Some scared noobs and crafty whales selling in Dec. What a surprise  Trolls trying to scare the hodlers with 1K talks. Bring it on baby! I regularly buy with 2/3 of my salary and I just initiated another transfer to an exchange. It had been this way the last years. The difference is that I buy a lot more precious bitcoins now 

Thanks for the beer, Bob! Cheers!

There are several reasons for that.
1. Whales possesing over 100K bitcoins are the main reason we are here now. One of them - the impostor Craig Wright posted a tweet that he doesn't care if Bitcoin will drop to 1000$ (I am not sure that this is his actual tweeter account, but anyway) and sold massively in order to pump his 'child' the bcash fork SV.
2. Several days after the support was broken, it was announced that bakkt will be postponed due to some remarks from CFTC regarding safety of warm and cold wallets. This smells to me like an insider info.
3. Most of the traders are ignorant to the potential of bitcoin. They can only watch diagrams. They compare the diagrams of 2018 and 2014 and act according to the similarities there.

There are other reasons - market manipulation related to tether (some use this gap to trade with 2-3% profit), futures, miners hash war (bankruptcy of some mean more bitcoins for others), the refusal for ETF, etc.  But bitcoin overcome many such periods. I am confident it will overcome this also.  We just need more time to start doubling again. I expect the next bull run to start either with the approval of  bakkt/ETF or 6-9 months before the next halvening.

We are very close to the capitulation point. Everyone is talking doom and death for the crypto. Whales are selling as if the price is 20K   But this is a healthy process of fragmentation which will pave the way for the next bull run. I don't know how long we will wait for that, hopefully sooner rather than later. I don't believe in Christmas miracles but who knows, anything can happen. I know what SEC chairman said about ETF, but what if the staff suprisingly gives approval... or the commission votes for it... or bakkt starts and it offers actual buying of bitcoins? We need one good news to reverse the market. (Or like fake Satoshi CW put in prison for stealing 300K bitcoins from his friend  ) Well, even if none of these things happen, f..ck it! I prefer to hold my saving in Bitcoin rather than in bank, where every bank empoyee can see and use my credit cards info and steal my money. Banks? No, thanks!

https://twitter.com/BTCDJS/status/1069233909395800064
 

That's the spirit! We are in the same boat, pal! I started Jan 2017 but my main investment was in August 2017. I suffered a lot during the first 4-5 crashes, but I learned to endure and buy more. I will continue to buy no matter the price.

Jihan Wu looking at the SV pump, while transferring 2 mil SV to exchanges.

I bet he is planning to bring it to 0 

Mining heavy/haven:
280x give stable 430 h/s.
390 are very unstable. Cards report between 500 and 800 whatever intensity I chose. Most cards gravitate towards 640 h/s, but I have some that can't go beyond 540 h/s with nearly 40% bad shares even if not moded. For comparison with xmrig all 390 cards are very stable with 660 h/s and none bad shares. On the other hand, 280x are not even working with xmrig.

Who sold at the bottom?   I've read somwhere that nearly 2 mil bitcoins were traded on all exchanges during the weekend bear trap. At least a quarter of them were withdrawn from exchanges to personal wallets. As always strong hands win and weak hands lose   On behalf of all that bought during this period I thank the noobs for selling their precious coins at such discount  

A quote from the interview:
Jay Clayton, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said Tuesday that he doesn’t see a pathway to a cryptocurrency ETF approval until concerns over market manipulation are addressed.“How that [manipulation] issue gets addressed, I don’t have a particular path. But it needs to be addressed” before an ETF gets approved, Clayton remarked during CoinDesk’s Consensus: Invest conference.


There has been some progress recently regarding vaneck addressing the manipulation issues. Vaneck declared who are the partners for OTC deals. They will be regulated by CFTC.
https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2018/11/vaneck-subsidiary-mvis-reveals-the-otc-exchanges-behind-the-bitcoin-etf-index/
Circle OTC platform - Circle Trade is one of them. I've read somewhere that currently CFTC is auditing their activity (USDC etc.).

I don't know if Clayton is sincere or he is just hiding behind this 'manipulation' mantra.
1. Vaneck ETF proposal is desinged for accredited, not retail investors.
2. The deals will be made by OTC desks. As noted in the presentation, manipulation of the price of OTC deals is impossible without the participation of the desks themselves.
3. OTC desks will be regulated by CFTC, which already began its work.
4. It is seen in the last months that any rumour about manipulation of Asian usdt exchanges (so far not proven) is punished by the USA exchanges with lower prices.

Finally, it seems that 2 commissioners are for ETF, and in Dec. one more will be replaced. Whatever the staff decides it will be up to him to determine the approval of the ETF.

