@exstasie, I just knew that you would jump on it.

I like your neutral and fair counter reaction, and it does makes sense. If I wasn't out of sMerit I would have given you a few.

I'm not ruling out that traders can't make a profit out of the market based on that, and I am happy for you that you managed to successfully trade your way up with it, but those who do are part of a minority. It's the majority (those who don't actually manage to benefit) that keeps flooding the internet with all these analysis and projections not leading to anything. My earlier post was mostly directed towards that majority group.

Long term holders (especially the early birds) hold Bitcoin for the following reasons;

- to store wealth outside the banking system.
- have no faith in fiat.
- have no faith in the government and their shitty system.
- want to own their wealth instead of relying on central parties to do the job for them.
- believe that Bitcoin will become a mainstream payment tool.
- believe that we haven't even seen a glimse of Bitcoin's real potential, and thus there is no reason to sell now.

All the newer holders aren't real holders but just fiat obsessed investors not knowing anything other than fiat being 'the real deal'.

1BTC whether it tanks back to $1000 or moons at $1,000,000 tomorrow, is still 1BTC. In reality everything else that we use to measure Bitcoin's value is losing against Bitcoin consistently, which says enough.

Consolidation isn't bearish. It's pointless to focus on what happens if we break this or that level, because it just isn't enough to break the $10,000 level, regardless of whatever empty TA theories people come up with. All this bull and bear talk is utter nonsense. Just let the market move in its own pace and we'll see what happens after that. Fact of the matter is that nothing justifies the market to jump over the $10,000 level right now, and the lowest range of Bitcoin's 'utility value' in my opinion is well under $8000 still.

It's purely a 50/50 shot right now in terms of seeing the market break out of its consolidation range. I personally wouldn't mind seeing the price hover around current levels for a few more months, but I don't think the action obsessed market can handle that. Either way, as long as we keep setting higher bottoms we are all fine, and thus far it definitely seems like we are progressing nicely in that field.

I have always believed that if there weren't any future markets going live, we wouldn't be anywhere near the all time high levels of last year. It's impossible to exactly point out what the main reason behind it was, because it could be traders anticipating on institutions entering the Bitcoin space, which is reason enough to cause a massive bull run, or it was indeed an institutional lead high to massively short Bitcoin afterwards. For that reason I am curious to find out what the long-short ratio was at the time of opening.

Is there anyone with log information covering that subject and within that specific time frame? I have tried looking it up but couldn't find anything useful.

In the end these futures might as well be a gimmick for the time being, but the external uses are quite beneficial. Miners for example could just set up a contract with buyers that at whatever point in time the buyer will buy X number of Bitcoins at Y price, which ensures the miner to have a steady income even when the market absolutely tanks. In the non crypto world regular farmers use futures to sell their products at the rates that are worthwhile for them, and I don't see why miners won't be doing this as well.

You assume that they will be sold through the regular channels, but that doesn't have to be the case. BitFlyer is a large exchange having plenty of large clients all willing to make a deal off the regular market, often referred to as OTC trades. The MtGox trustee's job is done and over with enough cash in the bank, so what is there left for him to do with the coins? It's up to the authorities to take things to the next level now.

Currently there are ~138,000BTC left which at current levels of around $8300 means $ 1,145 billion in asset value (without BCH). No one is forced to move anything, so if the authorities don't see any point or benefit in doing anything with them, they will stay right there for plenty of more years. Imagine them using these funds to settle an international deal in Bitcoin with another government. Japan has definitely the lead in everything related to Bitcoin, so it definitely wouldn't surprise me.

At the end of the day, it strengthens their financial position to just keep holding them, especially with the potential growth in mind. And if the coins will ever get sold it means we have no longer anything to worry about since they only have a limited number of coins. Eventually they will run out. It's not a fiat press that keeps creating value out of nothing.

Bitfinex is an exchange that should be avoided regardless of these measures. To add; every time the price drops, the media tries to link it to whatever event, which is pathetic.

Let's sum up the media linked events that caused the price to drop according to them;

- China's sanctions.
- South Korea's sanctions.
- Japan's sanctions.
- Thailand's sansctions.
- Russia's sanctions.
- SEC's sanctions.
- RBI's sanctions.
- Facebook's ad ban.
- Google's ad ban.
- Twitter's ad ban.
- Bing's ad ban.
- CEO's speaking against Bitcoin.
- Tether forming a threat.
- Ethereum becoming a security.

And so forth. There is probably more to add, but can't remember because there are too many.

With all that in mind it's a near miracle we haven't tanked back to single digit figures.

