Wearing crypto "merch" or "swag" can make you a target for robbery or worse.

As crypto is gaining popularity and people are realizing the potential for monetary value, I'm seeing more and more news articles about people that are getting robbed and/or murdered for their holdings.

Link to relevant Reddit post/comments: Man Killed for $200k in ETH

You wouldn't tell others how much you have in the bank, would you? You wouldn't tell people the size of your IRA either. So why would you tell anyone how much crypto you have? It is literally an asset that can be sent instantly and irreversibly to a criminal... with a knife to your throat.

Crypto "merch" advertises to the world that you have some of the asset and almost certainly more of other crypto assets.

There are two reasons that I hear from people for why they have crypto swag.

"I want to spread awareness"

The people who would buy a crypto after seeing it on a t-shirt are the wrong idiots people to get into crypto. They're going to call it a scam every time the price goes below their purchase price. Generally, if you do anything because a t-shirt says to... you're an idiot.

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"I'm proud of it and involved in the community and I want people to see that."

People will either think you're a nerd.

Or people will think you're rich.

Do you really want the people who see you to think any combination of those things about you? Robbers see someone with a crypto t-shirt and probably think to themselves, "This guy is a rich nerd; a perfect target for me."

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TL;DR - Your crypto "merch" makes you a target to all of the wrong people. Wear with caution if you do wear crypto merch at all. Don't advertise to the public that you hold crypto anything of value, whether by speech or "logo."