Bitcoin's intended purpose was to be an alternative to the banking system. A new currency that could be decentralized and censorship-resistant. Just like foreign exchange, the price of such an asset would be speculated on, a by-product of the system.

Now consider the fact that you have
1. the original product - a new currency
2. the by-product - a speculative asset for trading

How many countries immediately made bitcoin or for that matter till date made it legal to transact in completely? At the time when bitcoin was started it was close to nil.

Hence the people who gathered bitcoin as a part of their total assets, never got a place to spend it properly, therefore the by-product become more attractive than the original product. Hence the things became like that and trading became way more popular than actually spending your bitcoins for paying a merchant. This will not change easily and hence the price becomes the thing people talk about so much.

I think the speculation is on a high point instead of actual movements in the market. While speculation leads the market, it is not happening right now. There are times like this where stagnant markets predominate but they gradually change over.

I don't think there has been a huge impact though. Whatever be the effect it will probably be forgotten. Right now we need a trend changer which happens gradually.

As for buying when some celeb is buying - I would say no. Because influence leads to bad choices.

They are two different markets and by essence markets run on similar psychologies. There is similar manipulation happening in both. The difference is only the personal choice to invest in one or the other.

While forex maybe good for someone, crypto may be better for another. It does not mean either one is better than the other but how the trader profits in one.

Analysis ends up being the same TA, but being accustomed to one of these markets gives th edge. So don't just around thes markets but focus on one of them only.

Selling at the wrong time would mean a bad ending. There are times to sell which is when the market is rising and not selling during that time is a loss.

One must understand that in order to sustain trading in this market, they must buy at the low and also sell at the top. Not doing both or skipping one will lead to frustration and stagnancy in the trader's mind which leads to bad incidents.

For newbies entering the market this is important to realize. That the bull and bear cycles are continuous and taking advantage over both is necessary to be the proper trader. There is a lot of FUD and bad speakers in the market, but the reality is that bitcoin always bounces back, it is just a matter of time.

Top 20 is a stretch mate, being conservative on the altcoins is a better way to make money. While it is true that only few of these top 20 will be worth something in the long run, I find it simpler to put all the money in Bitcoin or maximum the top 5 altcoins.

Obviously holding a single altcoin is never recommended. Bitcoin should be the basis of your portfolio and then you should expand on that gradually but be strict about altcoins. Because majority of altcoins will go busy in the long run.

To learn about what bitcoin is and how it works before jumping into buying it.  Read the historical charts before placing a first buy orders. This will reduce the number of traders coming in at the wrong price.

A good understanding of how to keep the wallets safe from hackers and scammers is also important for newbies which is a major source of lost coins.

Specific to the bear market this is the time to buy, but observation is also important at the first onset. So maybe dummy trading would be a good thing.

Prices are touching 20k back showing the upward trend, possibly the bear trend is ending gradually but it will take time to overcome the resistance at the 21k USD level. Of course the recovery will be a rule, but the point is to hold through the bear market before wrongly stepping into the direction of panic selling.

Fractional buying is what I suggest to every newbie. No need to go all in and further spending all your allocation on a single prices reduces your flexibility to sell at different points during a cycle.

This is specially a thing when the price is falling and you are buying, you will always end up with some fiat at hand to buy even at the lowest low.

Not sure that makes sense. People can control what they invest in, but they dont have the power to regulate the flow of crypto from the wrong hands.

Governments can do that by making all exchanges follow a strict KYC procedure and tracking the crypto trades being done by specific users. While there will be some loopholes, majority of the scammers will get caught in this net, since the only way to get fiat out of that crypto would be via an exchange. OTC markets are more risky and they will see a boom if this type of regulation does happen.

Of course the currencies are decentralized but that does not mean they cannot be overwatched.

Long term holding is a faith-based game. If you have confidence in the team and have proper faith in their approach then by all means do invest in it. But this may not be the case for most investors who have joined with lack of background research, suggestions from other friends and social media spam. Majority of the coins launched in the last 3years have been hyped coins with no proper use case or intrinsic market making.

Therefore the long term value of such coins is virtually null without any profit. They will end up being a burden in your bag which one can never relieve off.

I am not sure if this makes sense, but whales are nothing in real but made up words by the trading community. Hence dont tag every movement to a "whale" but traders in general and in unison the market psychology.

While it is true that the market is showing movements I would not say "roller coaster" as the term for it. Prices seem to oscillate between the 19k to 20k USD marks. This is the sign of a impending bull trend or a bear trend to start as soon as the support or resistance level falls.

Not specific to a coin, but in general there is money to be made, but probably not at this point. This is rather a point to wait and watch.

As a trader, one should not listen to what people have to say to influence their decisions specially if they are celebs and have a big influence on the common people who are dumb enough to follow them like they are some supernatural being.

