I am not really expecting anything too much from the whole ETF approval anyway, both in terms of it getting approved or the impact it would have on the price. The market will behave however it wants to behave with or without the ETF and even though we expect that in the long run, this would bring in more smart moneys into the system, but at the same time, we would not just expect some skyrocketing over night because of that.

Simply, we might experience a short term pump as a result of speculation, but that still does not change anything as a lot of people would expect, but surely, it would bring about a matured market in the long run.

There is seriously no real influence as far as I am concerned, and I believe for a while now, people's doubt about tether being printed out of thin air and probably affecting the market has been doused since the whole auditing thing came into show and then I am not sure how they proved it is tied to a real bank account and the amount present therein.

Nevertheless, it is normal for people to always tie things to a bear market anyway, and as far as I am concerned, as long as we get to see real life usage, people will get to find out tether is just a stable currency tagged to fiat and nothing else than that which makes it not to have a direct effect on the price unless the supply itself generally across board is huge than the demand.

What makes the idea of decentralization tick is that it is not controlled by any means and there will always be a dwindle between demand and supply as time keeps going on and even at some point, if we are able to have some good level of usage and demand, it still does not stop it from fluctuating, but probably by then, the market would have been more matured, that we certainly may not be seeing so much volatility as we have it today, but whether it is a lesser volatility or more, volatility is still one factor we cannot rule out.

Fluctuations are not just only common in the crypto world; they are common generally in most markets be it; stocks, Forex or whatever.

Value as long as it is still tagged to another value cannot be stable and there will always be fluctuations, and for the fact that this is a decentralized market and the fact that it is not controlled by any single body, it makes it more prone to fluctuations than even the normal markets, without forgetting that it is still in its very early stage.

Price manipulator or not, the value was meant to correct anyways, at any certain point in time but the truth about the whole thing here is that, bitcoin being bullish cannot be known now until we get to see some pretty good momentum or until we at least see it go bullish. We are still in a wedge downwards and no one certainly know how the market is going to end up pulling it off in the long run, but for now, I would not be too bullish on bitcoin but probably at least in the short term.

No mate, it is not the worst year in the history of bitcoin and may be you need to go back to the books and check the history of bitcoin to know better. This is not the first time a huge downtrend like this would happen in a market, and simply since you are Junior member, this is absolutely the first one you will be experiencing and that is understandable but what people do not understand is that corrections are healthy and it is always a good time to always find a better opportunity to be getting into the market.

You are not alone bro. I am in a part of the world in which inflation has generally become a norm and then you tend to ask yourself the questions why things should be that way, but all in the name of bad policies, we tend to see the government scattering everything, coming up with some policies that would always affect the people in general and this has really brought about some crazy level of distrust over time in the system of governance and the general banking system, which I believe having to make the decision to put some of my funds in bitcoin over the years, has really brought about a better change in my life than over the years that I have been saving in fiat.

It is a very good observation and trusts me, the rate things are going in this part of the world, and I really wonder how things would get to be in the long run. I believe the whole thing stems down from the leaders, and truth be told, most part of Africa lack very good leaders and because of this, things will always keep getting stalled most especially when it comes to development at large.

Hardly will you be able to find so much exception and a higher percentage are really not developed and even the developing ones which some people may still want to classify a bit as developed still have a lot lagging.

That is always the idea when it comes to empowering others rather than trying to feed them yourselves. This is a good approach which obviously could help set a lot of people free from poverty in the long run, be able to create businesses for themselves based on their skills and expand for the future.

It is a good thing to see how some can really go out of their comfort zone to do things that helps the world and it does not even have to be bounty, as one can always empower others, in ways that could help build them for generating of income streams. Moreover when it comes as a free money then people become lazy. This is the reason why many philanderous projects had stopped their activities as in long run people who were all enjoying the free way of living never opt for hard working.

