If there’s one recurring thread among gamers this Christmas that was carried forward from last year, it would be the same lament on how difficult it is to get a Sony PlayStation 5. Demand is so high and supplies are so low that it makes for a really ridiculous situation. Basically if you had put in the amount of money that would cost you for a disc-based PS5 (USD 500) last Christmas into Bitcoin, you would have doubled your money by now despite the crypto slump but still no PS5.

So the crypto part was how I funded my PlayStation 5 purchase last Christmas Eve (the manner in which I got it, I’ll get into that in a bit). Earlier in 2020, I had put in some money in the first quarter of the year into a mix of Bitcoin and Ether, more out of curiosity and the fact that there was some spare cash available to check out this whole new frontier of digital money. Cashing out the investment towards the tail end of 2020 resulted in more than 3X return which is way, way more than what a traditional fixed deposit can offer, but also way riskier.

The common refrain you’ll hear with crypto would be to spend only money that you can afford to burn. But if you are getting into crypto, you can check out apps like Crypto.com or Binance. Binance would be my preference, as it has a lot of crypto financial products to offer (including staking, liquid swaps), and a whole lot of pedagogy to with it as well. Crypto.com on the other hand does offer up really cool looking debit cards but do check whether those cards are available in your country.

If you are living in Malaysia, LUNO is a good place to start if you are looking to dabble in crypto. There’s a cache of coins that you can buy and sell, including BTC, LTC and ETH. I started off with LUNO first before branching off into both Crypto.com and Binance.

OK, back to how I got the PS5 in the first place. I happen to chance on an online raffle by a local video game store for an opportunity to purchase 1 of 8 PS5 (Disc) units on Christmas Eve while waiting to be tested for Covid (there was exposure risk due to the operating theater that my daughter was in played host to a Covid patient on the same day she had surgery). With nothing better to do, I put my name and contact details in for the raffle, and not only did we pass the Covid tests, I received a call in the afternoon to come and get the PS5 before the end of the day.

The PS5 supply situation is a lot more dire this year. If you’ve not made an order earlier THIS year at a Sony Centre or an authorized Sony Reseller , it is unlikely you’ll get a PS5 for Christmas unless you are OK with paying a scalper for a unit. But don’t fret, with the crypto tip above, you might end up with more money to spare…