4 Ways to Diversify Your Digital Asset Portfolio

As the digital asset landscape becomes increasingly unpredictable, it's important to encourage clients to diversify their holdings across sectors and digital asset types.

As the digital asset market continues to rapidly evolve, it's becoming increasingly important for clients to diversify their holdings across sectors and digital asset types. This not only helps with tax planning, but it also propels you into a more advisory role. Here are four strategies you can recommend to clients to diversify their digital asset portfolio:

1. Purchase different coin and token types. Perhaps the easiest way clients can diversify their digital asset portfolio is to acquire different types of coins and tokens. Start by advising clients to consider well-established cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and ether. Because these cryptocurrencies have a large market cap, they're typically considered lower-risk investments.

After that, encourage clients to consider altcoins. These are cryptocurrencies that aren't bitcoin. Although altcoins are riskier, they have the potential to quickly appreciate in value. But be careful — their values can suddenly plummet as well. As a rule of thumb, when investing in lesser-known altcoins, clients should only put in what they're willing to lose.

There are other types of coins and tokens that may help with diversification, including the following:

• Stablecoins: Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that's pegged to a fiat currency, such as the U.S. dollar. This makes stablecoins less volatile than other cryptocurrencies. Some clients may choose to hold stablecoins as a way to quickly move funds or to hedge against the volatility of other digital assets.

• Security tokens: Security tokens represent ownership in a particular asset, such as real estate or a company's stock. Although security tokens are stored on a blockchain, they're typically regulated by government agencies, unlike other cryptocurrencies. This makes security tokens a good option for clients who want to diversify their digital asset portfolio with more traditional investments.

• Non-fungible tokens (NFTs): NFTs are a unique type of cryptocurrency that can't be exchanged for another token. This makes NFTs ideal for representing ownership in digital collectibles, such as art, music or videos. Some clients may choose to invest in NFTs as a way to diversify their digital asset portfolio and potentially gain exposure to the booming collectibles market.

Many clients will be unfamiliar with these items, so taking the time to explain the benefits and potential risks of each investment will solidify client relationships and elevate your advisory practice.

2. Invest in a crypto exchange-traded product. A crypto ETP is the digital asset world's version of a mutual fund. It's essentially a way to invest in cryptocurrency without purchasing the coins directly. Like other ETPs, crypto ETPs are securities that track the value of underlying assets. However, in this case, the underlying assets are cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and ether.

To help get clients started, you can recommend a reputable broker. Most major online brokers offer crypto ETPs; however, ETP types and fees will vary. Also, it's important to educate clients on the risks of investing in a crypto ETP. One potential drawback is trading can only occur during regular market hours, meaning your client may miss out if cryptocurrency values significantly change during the weekend (which, as we've seen, is highly likely). This wouldn't happen if your client purchased cryptocurrency directly since online exchanges are always open (unless briefly shut down for maintenance).

3. Try a crypto-related exchange-traded fund. Clients who go down this route have two options to consider: a stock-based ETF and a futures-based ETF. In a stock-based ETF, the client holds a collection of crypto-related stocks. These are the stocks of corporations that operate in the digital asset space, such as Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN). If your client decides to invest in a futures-based ETF, they will be exposed to the price movements of cryptocurrency futures contracts, which are agreements to exchange the fiat-equivalent value of a digital asset (or the asset itself) on a future date.

As with ETPs, ETFs won't give your clients direct ownership of cryptocurrencies — they will simply own units within the funds. This could be a problem if a particular cryptocurrency or company increases in value, but that growth isn't fully reflected in the ETF. However, crypto-related ETFs are still a great way to diversify a digital asset portfolio.

4. Hold digital assets in a self-directed IRA. As a tax and accounting professional, you're probably familiar with self-directed IRAs that hold real estate, precious metals, foreign currencies, commodities or hedge funds. But did you know they can also be used to hold digital assets? There are crypto IRA platforms out there that can help with the administrative burdens typically associated with self-directed IRAs.

Advising clients to establish a self-directed IRA can be a smart move; however, setting one up that invests in cryptocurrency is often complex. In many cases, you will need to direct the client to create an LLC that's solely owned by the IRA