This reminds me of Sept. 2017 China-bans-ico FUD, when Bitcoin crashed from 4800 to 3000. In the last day we had 30% crash, then 25% bounce to 3800, and the next few days sideways around 3600. Now we had 20% bounce to 4200 followed by a dip to 3800-3900 (BFX). The support is way too big - around 13K BTC in buy offers down to the price 3000$ (BFX). So good luck bears  getting another 20% down The time of the bears has ended! The time of the bulls is coming! The only thing I regret is that if I knew what was gonna happen, I would sell at 20K and rebuy at 4k. I knew that in 2014 the crash was because of the Gox thing. Since the situation was completely different I thought it won't happen again. But I forgot one thing - most of the traders are illitirate and chart looking morons. They don't think logically, nor believe in the technology. It is funny how exactly traders copied the chart of 2014 y! Their story this year is cutting the losses sells. Nah, this game is for gamblers. I am sure that when the bakkt and ETF news come out they will be on the wrong side - useless fiat or worse tether   Besides I think it is too greedy to sell with the hope of rebuying lower. Just buy regularly with the income and endure the dips and crashes. You never know when the market is going to turn against the shorters! Set a price target and wait until it's reached. If we went from 150$ to 20K$ in 3 years, why not going from 4k$ to 40K$ in 3 years? I just hope I and my family to have a good health, and lets see what will happen in 3-7 years. I hope by then to have at least 20 bitcoins... So the lower price is not so bad for me after all

This post was yesterday when we were at 3700$ (BFX). Now the first part is fulfilled, I expect to reach 5k$ range soon. We are in a good position not only to recover the drop from 6K but to break the falling wedge pattern from the beginning of 2018. If bakkt starts and as promissed offers more than futures contracts (namely as regulated crypto exchange that can store in warm and cold wallets the bought bitcoins, which have theft etc. insurance), we can quickly break the main resistance at 8400$. This will start the next bull period, which will last at least until 2021. Also there is a huge possibility that in December the new commisioner in SEC might be in favour of ETF. We need only 1 more voice, since it seems we currently have 2 in favour. Interesting times are coming and the weak hands will suffer much when they see prices with 5 digits.

Big crash, my ass! Look at the books in BFX - 20K BTC in buy offers till $2500 vs only 5KBTC till $5300. At the same time SV is pumped - versy suspicious. I guess CW sold every BTC he had just to give 1  more day life of his shitcoin before it dies forever! Now, we are in a very good starting position. Weak hands were robbed and big trio scammers - Ver, Wu and Wright is out of Bitcoins. No need to be a prophet to predict that a bull run is imminent. I can't wait to get my salary next week to buy some more!

Those who try to scare us with going to 0 talk either don't understand how exchanges work, or are hoping to make others sell, so they buy cheaper. I am not scared of any low price and that I will be at a loss temporarily (happened many times already). On the contrary, I am happy with the fact that I can buy more Bitcoins with my monthly income. The question is not how low we may go, but how high we will go! For the ignorants just two numbers - 200 price at the end of 2014 (does it matter now?!?) and stable 6K at the end of 2017 (excluding the peak 10-20K). So we are on this schedule: 4k at the end of 2018 and stable 30-40K  at the end of 2021 (with possible peak above 100K). But let's say we have more crooks like Wu, Ver and Wright to hammer the price, and SEC is still refusing to allow ETF. Then what about in 7-8 years. With almost all 21mil Bitcoins mined, and several millions lost each year, and millions of new buyers... The explosion can't be delayed much longer for sure. So, no need of FUD or nervous trading, just hodl and you won't be dissapointed by the result!

Since the majority in this forum voted on the poll less than 4k by the end of the week, then for sure we are going up - 5.2K may be? 

4600 is the new 6400. Who would have thought after so many months there we will dream of this price so soon.   Anyway, this is a loss for the weak hands and bonus for the hodlers who can endure such drops and buy more. When the train starts again, I am sure all these people will wait until its too late to enter again. Imagine how weak hands are 'making money': They buy at 15k$ and above because the charts looked so hot and sexy and their analysis shows it will stay that way. Now at 4K they sell because the chart looks horrible. They assure themselves that they will enter again when they are certain the bull run is on. But when - at 6k? No, not confident. At 12K- no, its too much of a price. But the Bitcoin will not stop at 16K, 20K... and finally after 30-40K they decide to enter again... Just before the next drop to 20K when they panic sell again...

This is the explanation why there are people never profiting, while others are making huge money. I am gloating with the anticipitation of the next bull run when all these noobs will bite their tongues for selling at 4K, while the price goes above 40K! Mark my words!