Bitcoin Forum

1). Facebook bans ads.
Social-media giant Facebook Inc. FB, -0.63%  on Tuesday said it would ban cryptocurrency ads on its platform.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/no-more-annoying-bitcoin-ads-on-facebook-2018-01-30

2). India cracks down on cryptocurrencies.

India’s finance minister Arun Jaitley, in his budget speech on Thursday said the domestic government would take “all measures” to remove digital currencies in “financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payment system.”

3). Bitfinex and Tether concerns
Tether and its sister company Bitfinex have been raising eyebrows within the digital-currency community, with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission subpoenaing the companies as critics question the accuracy behind assertions that every tether is supported by actual bank reserves.

The most serious allegation against Tether is that its coins are digitally minted to purchase bitcoin on the Bitfinex exchange, which in turn drives up the price in the world’s No. 1 crypto asset, drawing business as the cyber unit climbs.

4). Crypto hack
Japanese exchange Coincheck Inc. said it planned to spend up to ¥46.3 billion ($426 million) to pay back customers after the theft of some $530 million in Nem ‘s XEM tokens, the biggest heist since the 2014 hack of bitcoin stores at Mt. Gox.

5). Inherent volatility
Bitcoin and its ilk have been naturally volatile but that volatility has accelerated so far in 2018 as digital currencies have seen mainstream focus and greater scrutiny from U.S. and Asian regulators.

All is FUD and tactics by various government to pull bitcoin down but this is not the first time we're having BTC falling and it will be back on top. They are only creating more opportunity for the strong hands to buy more and more

All five of these reasons are of secondary importance. The main reason for the price drop of bitcoin is that it has the properties of a currency. The duration of the transaction and its price makes it unacceptable for trading. Therefore, most people use bitcoin as an asset for savings. This artificially inflates the price of bitcoin. This well know how to use whales. They create panic and buy cheap coins. When all will be to keep the coins the price will be stable.

I'd add:
* EU considering a ban, saying they like the China way of thinking and that bitcoin is a police matter
* BTC obviously failed as payment system, more and more people realize that

The whole 'bitcoin failed as a payment system' argument is pretty stupid. Lightning network is in progress which is intended to resolve any issues people have with transaction speed and cost, why would you panic sell something that's working towards a solution, simply you wouldn't.

This is your 5 reasons and you think that is the cause why cryptocurrencies are falling, in some of your reasons you are correct but that just created the panic.  Kronos21 gave you the main reason of bitcoin price drop. The panic was created and whales will use that to buy bitcoins at the low price for sure.

Lightning Network is a total joke and will not work. Read this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2792933.0

Yes to all five but to me the most important is number five itself and it was also last on your list. Somehow the aspect of volatility gets overlooked in this vicious volatile market and I for the life of me can't figure out why. Yes there is more noise happening but that noise to me reigns loudest and I believe it has the biggest impact on price.

The thing with these selloffs is that people always expect them to be happening because of something of negative nature. Those spreading fud know that, and for that reason perfectly time when they will start releasing all types of negatively tinted articles, while in reality nothing is happening at all. If people stop thinking like a complete noob, and just understand and accept that the market was extemely overbought at the time we reached the near $20k peak, things will be a lot easier to digest. I strongly believe that this is a healthy and normal correction, where the fud element is playing a decent role as well -- it stimulates people to sell the market down more than needed.

When you have kwuckduck, someone who is infamous for calling the downfall of bitcoin and preaching the end commenting that your points are simply untrue that should really speak volumes. Just because your opinion is that LN won't work, I will sell all my bitcoin.

How about a 6th reason for cryptos to decline? Banksters denying funds to purchase cryptos:
https://www.coindesk.com/report-bank-america-jp-morgan-ban-credit-crypto-purchases/

Here is my take:

1. Facebook ads - not important. Most ads are for ICOs which are held on top of the Ethereum platform. Therefore the Facebook ad ban doesn't affect bitcoin, litecoin, bitcoincash, monero, doge etc.

2. India isn't a large player in crypto. They don't have that many users. From what I can tell the Indian population is content with the rupee.

3. Bitfinex and Tether. This is potentially big. But it mainly affects Bitfinex, Bittrex and Poloniex. The latter two are alt exchanges, so this affects alts more than anything.

4. Crypto hack of Coincheck. This is a non-event because Coincheck are compensating people who lost their NEM (which isn't a huge alt in the first place).

5. Inherant volatility. This ladies and gentlemen, is your answer. All cryptos are volatile and people frequently take profits because of the volatility. Bitcoin is merely back at it's November 2017 levels as a result.

It is to be noted that India hasn't actually taken any action with their alleged "crypto crackdown" so I think that one is pretty much out of the picture. The rest are all valid, but I think that the most important one is just the natuarl volatility nature of bitcoin.

There has to be an end to pumps some day and it had to happen, sooner or later. We can't continue to be in bull market mode forever. There usually will be breaks in between bull markets and i believe that is now.

This process has simply started sooner with the vast majority of news covering bitcoin being negative, and people FUDing over every single government regulation that has came out as well as tether. All this news, has very little affect on how people actually use bitcoin.

I don't think the facebook ads problem will contribute to the down fall, to be honest the only crypto currencies that are advertising there are just altcoins and mostly ICOs. A lot of which don't really generate anything and just a scam attempts or just shitty projects.

I do believe the reason the prices all went down was because the prices has gone up, way up, back in december that resulted in the market unable to support such a high level of price. So when people started selling no one really wants to buy at the high prices.

You can not eliminate some aspects of the current cause of bitcoin price reductions, various aspects and news about cryptocurrency will greatly affect the bitcoin price movement. I'm sure the news on the internet can affect the price of bitcoin, both negative and positive. Bitcoin is very easily affected, so we must continue to strive to maintain the stability of bitcoin market in the world. Try not to spread the negative news because it will lower the level of public confidence in cryptocurrencies. Decreased confidence will cause bitcoin prices to decline slowly.