continue to enter the mainstream and capture investors’ attention, I decided to dip my toe into the world of Bitcoin. Rather than risking a large amount of money on this volatile digital asset, I chose to start small by buying $1 worth of Bitcoin using the popular Cash App.
In this blog post, I’ll walk you through my motivations for buying an extremely small fraction of a Bitcoin to experiment with cryptocurrency micro-investing. I’ll explain exactly what Cash App is, how its Bitcoin buying and selling feature works, the simple process of purchasing $1 worth of Bitcoin on the app, and what owning a tiny slice of this asset is like.
Whether you’re an absolute beginner curious about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies or a seasoned investor, stick around as I recount my experiences testing out the cryptocurrency waters on Cash App with a humble $1 investment.
What is Cash App?
For those unfamiliar, Cash App is a mobile payment service developed by Square that allows users to transfer money to one another using a mobile app. It’s connected to your debit card, credit card, or bank account, providing a quick and convenient way to pay others or receive money.
Beyond peer-to-peer payments, Cash App has an investing feature that allows users to buy and sell stock and Bitcoin instantly. With just a few taps, you can purchase as little as $1 worth of Bitcoin or as much as $10,000 worth per transaction.
Here’s a quick rundown of some of Cash App’s key features:
- Send and receive money instantly with friends and family
- Receive direct deposit paychecks up to two days early
- Invest in stocks or Bitcoin with as little as $1
- Create a free customizable Cash Card to spend the money in your Cash App
- Receive discounts and enter promos to save money using your Cash Card
The ability to buy and sell Bitcoin, even fractions of this popular cryptocurrency, drew my attention as someone looking to learn more about crypto. Cash App provided an easy onramp straight from my phone.
Why Only $1?
As a casual cryptocurrency beginner, I didn’t want to risk huge sums of money on this highly volatile asset class quite yet. I also believed that the easiest way to start understanding Bitcoin on a practical level was to actually own some – even a tiny amount.
Starting with a small investment is appealing for several reasons:
- Low Risk Investment – Losing $1 won’t break the bank. And with Bitcoin’s history of booms and busts, I wanted to minimize my downside when first getting started.
- Micro-Investing Strategies – Buying microscopic slices of an asset allows you to build incremental positions over time. As you get more comfortable, your knowledge and investment can steadily grow through micro-investing.
- Understanding Market Fluctuations – By owning a small amount, you can better grasp how daily price movements affect the value of your holdings. Watching your $1 fluctuate introduces market volatility without huge risks.
While largely symbolic for learning purposes, some believe Bitcoin could potentially revolutionize money, banking, and even the internet itself. Playing around with cryptocurrency for the first time for just $1 seemed like a smart idea before considering larger investment amounts down the road.
The Process of Buying Bitcoin on Cash App
With my reasons for buying a buck’s worth of Bitcoin explained, let’s walk through the straightforward process step-by-step:
- Download the Cash App on Your Mobile Device, The first step is downloading the iOS or Android Cash App for free on your mobile device.
- Sign Up & Connect Your Bank Account or Debit Card, Once installed, you’ll sign up with some basic personal information like your name and email address. You also need to connect the app to your bank account or debit card so you can fund Bitcoin purchases.
- Tap the Investing Tab at the Bottom, This brings up a list of assets available for investments, including Bitcoin.
- Type in $1 Next to the Bitcoin Icon, This inserts a buy order for $1 worth of Bitcoin.
- Confirm the Order & Complete the Transaction, That’s it – you’ll now have exposure to Bitcoin markets with your $1 purchase!
The Experience
Completing my small maiden Bitcoin investment ended up being an easy, seamless process thanks to Cash App’s clean user interface. Entering $1 to buy Bitcoin took less than five taps without any hang ups.
Within minutes, I stared at the holding on my screen – 0.00005564 Bitcoins, worth $1 at the time of writing.
Watching the microscopic amount tick up and down in value along with Bitcoin’s price changes turned out somewhat exhilarating surprisingly. My expectations were low for excitement given the tiny investment amount.
But there’s something about owning a slice of an asset that only seems to move in exponential fashion, even if it’s just pennies worth at the moment.
Understanding Bitcoin Fractional Shares
My $1 Bitcoin purchase got me thinking more about fractional ownership. Even if you don’t have thousands or even hundreds of dollars to invest, you can still buy tiny fractional shares of certain assets.
A single Bitcoin is highly expensive at over $20,000 at the time of writing. Naturally, most newcomers don’t splurge on an entire coin, but can still participate by buying satoshis.
Each Bitcoin consists of 100 million satoshis – essentially fractional shares of Bitcoin – the smallest divisible units. My $1 allocated over 5,500 satoshis indirectly contributing to Bitcoin’s network in collaboration with other investors small and large.