Mostly that. I see in my local space that crypto has been gaining a massive amount of popularity, but the main point is that these people aren't valuing crypto for its core principles, but just focus on the gains and all other shitty aspects of the market. I haven't seen one single person talk about crypto in a way that shows their interest in the underlying technology. The only things I keep hearing is this or that shitcoin went up with 500%, and how cloud mining allows them to make money, etc.

We have a long way to go in order to get these people to understand that crypto is more than just gains and active markets. Seriously, when people start to value crypto for its decentralized nature and applications, the speculative part will become less important, and we might even see a shift away from the legacy payment infrastructure. Why using banks and payment services when you can do everything yourself and practically for free? Another added benefit is that there is no AML/KYC procedures, no discrimination, etc.

Do you seriously expect the market to keep bouncing up and down with +10% margins? It's not the market's fault that you can't take advantage of lower margin movements.

Current market is perfect for longer term accumulation within what seems to be firm range, and that's what people should be focusing on. People should learn that without anything forming a bullish trigger, there is no reason for the price to move. Instead of complaining, start utilizing the somewhat stable market to transact with others, or just take a break and do something else that's productive. Complaining here won't do anything for you.

Isn't it great that when you are being sent a certain amount in Bitcoin that the fiat value remains more or less the same for a longer while? Perfect time to utilize Bitcoin's currency aspect.

Positive news isn't enough and doesn't last very long. In order for the demand to increase in a durable and maintainable manner, we need something that adds to Bitcoin's utility and stimulates usage. In the end it's the usage that matters, and the more use Bitcoin enjoys, the more value it will gain. Long term speaking Lightning will stimulate usage and that in my opinion will be the main thing to look forward to.

Short term speaking, and I am sure we'll get at least one of them live this year, are either ETF's or coin backed funds to look forward to. Mainly the coin backed funds will be a major bullish trigger because of how they actually hold crypto assets as underlying value, which can't be said about options, futures, ETF's, etc. With enough of these coin backed funds around, the supply will shrink to such degree, that we will blast through $100,000 comfortably.

- Shady behavior (quite often doesn't show you the estimated withdrawal fee, where you only find out when you actually withdraw funds).
- Non responsive support (worse than most other exchanges).
- Too often wallet maintenance.
- Shady extra gimmick features with little to no proper explanation.

There is nothing good about it, they just attract noobs because of the crap (crap that other exchanges don't want to list) they keep listing.

Exactly. It is however a different story when you ask yourself whether or not it's worth diving into Yobit (with all its negative aspects) just for that one coin. Is it really worth the potential risk and headache? I personally find not, but looking at how noobs flow into that exchange, they do find it worth, but I very much doubt that they understand the risks. If there was an understanding of risk, we wouldn't be flooded with Yobit complaints.

Prepare for the wave, it was and is more than obvious that governments don't like privacy focused coins, which is exactly why I am of believe that eventually, these coins will be outlawed, and it's perfect because they will become only tradable through decentralized platforms. What's the purpose of a privacy focused coin if you buy it through a centralized exchange? It makes zero sense.

People quite often complain that Bitcoin is lacking privacy features, but they don't realize that the lack of privacy on Bitcoin's side is exactly what helps it move forward in a heavily regulated market.

How exactly will this help increase the price of Bitcoin? At worst these coins will be dumped for Bitcoin, which means that more Bitcoins will end up on the market than previously.

Yobit is shady as fuck the way they operate. If you do a quick browse through the internet, it has been going on for like 5 months that Yobit charges 10EOS in withdrawal fees.

The reason they do this is to discourage arbitrage trading between exchanges. They trap in people not knowing what they do, and when Yobit doesn't even up front show you the fee estimate, then you just know that they are out to empty your pockets. I even remember a case where they charged people like +$200 in fees, which just shows how much of a cash grab that exchange is.

Binance, the most popular exchange only charges 0.4EOS for withdrawals.

Before they completely enter the market and start recommending Bitcoin and offer related products, they first have to secure themselves a solid position in this market, and that might take a while. It's just a matter of logical thinking; would you incentivize others to invest in Bitcoin an buy up the market infront of your eyes while you haven't completely entered yet? The only thing you are doing is making your own entry points more expensive. Once accumulation has completed, Wall Street will go absolutely nuts on Bitcoin.

People don't realize it yet, but they with Bitcoin have found an asset that hasn't been taken over by Wall Street yet, and that early bird position will prove to be a massive value generator in the forthcoming years. Instead of worrying about the price not moving much, use it as a trigger to start buying as many coins as possible before you regret it. $7000 is likely the next bottom range, so there isn't much downward exposure to wait for or worry about.

