Last month, unaware that the Bitcoin halving was happening, I put R500 into Luno’s Large Cap Performance package and much like Nine Inch Nails, it’s been a downward spiral.

Over the last month and a bit, that “investment” has lost R48.65; frankly, it doesn’t look to be getting better.

Over the month I have seen just one week of gains on my initial investment and that gain was minor compared to the loss I have incurred thus far.

The Luno Large Cap performance package is billed as an easy way to jump into the cryptocurrency sector.

For one fee, Luno will invest your money into several tokens namely Bitcoin, Solana, Ethereum, Ripple and Avalanche. Every quarter, Luno re-evaluates which coins are included in the bundle and what weight they are given.

As it stands my Large Cap Performance package is weighted as follows:

• Bitcoin – 72.19 percent
• Solana – 3.84 percent
• Ethereum – 21.48 percent
• Ripple – 1.71 percent
• Avalanche – 0.78 percent

While this package has lost approximately 10 percent of its value since last month, data from the last three to six months is more hopeful. According to Luno, over the last three months, this package has increased by 25 percent in value and grew 61 percent in the last six months.

However, that growth was before Bitcoin halved. Last month Bitcoin was halved which means that the amount of new tokens available was halved and as such, rewards for mining the token were also reduced by 50 percent. A price jump usually follows, but that didn’t happen this time.

Some in the cryptocurrency space predicted this might be the case including chief executive officer of deVere Group, Nigel Green.

“The Bitcoin halving is a landmark moment but the actual event will likely be a ‘flop’ for prices on the day,” Green said ahead of the halving.

The CEO added that the halving would have more of an effect on the long-term value of Bitcoin than it did on the day it happened.

However, as you can see in the data below from CoinMarketCap, the value of Bitcoin was falling before the halving event happened.

There is, of course, the possibility that Bitcoin rallies but the opposite can also happen.

The next biggest token in the package, Ethereum, has also been trending downward for the last month. After reaching a high of $3 600 per token last month, Ethereum currently trades at $2 923.

Overall, the sentiment toward cryptocurrency in the last month has been negative. This is due to conflict in the Middle East and concerns about the economic health of China. The coming months look to be more positive but that could just be cope on the back of minor gains in the price of Bitcoin earlier this week.

I’m not a financial expert so I’m not here to recommend or dissuade you from investing money in this package. However, I do think it’s important to highlight my experience with this package as a regular person who isn’t following the performance of cryptocurrency closely.

Despite the loss I have incurred over the last month I will be leaving my money in Luno for at least six months in hopes that the performance of the Large Cap Performance package improves, which I really hope it does.