WTF is going on with BTC (bitcoin)?

InceptionHosting

I keep an eye on BTC daily, I have a little bit, I am not concerned with the peaks and troughs I see it as a long term high risk investment but Jesus the way it is dropping atm it is going down by $1000 per day.

I am far from a shoecoiner, I just bought some outright a while ago (4 ish years) I have read a few bits but they all read like someone trying to push a narrative rather than any real news.

Anyone else with an interest in the crypto market have any more educated guesses as to why it has halved in value in a month?

Is it because it is now traded and the markets have crashed? I thought some of the point behind this was that it would not be impacted in the same way?

Thoughts?

comi

Peaks and troughs are impossible to predict or explain reliably of course.

My understanding of the current long-term trend is that technical problem of blockchain scaling has not been solved. All proposed solutions have rather serious drawbacks.
Also mining continues to be severely centralized in pools.
Also also regulators still see it as a threat and apply pressure.

Also any btc trough is likely to be caused by a whale deciding to cash in and causing chain reaction.

ilnahro

Like all speculative assets, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been heavily inflated by loose monetary policy and investors hunting for short term profits using high leverage. This drop is almost certainly linkable to the coronavirus as investors flee junk and speculative investments (like BTC) to what are considered safe assets (ie government bonds and gold). Also, many private holders may have decided to cash out in order to be able to bolster their personal finances to get through the corona crisis.

Those structural defects of BTC that @comi mentions have been around for ages. A whale could explain it of course but given the circumstances, my guess would be that this fall is caused by a wide sell-off.

AK_KWH

Now its going up check the coinmarket everything is because of crona

comi

sorry ma Ingleesh is bed, when you sell bitcoin for dollars is it "cash in" or "cash out"?

InceptionHosting

@comi said: "cash in" or "cash out"?

You could say either but "cash out" is probably more correct in this discussion.

.

mobile

the end is nigh

bikegremlin

If you can afford it, it's often profitable to buy stuff in the time of crisis, when everyone else is selling.
And sell stuff that everyone is buying (now it's those surgical masks, disinfectants etc).

So if I had any money, I'd wait for the BTC price drop to slow down (or stop completely), then buy and wait for the price to rise.
Fortunately, living in Serbia and doing honest work, makes one not have to worry about such stuff - can't buy a single BTC.

comi

@ilnahro said: Those structural defects of BTC that @comi mentions have been around for ages

A problem in a new technolgy is to be expected.
A fundamental problem that hasn't been solved for ages... Is a huge difference, and a cause for concern.

ehab

in my gmail account recently i saw some much bitcoin spam ... didn't realize its going down in price

ehab

@AnthonySmith your precious ... i can remeber you shine it every day hahahha j/k

InceptionHosting

@ehab said:
@AnthonySmith your precious ... i can remeber you shine it every day hahahha j/k

Neoon

Divecoin.

Not a surprise after all, the cryptocurrencies seem to behave relevant to what's going on.
When the € dipped, BTC did it also.

beagle

Cash is king.

When market is in panic there is no safe haven. It sells everything for cash even safe assets like gold and bonds.

lentro

Many people used leverage. When the price dropped below a point, their lender automatically cashed out and sold the bitcoin, causing prices to go further and bankrupting more leveraged traders, which continued to make the price decrease.

That’s just my opinion. It all started with some normal people pulling out a bit too much of their cash.

ilnahro

@comi said:

@ilnahro said: Those structural defects of BTC that @comi mentions have been around for ages

A problem in a new technolgy is to be expected.
A fundamental problem that hasn't been solved for ages... Is a huge difference, and a cause for concern.

BTCs problems ARE fundamental. No practical solution that retains BTCs theoretical advantages over the existing banking system has ever been proposed. What few changes there have been were merely able to allow a larger group of investors and all options to overcoming the fundamental flaws also eliminate the fundamental advantages. With the exceptions of the regulators, all problems you mention go far deeper than being a problem of a new technology.

havoc

WTF is going on with BTC (bitcoin)?

People are discovering that it's no good at it's last credible purpose - store of value - either.

Blockchain is a great concept. Bitcoin is not.