People gamble unfortunately. Instead of breaking down the market and what exactly went wrong, they open another trade hoping that it will be profitable this time. If it still isn't, they'll try it again or hop over to other coins to try their luck there.

The worst mistake people make is that they feel that it is necessary to gain back the amount they lost with the previous trade. That unhealthy fixation will make sure that they keep making the same mistake over and over again, because that's how it goes. The more they lose, the more risk they will expose themselves to in an attempt to wipe out the losses. It's crazy.

Use a bot or something, because there isn't much to lose anyway. It's either you trade manually and lose almost guaranteed, or the bot will potentially lose some percentage initially, but gain more after a month of trading.

I'm waiting for mainstream media headlines stating; BREAKING! Bitcoin suffers blow, criminals are no longer interested in the crypto currency.  

I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be some sort of a stunt from the side of a bitter government, because it wouldn't be the first time;
https://cointelegraph.com/news/polish-central-bank-secretly-funds-anti-crypto-youtube-propaganda-videos

It could even be a sick-fuck sort of scam attempt from individuals totally unrelated to the kidnapping. It's horrible for the Hagen family, but this case stinks from every angle.

I like that action. It's a message that says 'I'm out of this shit'.

Charlie Lee is a very smart being, and realistic as well. He for sure won't backstab Litecoin, and will continue to help out where possible, but he understands that with Bitcoin's Lightning Network gaining more growth by the day, his toy is toasted.

By the time the channels can be funded with as many coins as possible, there is nothing that prevents it from being an instant settlement layer for financial institutions and whatnot, so even XRP will lose its shine eventually. To make things even worse, I think it's more likely that financial institutions will fork the crap out of what Ripple allows them to use for value transfers.

It will come down to the utility platforms to co-exist with Bitcoin, which it will be time will tell, but Ethereum has the best shot so far due to its network effect.

ETF's are bullish by nature, especially if backed by the underlying asset. What you are referring to are futures that are cash settled, which allows any entity to short large amounts of Bitcoin without owning any. You could technically short more Bitcoins than there will ever be minted, the only thing that matters is that you have the cash to settle the contracts.

In the end, I honestly don't think there has been much manipulation through futures at all. The price went down because it was bound to come down after an insane bull run in 2017. This market hasn't done much other than pumping and dumping since its existence, and back in the days there weren't any futures available.

So many people talk about manipulation, yet none of them back up their claims.

There is a core of truth in that, but Berkshire Hathaway also has a cheaper second stock (BRK.B) that hovers just over $80 per share.

In the end, the high unit price in Bitcoin doesn't matter since crypto by default is highly divisible, which isn't the case with stocks, so they split to have it become more affordable overall. If people still don't want to buy into Bitcoin because they consider it too expensive, then they are fools and deserve the shit they put themselves through by investing in utter crap coins.

XRP is pure trash, so are all the fools thinking that it is decentralized. It's a security and needs to be categorized as that.

People saying the market is boring don't belong here. Go play in the stock or Gold market and see how boring things are over there. On top of that, even if the volatility comes back, most people who are complaining are playing with pocket change, so it's not even that rewarding for them if the market is volatile. Doubling $500 (if they manage to do it in the first place) isn't a jackpot.

An ETF matters if it is approved, and backed by Bitcoin itself, but it isn't approved, and very likely won't be in the coming years. Institutions were on board already, probably have been during the 2013 bull run as well.

I think it's safe to say that cloud mining as a whole won't be profitable even if the price increases with 100% in the coming months, because the higher price will attract more hashrate=higher difficulty, and thus still maintenance fees higher than the rewards.

On top of that, in order to have cloud miners pay out, they need fresh money to flow into their system, so even if it is technically profitable to mine, they still won't pay out to you, because that's not how their scheme works. You get paid with funds coming from previous investors. And that's concerning cloud miners who actually mine. Those who don't mine won't pay out anything at all, so don't get your hopes up.

No bull run = bad cloud miner market. The bear market absolutely trashed this market.

If it's purely a hobby and you are aware of the fact that it will likely only cost money, then it's perfectly fine of course. I can imagine that there is some fun to it to mess around with a mini rig and hop from coin to coin for the experience on its own. We are geeks with passion for crypto at the end of the day.

I think that applies only to a select few hardcore believers of a certain coin (and even then, one or two years without making money is a no go for even the most hardcore believers), because your bills, regardless of how cheap your electricity rate is, keep coming month after month, and you may have to replace hardware from time to time as well.

It's pretty much a gamble either way, because you don't know if it will ever pump, and that while you expect/hope to profit later on.

That's what happens when you over-leverage your trades. I stick with 2-5x (mostly 2x) in order to have my trades become more profitable, even if it takes days or weeks for me to make profit. I don't chase quick profits, which is where most people go wrong and therefore over-leverage every trade. Anything above 10x is playing with fire, especially here in crypto where the market is extremely volatile already.

Another mistake is that people focus on one single trade, so they either gain or lose, while they could open a new position to benefit from a short term opportunity without affecting their other trades. It's just a matter of logical thinking, but considering how people aren't shy of using 50-100x leverage counts, there is no sense to utilize. Bitmex like platforms have been turned into casinos.

Having exchanges approved is one thing, making sure there is enough demand is completely different. An exchange without demand is nothing.

In other words, it makes sense for the price to not move, because most exchanges need years to grow enough in order to become relevant enough to matter in crypto. Another thing is that most investors/traders solely focus on what's happening in the US, so even if Asia is where the main demand comes from, people will still wait for the US to make a move.

