It doesn't mean the government accepted the crypto world, but just that it updated everything to make it more specific. If you keep your taxation laws as they are and don't update them throughout the years, it will cause confusion amongst those dealing with crypto, and that confusion likely translates into less potential tax income for the government. It can be seen as smart marketing, especially with how this subject gains mainstream media attention.

I just don't understand why people keep seeing it as something new or bad, while in reality people have had to pay tax over their crypto gains for years already. Everything that involves fiat means you are by default subject to the related tax policies, which shouldn't be that difficult to figure out. It's the government's tool we use, so we pay them 'interest' for that. I can't wait for the moment we can put fiat aside, but this will likely take at least one decade.

Everyone being a noob, yes. It's important for people to understand what is driving a bull run, and at what levels it will halt, especially when the event driving the bull run took place. In case of last year's bull run, the future markets from CBOE and CME were these driving factors, and as soon as the last one, which was CME opened its markets, the shorts started flooding the market.

Bitcoin definitely touched the bottom, there is no reason to doubt about that. February's correction stopped above last year's bottom, and that alone is a solid enough confirmation.

We touch $3000 and then what? Whether we consolidate around current levels for months, or revisit much lower levels, it doesn't change anything. Stop reading mainstream media articles.

Why should people adjust their opinion to a level where newbies don't feel uncomfortable? If the market is a mess and bound to crash, which is indeed speculation, but if that's your thought, you should be able to say that without thinking about anyone's feelings. It's just a thought and that's it. If newbies or longer term members can't handle that, then that's their problem. It's probably a sign that they don't know what this market is about, and also indicates their little trust in Bitcoin itself.

Holders have been seeing the value of their coins only increase in value throughout the years, and that regardless of all the fud and drama that has been going through the market. If people hold their coins and not put it to waste with short term speculation, they would enjoy the same experience as longer term holders. It's a very important difference.

I actually find the people going against it more stupid. 

What's the point of spending time on something that isn't worth your time? In the end, if you look through his latest posts, he is very inconsistent with everything he is talking about, so that is already a reason to not take him too seriously. If he sold (which we won't ever find out) then he will likely buy his coins back later on at premium levels, which is something that most people do after regretting they sold way to early.

I find it actually amusing seeing these threads pop up occasionally, especially when you read through all the posts saying fud and whatnot.

A loser from which its own coin solely thrives on his cartel's wealth input.

If that capital wasn't there, and the coin would be a what-an-investor-wants-to-pay-for-it coin, it would end up like BTG. I'm glad that Roger is doing this, because every silly action he comes up with, is yet again a sign that he has malicious intent, and isn't capable of running a decentralized incentive. BCash is RogerCash. In other words, investors know that what Roger wants to happen with his silly coin, that happens.

People quite often blame Bitcoin for being slow with everything and its endless debates, but they don't understand that these endless debates are a sign that one party can't entirely force its own will on Bitcoin. With BCash you operate at mercy of Roger's mood shifts, no one wants that.

In other words, you expect a scam (from which you know it's a scam) to pay you out? Pretty naive and stupid. The worst part is that you incentivize these scammers to continue doing that to others. People like you are one of the main reasons these scams exist and enjoy enough demand to keep popping up. People just need to understand that it is impossible to make money like that. Greed only leads to losses.

These metrics are useless in reality, and it has proven itself to be useless.

Try just being reasonable and look for actual investments that don't promise you Golden mountains. That $5 could have been invested in Bitcoin or whatever other coin, and you would have seen it increase in value months later. It's just $5 I know, but imagine if it was $50 or $500, treat your money properly and it will grow.

It's pretty frustrating when the majority of the people here only think about Bitcoin as a way to earn money, or that it can end all the problems in the world, and then mainly poverty. It's all fine that people can earn some bits through signature campaigns, bounty campaigns, faucets and all other related options, but they don't realize it has not much to do with Bitcoin itself; you are effectively being paid by an external party.

In some cases they use their own Bitcoin revenue to pay users, but in most cases that external party converts fiat to Bitcoin and then pay their users. It's not for nothing that the majority of these parties have significantly lowered their payouts due to the price that has gone up throughout the years. I'm glad that those outside this forum have a completely different way of thinking, which again shows why most of the people are here in the first place.