Platforms like Cash App make acquiring satoshis or hundredths of a Bitcoin affordable and accessible to the average person compared to years past. Of course, you tend to lose out on controlling private keys by using these services that custodian the assets for you.
Nonetheless, I had somehow become part of the global Bitcoin market, enjoying price exposure and asset ownership for the cost of a pack of gum.
The Market Value of $1 Bitcoin
As Bitcoin trades like any other asset, buyers determine fair market prices using auctions at Bitcoin exchanges. My $1 purchased 5,500 satoshis worth of economic ownership rights to Bitcoin as a scarce digital currency and payment system.
But if I wanted to cash out the investment, changes in Bitcoin’s fickle price would determine how much fiat currency ($1 might be worth) I’d receive in return. Upon introducing my $1 to the market, Bitcoin prices equated it to over 5,500 satoshis.
The debate rages on about what establishes Bitcoin’s “fair value”. Being a completely digital phenomenon, some critics see Bitcoin as having no inherent value whatsoever, labeling it as only speculative. Others see immense future utility that justifies astronomical prices.
As an early adopter of groundbreaking technology, Bitcoin promises to:
- Revolutionize the intermediaries in money through decentralization
- Enable self-sovereign management of wealth outside traditional finance
- Embed scarcity and predictable minting through code
- Provide censorship-resistance transactions across borders
- Promote security through cryptographic proofs
Detractors point to challenges like the network’s nominal transaction throughput, slow speed, cost volatility, and concentration of ownership as worrisome issues for the asset to overcome.
Regardless of one’s views on Bitcoin’s worth or its future adoption, the market still values each coin between $20,000 and $21,000 as I write this line.
So in a sense, my $1 allocation awarded me with about 1/21,000th ownership rights to a Bitcoin – a miniscule claim given the investments and activity required to create and maintain this ledger.
How Much $1 in Bitcoin Would Be Worth If…
$1 converted to a fraction of a Bitcoin essentially provides makeshift exposure to price movements. If Bitcoin’s price appreciates or depreciates, the dollar value attached to your satoshis rises and falls accordingly.
Here’s quick math on how this $1 investment’s approximate value changes across different Bitcoin price levels:
- Bitcoin at $10,000: $0.50
- Bitcoin at $20,000: $1
- Bitcoin at $30,000: $1.50
- Bitcoin at $40,000: $2
- Bitcoin at $100,000: $5
So despite owning a fixed tiny fraction, wild swings in Bitcoin pricing dictate the dollar value attached to your position. Now take this dollar exposure and multiply it by larger initial investments.
When contributing hundreds, thousands, or even millions of dollars into Bitcoin, these violent price movements have created and erased tremendous fortunes for years now.
Of course, past returns certainly don’t guarantee future performance – especially for volatile assets based on nascent technologies. But for the purpose of experimenting with cryptocurrency exposure on a small scale, I found $1 in Bitcoin an enjoyable glimpse into broader digital asset markets.
How I Bought $1 of Bitcoin on Cash App
Downloading the Cash App
The first step was to download the Cash App on my iPhone through the Apple App Store. Cash App is a peer-to-peer money transfer service developed by Square that allows users to send and receive money as well as invest in stocks and bitcoin.
I created an account, connected my bank account, and confirmed my identity by inputting personal information like my name, birthdate, and the last 4 digits of my social security number. This process took less than 5 minutes and I was ready to make my first bitcoin purchase.
Buying $1 of Bitcoin
From the Cash App home screen, I tapped on the “Investing” tab at the bottom and then scrolled down and selected “Bitcoin”. This brought up a graph showing the price over time and gave me the options to buy or sell bitcoin.
I entered $1 as the amount I wanted to buy, double checked that the details looked correct, and hit confirm.
A few seconds later, my purchase was complete! The app charged me $1 from my connected bank account and I received $1 worth of bitcoin, priced at the current exchange rate.
I could see my new bitcoin holding on the Investing tab, including how much I had in bitcoin and the current USD equivalent.
And just like that, for only $1 and a few screen taps, I became an owner of a tiny fraction of a bitcoin!
What I Learned as a New Bitcoin Investor
My first bitcoin purchase through Cash App was simple and straightforward. But it also taught me a lot about how cryptocurrency works and some of the advantages and considerations with owning bitcoin versus traditional money. Here are some of the key learnings from my experience.
Bitcoin is Highly Volatile
The most obvious learning is that bitcoin is still highly volatile compared to stocks and traditional currencies. Just in the first few days of owning it, I saw my $1 of bitcoin fluctuate up and down a few cents each day as the exchange rate changed.
Sometimes when logging into Cash App, my bitcoin balance would be worth $1.03, other times $0.98. This volatility is to be expected with cryptocurrency, at least currently. The value can change rapidly in either direction based on news, regulation, demand, and other factors.