What a rubbish article again.

Lloyd Blankfein is nothing more than a muppet in the end. Goldman Sachs will keep moving on doing everything possible to please their clients and shareholders, and Bitcoin is part of that. They have set the first steps and will continue to work out everything, especially when it comes to Circle and Poloniex. I expect some serious developments there in the forthcoming months/years.

I am still of believe that the acquisition of Poloniex wasn't because they were interested in the brand and everything around it, but more so its trading engine and the precious licenses and SEC approval to build further on it. That approval allows Goldman Sachs to transform that exchange into a securities platform also offering futures and options, all to please their institutional clients. No way they will put all that to a stop. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger won't be so happy with that; they know they have found a Gold mine.

People just need to accept that Bitcoin won't be going anywhere, and that altcoins don't even remotely form a threat. Eventually when the ICO and quick gain hype dies off, all this nonsense will end and their market caps will deflate to absolute bottom levels. All that capital belongs in Bitcoin and not in whatever random trash coin or token not doing anything. It all comes down to how immature the overall market is, and that will definitely change.

Once all these knuckleheads sold their coins to smart parties the game will change. It's already happening, which clearly shows how massive the gap between small holders and large holders has become, especially after the massive correction. Result in the end is that the elite holds 99% of the coins and the stupid 1%. Keep selling and you will all see how things evolve.

You have no vision. You don't understand how insanely small and non liquid this market is. At some point when the majority of the coins are stored offline for many many years (which is a process already taking place), just like how Gold is being stored for decades, the number of circulating coins might drop below 1 million. What happens if hundreds of billions in fresh capital tries to buy from a pool that contains less than 1 million coins?

Don't ever underestimate something this groundbreaking with a finite total coin supply. It's not like Gold where we don't even know how many non declared holdings there are. Bitcoin's open nature allows everyone to see and review everything whenever we want. People owning 1BTC will become very wealthy in the long run, which is exactly why you shouldn't sell any of your coins for fiat. It makes zero sense.

It looks insane, but I wouldn't even be surprised to find out that the Jihan cartel already accounts for more than 51% of the network's hashing power. It won't however be abused since the damage you inflict on Bitcoin will be 100 times worse than what you will gain from it. It's already a costly process to initiate whatever malicious attack, but if you add the damage on top of it, no one will do this.

Jihan might be a prick, but he's not that stupid to jeopardize his entire operations worth billions every year. I am however thankful for Samsung and Intel to enter the mining space and to cut through Bitmain's dominant position. It was about time for that part of the market to become less centralized. Bitmain's dominance will be over eventually, that I am sure of. Competition in this space is more than welcome.

It's not the best investment at all. In most cases if people end up buying Gold, they buy nothing more than a promise that they own whatever amount of Gold, which is a statement that's practically worthless. If you don't own what you buy, you just don't have it, period. In the same way if you buy physical Gold and store it elsewhere (likely within banks), you again don't own anything.

I am obviously biased and will always go for Bitcoin instead of Gold, but even from an unbiased position, we want a safe haven asset that at the same time will appreciate in value in a worthy manner, and that alone should make Bitcoin the preferred option. The only major drawback is that for very large institutions Bitcoin's lack of liquidity doesn't offer that much of an interesting outlook. Gold doesn't have any liquidity problems, and will likely remain the best possible option for institutions until Bitcoin improves in that aspect.

Fiat won't be going anywhere. Governments will tokenize the fiat system to step up their game and directly to obtain more control over money flows and whatnot. In reality people won't even be noticing that much of a difference because of how they conduct nearly all their transactions digitally through apps already. I haven't touched any physical fiat in ages, and probably won't have to anymore. Every place here accepts wireless payments.

All merchants accepting wireless payments can also integrate a payment processor that will allow people to pay with Bitcoin. The main infrastructure is present already, it just needs merchants to set up applications and ready they are. Mark my words, Lighning Network + NFC is a killer combination capable of taking over rapidly. Merchants will be able to get rid of around 2% in CC fees and reward customers using Lightning with a 2% discount on their purchase. Future looks bright.

What has Bitcoin being a decentralized currency to do with pumps and dumps? Bitcoin itself might be decentralized, but that's not the case with its market that is being dominated through centralized exchanges.

Sorry, but there are no experts in this market. If you really believe that whatever random fool calling itself an expert knows more than people here, you are just as much a fool. You are your own expert. If you can't even do a basic form of research yourself, then what's the point of believing what others are saying? It could be either right or wrong, you don't know that, you just assume someone is right because that person claims to be an expert.