The same applies to institutional presence in the space. Not many care about Asia, the US is the kingpin in terms of capital.

IIRC, there technically is no way for the SEC to delay it once again, so it will be approved or rejected, which I am very happy with. VanEck's approval is the best they'll be getting, so there is no way to improve anything on their side. It's purely the SEC that keeps asking for silly questions that even when answered and corrected, has no influence over the actual process of the approval at all.

It's what governments always do when you ask them to approve something; delay, delay, delay, then reject for a reason no one can do anything about.

I'm certain that the SEC never had any intention to let an ETF go through.

Jihan is the public face, but he isn't the only one in charge. Bitmain's support for BCash has approval from various board levels, and I don't think that anything will change. It's a very important part for the company itself in terms of selling more miners, and they obviously are the largest holder of BCash.

It's a circus show to fool regulators and have them approve their IPO. Jihan behind the scenes will continue to have as much power within Bitmain as he always had.

Jihan has around 20% in Bitmain, where Ketuan Zhen is a few % shy of owning 40%.

Lost till they start moving again.

Physical Bitcoins such as Casascius coins can be used as means of exchanges without the coins themselves moving on-chain, and I am pretty certain that a lot of what people consider to be 'lost coins' are actually being used still, but just in form of exchanging private keys, because that's basically what it is.

I created a couple of physical Bitcoins myself for the sole purpose of having value in Bitcoin that I can use in case there is no internet, and obviously to maintain privacy. I like the fact that I can spend coins without anyone (aside from the party I transact with) noticing. We're at the very beginning of tools and technologies that will stimulate the exchange of private keys in a secure manner, so expect it to become more of a thing as time goes by.

Good news pumping the price during a bear market? Good luck waiting for that. On top of that, every quick increase will be tanked back to where it started at, so don't hope for miracles to happen any time soon. The same applies to people hoping for a massive short squeeze to pump the price. People fail to understand that short squeezes don't represent actual demand, and thus will be sold back down quickly.

I like how there is nothing at this point that will make the price pump hard. It makes people get used to this side of the market, and helps them understand that 2017 was something out of the ordinary, and not a normal happening in crypto. People who entered in 2017/2018 legit believed that crypto could only go up in value, lol. 

There are no certainties in markets, especially not over here.

People tend to discard how we're not dealing with bagholders that are looking to sell, but also traders and bots that buy at current levels and sell 5-10% higher. It puts even more pressure on levels most people think should be easy to break through. That $6000 level (which a lot people considered low and were sick and tired of) is far away, very far. In other words, we have to start building everything up from scratch again.

It wouldn't surprise me if $4000 will be what $300 was back in 2015. It's going to be a tough battle which the bulls will eventually win, but it will take a while.

It's not manipulation, just a logical movement. It failed to break out, so what usually happens is that the price goes down. If you don't sell, then someone else will, and that usually triggers a bit of a panic reaction.

We're very close to the point where in 2015 the price found its all time bottom around $152 so it will be interesting to see if we see something similar happen this time. Considering how similar the selloffs were, it wouldn't even surprise me, especially with how tax sales could also be a factor to take into consideration with how we have more professional entities in the space than ever before.

It's definitely a good idea to seperate the shit crowd from those who did everything they could to deliver something that makes the world become a better place, which is what Hal Finney heavily contributed to. I can respect such early on predictions from these legends, because they focus on the fundamentals, while all the idiots who entered the market in the last years want to see moon to sell.

The whole crypto market is basically an IQ test. The smartest minds support Bitcoin and to a certain degree Ethereum, while the rest is busy counting how much profit they would make if coin X or Y goes up like 500-1000%.

I actually see Bitcoin maximalism gaining more and more traction, but the thing is that the insane amounts of idiots sucking off altcoins for a tiny reward are so loud and present, that they make it look like decentralization doesn't matter anymore.

On top of that, Bitcoin doesn't need any marketing, shilling, etc. Bitcoin being Bitcoin is enough. Altcoins however have armies of shills either being paid to trap in newbies, or shills trying to have you buy their expensive bags full of coins they bought at way higher levels. XRP is the best example of that. They are everywhere.

Respect to anyone going in and out XRP for the profits to end up with more BTC, but gtfo to anyone supporting this centralized and government approved garbage.

Not manipulation, just large pockets unloading coins after having failed to break out. If there was more depth available the price wouldn't fall down that hard, so don't always assume things happen because of manipulation. If you also take into consideration that stop loss orders getting triggered exaggerate these red candles even further, you'll look at the market differently.

I would even like to say that the market as it is today, makes me think that there is way less manipulation happening than let's say a year or two ago. People see ghosts everywhere now the price keeps going down, while no one complained on the way up. 

It's partly the fault of the mainstream media portraying Bitcoin and crypto in general as a replacement for the existing fiat currencies. Based on that, they believe that Bitcoin has failed because it's not being used as such, while they completely discard that it's not meant to be a currency, or at least, not at the current stage, because it simply isn't.

Most people are idiots not able to understand that everything takes time to progress. It will probably take a decade or two before we can see Bitcoin become a proper currency, and even then there might be hiccups left and right we have to go through. These dudes have no clue about how Bitcoin scales forward, what impact Lightning will have, etc. All they see is Bitcoin isn't a currency today, so it's useless by default. Ignorance.