While exciting when the value goes up, the volatility also means prices can drop significantly. So bitcoin remains a high-risk, speculative investment, especially with smaller amounts.
Bitcoin is Decentralized
Unlike traditional money issued by governments, bitcoin operates on a decentralized network spread across countless nodes and users. This means no central authority controls it.
I realized quickly that my $1 of bitcoin was not sitting in some server at Cash App headquarters but rather recorded on the underlying blockchain. Cash App provided the tools to buy and sell but does not actually custody or control the currency.
This decentralization brings advantages like accessibility to anyone with an internet connection. But it also comes with risks if you lose your private keys or someone gains unauthorized access to your bitcoin holdings.
Low Transaction Fees
One of the most commonly touted benefits of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are lower transaction fees compared to traditional payment networks.
My $1 bitcoin purchase had no trading fee from Cash App. Had I used a credit card or payment service to send $1 to someone, there would have certainly been fees in the range of a few percent plus possible interest. Just one example of the efficiency and lower costs.
However, bitcoin network transaction fees can still apply whenever the bitcoin is sent or when converting back to fiat currency. These mining fees fluctuate with market conditions but remain relatively low for most transactions compared to other methods.
Immutable and Pseudo-Anonymous
I also learned that bitcoin transactions are immutable and pseudo-anonymous. Once my purchase was confirmed on the blockchain, it could not be reversed or cancelled. No chargebacks or edits are possible like with credit cards.
And while Cash App collected my personal information for regulatory purposes, the actual bitcoin transactions are not directly associated with my identity. The blockchain only records the public wallet addresses sending and receiving.
This pseudo-anonymity is a core philosophical value for some bitcoin advocates. But it also raised my awareness that extra care is needed with securing and backing up my wallet.
Bitcoin is Still Early and Experimental
While bitcoin has made immense progress, my experience reinforced we are still in the early days and much is still being built. Simple things like recovering a lost wallet or technical glitches could cause loss of funds.
There are also very few places that accept direct bitcoin payments. And the regulatory environment continues to evolve. All good reminders that bitcoin remains experimental and comes with risks.
Even as the price has risen and adoption grown, bitcoin appears to still be in its infancy compared to its possibilities. Much like the early internet. Exciting but requires caution as the technology matures.
What Has Happened to My $1 Investment in 2024
In the months since I first bought $1 worth of bitcoin back in early 2024, we’ve seen both significant gains and some volatility. Here’s an overview of what has transpired with my tiny crypto investment.
Continued Price Appreciation
The broad trend in 2024 has been upwards, with bitcoin having one of its best years since 2017. My $1 worth of bitcoin is now worth about $2.50 at the current exchange rate, good for a 150% gain.
Clearly I’m not retiring off this return, but it does illustrate bitcoin’s continued price appreciation as adoption expands and the cryptocurrency becomes more mainstream. Many expect these gains to continue long-term, although at a less accelerated pace.
Periodic Price Swings
Despite the overall upwards trajectory, 2024 also saw some wild swings downwards, including a nearly 25% single day drop during the summer. This type of volatility is common in the crypto markets, where prices often run up and down based on hype cycles, regulatory moves, and shifting investor sentiment.
My bitcoin value would frequently change 5-10% day to day, with occasional bigger moves down before recovering. Holding long-term helps smooth out some of these swings. But it underscores that bitcoin remains subject to significant volatility.
Increased Institutional Investment
One of the biggest crypto developments in 2024 was large institutional investors and major companies adding bitcoin to their balance sheets. This growing mainstream acceptance from Wall Street helped further propel bitcoin’s adoption and price.
My own small $1 investment benefited from this tailwind. But it’s also exciting to see bitcoin scaling to become an accepted asset class and hedge against inflation even by conservative institutional players.
Regulatory Action Heating Up
Regulation was also a hot topic in 2024. China continued its crackdown on crypto activities, while other countries like India weighed bans. The U.S. has taken a more moderate stance but did see increased oversight from the SEC and other agencies.
So far regulatory moves have not severely impacted bitcoin’s price or adoption. But it reminds investors that government rules remain in flux and the need to closely track evolving policies. My own $1 bitcoin purchase however was small enough to avoid any reporting requirements.
Continued Technological Progress
On the technology side, the bitcoin network saw improvements in scaling, security, applications like NFTs/DeFi, and infrastructure like Lightning and sidechains. Upgrades like Taproot brought privacy and efficiency benefits.
While technical compared to just buying bitcoin, these innovations show the network continues maturing in capabilities and performance. Exciting to consider how early we still are in bitcoin’s developmental roadmap and future possibilities.