Certainly not looking at how high it is possible for any coin to soar at the moment, even though one can consider some coins reaching their previous ATH could set a very good record, but as it is, I am only investing in the coins that I trust and I know I can handle so as to monitor the trend of each of them. It is possible a lot of the altcoins will give a good push before the end of the year, so, I guess at this point, we may just have to see how things would pan out until then.

I could not understand why people are still keeping their faith on corporate coins. One day or other they will realize their foolishness of believing into ripple kind of  centralized assets. Ripple may soar but it will not get you freedom-filled-rich like how bitcoin will do honestly. (In the past ripple funds had been frozen out similar to bank accounts).

The best and simple comparison is to ask you so far, which has been a lot better; fiat or cryptocurrencies ? It is as simple as that. Fiats are centralized, which means they are controlled and someone will always have an upper hand forever, but for one thing, decentralization gives everyone an equal chance and how each person decides to use that chance is best left to them. Decentralized basically is that no one is actually controlling, and the market is more like a free ride for everyone.

The weightage of cons of decentralized market is very less compared to centralized one. In long term perspective, after getting established these decentralized markets will be the most used one hence the current problems due to unregulated nature will fade away over time for sure.

That trust won’t be hard to gain back when the hype starts and then, they will keep doing what they know how to do best which is to join FOMO. The market is red, so what ? The coins are terribly down, is that new ? It is normal for a market to experience a huge correction and we see it in every other market outside cryptocurrency every time, but this simply is always a time to invest into these currencies so that when they recover, you will be swimming in some good profit, but people certainly won't just learn.

There could be thousand reasons why entire crypto market is down from last year's December. But the core reason must be, all of us. Yes, like most other market, crypto-market is also driven by supply and demand and we are the root cause for creating supply and demand.

Corrections will always be part of every market and there is certainly no way we can run away from it, and now this can differ based on the condition of the market most of the time. For instance, we have had some pretty good healthy corrections for a while now and there is a possibility to start seeing some growth, but the main idea of correction is to find a balance for the market to continue its uptrend and it is always a good time to buy more at the end of the corrections anyway.

I would not say the devs in particular, it could be the whales or whoever, but most of the time, the market is always driven to  a state in which it gets off the hook and then you see it reaching some overbought stage and in cases like that, when the power tends to dropdown, correction is always imminent. Corrections are always temporary and not certainly supposed to be for long as long as the market eventually tends to find a bottom eventually.

Before the development, a whole lot of them had been battered by the bears and all is left for them now is looking for demand in their demand zone. A lot of them are trying to show some possible movement though, but at the same time, I would be very careful when going that lane, considering how the nature of the alt market can be rapidly when it comes to dumping.

Crypto generally has been in a bear market since late 2017 and that is it, I guess by now people should have got used to the fact that there is always going to be two sides to a market. If not ready to realize this fact then staying away for a while from trading or just investing only for longer term perspective is alone suggested.

There is no harm in having skill in both, but in the real sense, Technical analysis surpasses fundamental analysis, any day any time. I have never used FA in my life and I have been trading for over three years successfully.

Some may say it is wrong, but at times, since I am a swing trader, I just simply follow where the trend leads me and there can be nothing better than the chart telling you everything that it is to the market even though sometimes, things may not play out the way you want, but most of the time, it always happen exactly the way you expect it. OP's concern is, why I tend to feel surprise at people who keep saying they prefer fundamental analysis over technical analysis.

Yeah, fundamental analysis may back up some price action movement, but at the same time, it simply does not mean because of that, you should rely totally on FA. Technical analysis is a very vital part of the market and without it, and knowing how to use the analysis to sense direction to the market without forgetting that you always need to consider the risks as well, then, someone without TA knowledge will always have a hard time.

Right now it is at those levels.
It can go to 7.2 thousand dollar levels in 24 hours or it can go down to 6 thousand dollar levels tomorrow.

