UPDATED 23:21 EDT / DECEMBER 05 2017

EMERGING TECH

Retirement investment options for bitcoin fans: IRAs and island ownership?

Those looking to park some of their bitcoin holdings into long-term investment opportunities for retirement or old age now have two new options of widely divergent usefulness.

One appears to be entirely speculative and possibly nothing more than a marketing stunt, while a second option taps into existing U.S. retirement regulations.

The flashiest of the two offerings comes in the form of 13 acres on Union Island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines that is being offered for sale for 600 Bitcoin, the equivalent today of $7.3 million. The land, described as “thirteen acres of pristine land with direct access to white sand and the crystal-blue Caribbean waters,” also includes plans for a single-family home that will be built for the new owners as part of the package.

Bloody Bay Co., the group selling the plot, is claiming that the island would be ideal for someone who acquired bitcoin before its latest price boom. “Someone wise or brave enough to have got in early on the cryptocurrency phenomenon could soon be lifting their rum cocktails to toast the bargain of the century,” the company said.

On the more traditional retirement savings front, albeit with a cryptocurrency twist, a company called BitIRA has launched a new service to help Americans take advantage of digital currencies as part of a long-term retirement strategy.

The offering, as the name of the company suggests, allows customers to make direct investment in digital currencies for individual retirement accounts to “yield tremendous benefits like tax-deferred growth, portfolio diversification, growth potential and protection against inflation.” The service, run in conjunction with licensed custodian service group the Preferred Trust Co., also allows customers to roll over existing IRAs and even some old 401(k) accounts as well.

“Tax-deferred growth, heightened profit potential, investment diversification, and better security are just a few of the advantages causing Americans to consider digital currencies as an increasingly compelling asset class for their retirement plans,” Jay Blaskey, digital currency specialist at BitIRA said in a statement.

Although there are clear tax advantages involved with BitIRA, and sun, surf and sand that come with buying land on a Caribbean island, bitcoin and cryptocurrency investors may yet still be better off directly holding cryptocurrencies given their ongoing strong gains.

After teasing $12,000 for the first time over the weekend, bitcoin finally got there as the price surged through $12,000 in trading Tuesday. As of 11 p.m. EST, bitcoin was trading at $12,239.35, yet another new record high.

Photo: Pexels

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