1 Year in NUS – Portfolio Update and 15% Yield on USDC!

Hello! I am sure it has been almost close to a year since I updated this blog. I sincerely apologised for my inactiveness in updating my blog as I have become a full-time student studying in NUS’s School of Computing. 29 April was my last paper and I immediately took the chance to provide updates on my investment portfolio and what I have been doing financially for the past year. 

Portfolio Update

My current portfolio allocation hasn’t deviated much from the last portfolio reveal that was published last year August, with the exception of selling away UIPath and adding positions in Nvidia. I told myself that I would be leaving my portfolio as it is while I focus on my studies for the next 4 years. This is in hope of proving the theory of time in the market is better than timing the market. 

I started accumulating Nvidia in late December to take advantage of its share price retreat while waiting for the resolution of its acquisition in ARM. As we all know that Nvidia has since terminated the acquisition, I personally believe that its underlying businesses are still strong and there shouldn’t be a need to worry too much. It was indeed unfortunate that the acquisition did not go through else it would have been a game-changer for Nvidia. 

Currently, I have allocated about 20% of my capital to Semiconductor stocks such as AMD, NVDA and TSM. Though the industry is known to be cyclical, CEOs of those semiconductor companies have been optimistic in explaining how the pandemic has increased the demand for semiconductors, underpinned by the industry’s megatrend of 5G and high performing computing-related applications. I will be eagerly awaiting for AMD’s upcoming earnings to catch a sense on the industry before re-adjusting my portfolio allocation.  

Before I dive into my YTD portfolio performance, I would like to take the chance to share my portfolio performance in 2021. 2021 has been a great year for me as my portfolio returns about 40 – 50% by the end of the year. The chart below shows the adjusted portfolio returns since portfolio inception (readjusted to 0% on the first day of trading in 2021). The time-weighted returns as shown on Stocks.Cafe is 40.74% for the year 2021.

As the majority of my portfolio is in growth stocks, they got badly hit by fears of inflation and interest rate hikes since November last year. The drop was also fuelled by political uncertainty elsewhere in Europe and that resulted in my portfolio underperforming major indices such as S&P500 and QQQ. I would be ending off this section with my current YTD portfolio performance with a screenshot of my portfolio report on Stocks.Cafe. 

As I take a break from academics in my first ever summer break, I believe that I will have more time to look into my portfolio and see ways on how I can pivot for the future. I hope that I will be able to share more portfolio updates in the coming months!

Crypto.com FAST Transfer and New User Bonus

Just this week, Crypto.com introduced FAST transfer for Singapore users. This is a huge breakthrough for users as we had to rely on Straits X to transfer SGD to buy cryptocurrencies on the app. The implementation would allow a fast and efficient method to top up SGD Fiat Wallet in their Crypto.com app.

To set up FAST transfer on Crypto.com app, you will need to tap on Transfer at the top of the app and then Deposit. This will then prompt you with two options – Crypto and Fiat.

Once you chose Fiat, you can click on Choose Fiat and you will have to click on “Set up currency” if you have not done so. Click on “SGD” and accept the Terms and Conditions and transfer your money into your designated bank account shown in the app.

Make sure that the name on your bank account matches the name associated with your Crypto.com account. Please take note that your first deposit may take one or two business days for verification, subsequent deposits will be instant and you will therefore be able to use your funds to buy cryptocurrencies almost immediately. 

Crypto.com has also announced that it will be rewarding NEW users by doubling the initial deposit amount by matching it with a bonus of up to SGD$100 of CRO. If you have transferred $100 in your first FAST deposit, you will receive a matching bonus of $100 worth of CRO. The extra bonus can then be used to offset your stake in their physical card.

This is definitely a perfect time to own a Crypto.com Debit Card to enjoy 100% rebate on Spotify and 2% cashback on all card purchases. On top of the matching bonus from transferring SGD via FAST, you will receive US$50 when you apply for this card. Therefore, you will receive a total of $170 rebate in staking for the card and thus you will only need to stake for $330. You may refer to my article for reasons why I love using this card. Please note that you have to continue to stake for the card after the 6 months of lock period to enjoy the benefits. The table below shows the breakdown of the cost and how long you can break even from the staking.

Item	Cost
Staking Cost	$500
Referral Bonus	$69.16 in CRO
FAST Deposit Bonus (Deposit $100 in your first FAST transfer)	$100 in CRO
Remaining amount to stake	$330.84
Profit from Spotify Rebate every month	$14.98
Months to breakeven if continue staking	~22 months

How to get 15% Yield from USDC?

I am grateful that my friend has invited me to trade NFT on Crypto.com since late December, before the NFT hype died down early this year. It has allowed me to offset some of my paper losses. Though it has not fully offset them, it has helped me to achieve financial flexibility to spend on good food as a way to cope with academic stress and worries. I do look forward to more Profile Picture (PFP) NFT drops which can help me to sustain my expenditure fund as studying with all other smart students in my university course can be stressful and competitive. 

I follow a strict allocation rule for all proceeds from NFT in which I will allocate them to Investment, Savings and Expenditure. As the proceeds are given in USDC, I put those USDC in Crypto.com’s Earn Flexible and 1 or 3 Month term. Crypto.com and Hodlnaut have recently reduced their yield across the board and this has led me to research the next best option. 

I have chanced upon Finblox which is offering 15% yield on USDC and I immediately transferred my USDC into Finblox via FTX Blockfolio app. Using FTX Blockfolio app as the middleman for transfer is the most cost-effective method as it offers the cheapest transfer at just 1 USDC from Crypto.com to Finblox by using BSC or SOL network.

Similar to USDC, you can also earn 6.5% of your SGD in XSGD a stablecoin developed by Straits X or Xfers, which is a licensed Major Payment Institution. If you are considering making your spare SGD work harder, you can consider minting your XSGD on StraitsX and you can directly deposit your XSGD into Finblox for a flat fee of 5 XSGD.

  you can directly deposite it can be direcrtlYou may want to mint your XSGD on StraitsX

What I like about Finblox besides its attractive earning yield is the fact that rewards are distributed daily, thus your assets are compounded daily! Furthermore, security in the platform is pretty standard for all crypto platforms where you are required to enable 2FA via Google Authenticator and PIN so rest assured that your funds are safe. 

If you are interested in moving your cryptocurrencies to earn better yield, you may sign up for an account with Finblox as it is running its own referral program where you can get up to US$250 in free crypto if you maintain your deposit balance for 2.5 months! For example, you will receive $25 USDC for depositing $1000USD worth of crypto (about $1.4k SGD) after 2.5 months. 

Closing Thoughts

Once again, I sincerely apologised for not updating as often as I did while I was in NS. As I take a break from academics in my first ever summer break, I believe that I will have more time to look into my portfolio and see ways on how I can pivot for the future. I hope that I will be able to share more portfolio updates in the coming months! 

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