Bitcoin is indeed speculative in every way, that won't likely change in the forthcoming years, but the insane hype demand of last year was too extreme, which was my main point. Current demand is more natural in Bitcoin terms, and likely to allow support levels moving up higher to develop a more sustainable form of growth. That's exactly why I focus on how bottoms stack on top of each other throughout the years, because they mirror a healthy form of growth, while if you follow the peaks and bottoms, it's one big mess.

Peak to bottom increases and dumps are crazy, while bottoms show moderate increases time on time again, regardless of how deep the market has been tanking.

All investors are following their own selfish motives, and if they need to hype something up, they will.

Regardless of their motives/incentives, most of the traditional investors we hear speak out positively nowadays, were the skeptics of the early years. It's a very interesting and pleasing shift, especially because this more or less is them admitting they were wrong, but without actually admitting it. It's a victory for every Bitcoin enthusiast, because their money flowing into this market will grant us a great source of wealth, and this process will keep going on for plenty of years.

The problem was that most of the traditional investors were thinking that Bitcoin was a scheme, fraud, outright scam, currency of the underworld, etc. It changed as soon as 'trusted' and well known traditional parties were starting to get involved in Bitcoin, and with how last year resulted in more professional parties to enter this market than ever before, the skeptics of the early days are slowly becoming the enthusiasts of the new age. Professional interest and usage = legitimacy apparently.

I constantly see people keep asking when we will recover back to the $20,000 level, but they fail to understand that it was a hype based peak; there is simply nothing to recover from.

If we do happen reach the $10,000 level somewhere in the coming days/weeks, it should be seen as a new all time high based on a more moderate form of demand, which holds way more value than the empty $20,000 peak of last year. It should result in a more sustainable form of growth that we can build on, but I'm not yet confident that the next base bottom will top the $10,000 level. My best guess would be between $7000-$9000, short term speaking.

Previous bottoms Bitstamp;

November 2017, $5550
February 2018, $5920
April 2018 (likely base bottom), $6427

What this shows is that regardless of the explosive growth we experienced last year, the bottoms indicated a stable growth, which is something not many people look at.

It's not necessarily against crypto, where on the other hand, it's even impossible for governments to stay out with how crypto is growing larger and larger.

I am all in favor of more decentralization, but we can't force anyone to join in on that when they don't mind using centralized environments and have the government 'watch' every possible activity in this market. Important to understand is that we have the option to use something that isn't subject to regulations if we don't want to, and that's what we should be focusing on; what others are doing is none of our business.

Another important factor is that with how the market is maturing more and more, the investors entering the market are likely institutions, hedge funds, wealthy traditional investors, etc. These entities have all been part of the traditional market under the supervision of their government and regulators, and thus they fall outside the decentralized boat; governments and regulators for them offer security and stability. We'll be dealing with a different group of investors in the forthcoming years.

People think that banks will lose out, but that's not the case; just as much as we benefit from all developments related to crypto, banks can as well.

If we look at the global interest of banks in crypto as a whole, mainly due to how exchanges are generating hundreds of millions in revenue every year, and how their clients keep bugging them to start getting involved in crypto, it's just a matter of time before banks start to compete with exchanges and wallet clients. It's the potential income they are after, and that's something they will try to obtain at all cost, that's a certainty right there.

In a way, banks shutting down accounts of clients and exchanges makes sense as well if you think a bit further; it could be seen as very early signs of them trying to get rid of competition, where at a later point when the regulations allow them to enter, they will and start dominating this market. Crypto will force banks to change and to adapt, but not to get rid of them, and we don't need to get rid of them; banks do their thing, we do our thing, it's that simple.

Paying attention to wrong information/advice, that's the main mistake. Not sure what 'professionals' you are talking about, but they are utter noobs. If you keep believing in that, then you will surely keep making the same rookie mistakes.

Everyone with a working brain buys when the market is on its way down, and starts liquidating holdings once the market has gone up. Noobs need an increase in price to gain the confidence they need in order to start buying, and when they do, it's more often than not near peak levels. Seriously, if you keep sticking to that broken logic, you'll always keep wondering why the price goes down when you buy, and why the price goes up when you sell; get rid of that noob logic, especially if you want to make money instead of losing it.

Common market logic, where is it?

I wonder what consequences a potential security classification will have on Ethereum if it ever happens, and then mainly, how will it impact Bitcoin.