If bitcoin does go up after getting this news traders should sell and book the profit. Of it does not go up just wait it out.

Nobody can predict but only speculate th future. Don't put your money into other people's words.

Stocks have the advantage of being regulated but the chance of making huge profits in short time is low. Again crypto may see huge returns making it a wild west of the current era but is not regulated. There can be a mix and match of both. For some who has experience in stocks, crypto becomes easier to approach and making decisions here is easier for them.

Overall the winner is the one who keeps a cool head during the long range movements. Knowing that every rise is a chance to profits in the books and every drop is a chance to increase your stash does not come in the thought of every trader. This is important.

The long charts of Bitcoin reveal it's movements clearly that it has the tendency to go up and down in long periods. Therefore patience is the key here. Sudden drops are common but keeping patience throughout the cycle helps every trader.

While profits will happen, losses may happen too. It is important that you learn from the mistake and try not to repeat that. Sideways is the time to check your methods again while holding back on trading. Profits will happen when prices go back up again.

Try keeping a positive approach whenever prices drop, that is the time to buy. Don't sell during the bear markets, but this is easier said than done for most traders.

Well you made a profit in 2021 - so props to you for that since many users here did not sell and lost the opportunity, something you should consider as an achievement.

It is not that people dont trust an altcoin, some people dont but that point should be in making profit and getting out in a green streak. Ethereum is not the first go coin for users in a bitcoin forum but there will always be people rooting for the coin that is 2nd to bitcoin.

The coin I trust the most is Bitcoin. But keeping your choice open in the crypto world usually leads to more losses - so I restrict myself to the top 5 altcoins only.

Same things  are applicable to crypto and forex, both. It takes time and experience to gain the knowledge and skills to trade on a specific market and neither one is better or bad than the other because it is a personal choice. Both are profitable and both are complex but neither is better than the other in my opinion.

As much as you prepare, some risk is always there with any speculative trading, so matter the type of trading, losses will happen.

Crypto is what the users of this forum are familiar with. Some have come from a forex background while some have not. So it is not the best place to get an answer to the OP's query.

Panic selling or proper selling, being sold at a lower price than buy is a loss for anybody. Currently the market is in the downtrend, it might be possible someone bought at even lower and is still in profit while selling, but this would not be the case for majority of the users in the world.

Whales are doing things that we commoners dont even know about, so lets not comment on that.

What we can do is to wait for the price to stabilize and then buy. Selling does not mean it is wrong, it depends on what price you bought at. If someone feels that the price will not go back up again, then its their choice to sell at a loss.

Most projects dont have any use case but according to the OP, this one does, which I am curious to see how. Because from my experience, a project that has a use case and actually solves a problem will become big in a matter of days to months. But if they are not doing it right, the project can suffer.

However this is ending up being a one-sided conversation like most threads in this section of the forum.
OP also needs to furnish more details about the project and how they having a use case that is actually useful.

End of the day, if the project is legit and the product/service is legit, they will gradually develop a market. A lot of work also depends on how the marketing and social presence is done but mostly it will work out.

Trading if ending up as a "hectic" endeavor, then it is not being done properly. Trading means buying when the market price is poor and selling when the price is up. If this ends up giving a mental toll on the person putting their money in, then they need to rethink what they are doing in the first place. They mostly bought at the higher prices and now trying to sell at lower or they are out of money to buy anything more out of the bear market.

While both of these are happening, people must remind themselves that trading is not everything in life. While market will go up and down, there are things outside the market which should be given attention too - if you dont divert to such things in life, trading will end up being a chore and that will drain you.

Diamonds are not worth putting your money in, so lets get that out of the picture right away.

Gold has its uses being part of jewellery and being liquid anywhere in the world, with a lot of paperwork involved. It is still accepted worldwide and can be sold to get fiat of that country.

Bitcoin is rather a currency that is supposed to be used anywhere in the world, but merchants do not accept it readily, yet.

Both Gold and Bitcoin are limited in real life even if being mined in many countries at this point. Hence my suggestion to anyone who might be wondering is to diversify into these assets. Go for the precious metals, real estate, Bitcoin and stocks. Dont narrow your focus on bitcoin only just because this is a bitcoin forum and most users here are bitcoiners. But dont go for altcoins and dont go for diamonds as an asset store of value.

Dont depend on what celebs are doing to decide you buys or sells. Bitcoin might take time to recover so you have to keep both sides ready.

Bottom or Peak, it does not really matter, just treat them as numbers and compare with old charts how bitcoin recovered from every so called "bottom". Also do not assume any price to be a bottom, a downtrend once again is possible but there will be recovery, just that traders need to stop thinking that this might be the end of the bull/bear.

There is money to be made at every level, just that you have to be cunning enough to wait and buy-sell at the proper time. You may miss out on some, it does not matter, but try to make the most of the bear run.