We will never know what it will do but if you ask me it may go down once again, if it was going up it would have not stopped, bitcoin price increases do not stop until it reaches its final destination, they usually go up in a steady fashion and not with installments, it means to me that the bitcoin price hit its current max and will go down instead of going further up.

Nevertheless I might be wrong, it may go up too, it is just too difficult to speculate and trade based on what will happen next.

Yes, that is how a change of strategy comes into play at every particular point in time based on the market conditions. For instance in a bear market, you always want to keep a tight stop loss as much as possible, knowing the level at which a market can go down faster than you can imagine, but in any case at all, you always want to make sure that your reward ratio is higher than the risk. It is easier to trade an uptrend market since the market is moving up anyway and in that case, you basically want to be taking advantage of the trend to make your selling decision.

I would say 3% loss for day trading on a particular trade could be a lot high because as far as day trading may be concerned, you are not really looking for a very huge profit on a single trade and you really want to keep your stop loss at a very minimal level based on the time frame you are using and the strategy you are using to get into the market and stopping loss at least below support level. Certainly for me, I used to consider 2:1 reward to risk ratio when day trading.

Not all countries built at the same time with the same opportunities.

Simple example I heard from an american, was that New York was built perfectly for street and infrastructure ways because people who came from other countries has seen those problems back in the day so when they started to build the city they took all precautions, kinda like a "reset" button for them to make a decent infrastructure.

Same ideology applies here, UK had over two thousand years of development and managed to get this big over time, USA was improved with amazing trading profits as well, France has colonized others properly.

Africa do need outside help because it is underdeveloped and all by itself without trades or resources its impossible to improve within self.

Yeah, a lot of states have legalized it for now and some are simply just quiet about it and I believe their idea of legalization would bring about some form of regulations and then when it comes to making transactions with the use of fiat, there would always be a need for fiat, and that certainly should make it not a threat to the government.

Even when we start hitting the point of real life usage, some of these tools will have a way of sticking with regulatory policies and comply and in that case, being a threat to the government will really not be a problem. If it is a huge threat to the government, we all know the government will frustrate and jeopardize everything.

That was a wise answer indeed. As long as you are not selling at loss and you believe in what you are investing in for the long run, I really do not think anyone should end up being fearful when it comes to the market, and should be able to take advantage of every opportunity, either it is buying the dips, knowing where to sell the market craze and then at the end of the day, if you are an investor, just being patient to wait for the best in the long run, because certainly it would come.

They could fall further in the long term, but in the short term, I only see them giving some good push. Normally, like the OP even after everything, it is always better to just stay calm, focus on the future, look at the better side of things, spend time with family and you would be surprised at how far you have gone before you even know it. People who are always in a haste to make money are the ones who always find it hard when it comes to staying calm in anything and that backfires a lot for them.

It is centralized, and this could have just been a manipulated pump for all I care, just saying! Sure, the volume really looks enticing and for me, I really do not consider XRP as a long term market to be in, but some market I would rather just do some short term trade and as long as it sings profit, no shit.

Investors rather than being confused though, should just be having a swell time accruing the profits as long as they know what they are doing. I wonder why some people believe so much in XRP to be investing long term, but all men surely knows what makes them tickle. People who follows only marketcap for choosing their investment opportunities, definitely will go for XRP as I do see there could be any other valid reasons for choosing XRP.

Right, the growth is certainly inevitable and there is nothing that would be stopping it. Blockchain technology is certainly here to stay and it is apparently the future and this is one technology everyone is already trying to be a part of, it may not affect every sector primarily.

But we both know it would affect a huge number of sectors in the long run and this simply shows that the more the sectors that this technology keeps penetrating, the more the growth of the cryptocurrency space. Therefore, experiencing a huge market capitalization in some years to come will not be surprising to me at all.

Also, as we keep seeing blockchain technology being implemented in various sectors, companies, organizations and the likes, the more we will get to see the space growing hugely and having a market cap as much as that would not be surprising at all. We are still new and here we are with the current market cap, imagine in few years to come what it would be like.