Ethereum is growing larger, which people consider to be a threat to Bitcoin (it really isn't), but they fail to understand that in order to trade Ethereum on non fiat exchanges as Binance, people need Bitcoin, and in the same way that applies to all other similar tokens. Bitcoin is basically the center of everything, and when exchanges won't bother to apply for the required licenses in order to have securities listed on their platform, suddenly a very large number of Bitcoin is back into circulation, and in some cases people will have less incentive to buy Bitcoin in order to trade these tokens, which isn't something to look forward to.

In other words, a growing altcoin/token market is a blessing for Bitcoin.

That's the nature of this market. It basically comes down to people greatly looking forward to buy at lower levels, but once they actually bought whatever number of coins, and thus they are in the market with their capital, things aren't all that funny anymore as when it was without being invested. In other words, people do invest in Bitcoin, but aren't totally comfortable with it.

That's why I find it quite frustrating when people talk about trading being a fun thing and whatnot. People talking like that likely don't trade and thus don't expose themselves to the short term risks of this brutal market. There is no such a thing as fun when you are risking your capital, which is something they don't seem to understand yet, were more often than not these people aren't positioned in the market with capital, but only through bounty obtained funds.

As long as you can prove the source of your funds, you won't be losing anything. Only when you can't prove (or don't want to prove) where your fiat and coin desposits came from, you have to worry about losing your funds, and then obviously only when their system detects suspicious activity. That being said, if you know your funds aren't obtained legally, you shouldn't use a centralized service in the first place, because that's the most stupid thing you can do in times where exchanges are subject to strict regulations.

There is no basic definition of a small amount that one should trade with on exchanges. It differs per person's financial status; what you consider to be a large amount, is literally pocket change for others. The only thing you should care about is that you only trade on properly registered/licensed exchanges, and that when you're done trading, you withdraw everything. There is absolutely no reason why anyone should hold coins on an exchange when there isn't any trading activity going on. It's like playing Russian roulette with your funds.

Very interesting, but it might as well be an article hyping things up badly.

How does one in just a very short period of time find out that Bitcoin and the blockchain are the future, and then directly buy in like 10,000BTC?

I don't doubt that he actually owns that many coins, but I very much doubt that he aquired them in the way he pointed out he did. Either way, it's at least not the usual dose of negativity, so it's all fine in the end. It once again points out that during strong price declines fud pops up everywhere, and when we are heading up, these positively tinted articles pop up. It's almost like they are waiting with publishing certain articles for the right market sentiment, and then dump everything on the internet all at once.

It definitely takes some courage to openly talk about your Bitcoin holdings when times are quite difficult for crypto in China; break the taboo.

I like how most people and traditional investors have no other option than to admit that Bitcoin is here to stay. All the years of being ignorant pointed one thing out, which is that you should never underestimate new technologies, and especially not when just like the internet, Bitcoin is a foundation where everyone can build everything on. The internet was similarly not taken seriously, and see what happened. It should have functioned as prime example of how powerful new developments can be.

Bitcoin's market is insanely volatile, hostile, and in some cases even discouraging, but the market and Bitcoin itself are two different things. While people kept panicking during the massive correction, Bitcoin itself didn't even flinch. Its difficulty kept increasing, more money was flowing in its ecosystem, etc. Never judge a book by its cover, and in this case it applies to the price. This market mirrors speculation, where Bitcoin itself mirrors constant improvement in every aspect.

Optimistic? I find it quite conservative if I look at other predictions reaching all the way to $100,000 before the end of the year.

Everything that looks insane today may look doable tomorrow, last year taught us that. One spark is enough to get this market to explode, and if the mainstream media starts hyping as extra trigger, we may be up for some very interesting months. The only thing is that we don't know what event will initiate that spark, and when it will be taking place. That's a multi million dollar question, literally.

Whales aren't doing all that much. It's just them initiating and ending certain cycles, where most of the effort is being done by non whales buying into hype and speculation.

I personally have managed to completely rule out my personal 'gut instinct' and focus on the knowledge I obtained here throughout the year.

In order stay on the good side of the market, which is something even knowledge won't grant you, I only open and exit positions with 5-10% increments, so even if I'm wrong, I have enough coins and fiat aside to take advantage of whatever the market comes up with. It's something that turned out to be a great help on the way up last year. At first I cashed out at $10,000, then $12,000, then $14,000, etc. It went up all the way to $19,500 which is something that no one here could have seen coming.

If you cashed out everything at $10,000 you would have missed everything after that. I also did that during the correction this year. I started with buying back just over the $10,000 level and did it all the way down. That's the only way (in my opinion) to properly ride this market.