Long-Term Perspective
Zooming out beyond just knee-jerk price reactions, I wanted to conclude my tiny test transaction by contemplating Bitcoin’s ambitious value propositions for society.
Enthusiasts argue Bitcoin’s decentralized design could profoundly reshape finance and money as we know it thanks to a transparent, egalitarian, borderless system. By distributing power away centralized intermediaries historically prone to corruption, Bitcoin offers an alternative.
The core software continues seeing infrastructure innovation, institutional investment, global regulatory guidance, and even adoption by some governments. With all this traction, more observers take Bitcoin’s staying power seriously despite its volatile speculate nature.
Billionaire investors like Tim Draper, Michael Saylor and Mark Cuban contributed further flames of enthusiasm this cycle by allocating sizable percentages of their net worth into Bitcoin. Some even project a single Bitcoin capturing over $250,000 in value by 2030 through mass adoption.
Others poke at Bitcoin’s perceived limitations like transaction speeds, costs, and environmental impact relative to its current scale. With existential narratives swirling around Bitcoin since inception though, the protocol demonstrated impressive staying power, name brand recognition that will be difficult to dethrone even if technically surpassed.
So does my single dollar invested make much of a difference? Likely not in any direct, immediate sense. However, within this decentralized system valued by the crowd at over $400 billion at the time writing, owning satoshis signals my belief that Bitcoin and its blockchain technology do offer long-term, fundamental value.
Risks and Considerations
Before wrapping up my rookie Bitcoin investment adventure, I have to reiterate Bitcoin’s known volatility and risks. With prices that can swing wildly week-to-week, Bitcoin presents obvious dangers to those seeking stability or guarantees.
Past major drawdowns include slides of over 80 percent over months-long periods. Regulations also continue taking shape in jurisdictions across the globe with uncertainty about what legal treatment governments will ultimately give Bitcoin. Production costs underpinning the network, competition from alternative cryptocurrencies, and potential protocol-level risks could all damage Bitcoin value in theory moving forward as well.
So while micro-investment strategies allow you to gradually learn the market’s dynamics closely, bitcoin should still be approached with clear caution. Savvy suggestions include:
- Only Invest What You Can Afford to Lose
- Research Different Storage Solutions Like Hardware Wallets
- Time-Average Investment Entries Whenever Possible
- Ignore Volatility & Avoid Panic Selling in Reaction
- Hedge Against Severe Drawdowns if Needed
Conclusion
When all’s said and done, I’m thrilled to join the Bitcoin community from the ground floor with my humble $1 investment. The small stake will allow me to enjoy fractional price exposure, receive notifications on network updates and news pieces, and incentives me to continue my cryptocurrency education.
Sure, the money invested won’t make me a Bitcoin millionaire anytime soon – but that was never the point. I now own an asset entangled in a uniquely disruptive, ambitious, fascinating, and polarizing technology.
Sometimes the best way to begin understanding novel concepts is getting your hands a little dirty with exposure. Even if my first Bitcoin investment stays valued at just a dollar forever, at least it brought me one step closer to participating in broader decentralization trends.
Who knows, maybe I’ll gradually increase my investment 5, 10 or even 100 dollars at a time. Thanks to platforms like Cash App, investing in digital currencies has never been simpler for the everyday person.
So while past returns don’t guarantee future performance, I look forward to seeing where Bitcoin goes in the coming years from my front row fractional seat!
Also Read:
- How to Buy Bitcoin on Cash App in 2024: The Ultimate Guide
- How to Receive Bitcoin on Cash App in 2024
- How to Withdraw Bitcoin on Cash App
Frequently Asked Questions
How much will I get if I put $1 dollar in Bitcoin?
The amount of Bitcoin you would get for $1 changes daily depending on the market price of Bitcoin at the time of purchase. As an estimate, $1 would get you about 0.00005 BTC (or 50,000 satoshis) at current market prices. The value may be higher or lower when you make your purchase.
What happens if I invest $1 in Bitcoin?
If you invest $1 in Bitcoin, you would own a small fraction of a Bitcoin proportional to the dollar amount invested. You would then gain exposure to Bitcoin’s price changes in the markets, being able to sell your holdings later for whatever the market prices are at that time.
How much would I get if I sold 1 Bitcoin?
The amount you would get for selling 1 full Bitcoin depends on the current USD market price. For example if the price is $20,000, selling 1 Bitcoin would get you $20,000 (minus any transaction fees). The value fluctuates often though, so the amount can be very different day to day.
Can I send $1 Bitcoin on Cash App?
Yes, Cash App allows you to send as little as $1 worth of Bitcoin to other Cash App users instantly. The app converts the dollar amount to the equivalent amount of Bitcoin based on current pricing, transfers it, and the recipient can choose to convert it back to dollars if they prefer.
